Saltwater, Sweetwater: Women Write from California North Coast [Paperback]

Barbara L. Baer (Author, Editor), Maureen Anne Jennings (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1998

We found the theme for Saltwater, Sweetwater, writing about our lives on California's North Coast, in the winter months of 1997. Author Suzanne Lipsett had recently died and environmental activist Judi Bari was gravely ill with inoperable cancer. The dozen women who had put together a first collection of writing, Cartwheels on the Faultline, retreated to the North Coast to envision another book. Losing Suzanne Lipsett and Judi Bari so young to breast cancer devastated and frightened all of us. Whether or not we knew them personally, their courageous lives and deaths touched everyone who read about them. Suzanne and Judi died at the most creative time in their lives, with major work ahead and young children who still needed them. Suzanne wrote and worked as an editor through a decade of illness. The bomb that had blown up under Judi Bari's car seat had crippled but not stopped her; she organized rallies, protested, wrote, and sang through pain. To hold Suzanne and Judi in our minds longer, to honor them, we would write about the places they loved, from what Suzanne called the Sonoma savannas, to the rugged beauty and ancient forests of the North Coast. These places gave Suzanne and Judi their inspiration and purpose. Our first collection, Cartwheels on the Faultline, had bubbled up with a fountain of ideas. Unlimited, unrestrained by a theme, the book could barely contain the voices of twenty-seven Sonoma County women writing about anything and everything we wanted to say. By contrast, Saltwater, Sweetwater has had a direction from the start and has grown like a river, deepening as it gathered in tributaries. Early on, Maureen Jennings and I recognized a curious unity running through many of the manuscripts we received. All the writers understood that we were dedicating the book to Suzanne and Judi and that every piece had to touch on or be about place. The writings were all regionally connected, but beyond that, a remarkable number of them were also about ghosts, about bridging the worlds of life and death. Many stories and memoirs and poems, even the funny ones, seemed haunted, as if resisting separation and loss. As we opened envelopes with manuscripts tucked inside, we wondered if we were calling to phantoms. Or were they calling us? Suzanne Lipsett knew that her last novel, Remember Me, was her finest, and the critics acclaimed it. She next published a memoir, Surviving a Writer's Life, that blended her evolution as an artist with an exploration of the difficulties that loving words and making a living as an editor had always presented. Suzanne's husband, Tom Rider, has given us one of the essays from a book she was completing before she died. Suzanne never stopped writing her own work or editing books for others. She connected many friends in Sonoma County who cared about literature. Judi Bari came to Mendocino County from the East in the late 1970s, fell in love with redwoods, and became the heart and the voice calling us to save the Headwaters Forest and all the old- growth groves on the North Coast. At Judi's memorial, people wore tee-shirts that said, Don't Mourn. Organize! Fionna Perkins, a long-time peace activist and environmentalist from Gualala, cautioned me, Don't make too much of Judi's death, focus on her life. She was not a martyr but a hero. We are donating part of the profits from our book to the Environmental Protection Information Center dedicated to preserving Headwaters Forests and the old-growth groves surrounding it. As we had done for Cartwheels, women in small groups met to read, encourage, question, and criticize each other's manuscripts. An editorial board considered all submissions in a blind reading, then made the selections together. Maureen and I edited the work. Marylu Downing painted the woman on the cover. She asked local artists for images of women, of forests and rivers, of sunny hillsides, and resting places like the Druids Cemetery in Occidental, where, last year, Nancy Farah, another beloved woman who died of cancer in her forties, was laid to rest. We chose our title when we saw how many of us were considering the sweet rivers of life flowing out to the sea. We hope that our readers will find and lose themselves in our stories about the places to which we are giving a writer's reality, the places we love and want to preserve, our places along California's North Coast. Barbara L. Baer 1997

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bolstered by the huge and welcoming reception their first collaborative effort received, the women who created last year's "Cartwheels On the Faultline" collection of essays, poems, and short stories are back with another offering.

Edited and collected by Barbara L.Baer and Maureen Anne Jennings and produced by their own Floreant Press imprint, "Cartwheels" gave lyrical insight to the lives of west Sonoma County women. Their newest collection, "Saltwater, Sweetwater: Women Write from California's North Coast" (Floreant Press; $13.50) expands its geography to include writers and artists from Mendocino County, and is a collection firmly rooted in place.... In a year made shady with young lives lost, "Saltwater, Sweetwater " is dedicated to the struggle and art of writer Suzanne Lipsett, who succumbed last year to breat cancer after a 10-year battle, and to environomental activist and organizer Judi Bari.... Beginning with a very brave posthumously published piece by Lipsett on the surprise of a morning spent free from pain, "Saltwater, Sweetwater" starts strong. Miriam Silver's story, "He Threw Him up to the Sky" follows suit, deftly chronicling the conflicting emotions--all tumbled up with love--that a woman feels for her aging father; Jane Zacharias' "Contrabandista" story of the blind erotic love that a professional woman feels for a convicted drug dealer lingers longer than the incese the lovers light; painter Marylu Downing's (Downing did the book's swirling cover) tale of transplants, "Native" finds a bride and her much younger bridegoom going east to meet his family for the first time...; and Robin Beeman's ghostly funny "My Phantom Heart"--about a dead woman watching her family and friends gathering to throw her ashes to sea--has a wicked wit.... "Saltwater,Sweetwater"....full of friendship and generosity, the usual worries about children and lovers, the short break of beauty that can be had helping a stranded traveler in the afternoon, the bringing to light the small private plans we all harbor, the quiet richness of a shared cup of tea. -- Gretchen Giles, Sonoma County Independent, Nov 13-19, 1997

From the Back Cover

Stories, Memoirs, Essays, Poems and Art. Visit redwoods and rivers, gardens and graveyards. Follow natives and newcomers from vineyards to foggy beaches, into small towns, and across lonely distances. Saltwater, Sweetwater honors writer Suzanne Lipsett and environmentalist Judi Bari, women whose voices are still heard. This collection maps the real geography of the North Coast, its spirit and its places.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Floreant Pr (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964949717
• ISBN-13: 978-0964949713
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,854,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully crisp and poignant collection of essays., July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Saltwater, Sweetwater: Women Write from California North Coast (Paperback)

This collection of writing by so many talented individuals is truly a treasure. Many of the stories make some reference to the geography of Northern California, giving those who know it a thrill of recognition. But even for those who have never even heard of the small towns and backroads of the North Coast, this book is refreshing and engrossing. I would highly recomend this book to anyone in any part of the world.

Dedicated to the memory of Judi Bari and Suzanne Lipsett, two influential women fallen to breast cancer, many of the pieces have a theme of death or departure. Some may leave you crying, but all are superbly constructed works of art worthy of the highest recognition.