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Spring 2016
Dear Members of the Mesa Refuge Community,
Thanks to the winter rains, this spring at the Mesa Refuge is especially lush. This abundance is reflected in the talented residents who arrive every two weeks.
They come from as near as Oakland and far away as Germany, digging into their topics in the quiet, fertile place they discover at the edge of the San Andreas Fault.
In the midst of all of this creative ferment, we always stop to celebrate new books! Recently I had the pleasure of celebrating the San Francisco launch of Krista Tippett's
Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. Krista was at the Mesa Refuge just one year ago, working on this new book about listening "for wisdom, and beauty, and for voices not shouting to be heard."
It is gratifying that Krista credits the Mesa Refuge as the place she found her voice for this book. We were honored that the Peabody Award-winning journalist came to here to sort through and reflect on hundreds of conversations from her public radio and podcast program
On Being. How appropriate that, at this place for writing at the edge, she perceived signs of change. For, as she says in her introduction, "change has always happened at the margins, across human history, and it's happening there now."
Books written at the Mesa Refuge have the power to change the conversation about the issues currently impacting our world. Will you join us in supporting future residencies for creative changemakers like Krista Tippett?
Sincerely,
Susan
Susan Page Tillett
Executive Director
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2016 Spring Residents and Fellows
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Thomas Angotti, Climate Solutions Fellow
Thomas is professor of Urban Affairs and Planning and director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development. Recent books include
New York For Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate. He is working on a book about slow living.
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Dr. Lauren Artress, Alice Dorrance Spiritual Writing Fellow
Lauren is author of several books including
Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice
. She is founder of Veriditas, a non-profit organization dedicated to the labyrinth. Lauren is working on a new book on meditation, the imagination and archetypes.
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Steve Dunsky, Marion Weber Healing Arts Fellow
Steve holds a BA from Bowdoin and an MFA and C.Phil from UCLA. As a filmmaker for the U.S. Forest Service, his projects including the award-winning feature documentaries
The Greatest Good, Butterflies & Bulldozers, and
Green Fire. At Mesa Refuge, he will write a treatment for his new film.
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Dr. Kate Keville, Alice Dorrance Spiritual Writing Fellow
Kate's
work experience ranges from owning vegetarian restaurants to working with the US Army Military Intelligence. She has a BS in education from OSU and holds a Doctorate of Chiropractic Medicine. She will be working on a book to share knowledge and wisdom gained in 25 years studying the human body.
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Lauren Markham, Michael Pollan Journalism Fellow
Lauren writes fiction, essays and articles that have appeared in
VQR, The New Yorker.com, Guernica, Orion, The Utne Reader, and
on This American Life. She received an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She will work on her book about child migrants from El Salvador.
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Christian McEwen, Marion Weber Healing Arts Fellow
Christian is a freelance writer, teacher and cultural activist based in Williamsburg, MA. She was educated at Cambridge and received an MA in English from UC Berkeley. She wrote
World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down. She is working on a new project entitled
On Listening.
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Nicole Perlroth, Jeanette Pontacq Investigative Journalism Fellow
Nicole writes about hacking and the information security industry for
The New York Times and is currently at work on a book on a similar topic about the underground cyber-weapons industry. She is a graduate of Princeton and Stanford's Graduate School of Journalism.
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Andreas Weber, Jonathan Rowe Commons Fellow
Andreas is a German author with a PhD in cultural studies. As one of the few representatives of nature writing in German literature, he writes non-fiction books and magazine features. Andreas will be working on his book
Biopoetics: Towards a Theory of Life-as-Meaning.
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2016 Spring Residents
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Marcellus Andrews
Taylor Brorby
Clair Brown
Dan Connell
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Josh Kun
Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Karen O'Reilly
Stephen Petrow
Gavin Van Horn
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Human Rights Center Fellowship Launched
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| Dr. Thomas J White |
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Mesa Refuge Executive Director Susan Page Tillett recently announced a new Collaborative Retreat with The Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law, in which three fellows have been selected to participate in a two-week writing retreat at Mesa Refuge in August.
"This Collaborative Retreat is made possible through the generosity of Dr. Thomas J. White, who visited the Mesa Refuge last year. We recognized that Tom was a kindred spirit, with a strong interest in critical human rights issues. We have been delighted to collaborate with Tom and the staff of the Human Rights Center to create an opportunity for three outstanding fellows gather at the Mesa Refuge to think and write about their findings," Susan said.
Julie Lagarde, coordinator of the Human Rights Center's Fellowship Program said, "The opportunity to spend time writing at the inspirational Mesa Refuge is a gift to the human rights movement, and we expect great work from those selected."
~Read a UC Berkeley Press Release about upcoming Human Rights Center Fellows
on our website
~
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Alumni Picnic
June 11, 2016 3 pm-5 pm
Come back to the Mesa Refuge.
Join the Potluck Picnic with Fellow Alums.
Share Recent Writings at the Open Mic.
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Featured Mesa Refuge Books
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by Mesa Refuge Alum
Peggy Orenstein
By Mesa Refuge Alum
Jacob Needleman
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Our alums have been busy publishing books, articles and other creative projects!
Send us news about yours.
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We thank our many generous 2016 donors!
Please join us in supporting our writers and creatives.
$25,000 and Over
Estate of Jeanette Pontacq, Peter Barnes
$15,000 and Over
Richard Kirschman, Marion R. Weber, Dr. Thomas J. White
$10,000 and Over
Ponta Rhea Foundation, Rockefeller Family Fund
$5,000 and Over
Alice Dorrance
$2,500 and Over
West Marin Fund
$500 and Over
Tides Foundation, MK Gratitude Fund, Elizabeth Carothers Herron
$100 and Over
Clair Brown
Under $100
Joanne Campbell, Jane Chesher, Devin Currens, Donna Faure, Wendy Friefeld, Beth Ganz, Bing Gong, Patricia Marina, Mary McCutcheon, Michael Mery, Molly Miller, Nancy Olin, Claire Peaslee, Roberta Rosen, Victoria Swift, Tor Taylor, Nonnie Welch, Robin White, Arron Wilson
In-Kind Donors
Abby Balanda, Jane Fulton Alt, Kyra Epstein and Gaia Teas, Amy Fischer, Sarah Hadley, Kalie Iliana, June McCrory and La Liberta, Tomales Bay Foods
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