Literary Columns, Newsletters, Book Reviews, Santa Barbara Authors, Poetry, and More

Literary Columns, Newsletters, Book Reviews,
Santa Barbara Authors, Poetry, and More

Our Print Edition Only Scratches the Surface
of our Literary Life Online

By Leslie Dinaberg | July 13, 2023

Read Our Cover Story with T.C. Boyle

Check Out Best Selling Author Elaine Castillo’s Tips for Reading Deeply and Critically

While our favorite “smitten bookworm” Emily Lee is out on maternity leave, our staff has had a great time guest writing the biweekly All Booked newsletter, with Tessa Reeg sharing her favorite thriller recommendations, Ryan P. Cruz spotlighting contemporary Latin American authors, and yours truly showcasing books to read before you watch the movie or TV show. Stay tuned to read more All Booked guest columns by subscribing at independent.com/newsletters.

In addition to keeping up with Emily’s newsletter column, we’ve also been working hard to keep our list of books by local authors up to date. As you can imagine, we get many, many books sent to us by local authors, and it’s practically impossible for us to read and review them all. But, as Emily writes, “just because we are busy bees does not mean that they aren’t worth the attention. In an attempt to not completely drop the ball, we have compiled a list of books here that have a local spin. They are all either written by a local author, feature someone in our community, or have another tie to Santa Barbara.” 

Take a look at the most recently updated list here (independent.com/2022/07/06/local-book-spotlight), and perhaps you’ll find a new favorite read and even discover that your friends and neighbors have some heretofore hidden literary talents. 

In addition to All Booked, our regular literary content includes weekly book reviews at independent.com by David Starkey and Brian Tanguay, courtesy of their California Review of Books website, calirb.com. My biweekly ON Culture newsletter also includes an “ON the Page” section with literary happenings (subscribe at independent.com/
newsletters). In addition, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Melinda Palacio is our newest columnist, and we are proud to present her Poetry Connection online on a biweekly basis as well.  

For the most recent Poetry Connection, Melinda writes about her collaboration with artist Colleen Kelly, whose Dichotomy of Laundry exhibition is on view at Silo 118 Gallery in the Funk Zone. Here is her poem, the first of several to come in the Dichotomy of Laundry series.

Woman

by Melinda Palacio

Her gear appeared soft without

instructions.

On her bed, a belt to hold the pads of cloth

in the nameless space she hadn’t thought

about.

If it weren’t for the trail of blood,

she could continue the game:

Cowboys and Indians, her older brother’s

favorite.

She would even play with dippy plastic

baby 

dolls that neighbor Esther forced on her.

Why would she want to play at babies

when she had a baby brother to care for?

The gear on her pink pillow confirmed

What she suspected: at ten years old,

She was done with little girl stuff.

She was a woman.

Does it have to hurt so much?

Does there have to be so much blood?

She tugged on the clothesline between

Her apartment and the next building.

If Vilma, Esther’s older sister was home,

She would have all the answers.

Vilma at 12 knew everything.

S.O.S.

She wrote the letters on a blank piece of

paper,

Hung it on the clothesline, but

Vilma was gone.

S.O.S.