The Healdsburg Literary Guild is emerging from its COVID-induced intermission and is looking to reinvigorate the organization by building more community connections and searching for additional board and guild members.
The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on many arts-based nonprofits, including the literary guild, which was inactive for most of the last year due to restrictions on gatherings and travel.
Since 1999, the literary guild has hosted myriad events — such as Sunday salons, open mics, youth laureate programs and readings with notable authors — in an effort to support and nurture the literary arts in Healdsburg.
With the pause of free and ticketed events and member decline, the guild is struggling to make a resurgence.
In a recent letter to guild members and friends of the guild, literary guild president Ted Calvert and literary laureates John Koetzner and Russ Messing wrote, “Restricted public gatherings and travel options obviously impact our ability to stage the sort of events that we excel in. More to the point, however, is the loss of human resources. The retirement or resignation of board members, along with reduced participation and membership, is bringing the HLG (Healdsburg Literary Guild) to the verge of folding.”
Despite decreased membership and participation, the guild does have adequate funds in large part from a $25,000 bequest from the wife of the guild’s late literary laureate, Doug Stout. Stout was the guild’s first literary laureate.
The bequest is intended to fund the appointment of future laureates who get a $500 stipend. If the organization is forced to dissolve, then the money could be dispersed in a way that doesn’t align with the original intent.
This is one of the reasons why Calvert, Koetzner and Messing are trying to recruit new members.
“We want to reinvigorate and get new board members and we want that influx of new energy and commitment,” Calvert said in an interview with SoCoNews. “Money isn’t the problem, we just need new board members who believe in the literary arts in Healdsburg.”
Calvert noted that the guild isn’t limited to just Healdsburg residents. People from Cloverdale and Windsor can also join and or even be a laureate.
Currently, the guild’s laureate is local published author Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, however, she is currently splitting her time between California and Tennessee. Her laureateship will end at the end of this year.
Lynn Alvarez was appointed to the literary laureate position in February 2019.
She is the author of two young-adults book series, “Guardian Herd,” and “The Riders of the Realm.” Her latest book, “Lies Like Wildfire,” comes out Sept. 7.
Koetzner said the guild will be searching for a new laureate for the 2022-24 two-year term once Lynn Alavarez’s laureate role is up.
Typically, the goal of a literary laureate is to promote literacy and creativity through readings, workshops and attending guild events.
Calvert, Messing and Koetzner said they also plan on getting local youth more involved in the literary arts.
The organization previously had a vibrant youth laureate program and did youth outreach, however, the pandemic effectively put a temporary halt to the program.
“I connected a little bit with the English department at the Santa Rosa Junior College and the creative writing department at Sonoma State University to try to get some college students involved. One of the things that we were working on when I had the youth laureate position started, was trying to get a younger generation involved in the literary arts and trying to promote it as a way of creating a new kind of stepping stone to creating a broader membership and experience,” Koetzner said.
Koetzner would also like to revisit the idea of having guild guest speakers at local schools, fostering youth based literary programs and collaborating with the local Boys & Girls Club to organize writing workshops, which the guild has done in previous years.
They also want to add more members by growing a firmer connection with the literary community via the shared love of the written word.
They’re also looking at the prospect of working with Little Saint, a plant-based restaurant, wine shop and arts gathering space that’s set to open in the former SHED building on West North Street.
The SHED property was purchased by the Ubben family on behalf of the Saint Joseph’s Art Foundation, a nonprofit based in San Francisco that aims to create “an uplifting gathering place” for music, art and food.
The literary trio expressed interest in hosting guild events and meetings at Little Saint since many of their literary guild readings and events took place at the SHED.
Calvert said of the literary guild, “We got to somehow keep it going in some facet or another.”
To learn more about the Healdsburg Literary Guild or to join, visit their website.
