The Sitting Room

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 29, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 17:19:49 GMT

From the Archives

Helen Levitov Sobell (1918-2002)

Loyal readers of the Sitting Room Library weekly newsletter may remember my off-rail discovery of Helen Levitov Sobell (1918-2002) whilst reading a transcription of my interview with the infinitely interviewable Meridel Le Sueur who described seeing her tortured and beautiful face at a meeting of some sort. With the clues that Meridel left and some follow up information from Jonah Raskin I found myself deep in an attention getting story of how this woman, described by her daughter Sydney as a person who, had not history tapped on her shoulder would have had a quiet life. But history did and though “she could not save the Rosenbergs, she did something bigger – she gave a voice back to the movement.” For readers not familiar with the Rosenbergs’story, read up and Wikipedia will also introduce you to Helen Sobell, though their photo shows her as neither beautiful nor tortured. What is important here to me is that Helen went on to give l8 years of her life to getting her husband, Morton, out of Alcatraz, from a spying charge connected to the Rosenbergs. Helen campaigned all over the United States and in Europe. It is quite a story and I found an unbiased account in an article by Phillip Deery entitled “Love, Betrayal and the Cold War” put on line in Academia, Oct. 3, 2017. A retired professor now from Victoria University in Australia, he has written dozens of articles and several books on Communism and I am glad he turned his attention to set the record straight on Helen Sobell. It is one of those articles where you learn most from the material in the footnotes, where there are direct quotes from their letters as well as from the FBI records, than you do even from Deery’s text. I will only mention one clarification here, as this note is already too long for the SR newsletter format: Helen and Morton before their marriage wrote a normal agreement to keep an open marriage, meaning that they could have sex with anyone handy and no blame would be attached. By way of conclusion, she and Morton divorced in 1981 and she went on to get a PHD in computer science and did, with one of her sons, some important work in that so fast evolving field. She also was a member of the Grey Panthers. My lesson here: be careful of reading in Archives as you may learn more than you bargained for, as did

J.J. Wilson

The 2026 Sitting Room Anthology Virtual Launch: A LIVE ZOOM Reading with Over 30 Contributors Reading!
Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

The event will take place on Zoom. Please sign up via Eventbrite to attend.

Have you read our latest anthology yet? Well, if you haven’t and you’d like to get a copy, we have copies available on our website. We are asking for a $20 donation plus $5 shipping and handling.

This week, we’ll be featuring Kim Askew ‘s essay, “Elizabeth Stoddard: Too Much, Too Soon, Too Strange”

In five years of podcasting my co-host Amy Helmes and I have covered some fascinating women writers, but I don’t think anyone has haunted me more than Elizabeth Stoddard. Something about her story and her first novel The Morgesons has stayed with me and tugged at the corner of my mind like a puzzle that I have yet to solve. What is it about Stoddard? In her lifetime her work was compared to Balzac, Tolstoy, Eliot, the Brontë sisters, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The latter was an admirer and so was Henry James. She may have been a writers’ writer, but her books didn’t sell very well. In her own words “I think one copy [of The Morgesons] passed from hand to hand, but the interest in it soon blew over and I have not been noticed there since.” It’s hard to believe once you’ve read the novel. It’s both brilliant and bold. Some scholars today consider her one of the most strikingly original novelists of her time, next to Melville and Hawthorne.

Elizabeth Stoddard, born Elizabeth Barstow in 1823, grew up in the New England coastal town of Mattapoisett, the model for Surrey in The Morgesons. Like her heroine, she was the granddaughter of a tailor and the daughter of a shipbuilder, raised on the margins of a community where her family’s financial instability set them apart. Despite this, she received a strong formal education and was an avid reader, counting the Brontë sisters among her early literary influences. From a young age, she was known for her temperamental nature.

That temperament is on full display in The Morgesons, which announces itself from the very first line: “That child,’ said my aunt Mercy, looking at me with indigo-colored eyes, ‘is possessed.” It’s a startling way to introduce a heroine. Cassandra is not simply spirited or unconventional; she is willful, defiant, and uninterested in conforming to moral expectations. As a child, she learns she can evade punishment by pretending ignorance; as she grows older, she continues to test boundaries with an unapologetic intensity. She doesn’t smooth things over or try to make herself more palatable. Instead, she can be blunt, erratic, even difficult to understand. And the novel doesn’t rush to explain her. Her motivations remain, at times, elusive and her behavior unpredictable. It’s this refusal to fully resolve her character, this sense that something essential remains just out of reach, that begins to explain why she lingers.

Part of what makes The Morgesons linger, though, is not just Cassandra herself, but the way Stoddard tells her story. The novel resists the conventions of its time. Dialogue often appears without clear attribution, scenes build toward emotional intensity only to break off abruptly, and characters’ motivations are often difficult to grasp. There is little sense that the reader is being guided through the narrative. Instead, the prose feels jagged, even disorienting, as one critic described it, “pointy and angular.” In this way, the novel feels less like the moral clarity of a traditional 19th-century bildungsroman and more like something closer to Henry James, where interiority takes precedence over explanation. The novel doesn’t guide the reader so much as abandon her to the experience, and like Cassandra herself, it resists resolution.

And yet, for all its originality, The Morgesons barely registered when it was initially published. The timing didn’t help. It came out just days after the Union Army’s defeat at Bull Run, as the country’s attention turned fully to war. But circumstance alone doesn’t seem to account for it. The novel occupies an uneasy space, perhaps too psychologically complex to align with the moral clarity of popular 19th-century fiction, yet too structurally unruly to fit comfortably alongside its more experimental peers. In many ways, it is a book without a clear literary home. Perhaps it was precisely this refusal to conform, this resistance to resolution, this insistence on ambiguity, that made it so easy to overlook and yet so difficult to forget.

It’s tempting to say that Stoddard was simply ahead of her time. And in some ways, she was. The Morgesons is, on the surface, a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story, but one that traces not just a search for identity, but for autonomy and sexual fulfillment within a deeply constrained world. That tension runs through the novel. It draws on the brooding intensity of writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, while also anticipating the psychological ambiguity of Henry James. The result is something difficult to place, neither fully aligned with the moral clarity of popular fiction nor comfortably situated among more experimental forms. Even its treatment of female desire feels unusually direct, unsettling in ways that resist easy interpretation. But being ahead of one’s time is not always an advantage. Without a clear place in the literary landscape, the novel had little to anchor it. That may be part of what gives it its enduring power.

I still don’t think I’ve solved the puzzle of Elizabeth Stoddard. Maybe that’s the point. There are writers whose work settles into place once you understand it, whose characters resolve and whose meanings clarify. The Morgesons refuses that kind of closure. Cassandra remains, even at the end, difficult to fully grasp; her desires, her choices, her contradictions never quite cohere into something easily explained. And the novel itself behaves the same way, resisting the structures that might make it more legible, more containable. Perhaps that is why it lingers. Not in spite of its opacity, but because of it. Stoddard created something that doesn’t fully yield to interpretation, and so it stays with you, unresolved, a little unsettling, and difficult to forget.

Upcoming Events at the Sitting Room

TODAY! Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

The Sitting Room Library is excited to host a reading circle celebrating queerstories, authors, and people. Everyone is invited to join us, simply bring yourself and your favorite queer book, or whatever you’re currently reading!

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

Sitting Room Open House

Saturday, September 5, 11-4

We will have an open house this coming Saturday! Come by to visit, get a tour of our collections and archives, or just have a cup of tea and read some books!

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

Dorothy Richardson’s series novel Pilgrimage runs to over 2,000 pages and 13 “chapter-volumes” and contains some of the most challenging English prose this side of Finnegans Wake. It’s also arguably the most neglected major work of 20th-century English fiction. Despite its recognition as a major work, it’s not stocked in most bookshops in the U.K. and is available only as print-on-demand. And in the United States, it’s been out of print for over 40 years (until now). We’ll be using the new edition, available for sale exclusively from Asterism Books. Upon joining, participants will receive a 25 percent discount on the books.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Anthology Online Launch

Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

This September, we want to launch the anthology virtually. Many contributors will read their work. The event will take place on Zoom.
Please sign up via Eventbrite to attend.

Have you read our latest anthology yet? Well, if you haven’t and you’d like to get a copy, we have copies available on our website. We are asking for a $20 donation plus $5 shipping and handling.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM - FILLED

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

Ianthe has taught many memoir classes to students in the Hutchins Liberal Studies program at Sonoma State University. Beyond these classes, she has written her own memoir, “You Can’t Catch Death,” which has been translated into multiple languages.

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

This September, The Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast will be airing an episode about Celia Fremlin’s The Hours Before Dawn, the Edgar Award-winning psychological mystery about a young mother teetering on the brink of exhaustion (and perhaps sanity). This book club aims to gather those who listened to the episode and were inspired to read the book. Join us as we talk about this book! Sign up on Eventbrite.

About Us

The Sitting Room Library is devoted to collecting and curating interdisciplinary, international, and cross-genre literature, poetry, and art by and about women. Seeking to restore the history of women’s achievements and prepare for future challenges, the Sitting Room Library is committed to fostering research, writing projects, and programs for students, interns, independent scholars, and common readers through grants, internships, fiscal sponsorship, and publishing opportunities. The Sitting Room Library welcomes visitors of all genders, ages, and backgrounds to read, learn, converse, contemplate, write, and explore this unique collection of books and archives in our peaceful indoor and outdoor spaces, offering refuge and renewal.

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM;
Open House on the First Saturday of the Month 11 AM - 4 PM.

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 21, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 03:15:28 GMT

Exploring the Archives with J.J. Wilson: Meridel Le Sueur

This week, J.J. Wilson talks about her experience as she edits her 1985 interview with Meridel Le Sueur (1900 -1996) — stay tuned for a sample from that interview in coming weeks.

Le Sueur was raised by a feminist-socialist mother (Marian Wharton) who lectured on the Chautauqua circuit about topics such as birth control. Le Sueur grew up in the Midwest (Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas) before her family settled in Minnesota and became active in the Farmer-Labor Party. As an adult, Le Sueur switched parties and joined the communist party in the 1920s. During the Great Depression, Le Sueur divorced her first husband and lived in Minneapolis as a single mother raising her two daughters. She published her first story in The Dial in 1928 and continued to publish her work in mostly left-leaning publications, but even though she received substantial recognition; her work was praised by prominent writers such as Sinclair Lewis, Nelson Algren, and Carl Sandburg, she was unable to support her family off of her writing. The Workers Alliance offered support for unemployed, and underemployed people in the Twin Cities, and Le Sueur became deeply involved in this organization. Le Sueur wrote The Girl (1939), about an unnamed girl who arrives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and begins working as a waitress in a bar called, The German Tavern. There is bootleg liquor and gangsters and the book follows the girl through her pregnancy and eventual awakening to a different type of life thanks to the Workers Alliance (based on Le Sueur’s own experiences and the women she met there). The book begins with a birth and ends with a birth and in between the novel depicts women’s lives intimately: what it is like to have to care for others and the toll that has on the self. We see women who are hollowed out by violent marriages or dire circumstances. But we also see women rising from their range of circumstances. We meet a community of women who share in their collective trauma during the horrible circumstances of the depression. The Girl was published when it was written due to its frank content about female sexuality. Additionally, the manuscript (and Le Sueur) was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era for its Communist ideas. West End Press would finally publish The Girl in 1978 and a new edition, along with most of Le Sueur’s other books and a thick archival file about her is available at The Sitting Room.

Below is J.J.’s introduction to the 1984 Interview and her thoughts as she’s editing the interview.

The miracle is that Meridel lived so long and that no one, not even McCarthy, could shut her up; another miracle is that I got connected to her and her daughters, Rachel Tilsen and Deborah Le Sueur, through the good offices of my sister Melinda DeLashmutt. (as an fyi, Melinda was in the 1970s siege at Wounded Knee and worked later on this heavy duty project with Ken Tilsen, lawyer and husband of Rachel.)

To meet Meridel was to interview her – she was just so fascinating, so inspiring, so original! I hope you’ll get sense of her from listening in to these few pages, but best is to read herwritings. I started with “The Girl” but the Feminist Press’s “Ripening: Selected Work 1927-1980 is now the best re-source. (The Sitting Room has, along with many of her books, even has her last words published by her family in 2012. Her family keep up an excellent website also and are helping Meredith Keller in her writing of a full biography of this great character.)

So working away on this long ago recorded interview, I keep tripping over mini-mysteries that awaken my curiosity. This –is it a distraction or a bonus? - happened just the other day when I came across these lines from the 12 page transcription of the interview:

“…the women who was working to save the Rosenbergs…she was such a beautiful woman. She looked so tortured I wouldn’t have recognized her. Now she’s fighting for the liberty of a woman in Salvador. But she had spent most of her life trying to get her husband out of Alcatraz – And then when he got out, he divorced her and she had to find a way to make a living. She told me she had to learn to be an IBM operator…”

And then Meridel dashed off to another topic, but she left me fascinated to find out at least a name for this hero, so, of course, I wrote to Jonah Raskin, a red-diaper baby whose father had been one of the lawyers for the Rosenbergs. Jonah wrote me right back identifying her as Helen Sobell who he gossiped had affairs whilst her husband was pining in prison. Not so fast, Jonah! Googling her, once I got by the bridge player also named Helen Sobel, I got the real story and loyal readers of the Sitting Room newsletter will also next week, in my next installment. The story I am telling here is a more general one: how researching in archives can lead us way off topic, way down other paths, and that is a big part of why I love doing it.

Jean Hegland’s Round Table on Still Time

Last Sunday, author Jean Hegland talked with us about her book, Still Time. The room was packed with people eager to hear about Hegland’s writing process. She began by talking about the series of questions that led her to write Still Time. She explained that through her questions she began to see similarities between Elizabethean Theater and Video Games in the early 21st century. How both outlets were looked down upon by a certain class, and how both were filled with sex and violence. At the same time, she explained, she had begun to volunteer at a local Alzheimer’s Care Center, called Primrose where she read poetry to the participants. She became fascinated with how even when residents had lost their ability to communicate, they still remembered poetry.

One of the participants, a Sitting Room regular, Carol Flinders wrote about attending, “What a lovely time we had! Jean herself is delightful -- as unassuming as any author I've ever met -- and her marvelous book Still Time gave rise to a conversation so searching, so warm and so satisfying that it's been resonating for many of us days later. A Sitting Room high point -- thank you so much for making it happen.”

The 2026 Sitting Room Anthology Virtual Launch: A LIVE ZOOM Reading with Over 30 Contributors Reading!
Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

The event will take place on Zoom. Please sign up via Eventbrite to attend.

Have you read our latest anthology yet? Well, if you haven’t and you’d like to get a copy, we have copies available on our website. We are asking for a $20 donation plus $5 shipping and handling.

This week, we’ll be featuring a poem by Brenda Hillman from the anthology. This poem originally appeared in Cascadia, Wesleyan University Press, 2001.

The Shirley Poem
Brenda Hillman

II.

Hot water pushed quartz and gold
in solution through magma to surface
as sunbeams and as wedding rings.

Reconceiving bodies, we call them “veins.”
(We write in a ‘a similar vein.’)

Shirley, a doctor’s wife traveling to
California in 1851, writes of her
“geological deficiencies” and delights in “everchanging
surfaces” when she’s just arrived at
the new camp called Rich Bar.

Men are filling pans with dirt;
“I gather from their remarks that
these bars are formed by deposits
of earth crowding the river aside
occupying a portion of its bed.”

A solution to an individual is reading more.

Of course there was no mother
lode; of course it was unlikely.

Upcoming Events at the Sitting Room

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

Claire Drucker is a Jewish lesbian mom, educational consultant, teacher, and poet. She taught English at Santa Rosa Junior College for 27 years and was a poet-teacher through CA Poets In The Schools for 13 years. Claire is the Poetry Curator for The Sitting Room. Claire’s first book-length collection of poems, The Life You Gave Me, was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books. Her chapbook, The Fluid Body, was published in 2014 by Finishing Line Press. Claire’s poems have also been published in numerous journals, including CA Quarterly, Jewish Literary Journal, Rust & Moth, Young Ravens Literary Review, Epiphany, Puerto del Sol, and Women Artists Datebook. She lives in Sebastopol, CA.

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Anthology Online Launch

Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

This September, we want to launch the anthology virtually. Many contributors will read their work. The event will take place on Zoom.
Please sign up via Eventbrite to attend.

Have you read our latest anthology yet? Well, if you haven’t and you’d like to get a copy, we have copies available on our website. We are asking for a $20 donation plus $5 shipping and handling.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM;
Open House on the First Saturday of the Month 11 AM - 4 PM.

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 14, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 19:36:56 GMT

This week at the Sitting Room we have been busy with visitors! We are always thrilled when people come to the Sitting Room during our open hours on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11-4. And don’t forget! We will have our next Open House on the first Saturday of the month: September 5!

10 New Translations of Older Books by Women

For Women in Translation Month, the Sitting Room wants to highlight the work of Cita Press. The list that follows is thanks to them! Their latest title: Dolores by Soledad Acosta de Samper is available to read for free on their website.

Some of these works are available in English for the very first time. We are grateful to everyone whose work and artistry helps amplify these writers’ legacies, and the readers who support them!

Dolores: Scenes from a Woman’s Life by Soledad Acosta de Samper
Translated from Spanish by Sara Abadía Alvarado
Cita Press, 2026
Twenty Minutes of Silence by Hélène Bessette, Translated from French by Kate Briggs with a contribution by Kathryn Scanlan, New Directions, 2026
Time Tunnel by Eileen Chang, Translated from the Chinese by by Karen S. Kingsbury and Jie Zhang, NYRB, 2025
We Were Forbidden by Jacqueline Harpman, Translated from French by Ros Schwartz, Transit Books, 2026
The Women’s Courtyard by Khadija Matsur, Translated from Urdu by Daisy Rockwell, Penguin Classics, 2025
Satisfied Sarcophagi: Collected Stories by Joyce Mansour, Translated from French by C. Francis Fisher, City Lights, 2026
The Wildcat Behind Glass by Alki Zei, Translated from Greek by Karen Emmerich, Restless Books, 2024
Forgotten Journey by Silvina Ocampo, Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine and Katie Lateef-Jan, City Lights, 2019
A Tale Unasked by Lady Nijo, Translated from Classical Japanese by Meredith McKinney, Penguin Classics, 2026
The Magpie at Night: The Complete Poems of Li Qingzhao, Translated from Chinese by Wendy Chen, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2025

Writing Accountability Group

Monday, August 17 from 10 am - 12 pm
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

We started our writing accountability group two weeks ago and we had a blast just gathering and giving each other a space to write. We will meet again next Monday, August 10, from 10 am - 12 pm. Sometimes as writers we need to hold space for each other to write. If you are working on a project and want to work on it with a group of other writers, then sign up to join us!

Sign up for one of our upcoming sessions here. Want to join via Zoom? Send us an email at sitting.room.library@gmail.com and we’ll send a Zoom link!

Sign up here.

Play Reading: “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell

Monday, August 17 • 4 PM - 6 PM

Come join us for a table reading of the classic feminist play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell. We will gather at the Sitting Room to read “Trifles” aloud together and then discuss the text.

Sign up here.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

Ianthe Brautigan writes memoirs, fiction, and for television. She's the author of the You Can’t Catch Death, which has been translated into Swedish, German, and French. She is an executive producer for the motion picture, Willard and His Bowling Trophies. Ianthe has appeared at numerous events, including as an interviewer at the Sonoma Valley Authors Festival. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Currently, she teaches at Sonoma State University.

(This workshop is now full - please join her September workshop!)

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm - Filled

My hope for this round table is that it will take shape in response to the questions and interests of those who choose to attend. I can happily talk for hours on subjects such as how I was inspired to write Still Time; what Elizabethan drama and 21st century video games have in common; how writing Still Time helped me to reframe my understanding of dementia; what kinds of research I did for this project; why I think that Shakespeare continues to speak to audiences around the world; and why I have been so gratified that readers who are Shakespeare scholars, readers who are Shakespeare-curious, and readers with Shakespeare allergies have have all expressed their appreciation for this novel.

But I would be equally delighted--if not more so--to participate in (or simply to sit back and listen to) whatever conversations might grow spontaneously out of the unique convergence of participants on this particular Sunday afternoon. For example, we might find ourselves discussing Shakespeare adaptations that we’ve loved or hated; arguing about whether Shakespeare can survive translation; or brainstorming about other ideas we’ve had for quirky books and how we might coax, craft, or conjure them into being.

Although there is absolutely no need to have read Still Time to take part in these conversations, Still Time is available through all the usual online sources (I personally prefer to support bookshop.org), and I will also have copies for sale on August 16.

Jean Hegland is the author of a book of creative nonfiction and five novels. Her work has been translated into sixteen languages, taught in a number of community- and campus-wide reading programs, and included in several textbooks. Her novel Into the Forest was adapted as a French graphic novel and a Canadian feature film (starring Elliot Page and Evan Rachel Wood). It is currently being developed as a Belgian opera. Her novel Still Time is about a Shakespeare scholar’s attempts to come to terms with his life and reconcile with his video gamer daughter as he contends with dementia.

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Anthology Online Launch

Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

This September, we want to launch the anthology virtually. Many contributors will read their work. The event will take place on Zoom.
Please sign up via Eventbrite to attend.

Have you read our latest anthology yet? Well, if you haven’t and you’d like to get a copy, we have copies available on our website. We are asking for a $20 donation plus $5 shipping and handling.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, August 8, 2025

Sitting Room — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 03:34:19 GMT

Our First Open House Was a Success!

This past week, we had our first open house and it was a huge success. It’s always good to see a lot of new (and old) faces at the Sitting Room. We’ll be hosting another open house on the first Saturday of every month. Our next open house will be on September 5 from 11-4. Come by and say hello!

The Sealy Challenge is Underway at the Sitting Room

From J.J. Wilson: Some of us are embarked on the Sealey Challenge now organized by the University ofArizona’s Poetry Center. There is still time for you to sign on, if you have or can make time for guess what? POETRY. A different poet every day for the month of August. Every morning I wake up wondering what surprises/challenges/treats I will meet with the day’s poet.

Sitting Room friend, Tom Nixon says he sat down yesterday evening with a glass of wine to enjoy his poet’s company. Any time of the day is good for reading some poems by a poet you already admire or by a poet you have been wondering about. And yes, the big privilege, you can even borrow some of your poets from the Sitting Room shelves for this special month of August.

Those with nothing better to do on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7 please come by the Sitting Room, 1 to 3, to share some of yr discoveries.

ADA LIMÓN, former Poet Laureate of the United States, and Sonoma County Native.

Need some ideas of what to read? Here’s what poet ADA LIMÓN recommends:

America, a Love Story, Camille T. Dungy
Horses, Jake Skeets
All Us Beautiful Monsters, Alex Lemon
Wayward Creatures, Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes
How to Kill a Goat & Other Monsters, Saúl Hernández
Worth Burning, Mickie Kennedy
Bachelor, Gustavo Hernandez
The Seeds, Cecily Parks
In a Few Minutes Before Later, Brenda Hillman
Into the Hush, Arthur Sze

What is the Sealey Challenge?

Goal: read 31 books of poetry in 31 days

When: Every August

Who: Everyone, anywhere

Flexibility: While designed for a book-a-day, many participants adapt it to reading one poem a day or to simply read more poetry

And don’t forget to visit the Sitting Room’s poetry room for 100s of titles to chose from!

Upcoming Events

Writing Accountability Group

Monday, August 10 from 10 am - 12 pm
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

We started our writing accountability group last week and we had a blast just gathering and giving each other a space to write. We will meet again next Monday, August 10 from 10 am - 12 pm. Sometimes as writers we need to hold space for each other to write. If you are working on a project and want to work on it with a group of other writers, then sign up to join us!

Sign up for one of our upcoming sessions here.

Sign up here.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

(This workshop is now full - please join her September workshop!)

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm - Filled

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

Ianthe has taught many classes on memoirs to students in the Hutchins Liberal Studies program at Sonoma State University. Beyond these classes, she has written her own memoir, “You Can’t Catch Death,” which has been translated into multiple languages.

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

This September, The Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast will be airing an episode about Celia Fremlin’s — The Hours Before Dawn, the Edgar Award-winning psychological mystery about a young mother teetering on the brink of exhaustion (and perhaps, sanity). This book club aims to gather those who listened to the episode and were inspired to read the book. Join us as we talk about this book! Sign up on Eventbrite.

About Us

The Sitting Room Library is devoted to the collection and curation of interdisciplinary, international, and cross-genre literature, poetry, and art by and about women. Seeking to restore the history of women’s achievements and preparing for the challenges in the future, the Sitting Room Library is committed to fostering research, writing projects, and programs for students, interns, independent scholars, and common readers through grants, internships, fiscal sponsorship, and publishing opportunities. The Sitting Room Library welcomes visitors of all genders, ages, and backgrounds for reading, learning, conversing, contemplating, writing, and exploring this unique collection of books and archives in our peaceful indoor and outdoor spaces, offering refuge and renewal.

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 2, 2026

Sitting Room — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 23:10:17 GMT

Upcoming Events

We have so many exciting events coming soon! Read below and sign up to save your spot.

Writing Accountability Group

STARTING TOMORROW!
Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3

Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sometimes as writers we need to hold space for each other to write. If you are working on a project and want to work on it with a group of other writers, then sign up to join us! Sign up here.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - SOLD OUT

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

(This workshop is now full - please join her September workshop!)

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - SOLD OUT!

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, July 26, 2026

Sitting Room — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:20:37 GMT

Sorry to be a few days late with the newsletter this week! Our newsletter editor has been out of town. But we didn’t want you to miss being able to sign up for all of these upcoming events at the Sitting Room!

In August, Join the Sealey Challenge!

Feel like reading a poem a day for the month of August? That is the Sealey Challenge, described in here. The Sitting Room has played along for several years — and we even allow people who “sign up” to check out 30 of our poetry books or some of the anthologies if they don’t have a bunch at home just awaiting their attention. J.J. Wilson, tho usually with her face down in prose, finds this mini-marathon a refreshing change and enjoys sharing favorites with anyone else who gets involved, meeting informally with anyone with nothing better to do on Labor Day, this year Sept 7; get in touch with her, boxcar@sonic.net, if interested.

Patron Saints Event, “A celebration of the “influencer” Virginia Woolf

Join us on July 26 4-6 PM as we join our board member JoAnn Borri for the Patron Saints of Influence event, “A celebration of the “influencer” Virginia Woolf at Shady Oak Barrel House 420 1st st, Santa Rosa.

Upcoming Events

We have so many exciting events coming soon! Read below and sign up to save your spot. Most events are free, but they are limited to 15 people.

Open House

Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Come join us for an open house! We’ll have tea and cookies, and we’ll be giving library tours! No need to sign up, just show up at 2025 Curtis Dr. in Penngrove and come read a book!

Writing Accountability Group

Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3

Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sometimes as writers we need to hold space for each other to write. If you are working on a project and want to work on it with a group of other writers, then sign up to join us! Sign up here.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

(This workshop is now full - please join her September workshop!)

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, July 17, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:24:59 GMT

Welcome to this week’s newsletter, which is a tiny bit late because we were editing an amazing interview with Laurence Hyman, Shirley Jackson’s son. (See below for an excerpt).

J.J.’s Archival Corner

Susan Glaspell, the author of Trifles in 1894

I usually write about some surprise from our Archive files for the Sitting Room newsletter, but today in this amazing place, I came across a pile of play scripts, multiple copies made to be used in a play-reading group that Luci Edwards used to convene before she moved back to Canada. For example: Mary Pix, “The Innocent Moment,” printed out from “The Female Wits: Women Playwrights on the London Stage 1660-1720”; Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles,” a mind-blower from the l920s; a more modern one by Eve Ensler (now known by her playwriting name as “V”), “Lemonade”.And then the local wonder, Lilith Rogers, who managed a terrific conversation between Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf by using only quotes from the authors themselves — titled “Tell it Slant”, it works!

Should we get together to read some of these? If interested, give J.J. Wilson a phone call at 707 795-9028, so we can pick a play or two and find a good time to — shall we say — play?

Shirley Jackson’s Son, Laurence Hyman, Visited the Sitting Room and Part of the Interview

We were thrilled to welcome Laurence Hyman, the son of novelist Shirley Jackson, to the Sitting Room this past week. He donated several books to our collections, including The Letters of Shirley Jackson, which he edited.

Here is an excerpt from that interview! (You can read the full interview in the Shirley Jackson file in our archives).

Laurence Hyman: …what was my mother like? Everybody always asks me that. I remember her as very warm, loving, comforting, and proud of my achievements. She loved to write about my Little League baseball career. And the line that stands out most of all was, “Laurie who cannot read or write, turns out to have a pretty good fastball.” I was 12 at the time. I could read and write, you know. She was hyperbolic in those essays, for sure. But she was very funny. She loved jokes. She loved laughter. There was always laughter in my house at the kitchen table or the dining room table. Either my father or my mother would crack jokes, and it was really funny, and …it was kind of raucous, and if we’d have dinner guests, of course, it was even more so. They’d kind of show off for the guests. But it was a warm household.

I was certainly aware that my mother was a writer. Although I wasn’t at all involved in reading what she wrote. Later, I caught up, but I would go to the dentist or something, and I’d pick up Look Magazine and open it up, and there’s me in shorts, chasing my sister with a squirt gun or something, you know, and I’m like, Oh, that’s so funny. So I couldn’t escape it.

Iris Dunkle: Was that weird?

Laurence Hyman: Yeah, it was a little weird. I’d go somewhere with my friends, and one of their parents would be driving us, and the parent would say, so, did you read that news story of your mother’s in Saturday Evening Post? I’d say, no. I never read my father’s work either until much later. It’s pretty dense, so even now, I haven’t read it all.

Iris Dunkle: He’s so respected.

Laurence Hyman: Yeah, well, somewhat. I mean, he’s kind of faded into the woodwork. But during his time, he was highly respected. In those days, he was the inventor of modern literary criticism. And very well respected and feared, because he sometimes tore people down mercilessly. But he was very good friends with a number of other writers, like Ellison, who he helped finish The Invisible Man. Ralph lived with us for his last summer working on it when we were living in Connecticut. Yeah. I remember him leaning out of the guest room many times and saying, Laurie, would you keep it down down there? I’m trying to write! That’s so funny. But then he’d come out Sunday mornings. We had family baseball.

Iris Dunkle: You did?

Laurence Hyman: My mother would come out and hit. She wouldn’t run. She’d have one of my sisters run for her. But she was a good hitter. And my father was a pretty good hitter. And they loved playing ball. I’d get up early in the morning, and I’d put flour and make baselines and put bases out. And then my family would gradually stagger out of the house, and we’d play baseball. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, one of my mother’s hidden talents was that she was a very good hitter.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Iris Dunkle: It’s so amazing how much she was able to write during the in-between time, how she was able to keep her writing mind on while she was living her life.

Laurence Hyman: Absolutely, and she’s written about that. In fact, it’s in, let me tell you. I forget which story, but one of the essays is about how a writer is always writing and you never stop. Well, you would know about that.

Iris Dunkle: Well, maybe not at the same level as your mom.

Laurence Hyman: You know, ideas come to you, and you want to write them down and remember, and, you know, you might be in the middle of cooking dinner, and you just think, oh, I know what’s going to happen, and write it.

Iris Dunkle: Yes, and you have to follow it, or it’s gone.

Laurence Hyman: Yeah, that’s right. It’s not coming back.

Iris Dunkle: Do you remember her writing practice? What do you remember?

Laurence Hyman: She was pretty disciplined. She would write in the mornings after the kids had gone to school. That was her best time to write. So roughly 9 till noon, when she had to get lunch for all of us who would walk back from school. It was a little town, North Pennington. And then she would nap in the afternoon. And then after dinner, she would often write again for 2 or 3 hours. And I remember distinctly, of course, my father was on his typewriter, and she would often be on hers, and I’d come home from school with a friend, and we’d walk in the door, and all we could hear were these two percussive typewriters just going. Yeah. And my friend would say, what’s going on? What’s happening? I’d say, oh, it’s just my parents working, let’s go out and play ball. But it was quite a sound, the two of them, because they were fast typists. My mother would type rapidly, wait a minute, then type rapidly again, then wait a minute.

Iris Dunkle: That’s interesting. She paced like that.

Laurence Hyman: And in the later years, when she was having some mobility issues, she would use the dining room table downstairs as a typing place. She had an office upstairs, well, a bedroom that she used for an office. So she would either work up there or in the dining room. In the old days, both my parents had typewriters in the study, but I think they drove each other nuts over time, and my mother decided she was kind of more comfortable in another room.

Iris Dunkle: Yeah, that makes sense.

Laurence Hyman: Although every single thing she wrote went past Stanley.

Iris Dunkle: Really?

Laurence Hyman: He was her first editor. He would often look at a manuscript, as he did with the lottery, and insert one comma.

Iris Dunkle: What did he insert in the lottery? Is that all? He inserted a comma.

Laurence Hyman: No, because he also inserted the wonderful line, “Lottery in June, going to be heavy soon.”

Iris Dunkle: Really? He did? Yeah.

Laurence Hyman: I have my mother’s original manuscript where that line isn’t there yet. And then Stanley added it in pencil.

Upcoming Events

We have so many exciting events coming soon! Read below and sign up to save your spot. Most events are free, but they are limited to 15 people.

Open House

Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Come join us for an open house! We’ll have tea and cookies, and we’ll be giving library tours! No need to sign up, just show up at 2025 Curtis Dr. in Penngrove and come read a book!

Writing Accountability Group

Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sometimes as writers we need to hold space for each other to write. If you are working on a project and want to work on it with a group of other writers, then sign up to join us! Sign up here.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

(This workshop is now full - please join her September workshop!)

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Join us for a monthly online reading group for Dorothy Richardson’s series novel, Pilgrimage.

To attend this Reading Group, please RSVP through the Eventbrite Page.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Did you miss the previous memoir writing workshop with Ianthe? Luckily, we have one more workshop, so RSVP before we run out of space!

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens.

To attend this workshop, please RSVP through our Eventbrite page.

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, July 10, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:04:18 GMT

There is Still Time to Join the Pilgrimage Reading Group

We’ve received the discount codes for all who want to join our Pilgrimage reading group. As a reminder, Pilgrimage is a book by Dorothy Richardson that we’ll be reading together beginning in September. Dorothy Miller Richardson (1873 – 1957) was a British author and journalist. Pilgrimage is a semi-autobiographical novel, published between 1915 and 1967, that uses the modernist technique of stream of consciousness and focuses on a woman’s experience. According to Richardson, the title Pilgrimage alludes not only to “the journey of the artist ... to self-realisation but, more practically, to the discovery of a unique creative form and expression” The reading group will occur on Zoom, so no need to be local if you’d like to attend!

If you’d like to purchase your copies of Pilgrimage, just send me an email at sitting.room.library@gmail.com and sign up for the reading group!

(If you’d like to read more about Dorothy Richardson, you can read about her here in my Finding Lost Voices post, or here, in my interview with Brad Bigelow from Neglected Books from a previous newsletter).

J.J.’s Archival Corner

J.J. Wilson is one of the founding members of the Sitting Room, and she shared the following statement this week.

Holly Springfield, who teaches Emily Dickinson workshops at the Sitting Room, came by to add one of her special syllabi (they are more like art objects) to the Emily Dickinson Archive files, and we, of course, got talking and discovered many other points of common interest. For example, we both read the comics in the newspaper — Holly waxed eloquent about the drawing and the typefaces. I read them to find out what is really on people’s minds, not always apparent in the news stories per se. Meredith Sabini, who often brings us treasures at the Sitting Room, only reads the comics, never the rest of the newspaper. Three supposedly literary people swapping stories about reading the funny papers. Do come to the Sitting Room for such serious conversations!

Congratulations to our next Sonoma County Poet Laureate: Claire Drucker

We at the Sitting Room are THRILLED to celebrate Sonoma County’s next Poet Claire Drucker on July 12 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts from 2-5 PM, where she will be inaugurated! We look forward to seeing you there!

The First Queer Reading Circle Was a Huge Success

At the end of June, to celebrate Pride, our own Nox Lyon facilitated a Queer Reading Circle with many new faces at the table! We had so much fun discussing a variety of incredible books. Some of the titles that we recorded were the Sappic historical romance, Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti; Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel; Stag Dance by Torrey Peters; Shy Girl by one of the attendees Elizabeth Stark; the graphic novel series Love and Rockets by the Hernandez brothers (Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario), The Last Poem by Courtney Peppernell, Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, our own collection of historical queer text (ironically found in the closet at the Sitting Room) and an archival file on the poet Elsa Gidlow (whom Iris can’t wait to dive into to learn more about!). To quote one of the members of the roundtable, Angie, “We have excellent taste!” If you’d like to join us for a similar event in August, send an email to sitting.room.library@gmail.com, and we’ll add you to the list!

Upcoming Events

We have so many exciting events coming soon! Read below and sign up to save your spot. Most events are free, but they are limited to 15 people.

Open House
Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Come join us for an open house! We’ll have tea and cookies, and we’ll be giving library tours! No need to sign up, just show up at 2025 Curtis Dr. in Penngrove and come read a book!

Writing Accountability Group
Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sometimes as writers we need to hold space for each other to write. If you are working on a project and want to work on it with a group of other writers, then sign up to join us! Sign up here.

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

Sign up here.

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, July 3, 2026

Sitting Room — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 19:45:05 GMT

Here at the Sitting Room, we are always acquiring new titles, and we’d love to share with you some of these titles (these are all of the new titles since May). Does anything look inviting? If so, come on by and enjoy! Remember, we have open hours on Wednesdays and Fridays.

A Piece of Mine: Stories Cooper, J. California Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (1991), Edition: 1st Anchor Books ed, 124 pages
A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far: Poems 1978-1981Rich, Adrienne W. W. Norton & Company (1993), Edition: F First Paperback Edition Collectible, 72 pages
Afterimages: Poems Lenore M Myers Sixteen Rivers Press (2026), 124 pages
Alimony, Or Death of the Clock; Watson, Lynn Keegan Press (1981), Edition: First Edition, 97 pages
An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991 Rich, Adrienne W. W. Norton & Company (1991), Edition: First Edition, 72 pages
Angel Collins, Merle Seal Pr (1988), Edition: 1st, 294 pages
Angela Carter’s Book Of Fairy Tales Carter, Angela (edit). Virago (2005), 486 pages
Anni Albers: Notebook 1970-1980 Albers, Anni Danilowitz, Brenda Contributor David Zwirner Books (2017), 152 pages
Ariadne’s Thread Lifshin, Lyn HarperCollins (1982), Edition: First Edition, 335 pages
At Large Goodman, Ellen Summit Books (1981), Edition: First Edition, 245 pages
Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun: A Legendary Alaskan Fable of Quest, Self-Discovery, and Ancient Athabaskan Wisdom Wallis, Velma Harper Perennial (1997), 224 pages
By the Light of My Father’s Smile: A Novel Walker, Alice Random House (1998), Edition: First Edition, 222 pages
Chouette: A Provocative and Unsettling Exploration of Motherhood in Extremis―PEN/Faulkner Award Longlisted Oshetsky, Claire Ecco (2022), 256 pages
Clear Light of Day: A Novel Desai, Anita Mariner Books (2014), Edition: Reprint, 274 pages
Country Girl: A Memoir O’Brien, Edna Little, Brown and Company (2013), Edition: Reprint, 368 pages
Delta of Venus Nin, Anaïs Mariner Books (2004), Edition: Reprint, 304 pages
Disinheritance: The Rediscovered Stories Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer Counterpoint (2025), 352 pages
Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me Pond, Mimi Drawn and Quarterly (2025), 444 pages
Drawn From Life Bowen, Stella Julia Loewe Introduction Virago (1984), Edition: First Edition, 253 pages
Dusty Roads: Meet the Hidden Figure Who Really Ignited the Women’s Movement Rock, Elaine SoCo Publishing (2024), 434 pages
Eye Level: Poems Xie, Jenny Graywolf Press (2018), Edition: First Edition, 80 pages
Food and Spirits Brant, Beth Firebrand Books (1991), 128 pages
Fox: Poems 1998-2000 (Norton Paperback) Rich, Adrienne W. W. Norton & Company (2003), Edition: Reprint, 80 pages
Girl in a Box: A Novel Kocienda, Jean Gordon Sibylline Press (2026), 360 pages
Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work Umberger, Leslie Princeton University Press (2025), 272 pages
Her Mothers (Midland Bks: No. 353) Broner, E. M. Indiana Univ Pr (1985)
High-Spirited Women of the West Seagraves, Anne Seagraves Author Wesanne Publications (2003), Edition: First Edition, 176 pages
Hildegard of Bingen Maddocks, Fiona Faber & Faber (2013), Edition: Reissue, 352 pages
How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Odell, Jenny Melville House Publishing (2021), 256 pages
In the Beginning Taylor, Mary Lou Frog on the Moon
Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time Rose, Phyllis Vintage (1991), 321 pages
Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon Morrison, Toni Knopf (2026), 240 pages
Leaflets: Poems 1965-1968 Rich, Adrienne W. W. Norton & Company (1969), Edition: First Edition, 79 pages
Life Among the Savages Jackson, Shirley Penguin Books (2015), Edition: Reissue, 240 pages
Live or die; : [poems] Sexton, Anne Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation Van Duyne, Emily W. W. Norton & Company (2024), 320 pages
Margret Howth Davis, Rebecca Harding Fagan Yellin, Jean Afterword The Feminist Press at CUNY (1993), 300 pages
Men And Monuments (Da Capo Paperback) Flanner, Janet Da Capo Press (1990), 328 pages
Mules of Love (American Poets Continuum) Bass, Ellen BOA Editions Ltd. (2002), Edition: 1, 96 pages
No Archive Will Restore You Singh, Julietta Punctum Books (2018), 118 pages
On Witness and Respair: Essays Ward, Jesmyn Scribner (2026), 256 pages
Paper Fish (Contemporary Classics by Women) De Rosa, Tina Gilbert, Sandra Foreword The Feminist Press at CUNY (2003), 176 pages
Pilgrimage Volumes I-IV Richardson, Dorothy Libroj (2025), 560 pages
Poor Deer: A Novel Oshetsky, Claire Ecco (2024), 240 pages
Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan Earle, Joe Art Institute of Chicago (2023), 128 pages
Radical Family: Trailblazing Lesbian Moms Tell Their Stories Wisconsin Historical Society Press (2025), 160 pages
Random Universe Miller, Carolyn Sixteen Rivers Press (2026), 96 pages
Rural Astronomy Eubanks, Georgann Eastover Press (2025), 84 pages
Shakespeare’s Heroines.: Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical, Annotated and Illustrated Jameson, Anna Murphy Independently published (2019), 392 pages
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life Franklin, Ruth Liveright (2017), Edition: Illustrated, 624 pages
Shirley Jackson: Four Novels of the 1940s & 50s (LOA #336): The Road Through the Wall / Hangsaman / The Bird’s Nest / The Sundial (Library of America, 336) Library of America (2020), Edition: Combined, 850 pages
Shy Girl Stark, Elizabeth Farrar Straus & Giroux (1999), Edition: First Edition, 212 pages
Smiling at the Executioner McLatchey, M. B. Kelsay Books (2023), 100 pages
Some Soul to Keep Cooper, J. California St Martins Pr (1988)
Somehow, I Haven’t Drowned Gabbert, Robin Blue Light Press (2025), 94 pages
Standing in Their Fire: Poems from a Hospital Nurse Swetech R.N., Shawna L. Kelsay Books (2026), 90 pages
Still, The Magnolia: poems, New and Selected Taylor, Mary Lou Frog on the Moon
Symphonic Poem: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Robinson, Aminah Brenda Lynn and Carole Miller Genshaft Abrams (2003)
That’s How It Was Duffy, Maureen Dial Press (1984), Edition: A Virago Modern Classic, 221 pages
The Autobiography of My Mother (FSG Classics) Kincaid, Jamaica Picador (2025), 240 pages
The Bloomsbury photographs Humm, Maggie New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2024]
The Greengage Summer Godden, Rumer Picador (2013), Edition: New Edit/Cover, 192 pages
The Last Human Bear: A Novel Sarris, Greg Heyday (2026), 384 pages
The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women Perrin, Lisa Frey, Holly|Trimarchi, Maria Foreword|Foreword Chronicle Books (2023), 208 pages
The Letters of Emily Dickinson Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press (2024), 976 pages
The Letters of Shirley Jackson Jackson, Shirley Hyman, Laurence Jackson|Murphy, Bernice M. Editor|Contributor Random House Trade Paperbacks (2022), 672 pages
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel Desai, Kiran Hogarth (2025), 688 pages
The Middleman and Other Stories Mukherjee, Bharati Grove Press (1999), Edition: Trade Paperback Edition, 208 pages
Toby’s Room (Life Class Trilogy) Barker, Pat Anchor (2013), Edition: Reprint, 320 pages
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith Lamott, Anne Pantheon (1999), Edition: First Edition, 288 pages
Traversal Popova, Maria Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2026), 608 pages
Virago Reprints and Modern Classics (Elements in Publishing and Book Culture) Withers, D-M Cambridge University Press (2021), 108 pages
Water Ghosts: A Novel Ryan, Shawna Yang Penguin Publishing Group (2010), Edition: Reprint, 272 pages
West With the Night Markham, Beryl North Point Pr (1987), Edition: Illustrated
Westward the Women Ross, Nancy Wilson WestWinds Press (2016), Edition: Reprint, 200 pages
Who is She? Remarkable Women, You Want to Know Dunkle, Iris Sitting Room Publication, Penngrove, CA. (You can get your copy of this one by sending us an email at sitting.room.library@gmail.com with a donation for $20 )
Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women: Real Stories from Inspirational, Artistic, and Empowered Women (True Life Stories, Beautiful Photography) LoMenzo, Angela Rose, Kathy|LoMenzo, James Foreword|Photographer TMA Press (2023), 256 pages
Women Artists in Midcentury America: A History in Ten Exhibitions Belasco, Daniel Reaktion Books (2024), 320 pages
Women of the Four Winds: The Adventures of Four of America’s first women explorers Olds, Elizabeth Fagg HarperOne (1999), Edition: First Edition, 336 pages
Women Poets of China Rexroth, Kenneth Chung, Ling Editor New Directions (1982), Edition: Reissue, 150 pages
Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972 (Volume 2) Rossiter, Margaret W. W. Johns Hopkins University Press (1998), Edition: 1, 624 pages
Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 Rossiter, Margaret W. W. Johns Hopkins University Press (1982), 464 pages
Women Who Charmed the West Seagraves, Anne Wesanne Publications (2003), 176 pages
Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran Parsipur, Shahrnush The Feminist Press at CUNY (2012), Edition: Second, 136 pages
Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey Schlissel, Lillian Schocken Books (1992), Edition: Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed, 288 pages
Writing in Time: Emily Dickinson’s Master Hours Werner, Marta L. Amherst College Press (2021), 126 pages
Your Native Land, Your Life Rich, Adrienne W. W. Norton & Company (1993), Edition: Revised ed., 122 pages
Zaum 29 Moorehead, Shannon Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA.

A Note From J.J. Wilson About the Sitting Room History and Archives

I enjoyed reading Eloise vanTassel’s interview in the newsletter, but wanted to “correct the record” (if anyone is recording) as to how our Sitting Room Archives got started. Originally, I had given over all my “on women authors” files to the archive section of Sonoma State University, with the provision that if at any time they could not keep them open to access, the materials would be returned to me.
And indeed it happened, as it too often does, that the funding for the library services was severely cut, and I reclaimed the files — which had, however, whilst being installed in the library, been wonderfully shaped up by Kris Montgomery, who was working there as a student.

Once they came “home”, Lauren Coodley, Nancy Garcia, Thomas Fagan, and others gathered every Saturday to go through them again, picking and choosing, eliminating duplicates, and learning, learning, learning as we went. (We also enjoyed some fabulous potluck lunches and became Archive Buddies.)

Come Archive Diving with J.J. Wilson Wednesdays 11-4

Are you curious about what we are keeping in our archives at the Sitting Room? (To see a list of what our archives contain, see this list!)

The Archives always need and benefit from such Archive Diving, and J.J. Wilson would love to do some diving with anyone curious — curiosity is an itch that is scratched by archives doesn’t sound very pleasant, does it? But it is useful — and oddly fun. Call her at 707 795-9028 or email at: sitting.room.library@gmail.com to find a good time or just come by the Sitting Room Library’s Open Hours (which will be expanded soon).

Upcoming Events

We have so many exciting events coming soon! Read below and sign up to save your spot. Most events are free, but they are limited to 15 people.

Open House

Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Come join us for an open house! We’ll have tea and cookies, and we’ll be giving library tours! No need to sign up, just show up at 2025 Curtis Dr. in Penngrove and come read a book!

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

Sign up here.

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, June 26, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 13:37:56 GMT

What the Volunteers Say…An Interview Between Nox Lyon and Eloise Van Tassel

Nox Lyon met with our volunteer, Eloise Van Tassel, last week. Eloise works on the archives at The Sitting Room and has been a part of the Sitting Room community for decades.

Eloise in the Archives, where she volunteers

Nox

So, Eloise, what do you do here?

Eloise

I work in the archive files, and the archives are files of many, many women writers, women journalists, women activists, women doing this and that. And people supply me with paper copy clippings and materials to put in different files. I’m a glorified file clerk.

Nox

That’s wonderful. So how did you find the Sitting Room?

Eloise

Way back, it must have been in the 1990s. Someone told me about J.J. Wilson, this prof at Sonoma State University who had a women’s studies class. And they said, Oh, it’s very cool and informal. J.J. welcomes people who come and sit in the back or on the periphery of the room, auditing the class and just being there. You don’t have to register. So I came and sat in two or three of J.J.’s classes. They were very dynamic, as I’m sure you can imagine. And J.J. was talking about Southern writers, which is a niche that she’s very interested in and familiar with, being a Southerner herself. And I got introduced to Zora Neale Hurston through that class. And I read Their Eyes Were Watching God because of her. And I’m a very slow reader. So it took me a while. But the influence from that has stayed with me.

And then somehow or other, I don’t know if J.J. mentioned it in her class, but the information came to me that there was going to be this library that J.J. was instigating. And it was in an office building down on East Cotati Avenue before it moved to this place here on Curtis Ave. And the story, the backstory I got from Karen Peterson, was that J.J.’s faculty office was just chock-a-block full of stuff: books, papers, ephemera, you name it. And that was the genesis of the sitting room library, because then J.J. was in the process of retiring.

Nox

So you’ve been here from the start?

Eloise

Pretty much. I haven’t been volunteering that long, but I used to just drop in at the old location.

Nox

What would you do when you dropped in?

Eloise

Oh, just browse around. There were a couple of workshops that I went to. They were evening workshops. I can’t remember exactly who the presenters were. One of them was Rebecca Lawton, who I think is still active and around. She wrote a book on the outdoors and interacting with it, and I read a couple of others that involved writing on different historical periods.

Nox

Okay. So now we've got to hear what your favorite book here is.

Eloise

Here is Turn Left at the Big Ant Hill by Rosemary Manchester. Have you read it? It’s a memoir by Rosemary, who is still with us at age 98. And Rosemary has a history of once being the wife of a Methodist minister who received a calling from God to go and be a missionary in what is now the Congo. Rosemary went enthusiastically with her husband, who is pseudonamed in the book as Stuart. They had four children together, two boys and two girls. And Rosemary tells about the adventures, the people they met, and the political situation. They were there during Patrice Lumumba's time. Have you heard of him? His name figures large in history. And she talked about hippopotamus roast being served at some dinner and escaping some politically instigated rioting.

Rosemary’s book came out four or five years ago, and she has sold quite a few copies. I would highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in Africa or religion.

Nox

One of the really wonderful things about the Sitting Room is that we get to meet authors like Rosemary. I’m wondering, if you could meet any author, dead or alive, who would it be?

Eloise

Oh my goodness. That’s a tough one. Maybe the woman that Iris has written about, who got scooped by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath? I’ve read Iris’s biography, Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb, and Iris tells the story about how the publishers kind of put John Steinbeck’s book ahead of hers, so hers didn’t get published at that time, but since then it has. And so it would be fun to meet her. Her origins were in Oklahoma; she ended up in Southern California, in the Hollywood area, and fell in love with and married a guy named James Wong Howe, who was a cinematographer in the movie industry. He was of Chinese background, and they were together during the 1940s and 50s when California had an anti-miscegenation law, so they couldn’t legally marry for a number of years, and then that law was rescinded, and then they could, and did. And so it’s kind of interesting.

Nox

All right, well, wonderful, thank you for chatting with me.

(If you are interested in reading Turn Left at the Big Ant Hill by Rosemary Manchester or Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, stop by the Sitting Room! We have both!)

Sonoma County Poet Laureate Inauguration for Claire Drucker

July 12, 2-5 PM

We at the Sitting Room are all very excited about Claire Drucker becoming Sonoma County’s next Poet Laureate! You won’t want to miss her inauguration on Sunday, July 12th at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts (282 S. High St) from 2-5 pm. We hope to see you there!

Want to Learn More About Dorothy Richardson Before You Commit to Reading Pilgrimage? Here is a Mini-Biography

We will start our reading group for Pilgrimage in September. Members of our Zoom-based reading group get a 25 percent discount on the books. To sign up, just send an email to sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com!

Dorothy Richardson (1873 - 1957) was born in Abingdon, Berkshire. She was the third of four daughters. Her father was disappointed that she wasn’t a boy, so he called her his “son.” According to Doris B. Wallace & Howard E. Gruber, this reflected that her “boylike willfulness” didn’t align with the gender norms of her day. She grew up in a large house her father built, called “Whitefield,” before moving to London to attend a progressive school where she was taught modern psychology, literature, and music, and taken seriously as a student. Richardson was fiercely independent. In 1890, when she was only 17, she secretly answered an ad in the London Times for a teaching position at Fräulein Lily Pabst’s school in Hanover, Germany. By the time she returned a year later, two of her sisters were engaged, and the third had taken a traditional job as a governess. Richardson had no desire to follow the expected path for her gender; a new world had opened to her in Germany, one infused with poetry and music. At first, she tried to continue teaching, taking a job teaching at a school in North London, but she found the grayness dimmed her spirit. The grayness of the sky and the gray future of her middle to lower-class pupils, whose futures seemed set to them regardless of what they learned.

While Richardson was finding her vocation, her father had slowly become bankrupt. In the spring of 1895, their family possessions were sold at a public auction. Perhaps triggered by these events, her mother became ill and was persuaded by a doctor to rest by the sea. So Richardson went to live with her mother in Hastings on the south coast of England. One day, while Richardson was out walking the beach, she returned to find her mother bleeding out on the floor of their boarding house. Her mother, who was only fifty-two years old, had slit her throat with a kitchen knife.

(Read the full article on Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s Substack Finding Lost Voices).

Upcoming Events

We have so many exciting events coming soon! Read below and sign up to save your spot. Most events are free but they are limited to 15 people.

Queer Reading Circle

June 27, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

The Sitting Room Library is excited to host a reading circle celebrating queer stories, authors, and people. Everyone is invited to join us, simply bring yourself and your favorite queer book, or whatever you’re currently reading! Sign up on our Eventbrite page.

Nox Lyon, our Communications Director, will be leading the event.

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

Join us for a discussion of gender expression that spans 1928, when Woolf’s “novelography” Orlando was published, up to today. Hannah Hellman will begin with a brief discussion of her thesis on Woolf’s gender play in Orlando, focusing on Vita Sackville-West’s struggle with her own gender as the source of inspiration. In her thesis, Hannah makes the argument that Sackville-West experienced gender dysphoria at the minimum, and was perhaps, if she had had the same words we do to express her experiences, even transgender. Finally, Hannah will touch on the fact that Orlando was in many ways a gift, or as Sackville-West’s son Nigel calls it, a love letter. Conversation on gender expression, identity, rights, and theory is most welcome. Join us for a celebration of nearly 100 years of gender play. Sign up on our Eventbrite page.

Hannah Hellman graduated from Sonoma State University’s English M.A. program in 2023. Her thesis on Virginia Woolf examined the 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography and Woolf’s relationship with Vita Sackville-West. Hannah has been published by the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) and the Gothic Nature Journal, and enjoys bridging the gap between STEM and the Humanities wherever possible. When she is not working as a Communications Specialist and Editor for the NASA partner organization EdEon STEM Learning at Sonoma State University, Hannah can be found writing critically about her favorite books or video games.

Open House
Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Come join us for an open house! We’ll have tea and cookies, and we’ll be giving library tours! No need to sign up, just show up at 2025 Curtis Dr. in Penngrove and come read a book!

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. Free.

Sign up here.

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm

Sign up here!

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Join us for an afternoon with our new Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She plans to read her work and lead us in writing prompts. Come help us celebrate Claire and get inspired to write your own work!

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, June 19, 2026

Sitting Room — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 23:22:37 GMT

New to our Collection at The Sitting Room, the brilliant memoir, Soil: The Story of a Black Woman’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy

If you are looking for a summer read, you might want to dive into one of our new books at The Sitting Room: Soil by Camille Dungy. This memoir documents Camille's move from California to Fort Collins, Colorado, with her husband and daughter. The new community they moved to had restrictions about what Dungy could plant in her yard. As the dust jacket reveals, “in resistance to the policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Camille employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as a metaphor for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet.” Stop on by and pick up this book. You won’t want to put it down.

An Interview about Dorothy Richardson, Pilgrimage, and Brad Bigelow from Neglected Books

Dorothy Miller Richardson (1873 – 1957) was a British author and journalist. Pilgrimage is a semi-autobiographical novel published between 1915 and 1967 that uses the modernist technique of stream of consciousness, focused on a woman’s experience. According to Richardson, the title Pilgrimage alludes not only to “the journey of the artist ... to self-realisation but, more practically, to the discovery of a unique creative form and expression”

Dorothy Miller Richardson (1873 – 1957)

We first learned about Richardson from an episode of Lost Ladies of Lit. Then, when The Lost Ladies of Lit visited last week, they gave us a copy of a newly reprinted version of Pilgrimage and connected us with Brad Bigelow from Neglected Books, a site where you’ll find articles and lists with thousands of books that have been neglected, overlooked, forgotten, or stranded by changing tides in critical or popular taste.

Recently, our Director, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, sat down with Brad Bigelow to discuss Dorothy Richardson and her thirteen-volume book, Pilgrimage.

Iris Dunkle

We discovered Dorthy Richardson through The Lost Ladies of Lit, and when they visited us a few weeks ago, Amy gave us a copy of the volumes you published.

The Sitting Room is a library in Northern California. And, we are dedicated to bringing back women writers who have been forgotten or misremembered, so that when Amy was talking about Pilgrimage during her presentation, I was like, oh my god, this would make a perfect reading group, and she’s told me, well, there is one!

So that’s how we connected with you.

Can you tell me a little bit about how you discovered Dorothy Richardson?

Brad Bigelow

Well, in a nutshell, you can blame it on Phyllis Rose, because she wrote this wonderful book called The Shelf, about randomly going through a shelf at the New York Society Library, and in that book, she mentions having a conversation with a male colleague who she asks how many books he’d read by women in the last year or so, and, you know, stumped him. And I thought, well, you know, I don’t read enough women writers. I don’t avoid them, but I haven’t embraced that work. This was 2015, and so I decided to devote 2015 to just reading neglected women writers. And then it was such a great experience that I did it for another year. So, in 2016, I was looking for books to read, and I came across Pilgrimage by Dorothy Richardson. I assumed it was in print, but then found it was not and hadn’t been for decades. It’s still technically a Virago modern classic, but it’s print-on-demand, and you’re not gonna walk into a bookstore and find the set. She’s seriously neglected. So I got a set of Pilgrimage and powered through it the first time, and it’s great! I mean, it’s challenging reading. Particularly because Richardson was so focused on trying to come up with a female style of prose, not just at the sentence level, but really the whole shape of the book. She’s often talked about writing as stream of consciousness, but I think it’s more appropriate to say that what she does is she weaves consciousness to represent somebody’s thoughts in the now as they’re going through some experience, and what Richardson does is that but also she will go back and sort of replay conversations and situations after the fact, so very often, when she’s conveying a conversation, if you read closely, it’s not only what’s going on, but also what Miriam is thinking about afterwards, and she’s not giving you a clue.

The other thing that makes the text difficult but rich is that she doesn’t give milestones. She doesn’t open a chapter by saying, “later that day,” or “the following Wednesday.” She just jumps, and she’ll jump from section to section.

So it’s challenging stuff. It’s 2,300 pages from Richardson’s perspective, and she never varies that discipline to talk about other people’s perspectives on things. It’s always how Miriam sees things. There’s nothing else like it in literature, where you have 2,000 pages of the world seen through this particular woman’s eyes. I really thought it was a fantastic book.

When I was reading it for the first time, I was very lucky to have a woman in Brussels reading it at the same time, so we had kind of an online email conversation, which we both posted after the fact, which made me realize it was a great book for a reading group. So in 2022, I organized a reading group that met over the course of a year. But found that it was really hard to do without copies that people could buy.

Iris Dunkle

Right.

Brad Bigelow

So, I contacted Virago to see if they would reprint the book, but they weren’t interested. I contacted Little Brown and NYRB Classics, and no one was interested in reprinting the book.

And so I finally said, well, I know the publication process, because I edit this series for Boiler House Press in the UK, so maybe I’ll just do it. So I did. I published it myself.

Iris Dunkle

Have you sold a lot of copies?

Brad Bigelow

I have sold about 170 copies of the sets. (The books come in sets of 4 volumes).

Iris Dunkle

Awesome.

Brad Bigelow

Pilgrimage gets better as it goes along. I mean, it’s important to understand that she wrote the book over 4 decades, from the early teens to the late 30s, she was working at it intensively, and then, she struggled to get the last chapter, “March Moonlight,” completed, and never did before she died. So, her voice constantly evolves as she goes along.

One of the choices that I made was to get the Virago set based on the 1967 Dent set, which is based on the 1938 set, and they agreed to standardize a lot of things. So just as an example. You know, there was a whole period where the British put dialogue in single quotes, right?

Iris Dunkle

Right.

Brad Bigelow

Well, publishers standardized that in the 1930s.

If you look at Richardson’s manuscript, she put all her dialogue in double quotes. So, if you look at the first editions, up to chapters 9 or 10, she used double quotation marks. Then, after that, they are standardized into single quotes. But in the Virago, all of the dialogue is set in single quotes.

For Richardson, those sorts of things were important. In fact, she wrote an essay called “About Punctuation.”

She believed, for example, that sometimes you took out commas because they would slow the reader down, and she wanted to do that. And she would also put multiple dots in her ellipses to kind of convey pauses that occur naturally in thought, or in, you know, an encounter between two people.

Brad Bigelow

So you see that change as you go through the books. She’s experimenting with things as she goes along. So, the fundamental choice I made was not to follow the 1938-1967 set that everybody’s familiar with. So, if you read any Richardson Scholarship, it’s always quoting page numbers that are from the Virago editions.

Brad Bigelow

There are only four surviving manuscripts, and they’re not even complete.

Iris Dunkle

Where are her archives? Do you know?

Brad Bigelow

It’s in multiple places. The Harry Ransom Center has one set of papers and one manuscript. The Beinecke has one manuscript and some others. And the University of Tulsa.

Iris Dunkle

So, tell me about your reading group, and are you going to be redoing it again, or can we, like, build from your model? What would you recommend?

Brad Bigelow

It really started on Twitter, back when Twitter was still safe, and somebody suggested Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage be a great one-year reading project.

So I started an online reading group. That’s the great thing about a reading group, the give and take with other people, and Pilgrimage is such a great book for that, because people have so many different reactions to it, and it is such a complex text. And so opaque at times that 5 people can take 5 different takes, and each has some validity. I reached out to a bunch of Richardson scholars, so almost every session, we had somebody as a guest who gave a talk for, you know, 15-20 minutes about the particular book, or some aspect of Richardson’s work.

And the other thing is, I do record them and post them on YouTube, because, you know, there is no perfect time that works for everybody.

Iris Dunkle

No, that makes sense, especially if you’ve got people joining from all over the world.

Well, let’s plan to set up a reading group that begins in September, where we will read one “chapter” (approximately 200 pages) a month for 12 months.

·To learn more about Brad’s reading groups, visit: ReadingPilgrimage.com
Look for a link to the Pilgrimage reading group that will meet monthly on Zoom beginning in September and a link to a discounted version of Pilgrimage coming soon! If you are interested in joining, send us an email sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

Three Writers To Read for Juneteenth

From Jessi Haley, Cita Press

Harriet Jacobs (1813 or 1815-1897) wrote about her own life in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). The autobiography is both a tale of personal strength and liberation and a call to political action.

Harriet E. Wilson (1825-1900) was the first African American writer to publish a novel. Our Nig; or Sketches From the Life of a Free Black (1851) examines how the “shadow of slavery” reached into the North, challenging the assumptions of white abolitionist readers.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was a famous writer and activist during her lifetime. “The Two Offers” (1859) was the first story published by a Black woman in the US, and her novel Iola Leroy (1892) inspired later works by Zora Neale Hurston and others. Hear Sitting Room cofounder D.A. Powell read the poem “Bury Me in a Free Land” for the Library of Congress. Also of note: the Sitting Room community has contributed over 100 transcriptions to the Transcribe Harper project since March!

Have you visited the Sitting Room yet? According to J.J., It’s Good for Your Health!

The other day, I walked into the Sitting Room only to be greeted by J.J., handing me a slip of paper she’d cut out from the newsletter. You’ve got to read this! She exclaimed. On the slip of paper was an article that insisted, “Try Deep Reading (on Paper)”

Maryanne Wolf, a professor-in-residence at the University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, said that even when we’re reading just one screen, we aren’t engaging with it deeply.That’s because screeen are designed to make us read very quickly — to scan, skim and scroll.
“Many people have lost the ability to really immerse the,selves,” Dr. Wolf said. “We have developed a cognitive impatience about our reading.” To get back in the practice of what Dr. Wolf calls deep reading, try to dedicate at least 20 minutes a day to reading a physical book.”

J.J. suggests the best place to fix your brain health is at the Sitting Room, where we have over 7,000 volumes. We are currently open on Wednesdays and Fridays from 11-4 and by appointment. Come on by and read with us!

J.J. says, “This is NOT what you’ll find at the Sitting Room”

Upcoming Events

Queer Reading Circle

June 27, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

The Sitting Room Library is excited to host a reading circle celebrating queer stories, authors, and people. Everyone is invited to join us, simply bring yourself and your favorite queer book, or whatever you're currently reading! Sign up on our Eventbrite page.

Nox Lyon, our Communications Director, will be leading the event.

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, June 12, 2026

Sitting Room — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:38:04 GMT

This past weekend was PACKED at The Sitting Room, and that meant that we didn’t have time to send out our regular newsletter. Not only did we have our birthday party, where we released our new anthology, Who Is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know, but we also had special guests Kim Askew and Amy Helmes, co-hosts of the podcast Lost Ladies of Lit, in town to give a presentation on Sunday titled "We All Know Him, But What About Her?" So please excuse our newsletter being a week late!

The Anthology: Who Is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know

Last Saturday, we launched our new anthology, a book that includes 70 contributors writing about women they wanted us to remember. The volume has a striking orange cover designed by Fiorella Ferroni, an introduction by J.J. Wilson, and a myriad of poems and essays that will have you sit down and read the book cover to cover!

If you want us to send you a copy, just email sitting.room.library@gmail.com with your address and send a suggested donation of $20.

If you were a contributor and you didn’t pick up your copy at The Sitting Room Birthday Party, we’ll be sending you your copy in the mail next week.

The Birthday Party!

We had a lovely gathering last Saturday in The Sitting Room's backyard. Here are some photos from the event!

If you took photos at the Birthday Party, please send them to sitting.room.library@gmail.com.

The Lost Ladies of Lit: “We All Know Him, But What About Her?“

On Sunday afternoon, Kim Askew and Amy Helmes shared a presentation that featured many of the women writers they’ve profiled on their podcast, The Lost Ladies of Lit, set in contrast to the male authors we all know.

Constance Fenimore Woolson was set against Henry James. Woolson wrote Anne (1882), which was extremely popular during her time (Anne sold 57,000 copies, far more copies than James’ Portrait of a Lady).

Ursula Parrott was set against F. Scott Fitzgerald, and we were introduced to her Jazz Age novel, Ex-Wife (1929), as an alternative to The Great Gatsby.

One of my favorites, Elizabeth Stoddard, was set against Herman Melville. Stoddard’s masterpiece of a novel, The Morgesons (1862) came out just ten days after Bull Run and never got its due. Bonus - if you want to learn more about Stoddard’s life, you can check out Kim Askew’s essay on her in Who Is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know.

Dorothy Richardson was compared to Marcel Proust for her Pilgrimage Series - 13 books published from 1915 to 1957 that use stream of consciousness. Thanks to a gift from Amy, the Sitting Room will soon have copies of these books on hand, and we plan to begin a reading group. So stay tuned if you are interested in joining.

Sanora Babb, Nancy Mitford, Rose Macaulay, Djuna Barnes, Dorothy B. Hughes, Anna Katherine Green, Winnifred Eaton, and Mary Webb were also featured in their riveting presentation.

We’ll be setting up a shelf dedicated to the books featured by The Lost Ladies of Lit at the Sitting Room soon!

Congratulations to our next Sonoma County Poet Laureate: Claire Drucker

Finally, we want to celebrate the good news that Sonoma County’s next Poet Laureate will be one of our own: our Poetry Curator, Claire Drucker! Congratulations Claire! Come join us on July 12 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts from 2-5 PM, where she will be inaugurated! And check out her books at the Sitting Room.

Upcoming Events

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter - May 30, 2026

Sitting Room — Sun, 31 May 2026 02:27:57 GMT

Shirley Jackson 1916 - 1965

Have you Ever Read the Books of Shirley Jackson?

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1916, but most of her early life was spent in nearby Burlingame. (This is also where she set her first novel: The Road Through the Wall, published in 1948, but set in 1936). She attended Syracuse University, where she first began publishing her stories and met her husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. During her lifetime, her fame would be overshadowed by her husband’s fame as a critic. But now, that balance has shifted.

Jackson and Hyman had four children, and their family lived in a larger Victorian house near Benington College in VT, where Hyman was a professor. Jackson was a stay-at-home mom who wrote whenever she could. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t productive. Jackson wrote at least 1,000 words every single day.

Her short story, “The Lottery,” (published in The New Yorker on June 27, 1948) is her best-known work. However, she was an incredible novelist. Her novels include:

•Hangsaman (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951)

•The Bird’s Nest (Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954)

•The Sundial (Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958)

•The Haunting of Hill House (Viking, 1959)

•We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Viking, 1962)

Jackson also wrote humorous stories for women’s magazines about being a mother of four. Some of which are gathered together in her memoir Life Among the Savages, published in 1953.

We have most of Jackson’s books, her letters (edited by her son Laurence), and Ruth Franklin’s biography A Rather Haunted Life at The Sitting Room (including several new acquisitions). If you would be interested in an upcoming Round Table on this author, please make a comment on this post. Or, send us an email at sittingroomlibrary@gmail.con.

Upcoming Events

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

It’s almost here! Don’t miss our upcoming party, where copies of our latest anthology, Who is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know will be available along with past issues, Samplers, free books, and all sorts of lovely “merch.” Come one, come all to our annual birthday celebration. Tours of the always surprising library and archives will be offered, and there will be cake! No need to rsvp, but if you have any questions, email us at sitting.room.library@gmail.com. Please park in the church parking lot adjacent or on the street. Those needing assistance should park in the driveway.

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Melville, James, Proust, Huxley, Chandler, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Kerouac … they’re giants of the literary canon, of course, yet all have female counterparts whose novels are much less widely known. Join the hosts of the “Lost Ladies of Lit” podcast as they bust open the “boys’ network” to expand your reading horizons. To sign up visit our Eventbrite page.

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: May 23, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 23 May 2026 20:04:47 GMT

Book Recomendation: The Wind by Dorothy Scarborough (1928)

By Iris Jamahl Dunkle

This week, I read The Wind (1928) by Dorothy Scarborough (1878–1935). In this book she wrote about the challenges of frontier life in the Texas Panhandle. I first heard about her while I was on a campus visit to the Center for the Study of the American West, by its director, Alex Hunt, and Warren Stricker, the Director of the Research Center at the archives at Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, but it was the grad student Jaydn Jeffries whose infectious enthusiasm about The Wind made me want to read it immediately. Today, when I nearly read the book cover to cover, I understood why she was so enthusiastic!

Dorothy Scarborough, from a 1918 publication.

Scarborough was the daughter of Mary Adelaide (Ellison) and John Bledsoe Scarborough, a Texas lawyer. She and her family lived in Sweetwater, Texas, from 1882 to 1887 before relocating to Waco, Texas, where she attended Baylor University. She began writing at an early age and was especially drawn to writing about Texas.

The Wind feels like a gothic, sister book to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. In the way that the slow decent into madness is depicted by the environment around the character. Instead of being set in an old house; however, The Wind is set on the dried out prarie during the devastating droughts of the 1880s in the Texas Panhandle. The protagonist is an 18-year-old girl named Letty who moves to the area from Virginia when her mother dies and she has nowhere else to go, except to live with her counsin Bev on his isolated ranch near the ironically named town of Sweetwater. Over the course of the book, Letty is slowly worn down by the ever-present wind that blows sand over everything: the tables, the beds, and the dishes. That thickens the air and turns it brown. That clogs her ears and nose, and that constantly messes up her hair. At first she is terrified of the wind, and as the wind rises and becomes more threatening, so her agency as a woman diminishes.

In her new home, where she lives with her cousin and his wife, Cora and their children, Cora scrutinzes her. Cora is jealous of Letty’s closeness with her husband Bev. So when two local cowboys fall in love with Letty, Cora eagerly waits for Letty to accept one of their proposals. At this point, however, Letty still has agency. She doesn’t love the rough men and wants to wait for love to find her. Cora who devised this plan to get Letty out of the house, is furious with her decision and she and Bev get in a terrible fight. Letty realizes that Cora never wanted her to be a visitor in her home.

The next day, Bev and his wife, Cora, leave on an errand and Letty is left alone with the children. That night, a huge sandstone blows in. Letty becomes terrified and when one of the cowboy’s comes to check on her and the children, she succombs to marriage. The next morning she moves out to his isolated shack on the desolate, drought ridden prarie witht he cowboy. What follows is her slow descent into madness as the landscape, and the unachiavable expectations on pioneer women overtake her.

To read a full analysis of this text, read the next issues of my Substack, Finding Lost Voices. And to read The Wind visit The Sitting Room!

Upcoming Events

Postponed

Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan
Sunday, May 24, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

We are sad to say that due to a family emergency, Ianthe’s workshop has been postponed. We will let you all know as soon as her workshop has been rescheduled.

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

Don’t miss our upcoming party where copies of our latest anthology: Who is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know will be available along with past issues, Samplers, free books, and all sorts of lovely “merch.” Come one, come all to our annual birthday celebration. Tours of the always surprising library and archives will be offered, and there will be cake! No need to rsvp, but if you have any questions, email us at sitting.room.library@gmail.com. Please park in the church parking lot adjacent or on the street. Those needing assistance should park in the driveway.

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, May 15, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 16 May 2026 00:26:55 GMT

Our annual birthday party is only a few weeks away! We are hard at work editing the anthology, so we are including memories from past parties over the next few weeks to get you excited to come to our party on June 6! If you have a memory about a past party you’d like to share, please feel free to add it as a comment! Or email it to sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

Memories from the Sitting Room Birthday Parties Past by Susan Miller

“I don’t even know who the people are that come to the birthday party every year, it’s different people, they come with their friends. They seem happy to sit and visit. They seem to love the snacks: the cheese, fresh strawberries, and punch. It’s sort of The Sitting Room putting on a garden party.”

“I remember serving punch with June Farver – “I would make sure there was plenty of ice in the punch and we would serve it to people as they walked up and we always used that that time to catch up on our lives. it’s a sweet memory. June passed away four years ago, and I miss her a lot.”

“I remember the year J.J. gave books as giveaways to people, and instead of mingling, people just started reading.”

“I remember Joe Mato’s Cheese. Unfortunately, the cheese factory on Llano Road closed last year I believe and that was the end of the cheese. It was just so yummy and delicious, and JJ was so good at slicing it super thin.”

Reflections on The Sitting Room From a Former Intern

We are so sad that Nox Lyon has finished his internship at the Sitting Room, but so glad we got to spend this time with him. Below is his reflection about his time at the Sitting Room.

by Nox Lyon

The first time I walked into The Sitting Room I made sure to wear a Sonoma State shirt, so that they would know I was the prospective intern. I opened the door to see about eight women, most over the age of 70, circling a table that comfortably seats three people. There was a lively discussion about what each of them would do once they ended the meeting. Once I arrived they asked how I had heard about The Sitting Room. Everyone listened with the utmost attention while I explained that while I am a history major, The Hutchins School and its lessons on civic engagement through education is my home.

As soon as the meeting ended, Karen, one of the founders of The Sitting Room gave me a tour. She showed off the art collection, the memoir room, the poetry room, the LGBT+ collection (which Karen loves to point out is hilariously housed in a closet), the literature room, the Woolf Wall, which is an entire bookshelf dedicated to Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group.Lastly, the non-fiction room is full of feminist thought, spirituality and religion, history, and so many essays. This room is my absolute favorite, if I’m not into reading I’ll look at a play from the theatre section, if I want some drama I’ll take a look at the history section, and of course I’ll pick up an essay if I need inspiration for civic action.

As soon as I left this introduction to The Sitting Room, I called Jill. Jill was my sixth-grade English and history teacher; now she’s somewhat of a mentor to me, and she absolutely LOVES books. I told her all about the Wolf Wall and the rest of The Sitting Room. A few weeks ago I was able to bring my mentor, Jill, to the Sitting Room. She raved about all of the rooms, the books, the cookbooks, and of course, a poster in the LGBT+ closet that says “New Orleans Needs more Dykes”.

My next visit to the Sitting Room came quickly, I was following up after the last visit and needed to make the future internship official. I explained that my first visit had felt like coming home, and Karen was quick to agree that it felt as if I fit in quite well. At the end of the visit I was given a key. The Sitting Room is located in the Home of JJ Wilson, the founder of The Sitting Room. She spends the cold half of the year in Florida, and the warmer half in California, when I was given the key JJ was still in Florida. Not only was this an unofficial contract that I would come back in the Spring, but it was a clear showing of trust.

The rest of Fall went by quickly, Winter break could not move quickly enough, and as soon as I knew it I was at my first official day of interning. I wasn’t sure what to expect, if I would be reading, writing, or helping out with whatever manual labor needed to be done. I needed to learn how everything was arranged, so of course we started by reading the shelves. For about four Fridays I went through every single book in the space, making sure they were in proper alphabetical order. I expected to be bored out of my mind, I mean who wants to read titles and names for hours on end? Each title told me more about The Sitting Room, Toni Morrison on the same shelf as Jimmy Carter, and “Twentieth Century Poetry of Witnessing” right next to “Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light”. The huge diversity of authors and subjects told me just how much the librarians cared about making sure everyone could be represented.

Once I was done reading the shelves I go to move onto cataloguing books, and helping with other tasks. I got to work with different librarians, look at their specialties and catalogue with them. I got to learn about the wonderful women who volunteer at the Sitting Room. I expected them to all be academics, or at least teachers and librarians, I could not have been more wrong. I talked to retired nurses, people who worked in public health, and of course the occasional librarian.

At the end of one of the weekly volunteer meetings, one of the retired nurses brought up that she went to a pistol shooting lesson for the first time. Watching these women interact shows me this community, many of them have known each other for decades. A picture hangs on the wall of five founders laughing together, likely in the 1980s. Many of them still attend the weekly meetings and celebrate each other’s growth, achievements, or even just showing up.

I was asked to write this reflection with the question in mind “what did I learn?” I learned that books are like people, putting them in one category is often the most challenging part of getting to know it. I learned that when a group of people who are clearly friends have a shared belief and goal, they are far more likely to stay in each other’s lives. I learned that words can share so much more than letters on a page; they tell story after story, spread ideas and revolutions, and share joy. I learned so much more than this over the past few months, but these are the most important lessons.

If you, or someone you know if interested in becoming an intern at the Sitting Room, feel free to email us at sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

Upcoming Events

Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Sunday, May 24, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll explore different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life through a literary lens. We will also have time to practice the art of memoir; you will have the opportunity to write about a moment or circumstance in your life that resonates with you in a memorable way. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore this powerful genre. Required materials: a notebook and a pen. All other materials provided. You can sign up on our Eventbrite page.

Ianthe Brautigan writes memoir, fiction, as well as, for television. She’s the author of the You Can’t Catch Death, which has been translated into Swedish, German, and French. She is an executive producer for the motion picture, Willard and His Bowling Trophies. Ianthe has appeared at numerous events including as an interviewer at the Sonoma Valley Authors Festival. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Currently, she teaches at Sonoma State University.

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

Copies of our latest anthology: Who is She? Remarkable Women You Want to Know will be available along with past issues, Samplers, free books, and all sorts of lovely “merch.” Come one, come all to our annual birthday celebration. Tours of the always surprising library and archives will be offered, and there will be cake! No need to rsvp, but if you have any questions, email us at sitting.room.library@gmail.com. Please park in the church parking lot adjacent or on the street. Those needing assistance should park in the driveway.

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, May 8, 2026

Sitting Room — Fri, 08 May 2026 22:31:20 GMT

Mother & Daughter: An Art Lineage By Uma Anandakuttan

A picture of the display of art by Krista and Uma Anandakuttan at The Sitting Room.

I’m excited to announce that in celebration of Mother’s Day this year, the Sitting Room will be displaying a set of selected works by my mom and I, Krista and Uma Anandakuttan (previous and current Sitting Room interns, respectively)! We carefully selected these works for their cohesive themes and styles. The frame at left (see photo), titled Ecology, or Make a Wish, was made by my mom in 2009 when I was little, and it usually hangs right above my bed. Made in pen and ink, it depicts a teetering tower of various flora and fauna precariously balancing. A small figure in a bright red hood is perched atop them, puffing at a tiny dandelion. That little red figure was actually modeled after me, and the piece represents my mom’s wish for her children’s future, as well as harmony with the biodiverse world.

The frame at right is a selection of four self-portraits from a set of eight titled Nostalgia that I submitted last year for my final AP Art portfolio. Drawing from childhood photos, I wanted to visually portray how childhood memories seem extra vibrant and colorful in retrospect, tinted with nostalgia, and I accomplished that using a wide variety of mixed media, from magazine scraps and India ink to gel pens and candy wrappers. The pieces I selected for this display range from memories of being carried on my brother’s back in South India (a piece that is bright green in an attempt to depict the indescribable fluorescence of our family’s rice paddy) to drawing with sidewalk chalk and dressing up in a sari. Note that in the bottom left square, I am wearing the very same red hoodie as in my mother’s piece! I also included monarch butterflies in that portrait, mirroring the one atop my head in my mother’s drawing, a completely unintentional and serendipitous parallel. Made decades apart, our two works come full circle in motifs and meaning, and they show how even though my journey to finding my preferred technique and subject matter was completely different from my mom’s, when shown side by side, there will always be parts of ourselves in each other’s work.

The display will be up for a month, starting the week of May 3 and ending mid-June. Come take a look!

Little Library is now living outside the SSU English Department office in Stevenson Hall

The New Little Library on campus at SSU

The English Department at Sonoma State University now has a new reading corner right outside the English Department office in Stevenson Hall, thanks to the Sitting Room. There is a plaque on the library that reads:

“A Gift to the SSU English Department
From The Sitting Room Library
Where the love of books shines”

According to Dr. Chingling Wo, Graduate Coordinator and Professor in the English Department, “The English Department is still moving into Stevenson Hall, and finding ways to show our love of books in our new home. This little library is one way we’re calling on some book fairies through creating a shared space for stories, ideas, and connection. The bright blue library and its sunny yellow cabinet are our little bright colorful dreams. Whether you’re looking for your next great read, a quick escape between classes, or a place to share a book that meant something to you, this space is for you.”

Upcoming Events

Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Sunday, May 24, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Come visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, May 2, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 02 May 2026 19:43:17 GMT

Tabling at Sonoma State University

We had the wonderful opportunity to table at Sonoma State University. What that means is we set up a table on campus, filled it with goodies from the Sitting Room including stickers, bookmarks, and our Sitting Room fans which came in handy given how warm it was! We’ll be back next Wednesday from 12-1:30 in case anyone wants to stop by and say “Hi”. Plus, Iris Jamahl Dunkle will be writing poems on demand for anyone who stops by and wants a poem written for them!

Last week, at SSU with Nox Lyon running the table

In Case You Missed It: The Collage and Erasure Workshop, A Recap

Our erasure and collage workshop at the Sitting Room last Sunday was a lot of fun. First, we had so many wonderful people join us for the event. Before they arrived, Claire and I filled the table with supplies: old magazines and books, markers, scissors and glue sticks. After introductions we dove right into erasure. I shared my recent project: Endnotes on the West (forthcoming from Texas Review Press, 2028) which is an erasure of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I explained that I began erasing The Grapes of Wrath as a way to empower myself to take on John Steinbeck as a I wrote my biography on Sanora Babb. We talked about which texts, ideas, or historical momments we might want to talk back to as a way to empower ourselves. Then I led everyone in a writing excercise: write a letter directly to that person, place or thing that you want to talk back to. After that, everyone found a text to erase. Some people had brought texts with them, while others found books, or magazines to erase on the table. Then the room quieted as everyone started sat nconcentrating as they circled letters, and words from the letters they had written in the text. Once they had a page or two, they blacked out the other words around their circled letters, and words and made art on top of the page.

Claire spoke to everyone about her experiences with the art of collage and how she was drawn to the form as a way to process the erasure of queer history that’s been happening on government websites. She showed us different techniques and again the room quieted as we all dove deep into magazines finding pictures, and words to paste onto our own collages. Some participants combined the two art forms pasting cutouts into the books they were erasing. By the end, we all agreed that erasing and collaging is something we should all do more often! Thanks so all who came out to the roundtable! And let us know if you’d like us to offer the workshop again in the future!

Upcoming Events

Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Sunday, May 24, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Discussing Gender Expression in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Sunday, June 28, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

Hannah Hellman graduated from Sonoma State University’s English M.A. program in 2023. Her thesis on Virginia Woolf examined the 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography and Woolf's relationship with Vita Sackville-West. Hannah has been published by the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) and the Gothic Nature Journal, and enjoys bridging the gap between STEM and the Humanities wherever possible. When she is not working as a Communications Specialist and Editor for the NASA partner organization EdEon STEM Learning at Sonoma State University, Hannah can be found writing critically about her favorite books or video games.

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Come visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, April 24, 2026

Sitting Room — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:56:18 GMT

What’s in the Stacks: A Book Review
by Nox Lyon, Sitting Room Intern

Half the time that I pick up a book, it tends to restate or reinforce something that I already know. To be fair, I am a history major, so studying the same event over and over is part of the deal. Being a history major, when I picked up Generations of Denial: 75 Short Biographies of Women in History by Kathryn Taylor (which was written in 1971), I expected to know most of the women. Then I started keeping track of who I knew and who I did not. Turns out that I had never heard of 60 of the 75 women discussed. I only knew 1/5 of the women in this book. How is it that 55 years after this book was published a person studying history still only knows 1/5 of the women this book illuminates?

Louise Labé lived from 1525 to 1566, and is described as a Poet and Lesbian. She led a double life, half the time she was a “gracious and dignified” housewife, the other half she was a “tempestuous, poetic, openly lesbian, radical woman” (wouldn’t we all like to be described this way?) She also served in the army, fighting on horseback in the siege of Perpignan, she gained the title “La Capitane Louise.”

Angelica Balabanoff lived from 1878 to 1965, and is described as a Russian Revolutionary. While we have all heard of Lenin, few of us have heard of Balabanoff who he worked closely from 1915 to 1921. She was raised by an affluent family and prepared to be a proper woman, but chose to go to Brussels University at 19. In 1900, she obtained a doctorate and joined the Socialist Party of Italy. After assisting in the Russian Revolution, she left the party when she saw old socialists being imprisoned rather than the Tsar. She was one one of the few people who left the part without being slandered by the party.

Leila Mahmedbekova lived in the 20th century and is described as the first airwoman in Soviet Turkey. While still wearing a veil at the demand of Turkish men Leila entered aviator school. After becoming an expert, she taught both men and women to fly; the Turkish women were quick to follow the precedent that she had set. One of the women who followed in Leila’s footsteps was Suleika Mahmedove, who then became the first woman parachutist in Turkey.

You Can Preserve a Voice From the Past!

Last month, a group gathered at the Sitting Room for an event that was part pizza party, part literature discussion, and part co-working session. For most of the evening (apart from a brief lecture portion), we were sitting in the literature room, typing on our individual laptops, working “alone together” on a collective project. Every once in a while, a participant would pause to read something aloud, or to remark on a surprising element— like a thumb appearing in the corner of an image. There was a lot of what one collaborator called “smiling while typing.”

And what was it we were working on? We were transcribing poems, letters, speeches, fiction, and more by legendary writer and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911). Eventually, our contributions will be part of a searchable, freely accessible online collection that will include all of the existing writing by Harper and commentary from Dr. Frances Smith Foster’s A Brighter Coming Day (Feminist Press, 1990, now out of print). This is connected to Transcribe Harper, a community transcription project run by the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk.

Transcribe Harper is something anyone can contribute to, from anywhere. Getting started at the Sitting Room gave us the opportunity to reflect together on the project and the remarkable woman who inspired it. Since then, many of us have kept going, making a significant dent in the large volume of material that will eventually be transcribed.

Next week, I’ll be co-hosting another Transcribe Harper Pizza Party at The Ruby in San Francisco, alongside fellow Sitting Room-regular Christie George (Togethering Lab) and writer Aku Ammah-Tagoe (The Ruby). Please spread the word to your Bay Area friends! Anyone can RSVP (for free) here.

If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to write to me: jessi@citapress.org.

—Jessi Haley

Editorial Director, Cita Press
Sitting Room Library Board Member

Upcoming Events

Poetry Erasure and Collage Workshop with Claire Drucker and Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sunday, April 26

2-4 PM

Come celebrate National Poetry Month by practicing the arts of erasure and collage. Erasure is the art of writing on top of another text in order to reclaim it. Collage poetry is a technique that juxtaposes, cuts, and rearranges words, phrases, or images from magazines, newspapers, books, emails, texts, etc. into a new, often fragmented, poetry with interesting and surprising meanings. To sign up, visit our Eventbrite page.

Iris Jamahl Dunkle is a poet, biographer, and scholar who writes about women who have been forgotten or misremembered. Her latest biography, Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb (University of California Press, 2024) was a USA Today bestseller. Her forthcoming book, Endnotes on the West (Texas Review Press, 2028) is an erasure of The Grapes of Wrath.

Travel Writers: Meet Isabelle Eberhardt with Bridget Hayes

Sun, May 17 • 2:00 PM

Isabelle Eberhardt

Discover the fascinating work of Isabelle Eberhardt, a lesser-known European/Algerian travel and journal writer. We’ll explore her life, read excerpts together, and discuss her voice/style/themes. You will then have the chance to try your own hand at writing a short piece inspired by her style and perspective. Sign up on our Eventbrite page.

Bridget Hayes lives with her wife and two orange cats. Her writing funambulates between prose poetry and flash fiction and is published in Pithead Chapel, The Quarter(ly), Yellow Arrow Journal, Wild Roof Journal, and Roanoke Review, among others. She is a tech librarian who helps people overcome their fear of technology. When she is not reading or writing, she is likely outside.

Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan
Sunday, May 24, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

During this memoir workshop, we’ll be exploring different structures and approaches to writing about one’s life with a literary lens. We will also have time to practice the art of memoir; you will have the opportunity to write about a moment or circumstance in your life that resonates with you in a memorable way. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore this powerful genre. Required materials: a notebook and a pen. All other materials provided. You can sign up on our Eventbrite page.

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Come visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, April 17, 2026

Sitting Room — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:20:13 GMT

Come and celebrate National Poetry Month by reading and exploring these poets and their poems at the Sitting Room!

by the Sitting Room’s Poetry Curator, Claire Drucker

Layli Long Soldier

Olga Broumas—lesbian poet, born and raised in Greece, teaches creative writing at Brandeis.

Cheryl Clarke—American lesbian poet, essayist, educator, and Black feminist community activist. Her scholarship focuses on African-American women’s literature, black lesbian feminism, and the Black Arts Movement in the United States

Lucille Clifton— American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Tess Gallagher—American poet, essayist, and short story writer. Among her many honors were a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts award, Maxine Cushing Gray Foundation Award. Raymond Carver’s partner. Moon Crossing Bridge is a stunning collection written right before Carver died.

Enheduanna—the first author to be named in all recorded history. She was a Mesopotamian poet, princess, and priestess—-3400-2000 BC. As the high priestess of the moon deity Nanna-Suen, she composed 42 temple hymns and three stand-alone poems (similar to the Epic of Gilgamesh).

Patricia Smith—Black American poet, spoken-word performer, playwright, author, writing teacher, and former journalist. She won the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry for her collection The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems.

Sharon Doubiago—American poet, memoirist, editor at Wild Ocean Press. She has lived much of her life since in three vans—Roses, Psyche, and Valentine—writing full-time rather than working full-time in order to write part-time.

Eileen Myles—a LAMBDA Literary Award-winning American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades.

Ulalume González de León--born and raised in Uruguay, she spent most of her adult life in Mexico. She published essays, stories, and poems, and translated the work of H.D., Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Hughes, Lewis Carroll, and e.e. cummings. Plagios/Plagiarisms--translated by Terry Ehret, John Johnson and Nancy Morales. This is the only English translation of her work.

Sappho’s Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece, translated by Diane J. Rayor

Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, edited by Nathalie Handal

When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, edited by Joy Harjo

I live in music: poems by ntozake change, paintings by romare bearden

Poetry Prompt

Read the poem below by Layli Long Soldier. Then open up a book of poems or a novel you have lying around. Write down 10 words you’re drawn to. Write a poem breaking these words apart, either on the same line or subsequent lines.

I understand yes I
intuit a ken
a style of speaking
or writing depend
ent upon choice
or words an accent
inflecti on
speech-sound
quality
I cogitate I
tune up to
terms of pre
vailing stand
ards
accept
ability
enunci
ation

—-Layli Long Soldier from Whereas

Upcoming Events

Poetry Erasure and Collage Workshop with Claire Drucker and Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sunday, April 26

2-4 PM

Travel Writers: Meet Isabelle Eberhardt with Bridget Hayes

Sun, May 17 • 2:00 PM

Isabelle Eberhardt

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 - 4 p.m.

2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Have you contributed anything yet to our 2026 Anthology, Who is She? Remarkable Women, You Want to Know

DEADLINE EXTENDED! CONTRIBUTIONS BY APRIL 22nd

Painter Hilma af Klint, fiction writer Lucia Berlin, park ranger Betty Reid Soskin, librarian Belle da Costa Greene, activist and author Zitkála-Šá. These are all women who shaped the world, yet only recently have they been recognized for their achievements. These remarkable women—and many others—still are not widely known beyond specific circles.

Let’s shine a spotlight on women who have been left too long in the shadows. In the 2026 Sitting Room Library Anthology, we invite you to celebrate an overlooked heroine. Women who, through literature, art, or advocacy, paved the way for all of us. All contributions are welcome, including poetry, prose, and visual arts* that can introduce our community of readers to inspiring figures.

Contributions should be no more than two pages, 12-point font, Times New Roman. No headers or footers. Please send your work to sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com by April 15, 2026, with the subject line: “2026 Sitting Room Anthology Contribution.” Contributions may also be sent to the Sitting Room Library at P.O. Box 838, Penngrove, CA 94951.

NOTE: This year’s anthology will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, and an online version will be available for people to download and read for free from the Sitting Room Library website. If you would like to be included in the print edition but want to opt out of the online publication, please note this in your email.

*If including visuals that are not original, please avoid using images that are currently under copyright.

About Us

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

Come visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: April 12, 2026

Sitting Room — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 17:09:10 GMT

The Sitting Room Featured in the Press Democrat

The Woolf Wall is dedicated to works by and about Virginia Woolf at the Sitting Room near Penngrove. Photo by Christopher Chung

“Amid a concerted federal push to rewrite certain parts of history, a tiny library just outside of Cotati is fighting like hell to protect it.

That library, dubbed the Sitting Room, is a Mecca of matriarchy, a community-based resource dedicated specifically to literature and art by and about women. The facility was co-founded in 1983 by former public librarian Karen Petersen and former Sonoma State University professor J.J. Wilson. It is housed in a private residence surrounded by redwoods and next to a church.

Today the library is as much a treasure as it is a resource. Iris Jamahl Dunkle, a local poet, author, and scholar who works at the Sitting Room, described it as a haven.”

Read the full article here.

Have you contributed anything yet to our 2026 Anthology, Who is She? Remarkable Women, You Want to Know

DON’T FORGET TO SEND IN YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE DEADLINE: APRIL 15th

Upcoming Events at the Sitting Room

Read Around Africa: African Female Writers

Sunday, April 19,
2-4:30 PM

This ongoing activity celebrates African women writers and invites casual participation. Anytime you’re in the sitting room, you can add a card to our shared map of Africa—along with a brief note about what you loved (or didn’t) about the work. The focus is on discovery, reflection, and building a collective reading map together. To register, visit our Eventbrite page.

Poetry Erasure and Collage Workshop with Claire Drucker and Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Sunday, April 26
2-4 PM

SITTING ROOM LIBRARY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday, June 6, 2 p.m.
2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove

We All Know Him, But What About Her? with the Lost Ladies of Lit Amy Helmes and Kim Askew

Sunday, June 7, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Scenes from Emily Van Duyne’s Event on April 11

Thanks to all of you who joined us for Emily’s event! What a wonderful conversation! If you missed it, and still want to pick up a copy of Loving Sylvia Plath, Emily left us with four signed copies! Email us if you'd like to buy one ($20).

About Us

The Sitting Room Library is devoted to the collection and curation of interdisciplinary, international, and cross-genre literature, poetry, and art by and about women. Seeking to restore the history of women’s achievements and preparing for the challenges in the future, the Sitting Room Library is committed to fostering research, writing projects, and programs for students, interns, independent scholars, and common readers through grants, internships, fiscal sponsorship, and publishing opportunities. The Sitting Room Library welcomes visitors of all genders, ages, backgrounds for reading, learning, conversing, contemplating, writing, and exploring this unique collection of books and archives in our peaceful indoor and outdoor spaces offering refuge and renewal.

The Sitting Room is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. Tax ID: 68-0012414.

The Sitting Room

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 29, 2026

From the Archives

The 2026 Sitting Room Anthology Virtual Launch: A LIVE ZOOM Reading with Over 30 Contributors Reading!Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

Upcoming Events at the Sitting Room

TODAY! Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

Sitting Room Open House

Saturday, September 5, 11-4

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Anthology Online Launch

Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM - FILLED

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 20265:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

About Us

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM;Open House on the First Saturday of the Month 11 AM - 4 PM.

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 21, 2026

Exploring the Archives with J.J. Wilson: Meridel Le Sueur

Jean Hegland’s Round Table on Still Time

The 2026 Sitting Room Anthology Virtual Launch: A LIVE ZOOM Reading with Over 30 Contributors Reading!Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

Upcoming Events at the Sitting Room

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Anthology Online Launch

Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 20265:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

About Us

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM;Open House on the First Saturday of the Month 11 AM - 4 PM.

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter: August 14, 2026

10 New Translations of Older Books by Women

Writing Accountability Group

Monday, August 17 from 10 am - 12 pmFacilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Play Reading: “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell

Monday, August 17 • 4 PM - 6 PM

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

Saturday, August 15, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

An Afternoon with Jean Hegland and Still Time

August 16, 2-4 pm - Filled

An Afternoon With Our New Poet Laureate, Claire Drucker

August 22, 2:00 - 4:00 PM - Filled

Queer Reading Circle

August 29, 2:00 - 4:30 PM

Pilgrimage Online Reading Group

September 10, 5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Anthology Online Launch

Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

The Hours Before Dawn - Sitting Room Library and Lost Ladies Book Club

October 1, 20265:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

About Us

Visit the Sitting Room during our open hours:

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM

Or make an appointment by emailing sittingroomlibrary@gmail.com

The Sitting Room Newsletter, August 8, 2025

Our First Open House Was a Success!

The Sealy Challenge is Underway at the Sitting Room

What is the Sealey Challenge?

Goal: read 31 books of poetry in 31 days

When: Every August

Who: Everyone, anywhere

Flexibility: While designed for a book-a-day, many participants adapt it to reading one poem a day or to simply read more poetry

Upcoming Events

Writing Accountability Group

Monday, August 10 from 10 am - 12 pmFacilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Have you wanted to write a memoir but were not sure where to start? A Memoir Workshop with Ianthe Brautigan

The 2026 Sitting Room Anthology Virtual Launch: A LIVE ZOOM Reading with Over 30 Contributors Reading!
Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM;
Open House on the First Saturday of the Month 11 AM - 4 PM.

The 2026 Sitting Room Anthology Virtual Launch: A LIVE ZOOM Reading with Over 30 Contributors Reading!
Saturday, September 12⋅1:00 – 3:00 pm

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Wednesday and Friday 11 AM - 4 PM;
Open House on the First Saturday of the Month 11 AM - 4 PM.

Monday, August 17 from 10 am - 12 pm
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Monday, August 10 from 10 am - 12 pm
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

STARTING TOMORROW!
Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3

Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

October 1, 2026
5:30 - 7:30 PM ONLINE

Open House

Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3

Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Open House

Saturday, August 1, from 11-4 PM

Mondays, 10-12 AM beginning August 3
Facilitated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle