DONNA EMERSON & GODELIEVE UTTENHOVE

PETALUMA --

Copperfield's Books welcomes Donna Emerson and Godelieve Uttenhove to Petaluma in celebration of Donna's new poetry collection - .

Join us for a reading and memorable discussion followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.

This is a free event, registration recommended.

Award winning Finishing Line Press proudly announces the publication of Daphne Lifts Up, by Petaluma poet Donna Emerson. This is her third full-length poetry collection.

Dr. Deirdre Neilen says “What delight awaits the reader of Donna L. Emerson’s newest collection. Emerson delineates moments of exquisite beauty and tenderness as well as glimpses of life’s casual cruelties…there is a fire that destroys, but there is a fire that brings growth. The imagery is rich and settings evocative. This is poetry that welcomes all and provides a tough and durable comfort.”

Sonoma Writer Susan Bono tells us, “This Daphne asserts her power. She is not a victim of misogyny. I see her sense of self, her power to endure. I love how Donna Emerson tells hard truths without bitterness. I am deeply impressed about the way the land itself comes alive in these poems. No matter how wise and intellectual she can be, she is so of this earth. I mean this as a compliment, the biggest compliment I know.”

And former Sonoma County Poet Laureate Elizabeth Herron shows us more of the book’s detail: “Grounded firmly in the realm of human relationships, Donna Emerson’s powerfully personal poems bring us into the life of the heart and heart-held memory, offering intimate depictions of a world alive with family and friends…While wisely reminding us that loss awaits at the last shore of love, the poems of Daphne Lifts Up vividly celebrate a life of enduring connections.

Author:

Donna Emerson was born in the bridal suite of the Vista del Arroyo Hotel in Pasadena (converted to an Army-Airforce base in the middle of the Second World War). She grew up in Ohio and Pennsylvania. She attended UC Berkeley, graduating with degrees in Sociology and Psychology, and a Master’s Degree in Social Welfare. English was her minor. She has studied poetry with Dorianne Laux, Joe Millar, Robert Bly, Ellen Bass, Marie Howe, Frank Gaspar, Eavan Boland, John O’Donohue, Maria Gillan, Jane Hirshfield, Bob Hass, Sharen Olds, & studied mythology, and poetic form with former Sonoma County Poet Laureate Terry Ehret.

Donna currently lives in California and New York. Her poetry publications include the New Ohio Review, CALYX, London Magazine, and the L.A Review.. She’s published four chapbooks, three full-length poetry collections, the third, Daphne Lifts Up, just released. Recent awards include two nominations each, for a Pushcart and the California Book Award, and one nomination for Best of the Net. She’s received four Allen Ginsberg awards. She’s also received regional awards from Redwood Writers, Persimmon, creative nonfiction from Tiny Lights. After a busy career as a school social worker, medical social worker, psychotherapist and consultant in private practice (LCSW), and many years as a Counselor and instructor at Santa Rosa Jr. College, she enjoys her retirement with her three children, one Petaluma grandchild, husband, and four cats. Donna has returned to the study of classical piano, level Eight, with Jennifer Frengel. She aims to complete her four- generational memoir, A Thread of Scarlet.

Godelieve Uyttenhove grew up in Brussels, Belgium, in a French-speaking family. She studied Philosophy at the University of Lauvain for two years. In 1973, she moved to California where she raised two children. She earned a B. A. in Philosophy and one in English from Sonoma State University in 1977, then a MLIS in Library Science at U. C. Berkeley in 1981. She has worked as a librarian in Sonoma, Marin, Humboldt, Modoc, Mendocino and Trinity counties in California, and Lake County in Oregon. In 2004, she earned a M. A. in English from SSU, for a translation of one of Henry Bauchau’s novels. She has since translated other Bauchau’s works and continues to translate works of French-speaking Belgian authors into English, such as Nicole Malinconi and Antonie Wauters. She currently enjoys working in Sonoma County libraries, spending time with her grandchildren, writing, translating, sketching, walking and photography.

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