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The Bookshop Podcast
The Bookshop Podcast
Women In A Golden State: 175 Voices from California
In this episode, I chat with Chryss Yost, the co-editor of Gunpowder Press and a Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, and Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, memoirist, poet, workshop leader, and award-winning author of 14 books and editor of three anthologies.
Chryss and Diana are coeditors of Women In A Golden State, a collection featuring poems and micro-essays by 175 California women writers over 60. The collection examines the mythology and reality of being a woman of a certain age, especially in youth-obsessed California.
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Women In A Golden State, Coedited by Chryss Yost and Diana Raab
The Moon Shall Not Give Her Light, David Starkey
Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose
The Book of Delights, Ross Gay
The Book of Alchemy, Suleika Jaouad
Hi, my name is Mandy Jackson-Beverly and I'm a bibliophile. Welcome to the Bookshop Podcast. Each week, I present interviews with authors, independent bookshop owners and booksellers from around the globe and publishing professionals. To help the show reach more people, please share episodes with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. You're listening to episode 298. This episode is sponsored by Saturn Press.
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Speaker 1:Diana Rabb, mfa, phd, is a memoirist, poet, workshop leader, thought leader and award-winning author of 14 books and editor of three anthologies. Her work has been widely published and anthologized. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. She frequently speaks and writes on writing for healing and transformation. Rapp writes for Psychology Today, the Good Men Project 60 and Me Medium and is a guest writer for many others. Her newest memoir is Hummingbird Messages from my Ancestors.
Speaker 1:Chris Yost is a poet, designer and educator based in Santa Barbara, california. She is the co-editor of Gunpowder Press and a Santa Barbara Poet Laureate. Hi, diana and Chris, it's great to have you both here, thank you. Thank you for the invitation. A little later we'll be chatting about the poetry book you both co-edited, women in a Golden State, published by Gunpowder Press. But before then, I'd like to know a little bit about you both, chris. Let's start with you. You are a designer, a poet and an educator, and you served as Santa Barbara's Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Was there a defining moment in your youth when poetry first revealed its beauty and power to you?
Speaker 2:Well, for me it started really young.
Speaker 2:When I was in about fourth grade, I just had a wonderful teacher who would let me work out all my angst and desire to avoid recess by staying in the classroom and writing poems, and this generous, amazing woman would give me feedback on almost every one of these little five and a half page things that I would do and it instilled in me a sense of being listened to, a sense of being heard that I really valued. And then, of course, life happened and I got very busy and I was always a reader and loved reading. But it wasn't until I was at UCSB and in a class with John Ridland, a Santa Barbara poet, that I really rediscovered my love for poetry. And his angle was always very formal and looking at the construction of poetry and the way that words worked, and looking at almost as a puzzle, as a game of how do you get these emotions to fit together in these forms. And I just loved that, not just as something to read and feel, but as something to craft. I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you've always enjoyed reading poetry.
Speaker 2:Yes, when I was very young we had books around the house. I was very lucky that my grandmother was a great reader and had tons of books. So from the children's book, the golden children's book that a lot of people had, and all the way up through it was great. And when I was a mom and very busy when I was younger, poetry was something you could still read. When you didn't maybe have time to read a novel, you could still manage to read a poem or two.
Speaker 1:That's a poem or a short story, they're always good to have handy. What drew you to become co-editor at Gunpowder Press, an independent poetry publisher and literary 501c3?
Speaker 2:Well, I was writing a lot of poems, had a manuscript together and was finding it very difficult to get published. I had a publisher that was interested but they were like, yeah, it'll be a few years until it appears. Meanwhile, my good friend, david Starkey, had a book that he was trying to get published, written by David Case, who had passed away, and he had been left as David Case's literary executor and nobody wanted to publish a book by a poet that wasn't going to be able to do the circuit and sell their own work. So David came to me and he said, hey, I know you've got a book you're trying to get published. I've got this book by David Case that I'm trying to get published. What if we make that the first two books that start this new press? And I said, absolutely, that sounds fantastic. And we came up with the name Gunpowder Press, which honors St Barbara, who's the patron saint of gunpowder, among other things. And then it just took off from there.
Speaker 1:We published that in 2014, published our first two books and we're going strong, and did you ever feel that there was a particular gap in the poetry landscape that you felt called to fill?
Speaker 2:Definitely Just in the time of gunpowder press's existence. You're seeing a lot more presses all over the country, but at the time when we were starting it was really still New York, heavily New York. There was maybe one or two places in California, but you didn't have places in the Midwest. A lot of this is new, relatively new. The poetry presses that have the biggest impact I mean even Milkweed, tupelo are relatively young presses and so just with an opportunity to do something based in California and it's been fantastic, even though we do publish poets from across the country we're not only California.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a real soft spot for small and medium presses. I admire the courage of the publishers. They're prepared to take on something that's most likely not going to make millions, but they take a chance on something that is maybe new and different. I have a real soft spot for small and medium presses Looking at prizes, like the Booker, the authors from small and medium presses are doing extremely well.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's absolutely true.
Speaker 1:Diana, you were on the show last year and we spoke about your beautiful memoir Hummingbird and I swear every time I see a hummingbird which is quite often in Southern California I think of your gorgeous book. Now you are also the author of five poetry collections, multiple books of nonfiction and a gifted writing teacher. I say this because I have many friends who have done your classes. Now, for readers who feel unsure about poetry, what advice would you offer to help them begin exploring the medium?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, thank you for having me and us on the show again. I love your shows very much and your events. Well, I would say, like I tell my students, if you want to be a writer or a poet, you need to read a lot of poetry or whatever you want to write, because you know emulation is the biggest form of flattery and reading for enjoyment it's also. It's also a way to learn technique. So you have to get curious about all different types of poetry and sometimes I suggest reading anthologies, because you have a collection of different poets. Find the ones that resonate with you and then read all the poems from that person. That's what I often suggest. You also want to try to make a note of what the poet's trying to accomplish and how it's being done.
Speaker 3:Francine Pose wrote a book years ago it's called Reading Like a Writer writer, which is really good. It kind of gives some really good tips on that. Unfortunately, my generation um didn't really get inspired in the early years of school for poetry because it was not taught in a very inspiring way, and so, luckily, over the years I've started reading more contemporary poets and it's more resonates with me more. Another thing that I would suggest is taking poetry workshops, either at writers conferences or virtually whatever works in your schedule. Poets are also very keen observers. I always suggest carrying a journal, because you just never know. You know when the thought or the image or the energy of something that you want to create into a poem comes to you it's very early at your desk for me anyway as soon as you want them out and about. And another thing is maybe get a collection of writing prompts if you're having trouble creating your own poems.
Speaker 1:Diana, I know you are busy teaching your memoir class, especially in Santa Barbara, but do you have an online platform for poets to gather and share their work?
Speaker 3:Actually I do not. People have asked me to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all about time, right? It's so difficult to find the time to do all these creative things that we want to do yeah it's true.
Speaker 3:It's true, I'm giving a workshop coming up at Godmothers in Summerlin, turning personal experiences into poetry. So I try to give like little workshops here and there, but I've not really done a lot online. But I'll look into it, thank you for that.
Speaker 1:One of the things I love about social media is that it has allowed creatives who maybe are a bit shy to put themselves out there as far as a publisher or a gallery owner, but they will put themselves on social media and I've seen a lot of poets do this young poets and every now and again I'll go back to see what they're doing and check their work and what I found is that their art is growing, it's taking shape. They're not all going to be brilliant poets, but they're all finding their distinctive voices.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of poets have become very famous, haven't they on Instagram? Also, agents and publishers find them on Instagram. So you're right, it's a very good venue, Chris.
Speaker 1:what are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 2:I was just going to say. I think in some ways poetry, more than any other form of writing, is very similar to music. I mean, it's got that lyrical quality. You know, you can just listen to a song. You don't have to like the whole album by the band, you can just listen to one song and find it wonderful, which is why we have these little K-tel collections that we call anthologies. So, like you said, you don't like all of it that you see on Instagram, maybe, but that's okay and you can just get exposed to it.
Speaker 2:And there's a whole lot of poetry that I do not like. There's a lot of it that just doesn't click for me in the same way, and that's okay. So when people say, do you like poetry or not like poetry, it's kind of a strange question sometimes, because you'll meet people who say I don't like poetry. It just makes me feel like Diana was mentioning that they just haven't been exposed to it in the right way, that somebody made them try to memorize something, or it was a forced assignment and it wasn't the right poem for them at the right time. But there's so much poetry out there, how can you say you just don't like it? It's strange.
Speaker 1:Yes, I completely agree. And also, any art form is subjective to the reader or the viewer, right? Yeah, something that I'm finding more and more on social media and in gallery exhibitions is the mixing of visual arts and poetry, or just words on their own, and I love this kind of art. It's like a collage of creativity. Have either of you played with this medium?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually gave a journaling class when I was living in Florida poetry and I taught it with a visual artist and it was so much fun because people love that. But I've not seen that many books in that way. Some of the younger writers, I think are doing that Right, chris.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of them, and the visual arts and literary arts, I think, continue to influence each other. Our cover was done by a Santa Barbara artist, mary Huebner, and these are dyads that are inspired by myths, you know, like literary myths, that she made into collage and then made their way onto our book, which is a collage of poems, collage and then made their way onto our book, which is a collage of poems, so they do all weave together. Linda Saccoccio is a local poet who's a painter and is doing a book that's going to be coming out later this year. That does, you know, poems and paintings side by side, and we've done quite a few acrostic collections at Gunpowder Press, where we invite poets to go to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art or to Lotusland and to write poems in response to works of art. We don't usually print them side by side because of the copyright issues and color printing issues. It becomes much more expensive to produce the book, but it is a great source of inspiration for poets constantly.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree. And, Diana, it's a little bit, like you said, you never know when inspiration is going to hit, so you have to carry that little book in your purse around with you. Now, diana, you are no stranger to anthologies. So what inspired you to co-edit Women in a Golden State with Chris, and how did the idea evolve from its initial spark into a fully realized collection? I'd love to hear how this idea blossomed.
Speaker 3:Well, you never know what inspiration hits. But yes, that's true. And so this is my third anthology and I was dealing with some health issues. Last year I did do a lot of writing as a poem here and there, and so Chris and I had dinner and we were just talking about all kinds of things and I mentioned that I'm just kind of in a lull. I really don't know what my next project is going to be in, which is kind of unlike me. I've always been working on one or two books at a time, and so she's a fantastic brainstormer. If anyone needs a brainstormer, just call her. And so. But I didn't know that really until we had this dinner, even though I've known her for a long time. Actually, no, I did.
Speaker 3:We did brainstorm some years ago over another glass of wine, and so she kind of sat there. I said, yeah, I just don't know what my next project is. And she just sat there and I can feel her brain moving. She said, uh, what about an anthology? And I went, oh, been there, done that. You know, it's kind of like hoarding all these kindergarten students into a room and to do their work and their bios and and all that. I'm like I really don't want to do that, and so we continued our conversation.
Speaker 3:I went home and I thought, hmm, maybe that is a good idea, maybe that is my next stage it's not, like you know, full on writing, but it's something that interests me and what would the subject be? And then I thought about I had just turned 70. And I thought aging was on my mind. So I thought something about aging. And then I thought back my mother's 94. And you know, she's not, she's kind of aging gracefully, I suppose in a nursing home. But I thought back to a college essay that I wrote many, many, many years ago about aging gracefully, and I thought, well, I guess this has been on my mind for quite some time, let me, let me investigate that. So I emailed Chris and she's like, hold on a minute, don't do anything with that. And she went to speak to David and I guess she said well, we might be interested in that idea of an anthology on aging, related to aging. So that's how it started Over a glass of wine, glass of wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chris, do you have anything to add?
Speaker 2:Chris, do you have anything to add? Across the globe, as this amazing mythical creatures of what is a California girl and realizing that that song was getting to be a certain age and all the women that could relate to that song were getting to be a certain age, it really created an opportunity of what does it mean to age in California, which is a state or a culture that tends to be focused on youth, and that there's so much wisdom and so much care and brilliance and creativity in the demographic of older California women that is not necessarily represented in culture, in the highly available culture. So bringing that into a book seemed like a really good opportunity to shine a light on these varied experiences and these are experiences, positive, negative, people that have lived in California from birth, people that have moved here a year ago. You know there's a lot of range in the voices and the way they are interacting with that trope of the California girl and it's exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I find this really interesting. In a recent conversation for the show with Belfast author Lucy Caldwell, she reflected on how the idea of being an Irish author has changed over time and that made me wonder well, what does it mean to be a Californian poet or author in 2025? And how has that identity evolved over the last century and where do we see it going? And that segues beautifully into my next question how did you both decide what made a poet Californian? In other words, was it how long they'd lived here, for were they born here?
Speaker 3:uh, well, you know, being a poet in California can mean different things depending on what perspective you're thinking of. Uh, it could be someone that writes about landscapes, but it can also be about poets that are inspired by being in California. You know, california is a mecca of creativity. I live in the Santa Barbara area and we have a lot of creatives here, and it's a really great way to become inspired. You know our landscapes. We've got varied landscapes mountains, desert, ocean and so the whole idea of California dreaming is real. And you know, california has been long associated with innovation and poets.
Speaker 3:You know, in Silicon Valley, et cetera, and so also being in California, you know we're standing on the shoulders of some giant poets like Ginsburg and Robinson, jeffers and Juan Philip Herrera and many, many others, and so I think being a poet in California in 2025 is really about, I would say, navigating the landscape while being enriched with the technological tools that we have, which sometimes are a blessing, sometimes are a curse. It's also about the collective consciousness. I think we're becoming more of a collective consciousness about spreading the word about poetry. People are less intimidated by poetry and sharing their feelings through poetry, which is an emotional genre, sharing their feelings about contemporary issues through the art of poetry, and I see this happening more and more, unless there's much less of an intimidation Poetry you were asking, like how it's going to change in the future. I just think that people are less intimidated. You know it's on social media a little bit more. The poems are poems that are accessible and they resonate with people. I think things are getting better in the poetry world.
Speaker 1:You've given us plenty to think about. What about you, Chris? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Well, certainly being influenced by the landscape is a big part of it, but there's so much history and culture and California is a place that's shifted a lot, even recently. I know Lee Herrick mentioned in a recent conversation he was having that 25% of the people that live in California right now were born outside of the United States, not just outside of California, but outside of the United States of communities of voices, which is reflected in these landscapes. We have the mountains and the deserts and the oceans and all that, but we also have these highways. We have Lake Tahoe in the same state that we have the Salton Sea, and they're very different landscapes.
Speaker 2:California was made on creative culture, so much of it between San Francisco but then Hollywood. I mean we've got to talk about Hollywood if we talk about any kind of artistic culture and the influence of California. But there's just there's so much going on here that poetry is one of those arts that can grasp on to little bits of pieces, bits and pieces of different things and I there are so many of those something I learned when I first began doing the in-person literary series events in santa barbara was that santa barbara in the early 1900s was like the hub of the film industry.
Speaker 1:I think that was around 1910. But then they started building the studios and everything in LA. So that's a little bit of history that I think is worth mentioning. If you think of the creative teams that are put together to make a movie or a commercial, even a still shoot, a photographic fashion shoot, there is so much creativity involved. California isn't just a hub for agriculture. This is a huge creative state.
Speaker 1:And one other aspect of this identity, of where you live if you are considered a Californian because you've lived here for so many years or you have to have been born here to be a Californian, I think has something to do with the soil, with the earth. I say this because I truly believe that land everywhere holds our history, and so you might have one of your poets who have moved here to California and they've written a poem and it's in your book. But maybe she was inspired by the land and that can be about California's beauty, her harshness, but it could also be the trauma of the land. I mean, think of what we've been through with floods and fires. I think the land holds trauma and I like the idea of the land whispering to us. Diana, what are your thoughts on this idea? Oh, it's a big question.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, because you know, I believe a lot in life is energy, everything from friendships to land right and so we're feeling the energy of the memories that are living here and like, why did you gravitate to Ojai? Why did I came, for, you know, a visit to a cousin in Santa Barbara 25, 30 years ago, and I'm like I want to live here. I don't know what it is, I just want to live here and so it's just. I do believe that the land does hold memories, there's no doubt about it. I mean, then, especially when you're talking about the Chumash Indians, who you know, we're on Chumash land and you go up and you just feel it, you just feel that energy.
Speaker 1:Yes, you sure do, Chris. Women in a Golden State is a collection of poetry by women over 60 currently living in California. What were the submission criteria and how did you shape your vision for the anthology?
Speaker 2:Well, I think one of the strengths of the book is that there wasn't a very, very strict vision going into it. We kind of shaped the collection based on the poems that came from the submitters. So at first we thought, you know, we were getting poems from people that were established poets, that we knew had a contact, who are familiar with how to respond, and they were sending us you know, three page poems or you know a bunch of different poems for us to select from and we think, oh, we're going to take three poems from this person and three poems from that person. But then we got this, continued to get this flood of poetry and from voices that were completely unfamiliar to us, people that we'd never met.
Speaker 2:And one of my favorite parts of this book is the bios at the back, where you have somebody who's you know, a woman in her 70s or 80s who has had a full career doing something unrelated to literature, unrelated to writing in any way, who has come to poetry late in life, has never published a book but is able to write these poems that you just can connect with. You can feel the emotional truth in them and the wisdom in them, and it doesn't necessarily come just from a life of being a poet. It comes from having a full life as a woman. So we decided, instead of having these larger selections by more established poets, just keep everybody, go fully democratic and just say everybody gets one page. So from people that have been poet laureates of their counties or their cities to those people that are writing for the first time, they get one page. It's just alphabetical order. They're not ranked in any way. But bringing together a diverse set of voices, there's not a voice. You know, there's not a voice. It's many voices that came together to create this book.
Speaker 1:I love this because California is a set of diverse voices. Diana, do you have anything to add?
Speaker 3:No, I think she said it all. That's absolutely perfect. I think the I was glad because we're going back and forth about having less poets and having, you know, three poems from one poet from each poet. But I think we get more diversity this way and I like the idea that Chris had about 175 poems to celebrate the anniversary of California 175 years. That was a fantastic idea Sort of you know, good for the marketing and so and we gave more people a chance to get published, which was great, although it was a lot of work dealing with 175 people and emails and that kind of thing, but it's worked out. Everyone's been wonderful.
Speaker 1:How long would you say the actual process was from choosing over all the submissions to actually publishing the book from choosing over all the submissions to actually publishing the book.
Speaker 2:It was insanely quick. It was very, very fast. We had the dinner where we kind of came up with the rough framework. We put out the call, like within a week or two, I think, we had a call posted out to people. Then we refined that call and distributed it even more and the flood arrived, bringing with it many poems from many different people, and then we just started shaping it and working it and it came together very quickly, I would say eight months, maybe Eight months or not, that much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, probably about eight months, so quicker than a human.
Speaker 3:I think that's one of the joys of working with a small publisher too, yes, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:And especially when you're friends, what keeps you both rooted in California? And has the landscape, literal or literary, become part of your creative identities?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was born here in San Diego and my parents both grew up here and my grandparents lived close to each other down in San Diego as well. So I had a long history, a lot of family here, and I've lived in California my whole life. I mean, I've traveled some and visited places, but California has always been home. I'm still kind of one of the ones who lives far away by living in Santa Barbara, which is not very far from San Diego by most measures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess it depends on the traffic.
Speaker 2:It can be a drive. It's a beautiful train ride if you have a good book. So there's lots of ways around it. But I always felt very connected to being from California. The music, again listening to the music. That just made me believe that California was the center of the universe and I was so lucky to be part of it. I very much identify as a Californian. I have my California bear flag tattoo. You know that's part of my identity.
Speaker 1:What about you, Diana? Well, I have a Heather tattoo. Oh, you're funny. I meant, do you identify with California? But you do have a sweet tattoo.
Speaker 3:But no the same. I mean I felt like I should have moved to California a long time ago. I felt really at home here the first time I came. Where did you move from? I moved from Florida, orlando, florida, which I absolutely hated, but my husband started his business there and he's an engineer a lot of young engineers down there near Disney but I couldn't wait to leave. So but, yeah, I was here I guess in my twenties and then came back later on, but yeah, it just felt like home. It's like what am I doing? I mean the whole California vibe, the whole. It just felt like home. It's like what am I doing? I mean the whole California vibe, the whole. I also love music. Concerts is my happy place, and so, yeah, it just felt comfortable. I never felt at home in Florida, did not feel, you know, I hated the weather and the people. I just, culturally and spiritually, this is just home for me. Yeah, at least in some past lives or something, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, we are truly lucky to be living here. Yeah, aren't we Very blessed? Okay, what are you both currently reading?
Speaker 2:I will go first. There's so much good stuff. One of the things that I'm grateful for in our community is because we have the University of California, santa Barbara. They bring a lot of wonderful authors. So we had Ross Gay come recently. His Book of Delights is really fun. It's this very short little essay type things. And then Val Knupp, one of our poets that's in the I think she's in the collection. She's wonderful Ruined music. And David Starkey, who's our publisher, our founding publisher for Gunpowder Press. His book the Moon Shall Not Give Her Light is just amazing and it's kind of a retelling of the gospel and he's not a religious person but he's looking at it through the art and through the history of representations and it's a beautiful book, and Chris Gunpowder Press is primarily a poetry publisher right.
Speaker 2:Gunpowder Press is all poetry. Yes, One of the books we published recently was Lee Herrick's In Praise of Late Wonder. That book is wonderful. It includes these kind of memoir, mini essay poems, so they're more on the prose poem side. So we do, you know, tip our toes into these little prose-ish things, but we are a poetry press and they're in this collection as well. In Women in a Golden State there are some less poetic kind of memoir-y, essay-ish kind of bits. But you know, those genres are really merging and kind of blending and allow you to kind of flex in and out of them.
Speaker 1:Do you publish chapbooks, and are they popular here in the US?
Speaker 2:Yes, they're wonderful and you can do them on anything from just a copier. If you have a Xerox machine and stapler, you can make a chapbook.
Speaker 1:So, with that in mind, would you call a zine a chapbook.
Speaker 2:It's a similar zine, usually has more contributors, it's a little more visual. Chapbook is originally a cheap book, really kind of that idea that it's just something very inexpensive, almost a pamphlet, that brings together some poems. We don't publish a lot of those, but we do a wonderful series called the Alta California Chatbook Series and that's one of the things we do at Gunpowder, which those are bilingual. So they end up, even though it's only eight to 10 pages of poems, they're published side by side in English and Spanish, so they become a little bit larger and those have been amazing and we publish those with. Our editor, emma Treas helps us with those.
Speaker 1:When I was younger, I would often see my brothers or my father or my grandfather with a thing that looked like a cross between a paperback and a comic. Mostly they were westerns or sci-fi or you know some gripping tale. They were rolled up and they kept them in their back pockets of their jeans and I thought that was so great. So it's kind of like the zines are coming back to that. Diana, what about you? What are you currently reading?
Speaker 3:Well, I read across all the genres depending on my mood, and so at my bedside, on my night table, I always have a stack of books, and I don't read one at a time. I always have a book of poems by Rumi, which is why I named my dog Rumi. And then recently I read Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss, who I happen to like because she does a lot of memoirish writing as well nostalgia. She lost her dad when she was quite young and so she believes, and I believe too, that poetry is a way to keep our beloveds alive, you know, in that kind of way, with words.
Speaker 3:I'm also reading Pico Ayer, who I adore, his new book A Flame. I mean, he's been on like 500 writing or not writing retreats, just retreats, and so this one's about his retreat in Big Sur, and talk about California landscape. I mean, that's where my ashes are going. So I'm very obsessed with Big Sur. Actually, if I wasn't living in Santa Barbara, that's where I'd be. So he's a huge inspiration and he speaks a lot here in Santa Barbara. It's great to listen. And then, lastly, um, you asked what book is kind of rummaging around or lingering in our thoughts, and the book for me has been the book of alchemy by Sulika Joud I don't know if I'm pronouncing right. She is jean-baptiste's wife, um, who's had a lot of health crises for a 30 something year old woman, but she's an amazing writer and, uh, very powerful and so just uh, just making, uh how can I say? Making the most of her situation in the most positive attitude and just beautiful, very crafty writer. So those are what's sitting on my bedside table right now.
Speaker 1:And what a blessing and a relief to be able to turn to an art form to express yourself, especially when you're going through health issues or depression. Okay, Chris, where can people find Gunpowder Press online?
Speaker 2:Gunpowderpresscom. Well, that's easy, that's easy, easy. But we're available everywhere, you know, if you prefer to buy from some other, you know, bookshoporg is a wonderful independent connection for bookshops. A lot of bookshops in the Santa Barbara area are carrying the book, but I am the shipping department as well as the editing department, so I'm happy to print out a label and mail off books all over the country.
Speaker 1:And I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to the cover. Designer of Women in a Golden State. It is absolutely beautiful. I find myself sometimes staring at the book and discovering images. It's quite surreal. It's beautiful. Diana, where can people find you online?
Speaker 3:On my website, dianarabcom. And yeah, I'm on social media. I don't post all that much, but I do you have to be present as a writer on social media. I don't post all that much, but I do. You have to be present as a writer on social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do. I guess I find myself that I go through stages where I loathe being on social media, but then I realized that what I'm doing is I'm actually on too many platforms, so I just pick a few, and Instagram is definitely one of them where I feel it matches my personality and what I do and what I'm trying to promote a little better, and blue skies coming up. Yeah, I heard about that. Now can you share anything?
Speaker 2:about it. It will be more familiar to people that have used Twitter a little bit more, which was never one of my main platforms. So there's a learning curve there and it's still kind of getting up and going, but it's. It's nice that it's independent and it's a good, a good third space.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly Well, Chris and Diana, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for co-editing and publishing through Gunpowder Press. Women in a Golden State. I appreciate that the pieces are written by women over 60. Yes, it's lovely. So thank you so much and thanks for being on the show. Thank you so much, Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us. Your enthusiasm is contagious.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to my conversation with Chris Yost and Diana Rapp, co-editors through Gunpowder Press of Women in a Golden State, a beautiful collection of poetry written by women over 60. I highly recommend this beautiful collection of poetry. To help the show reach more people, please share episodes with friends and family and on social media, and remember to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to this podcast. To find out more about the Bookshop Podcast, go to thebookshoppodcastcom and make sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to the show. You can also follow me at Mandy Jackson Beverly on Instagram and Facebook and on YouTube at the Bookshop Podcast. If you have a favorite indie bookshop that you'd like to suggest we have on the podcast, I'd love to hear from you via the contact form at thebookshoppodcastcom. The Bookshop Podcast is written and produced by me, mandy Jackson-Beverly, theme music provided by Brian Beverly, and my executive assistant and graphic designer is Adrian Ottahan. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.