Friday, August 26 at Stories on Stage Sacramento
new work from Jodi Angel
Author of You Only Get Letters From Jail
plus three super-short stories from her students.
with Juliette Kelley, Diane Kallas, Sue Staats
readings by Ruby Sketchley and Kellie Yvonne Raines
at the Auditorium at CLARA
(the E Claire Raley Center for the Arts)
1425 24th Street, Sacramento,
We are thrilled to present a first glimpse of Jodi Angel’s memoir- in- progress at this month’s Stories on Stage Sacramento. This is brand-new material, trenchant and heartbreakingly personal, written during her recent journey to Southeast Asia. It’s both travelogue and memoir, penned in Jodi’s unique style, and it’s the first presentation of an important work.
Jodi Angel is the author of two collections of short stories. Her first collection, The History of Vegas, was named a Best Book of 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her second collection, You Only Get Letters from Jail, (2013), was published by Tin House Books and named as a Best Book of 2013 by Esquire. Her short stories have appeared in Esquire, Tin House, One Story, Zoetrope: All-Story, Electric Literature Recommended Reading, and The Offing, among other publications and anthologies. Her short story, “Snuff,” was selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories 2014. She is a professor of writing and literature at Sacramento City College.
Jodi also teaches private workshops and we have selected three short-short stories, written by current and former students. These include:
Juliette Kelley. is a writer and psychotherapist living in the Bay Area but a Sacramento native. She recently retired from a decades long career as a civil servant in Contra Costa County and was accepted to St. Mary’s College in Moraga in the MFA program where she will concentrate on Creative Nonfiction.
Diane Kallas has trouble finishing projects which explains all of this: her interest in the flash fiction form, her Facebook name, her status as a fallen-away Catholic, retired technical writer, non-practicing attorney, amateur upholsterer, and also the piles of clean, unfolded laundry that decorate her home.
Sue Staats’ fiction and poetry have been published in The Los Angeles Review, Graze Magazine, Farallon Review, Tule Review, Late Peaches: Poems by Sacramento Poets, Sacramento Voices, and others. She earned an MFA from Pacific University, and was a recent finalist for the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction and the Nisqually Prize in Fiction. She is currently working on a collection of linked short stories, and serves as Coordinator for Stories on Stage Sacramento.
“Run Through the Jungle” from Jodi Angel’s memoir-in-progress will be read by Ruby Sketchley Locally, Ruby has performed at STC, Big Idea Theatre, KOLT, MSTW, Capital Stage, and as an 1850’s tour guide in Old Sacramento. A company member at BIT, and formerly a board member with the Capital Film Arts Alliance, she and her husband run Tiny Octopus Productions. Their documentary, In The Parlor, will play in September at the SF&MF.
Kellie Yvonne Raines will be reading the three short fiction stories by Juliette Kelley, Diane Kallas, and Sue Staats. She is an Associate Artist with KOLT Run Creations. She directed The Adoration of Dora and her KOLT performance credits include Escape from Happiness, Vinegar Tom, and My Own Stranger. Her last performance was in MotherF**ker With The Hat at Big Idea Theatre. Her poetry has been published in Poetry Now and American River Review. She has a degree in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Davis
Now in its seventh season, Stories on Stage Sacramento continues to bring the best in literary fiction to a growing Sacramento audience. Last year’s featured writers included Tobias Wolff, Elena Mauli Shapiro, Sharma Shields, Ann Packer, Karen Bender, Kathryn Ma, T. Geronimo Johnson, Bonnie ZoBell, Adam Johnson, and Naomi Williams. The lineup for 2016 includes Anthony Marra, Vendela Vida, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lori Ostlund, Mary Volmer, Jodi Angel, Bonnie Jo Campbell, and, in a new partnership with the Los Rios Community Colleges, an evening devoted to the best writing from their prize-winning literary magazines. As a completely volunteer organization, supported by donations, we’re proud of the fine writers we’ve brought to Sacramento, some of them for the first time, and we’re excited to continue to present more fine writing read by actors to Sacramento lovers of literature.