Book by Authors was originally conceived as a fundraising tool for the Long Beach Public Library Foundation. The first volume, published back in 2006, featured 50 written works and 50 illustrations, all created by local artists. The written works, all 300 words or less, together with the images, formed a unique snapshot of the City as a whole.
Flash forward to 2008, and the success of that first volume piqued the interest of the Leadership Long Beach Atlantic Avenue Corridor Project, now known as Connected Corridor. They saw the merits of a similar volume, but focused on the North Long Beach area. Profits from the sale of the book will fund the Connected Corridor project, and the Fairfield YMCA, which serve families and children in the North Long Beach area.
More than a year in the making, and with many writing workshops and community outreach efforts under their belts, Ryan Smolar and Rachel Potucek are launching Book by Authors: North Long Beach Anthology tonight from 6:00-8:00pm at the Barnes & Noble in the Towne Center, near the intersection of Carson and the 605 Freeway. Participating authors in attendance will read their contributions. Rachel, who curated this volume, took some time to explain the project.
Rachel: Book by Authors is an anthology of written works and artwork by local writers and artists from diverse perspectives, backgrounds and influences. It is an opportunity to read and see the local community’s values, perspectives, personalities and histories and, in turn, can give a snapshot of the community at large that is open to the reader’s interpretation.
Sander: This is the 2nd volume, The North Long Beach Anthology. What was the goal of focusing the book on a specific area of the City?
Rachel: Our city can be deceptively large. It’s easy to spend all of one’s time in just a few parts of the city without having to know or experience other parts. That’s true for any region of the city. Downtown, the Traffic Circle, Belmont Shore, Wrigley, North Long Beach, Bixby Knolls – are all very unique from one another, just to name a few. By focusing on a specific region, we can dig deeper into its unique history, communities, and streetscapes.
I have to add that North Long Beach has a unique story that deserves to be told. We received stories that described the area as farmland, when young children would hike to the Los Angeles River to camp along the shore and scoop together small dams for skinny dipping. This was in the 1920s and 1930s.
Sander: Most people, today, find it hard to imagine Long Beach as being a rural backwater. Were there any other interesting discoveries along the way?
Rachel: Absolutely. Joyce Wheeler’s essay describes the times when her mother would take the kids to camp along the river on hot nights. They would catch crawdads for dinner and make dandelion salads. It’s beautiful imagery that I think anyone would enjoy reading about. We interviewed Bill Baker for a transcribed oral history, and he described going to the river with his friends to go skinny-dipping. Everett Demler’s piece, “History of a House,” described how his father – a carpenter – built a house on the weekends on Osgood Street. It was the fourth house north of South Street (this was in 1922). He shared the house blueprints with friends, and they built two more houses. All three houses still stand today. Everett was born in the house his father built. It’s a beautifully written personal story and sheds light onto the community of that time.
Sander: There’s more to the book than history. What else is included?
Rachel: Yes, the book stretches through the areas past, present – and can help reveal the area’s future. We include amazing poetry and essays by younger writers too. The parks – especially Houghton Park – received a lot of attention from writers.
A young writer, Amber Kline, passionately describes the experience of skating in the Houghton Park skate park. She describes the park’s immense popularity. Anyone interested in skate parks should read this story. It explains a skate park from a young person’s perspective and reveals how valued parks are among many of our younger residents.
Sander: There is some fiction as well, right?
Rachel: Lee Adams has an amazing short story called “A Memorable Christmas Eve.” It’s an intriguing noir piece that leaves you wondering what’s going to happen next.
Sander: The submission guidelines were rather strict. 300 words or less, right?
Rachel: Our guidelines are strict. 300 words equates to about half a page. But we did that to “level the playing field,” so to speak, to allow writers of all backgrounds to submit works. A young person or a seasoned writer can all produce 300 words. We wanted the project to be inclusive. If Book by Authors is supposed to offer a snapshot of a community, it must be inclusive.
Sander: How many submissions are included in the anthology?
Rachel: The book is 115 pages long and includes just over 100 submissions of art and written works.
Sander: Art is a big part of the book. Can you tell me about that process?
Rachel: At the start, we announced a call for written works and any 2-dimensional artwork (such as photography, paintings, etc). We also aggressively searched for art that was tied to North Long Beach. We visited galleries, looked for neighborhood murals, contacted artists we knew, asked for referrals, and contacted youth programs and schools. The end result is diverse and visually very interesting.
Sander: But the visual and written works didn’t inform each other. They were produced independently and, in the editorial process, found good matches for each [that’s not a question, I know, but pretend that there’s one in there somewhere].
Rachel: That’s the underlying philosophy of the book. The book is a reflection of the common saying, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’ For instance, you and I (and many others) don’t know all our neighbors in our buildings, or on our block. We don’t inform each other. But our physical proximity to one another lends the creation of community. Alone, we have one meaning; but together or combined in different ways, we create new meanings and experiences. The visual and written works were created independently, and the design process created subtle meanings and affiliations that we are leaving open to the reader’s interpretation and reflection. The artists and writers are part of a larger community that the book, as a whole, helps reveal.
Sander: That, for me, is one of the most exciting parts of this project: Discovering the dialog between the written and visual works. In the first book, it was a real treat.
Rachel: For sure! It’s a fun discovery process. In today’s world, there is much emphasis placed in the individual: MySpace, iPod, etc. This book is a reversal and challenges the reader to reflect on relationships instead of singularities.
Sander: Speaking of relationships, can you talk a bit about how the book was funded?
Rachel: Absolutely. The book was made possible by a Connected Corridor Phase I grant, supported by Leadership Long Beach, the Long Beach Community Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Although Ryan Smolar and I donated all our time to the project, the grant made it possible to print the book, hire assistance, create writing workshops, purchase postcards and posters, direct mail North Long Beach residents, and more. The grant really made this project possible.
Sander: The event, taking place tonight, is not just a book launch. It is also a fundraiser for The Arts Council for Long Beach. Can you explain how that works?
Rachel: Sure! To help support our local arts community, the Arts Council for Long Beach is partnering with Barnes & Noble Towne Center (in the Long Beach Towne Center at Carson & 605 Freeway) to raise funds for arts and cultural non-profit organizations.
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Give a voucher or mention “Arts Council for Long Beach” to the cashier at Barnes & Noble Towne Center with any purchase you make on October 17, 18 or 19.
Barnes & Noble will donate up to 20% of your purchase to the Arts Council’s community arts grants, which are awarded directly to local arts and cultural non-profit organizations. If you want to do some early holiday shopping, or get that new novel, this is your opportunity to support Long Beach’s arts and culture at the same time.
Full disclosure: A piece I wrote is included in the volume, and I participated in a jury panel that read and ranked all of the written submissions. I received no compensation for either. Come to Barnes & Noble tonight and hear me read!