Readings, Readings, and More Readings

“A story, after all, does not only belong to the one who is telling it. It belongs, in equal measure, to the one who is listening.”

That will be the theme of a reading tonight at 7 pm Orinda Books, part of a tour of a group of women authors. Michelle Richmond, Susan Freinkel, Brenda Webster, Jessica Barksdale Inclan and I will be reading from our respective books. We will also talk about the power of stories to change, to create self, to shape history and memory.

We are all members of WOM-BA, or Word of Mouth Bay Area. (weird name, I know, and a long and not-particularly interesting story.) It’s a group of women who have all published. We get together monthly and through e-mail to talk about writing.

This tour – and there will be two other segments with different authors May 7 and 14^th at at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco – was conceived and put together by Elizabeth Stark. She is the author of Shy Girl and energetic organizer who also writes a very entertaining blog.

Please come.

I also want to put in a plug for the Northern California Book Awards, which take place Sunday April 19 at 1 pm at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. The awards nominate authors in various categories, including fiction, creative non fiction, translation, non-fiction, poetry and children’s book. Dozens of authors are coming to celebrate the work of Northern California writers.

Towers of Gold has been nominated in the general non-fiction category.

What Happens When the Trees Die?

Susan Freinkel wrote an amazing book on the “death” of the American chestnut tree. Since chestnuts populate the Eastern seaboard, Susan’s book didn’t get a lot of press in San Francisco. That’s a shame since the book is written like a thriller, with teams of scientists and iconoclastic chestnut lovers looking for a cure for the blight that has killed millions of trees. They are in a race against time as the tree, which once flourished from Georgia to Maine, is now almost extinct.

Well, West Coast tree lovers, environmentalists, and narrative nonfiction lovers can hear Susan on June 11 at the Green Ink series at Fort Mason. She will be talking at 6:30 at Building C, room 165. Her book is called America Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree.

The Green Ink series is pretty interesting, too. It is organized by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library Bay Bookstore. The series has brought in some remarkable authors, including Wendy Johnson, the gardener extraordinaire from Green Gulch.

The series describes itself as: “From recycled books to innovative ideas, Green Ink is a reading and discussion series highlighting the principles of green living, conservation and sustainable living with an emphasis on sharing solutions for everyday life.”

I also want to point out the BookTour.com, the fabulous on-line/email notification of author readings, has a redesigned website. It now has an interactive map. You can browse by author, by category, or by area.

A Perfect Tree

Did you know that the American chestnut tree once spread from Georgia to Maine? Its green canopy was so dense that people talked about how a squirrel could traverse thousands of miles through the tree tops without ever stopping? The tree was such a perfect specimen that its wood was used for everything from fence posts to furniture and its nuts were prized for their sweetness and nutritional value.

Unfortunately, the American chestnut tree is almost extinct, felled by an blight that was inadvertently brought to the U.S. on an Asian variety of chestnut. While the virus did not seriously damage the Asian trees, it killed off millions of acres of American chestnut forests.

The death of the American chestnut tree struck those living in Appalachia particularly hard. The tree was well-loved and well-used in the mountains of Virginia, and its disappearance transformed the culture of the region. Old timers in the area still talk reverently about the tree, as if it were a living, breathing creature.

I didn't know any of this until I read Susan Freinkel's fascinating book, American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree. Freinkel, a science writer whose work has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Discover, Health, and Reader's Digest, movingly recreates the history of the tree. The book also documents the work of a cadre of scientists dedicated to saving the tree. Even though there are just a handful of American chestnuts left -- none of which are healthy enough to produce nuts -- there are men and women in the United States who refuse to let the species die.

Freinkel's book also touches on another theme. What responsibility do humans hold to try and preserve species? If they die naturally, is our obligation different than if they died because of human-related causes?

I went to Freinkel's book release party a few weeks ago. She is a member of North 24th, my writing group, and we held a celebration for her. The guests were a cross-section of Bay Area media types. Mary Roach, the author of the bestsellers Stiff and Spooked, was there. She wrote a blurb for Freinkel, calling American Chestnut "a perfect book." Nan Weiner, the executive editor of San Francisco Magazine came, as did my brother, Steven Dinkelspiel, the president of the magazine. Jim Steyer, who started Common Sense Media, showed up, as did Betsy Blumenthal, an avid reader and executive at Kroll Associates.

Unfortunately, the story of the American Chestnut tree is not unique. Other species, such as the elm tree, have been decimated by disease. The California coastal oak is under attack. Thousands of those trees are dying from a mysterious blight that can't seem to be stopped.

But Freinkel's book is not a downer. The scientists determined to find a cure for the chestunt blight or to create a hybrid strain that can resist attacks againt it are inspirational. I hope they succeed.