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MARCH 2026

Nine poets laureate and writers from across the western United States gathered Sunday, March 29, 2026 at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City, Nevada for In This Time: A Gathering of Poets Laureate from the West. Led by Nevada Poet Laureate Shaun Griffin. Free admission.

Chasing Nirvana: A Seeker’s Story of Love, Loss, and Liberation. Tahoe Literary Festival and Trucker Literary Crawl co-founder Priya Hutner’s debuts memoir that chronicles her epic adventure to attain enlightenment.

“I was a reluctant yogi—until I wasn’t. Somewhere along the way, I wanted something deeper, a more meaningful life with purpose. I longed for a connection to the divine, to truth, to source… I became a swami.” Priya Hutner

 

 

 

“When [Ma] spoke again, it was as if a different person had taken over her body… ‘God is in the sharing. If you want my truth, you must also take my insanity,’ she said.”

Two book reviews of Priya Hutner’s intimate story of her years in the ashrams of an all-possessing cult group. Chasing Nirvana: A Seeker’s Story of Love, Loss, and Liberation.

 

 

SING SING

A(NOTHER) METAPHYSICAL MOVIE REVIEW By Robert V. Tobin

“This movie raises questions like: can we ever be anyone else but who we are? Can anyone be anywhere except where they are? The answer to both questions is no, but that doesn’t keep us from trying.” 

 

COMING FOR APRIL: SCI-FI LAUNCHES BACK

Special Science Fiction Edition

 

Andy Weir, author of The Martian, does it again.

HAIL MARY movie and book

 

 

 

 

The REAL Man Who Fell to Earth — Philip K. Dick 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview with Sci-Fi master Philip K. Dick’s ex-wife, Marin County poet Anne R. Dick. “Just like we think Bowie knows something these people think I know something.”  Philip K. Dick, Exegesis

“Philip K. Dick Bonus Speed Round” — PDK Potpourri (for fans only)

Blade Runner was the first of over a dozen movies (i.e. The Man in the High Castle, Total Recall) based on Dick’s books and stories, and his ideas inspired many others. He wrote 44 novels, 121 short stories, and 14 short story collections.

 

 

Blade Runner movies were based on Philip K. Dick’s fantastical writing. Also Total Recall, The Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and many more.

 

The Truckee Lit Crawl returns April 10 & 11. A fun event in old town Truckee, CA. With MillValleyLit’s J.Macon King and many more literary figures.  

 

“The Assignment” —short science fiction from author Susanna Solomon

“Earth had women. Lots of women. He loved them, the way they moved, the way they talked, chirping like birds, collecting in cafes, always gossiping. It had taken him awhile to understand what they talked about, but getting close enough to pet, that was frowned upon. Were they all as soft as advertised?”

 

 

February 2026 Happy Valentines featuring Two Love Stories

A(NOTHER) METAPHYSICAL MOVIE REVIEW By: Robert V. Tobin

“As we enter Valentine month’s celebration of love, HAMNET provides a timely reminder to remain present, pleasant and positive in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles..”

 

“Bonne Chance: Evening in Paris Wilde” adventure travel fiction by J.Macon King

“I was wondering… why are we talking about dead and buried? It’s a beautiful day, we’re in Paris, and we’re in love. Right?” Mary stops to look at him. Enjoys his expression. “Right??” he repeats.

 

 

January 2026    Happy New Year

 

Bobby we will really miss you. Longtime Mill Valley resident Bob Weir gave much to our community. Rest in Peace & Love and Blessings to his family, friends and fans.

 

 

 

Let’s Get Personal with “Personal Poetry”

“Young romantic poets may not rise to the level of Eric Clapton’s masterpiece “Layla”, the transcendently urgent love song literally inspired by the wife of George Harrison, Patti Boyd. And literarily rooted in the ancient Arabian tale, “Layla’s Mad Lover” about a poet so madly in love with a woman named Layla that he actually went insane…” 

Essay and 8 poems of a personal nature.

 

 

 

A(nother) Metaphysical Movie Review
By Robert V. Tobin

One Battle After Another  & Nuremburg  

Coincidence, Serendipity or Synchronicity?

 

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS! 49ers were in Playoffs AGAIN

NINERMANIA!

In this thrilling true account, two fans in grip of 49er Fever risk climbing the towering Golden Gate Bridge to glorify their team. At the top they unfurl a huge “Go 49ers” banner for Superbowl XIX. With photos.

December 2025 Features:

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 

“The World’s Most Interesting Man (you’ve never heard of)” 

A counter counter-culture poetry collection from San Francisco transplanted school teacher Andrew Susac. A survivor of San Francisco’s Season of the Witch… 

To paraphrase Vertigo‘s Gavin Elster: The things that do not spell San Francisco to me are appearing fast.. color, excitement, power, freedom. I should have liked to have lived here before all that.

 

 

A(nother) Metaphysical Movie Review
By Robert V. Tobin

“A second reason for this “intimate history” is the nature of war itself. When hand-to-hand combat is its determining factor, victories are fleeting and subjugation only temporary.”

 

 

 

November 2025 Features:

Beat Generation — Looking Back on Bohemia by the Bay

The creative, non-conformist spirits of the mid-century and their haven by the Bay.

Story: Jeff Kaliss, Poetry Editor

 

November 17, 2025

A Night of Post-Beat Poetry, Beat Poet Memories, and Poetry in the Original San Francisco Tradition with Gerard Nicosia.

• November 17, 2025

• Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore & Gallery

• 3036 24th Street San Francisco, 7:00 PM 9:00 PM  

Beat scholar\author Nicosia read from his recent book of poetry BEAT SCRAPBOOK, which contains narrative-poem memoirs of dozens of the famous and non-famous Beat poets he knew in the Bay Area.

 

Lalit Kumar poetry from  “Yosemite of my Heart” 

“Half Dome,
Rocks like a lead guitarist,
Plucks strings, plays frets
Of the grand castle.
El Capitan Provides the Bass,
Cathedral Rocks
Rounds out the rhythms”

 

 

 

A(nother) Metaphysical Movie Review

The Evolution of a Funny Man: Jim Carrey

by Robert V. Tobin, Movie Reviewer

“Comedians struggle most in this regard, deemed natural rather than skilled at what turns out to be the most difficult acting job of all. They also face another obstacle: nightclub lifestyle hazards which make “making it big” a longshot at best. These combine to make a comedian’s career similar to a Middle Ages peasant’s: cold, hard and short.“

 

October 2025

Tahoe Literary Festival 2025: another fantastic trip down LIT LANE

In Tahoe City on beautiful blue Lake Tahoe. Friday night Oct 10 was Open Mic Night, an inspiring and energetic evening of spoken word, poems, and narratives featuring known local poets as Reno’s Poet Laureate Jessee James Zeigler, J.Macon King, Nevada County Poet Laureate Karen Terrey, “Poetry in the Parks” guru Scott Green, El Dorado County Poet Laureate Emeritus Lara Gularte, and 20 other writers! Friday afternoon and Saturday was loaded with 3 to 5 lit talks and workshops per hour, such as King’s :

 

“BEAT POETRY and the GRATEFUL DEAD”

MillValleyLit’s Editor-in-Chief J.Macon King presented this workshop which dove into the wild, improvisational spirit of Beat and Post-Beat poetry and its deep resonance of Jack Kerouac & Co. with the music of the Grateful Dead and Dylan. Drawing on Dennis McNally’s new book (below), his own experiences, and other sources, King explored background, influences, and revival of Beat writing, traced counterculture ideals, and spontaneous expression shaped both poetry and music. He read from Beat poets, played music by the Dead, Dylan, and jazz influences. Participants experimented with free-form and spoken-word styles, created their own Beat-inspired poem lines. They read aloud, and riffed off each other in a collaborative, improvisational atmosphere—much like a jam session in words. 

Tahoe Literary Festival photos and posts.

On My Nightstand: See the intriguing books we picked up from authors at the Festival here.

MillValleyLit NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS!

Tahoe Lit Fest creative attendees encouraged to submit short fiction, true tales, poetry. Click here for details. 

 

Book review teaser from Jeff Kaliss

The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties

“…a commendable value of McNally’s latest book is its generous serving of sweet nostalgia for those of us whose then-young ears, eyes, and hearts were stimulated by the songs, poems, books, drugs, and activism which the tome recounts in considerable detail, particularly from the latter decades of the 20^th Century.”

 

 

 

A(nother) Metaphysical Movie Review 

EPITAPH By Robert V. Tobin

“Perhaps Redford’s greatest acting job was in role modeling a form of leadership whose only real test is followership. He did this in a manner rarely seen today: confident but not cocky, critical but not disparaging, aspirational but also realistic. In the process, he proved it was possible to avoid personal scandal in a profession awash in it…”

 

J.Macon King theatrically performs his “City of St. Francis” poem at Tahoe Literary Festival 2024 with “Francine.”

Poet and author J.Macon King’s dynamic poetry performances at a multitude of venues are now available on YouTube channel JMacon King under both Videos and Shorts. Available for the first time are his five cabaret stage productions of the Rhubarb Revue community theatre and key parody skits: “Gone with the Rhubarb,” “The MillValley Hillbillies,” “Coffee, Coffee, Coffee” and “Hey, Big Suspender” below. 

 

September 2025

NINERMANIA!

In this thrilling true account, two fans in grip of 49er Fever risk climbing the Golden Gate Bridge to glorify their team. At the top they unfurl a huge “Go 49ers” banner for Superbowl XIX. With photos.

 

 

The Poet’s Path by Todd Walton

“I knew what I wanted to be. A poet. I wanted to live in North Beach, to eat my meals at Mike’s Pool Hall, to take buses and wear a beret and hitchhike into the wilderness. I wanted to publish six astounding books, each containing seventy-seven truly great poems. I wanted lovers, lots of lovers…” 

 

August 2025 

“A Journey Through Chaos and Beauty: Uzbekistan to Kashmir, 1987″—Travel Adventure memoir and photos by Gene Fischer

“Landing in New Delhi was like stepping into a surreal, chaotic time warp—think Luke Skywalker in the wild Mos Eisley cantina from Star Wars…”

 

 

“Messing with Mensa” short story humor by J.Macon King

“Sure, I’d love to go to a Mensa party? What, like a chess party?” Dean shook his head no. I took another shot in the dark. “Avalon Hill games?” 

“What’s that?”

“Complex hex-grid map board games like Waterloo, Blitzkrieg, Stalingrad…”

“No.”

“Bridge? Scrabble? Palindrome contests? Fibonacci races? Go? Go offers more possible board configurations than there are atoms in the universe.”

“You really get wound up, don’t you, Jack?”

 

A(nother) Metaphysical Movie Review 

by Robert Tobin 

LIFE OF CHUCK 

“Our minds are so easily sidetracked, Miguel Ruiz contends in The Mastery of Knowledge, that our instincts are more closely correlated with reality than our thoughts. When properly attuned, intuition alerts us to what’s coming even, and perhaps especially, when our brains tell us otherwise…”

 

 

Words, Wine & Wonder in Lake Tahoe, Tahoe City, CA.

Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025 was the Tahoe Literary Festival annual Literary Salon—an afternoon of readings, music, wine, and connection in support of the Tahoe Literary Festival. 

The audience enjoyed live readings from acclaimed authors and poets, including MillValleyLit’s J.Macon King, Bridey Thelen-Heidel, Eve Quesnel, Jesse James Ziegler,  Karen Terrey, Kim Bateman, Scott Green, and Priya Hutner. Learn about the Tahoe Literary Festival, how to support great literary events in our community and how to become a sponsor. 

This free summer gathering supports the Tahoe Literary Festival, and helps nurture a vibrant literary community in Tahoe City. See enlarged flyer here TLF_Salon-Invite-Flyer_080825

JUNE — JULY 2025 FEATURES: 

Dennis McNally book release celebration… and the Beats go on: Report

That’s not a book release. That’s a book release!

 

R.I.P. Bay Area musician Sly Stone passes at 82. Sly Stone changed the face of pop music in the ’60s and ’70s. The Woodstock veteran, who had reportedly been in poor health over the last few years, died “surrounded by family after contending with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments,” Stone’s publicist Carleen Donovan told the Associated Press. See Sly biography by Mill Valley Literary Review editor Jeff Kaliss

Note to young whipper-snappers: this is NOT Sylvester Stallone.

 

 

The Graduate poster signed by Dustin Hoffman in his debut role.

 

For graduation season, 1967’s The Graduate — A Metaphysical Movie Review by Robert Tobin 

Is AI the new “Plastics”?

 

The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties— Book review. The book that needed to be written. How did the 60’s happen? Where did hippies come from? Why San Francisco? Why Haight Ashbury? 

 

McNally book inscription for J.Macon King after King’s poetry reading at book release celebration.

 

 

 

 

Featured for May 2025  

Poetry of Cheyenne Scott Taylor

Real-Serious-Stupid-Shit

New Ways

What Does It Mean to Live a Life of Contrition?

“I am a naked woman soaring—
A red-hot daydream whisper for the century
I let Dostoevsky and Baldwin and God tear me apart
And all of this before bedtime, before my time is up.
I do this just to show up and be truly alive…”

Cheyenne Taylor Scott reads at at Laughing Planet Cafe, Reno, 12-3-2024 Credit: Jesse James Ziegler.

Best-selling author and Grateful Dead publicist,  Dennis McNally launched his new book May 28 at Mill Valley Community Center. Author of the seminal book, A Long Strange Trip, Dennis presented his newest. 

MillValleyLit Editor-in-Chief J.Macon King kicked the celebration off performing classic Beat poetry about Marin’s magical Mt Tamalpais.

Author interview by Paul Liberatore and music by The Flying Salvias band. 

 

Roosters and Leopards and Sharks OH MY!

Adventure travelogue — spearfishing south of the border. Humor and photos by Kurt Bickel, free-diver, former pro motorcycle and bicycle racer.

“Near as we can tell they are checking us to make sure we’re not carrying cinderblocks, the exclusive building material in Mexico. EVERYTHING is made of cinderblocks. I swear I saw a pickup truck made of cinderblocks carrying a load of cinderblocks pulling into a construction site where they were building… a cinderblock factory. They (cinderblocks) would probably be the national currency if they weren’t so hard to fit in a wallet…”

Road to Punta Eugenia. Credit: author.

 

 The Chosen — Another Metaphysical Movie Review by Robert Tobin.

“Those who disparage two millennia of worship of a liberator who advocated charitable works are hard-pressed to explain the increasing popularity of superheroes, Marvel and otherwise.,,”

 

 

FEATURED for April 2025

April is National Poetry Month. Celebrate the art of words at:

Truckee Literary Crawl April 5th was a big success, featuring 48 creatives including MillValleyLit’s J.Macon King. 

Readings at downtown Truckee, CA locations were held  with poetry, fiction, storytelling, children’s authors, non-fiction and more from 48 creatives. All events were free.

 

 

 

 

See J.Macon King poetry and novel here.

 

J.Macon King acknowledges a poem encore from a full house at Truckee Literary Crawl. Alibi Pub. 3-5-2025. Photo: P.K.

 

 

 

They Said it Would Be Wonderful

A short story by Susanna Solomon

“At seventeen, Christy St. Claire had been a virgin long enough. All of her friends had made it with guys, but she hadn’t, no, not yet. Having a boyfriend was a big deal for her, but that wasn’t the point, not really. It was this goddamn virginity, and it was in her way. It was time she joined the club…”

 

 

 

TWO MOVIES REVIEWED: “Black Bag” & “No Other Land”

In “The Celestine Prophecy” as well as in quantum physics, it is suggested that what we perceive as coincidence or serendipity is actually synchronicity…

Metaphysical Movie Reviews by Robert Tobin

 

 

March 2025

Does poetry sound different — maybe better — when it’s proclaimed in the outdoors, and/or at high altitudes?

Introduction to Scott Green and his Poetry in the Parks

by Jeff Kaliss, Mill Valley Literary Review Poetry Editor

 

Poet Scott Green at 2024 Tahoe Literary Festival. Tahoe City, CA. Credit: J.Macon King.

 

Shark Bait

True Adventure with Kurt Bickel

“I see a dime-sized shape traveling straight at me directly down current, perhaps 3 to 10 feet below the surface. I run through my mental fish catalogue. Shape and color like a wahoo, but swimming wrong, more like a tuna. A split second later the object grows larger and I see a mouth full of huge jagged teeth. I get a sickening feeling in my stomach…”

February 2025

 

Tom Robbins R.I.P. at age 92. Irreverent, stoned satirical over-the-top prose reminiscent of a drunken Fitzgerald, blew our minds and made Robbins a counterculture literary icon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Founder Gerry Griffin at his California Magic Club.

Making Magic in Martinez

Stepping across the threshold takes you into another time…

 

Metaphysical Movie Reviews by Robert Tobin

Adrien Brody shines in the existential epic “The Brutalist.”

With a title like “The Brutalist,” an overture, intermission and epilogue extending three-and-a-half hours, this movie gives almost as many stay-away warnings as Academy Award nominations (ten).  

January 2025

 

Poetry in Motion: a Metaphysical Mystery Tour Review of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Bob Dylan musical biopic starring Timothée Chalamet.  By Robert Tobin. 

“A Complete Unknown” shows Dylan not so much breaking the mold as conjuring it on the fly…” 

With Mill Valley’s Tam High grad Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez!

 

Bobby: How does it Feel??? WITHOUT A HOME…. in Malibu after the fire?

 

Motorcycling Musicians by J.Macon King

Much has been made of Dylan’s motorcycle accident after which his health dictated that he stopped performing and touring — for eight years!? Or did it?  

 

 

RIP Puff the Magic Dragon. Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, recently passed at age 86. Yarrow was MC at the notorious ’65 Newport Jazz Festival, as featured in the movie, A Complete Unknown.

“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life…” his daughter Bethany said in a statement.

 

 

FEATURED for Winter 2024—2025

CONGRATULATIONS! MillValleyLit Poetry Editor Jeff Kaliss won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Awards 2024. His interview with singer Linda Ronstadt was published in Alta Journal.

First Place: Jeff Kaliss, Alta Journal, “Alta Q&A: ‘Heart Like a Wheel'” for “Personality Profile, Music and Other Arts – Over 2,500 Words, Print.” Judges’ comment: “Revealing and compelling and riveting, hard to do in a Q&A.”

Jeff’s many other interviews and profiles may be found in MillValleyLit. See:  Salon.   Previous Salons.    Poet Payne.

 

Jeff Kaliss, MillValleyLit editor and music journalist, keeps the hits coming here for his deep dive into the world of Sly Stone and his band, revised & updated for a new edition.

The focused epic recounting the life and times of an icon in American music and pop culture.

 

 

“Denken mit der Hand. Writing by hand is thinking on paper. Thoughts grow into words, sentences and pictures. Memories become stories. Ideas are transformed into projects. Notes inspire insight. We write and understand, learn, see and think – with the hand.” Notebook promo – Leuchtturm Gruppe, Deutschland. 

Get LIT and keep us fired up. NEW Free original-design spiral notebook for a donation of $50.00 or more. While supplies last. Donate via Venmo Venmo profile (perry-king-5) or PayPal  Info on donating and free notebook here.

Writers: Submissions now open for Winter. Interesting and well-proofed short memoirs, fiction, travel tales and poetry are being accepted for publication consideration. See Submissions Guidelines here.

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