Stories on Stage Davis Brings Two Compelling Voices to March Event

Stories on Stage Davis Brings Two Compelling Voices to March Event

Stories on Stage Davis returns on Saturday, March 8th with an afternoon of powerful fiction and a rare opportunity: the chance to meet the authors whose work is being performed.

Since 2013, the series has been transforming literature into live performance, with professional actors delivering dramatic readings of short fiction while the authors themselves are present to discuss their work. It’s an experience that has made Stories on Stage a favorite among local book clubs, many of whom use upcoming author appearances to guide their reading selections — a chance to engage with a writer’s work and then meet the person behind it, all in the same afternoon.

The series has built a reputation for pairing emerging writers from the Davis and Woodland regions with established voices from the Bay Area and surrounding areas, occasionally, from out of state — making it one of the few literary venues in the region where local talent shares the stage with nationally published authors. March’s program reflects exactly that range.

Karl Nastrom’s “The Willows,” published in Collateral Journal, is a fierce and tender story set in 1974 Minnesota. Eight-year-old Alison Stenner is done being pushed around. When a former friend won’t stop taunting her about her father — a Vietnam veteran whose injury left him with a limp — Alison marches down from the willows where the girls always play and challenges him to a one-play football game. What follows is a story about grief, loyalty, and what we inherit from the people we love. Nastrom, a Minneapolis attorney and first-time published fiction writer, brings a striking debut voice to the series.

Calder G. Lorenz brings the afternoon into the present with “Dillinger,” a story set in contemporary San Francisco. Dil rides as an observer in autonomous vehicles, watching the wheel “spins and spins and spins” through the city’s chaotic streets — a deceptively quiet premise that opens into something much larger. Lorenz is the author of the debut novel One Way Down (Or Another) and holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco. He currently works at The Gubbio Project in the Mission District.

The event takes place in the private room at Sudwerk Brewing Company, 2001 Second Street, Davis. Doors open and the program begins at 4:00 p.m., with the evening wrapping up around 6:00. Attendance is free, with donations warmly welcomed.

For more information, visit storiesonstagedavis.com

Free, donations warmly welcomed