Augie’s
Quick Post
Today we welcome back John Brantingham
who is a Poet, Short Story Writer, Mystery Writer, full-time Professor of
English and Creative Writing at Mt San Antonio College, a member of the Long
Beach, Calif. Poetry Festival, And Scott Crely who is a Poet as well as a
Professor of English at Whittier College. Both men are involved with the Mt SACWriters’ Weekend Venue and now I understand that there is a
new endeavor.
Augie: Welcome John, oh hey Scott
John: Thank you so much for
interviewing us.
Scott:
Hey Augie
Augie: First of all John, you
carry a lot on your plate, besides staying on top of more than one hundred students in a
semester. How are you able to juggle so much and still have a personal life?
John: It isn’t easy. The truth is
that there are very few days when I’m not working on one thing or another, but
the great thing is that so much of what I do I love. If I had all the free time
in the world, I would write and read and do nothing else, but much of what I am
doing is related to the literary community. It also doesn’t hurt that my
personal life is tangled up in my work. My friends are generally students and
colleagues, and what we like to talk about is writing.
Augie: I understood at our last
interview September 2011, you spoke of an exciting project that you, Scott
Creley, Elder Zamora and your gorgeous wife Ann will be bringing to
the San Gabriel Valley in West Covina, The San Gabriel Valley
International Literary Festival.
John:
Yes, we’re going to have a literary festival
in West Covina in February of 2013. It’s going to bring in people from all around
Los Angeles, the country, and the world, and it’s going to highlight the work
of people living in the San Gabriel Valley. We have a lot of talent here, but
often there is no place to showcase our work, so people feel that they need to
travel someplace else. However, there is as much artistic genius and beauty in
the San Gabriel Valley as anywhere else. It simply hasn’t been fostered in the
way that it could be. So the idea is to bring the kind of literary festival
here that we’ve seen in the big cities around the world. I am so excited about
the festival right now. We’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes kind of
work so far, but we’re going to start recruiting and advertising soon.
Augie: John that is fantastic, I
hope to be a part of this history making event, you are so right there is much
talent just outside our doors. I understand that there have been donations from
different venues who have aided you in this venture. I do not want to call it
an event, for this is not a one time, is this correct?
John: There
has been some, but we’re going to need much more. That’s our greatest need.
After all, the more money we have, the more people we can bring in.
Scott:
Unfortunately, it's expensive to get people to the festival, make sure they
have somewhere to stay, and pay their speaking fee. This is to say nothing of all the practical
costs of running a large event. It's
worth the big cost, but we will need every cent we can get.
In regards to
your other question, it’s absolutely not a one-time event. We are hoping to do
this yearly and we have readings and events throughout the year. You can check
these out by going to the Facebook page for the San Gabriel Valley Literary
Festival and to sgvlitfest.com
Augie: Tell us about the City
involvement, how were you able to raise the funds for the building.
Scott: West Covina has been extremely supportive of the event. They're providing a venue and making inroads
to getting human involvement. We won't
go into the boring details, but we're helping West Covina with program
advertisement and promotions, and they're helping us to put on the event in
City Hall and its surrounding environs.
Augie: Scott, since the City of West Covina
is involved this implies that the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival holds a
non-profit status?
