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The Ink Spot Café – A Writers’ Salon The Ink Spot Café – A Writers’ Salon is a monthly gathering for writers of all stripe in a relaxed, casual atmosphere where we talk about writing, mingle, and socialize with like-minded souls. Hosts for the Salon rotate, with each host bringing his or her own unique style and program to the session. The Salon is held at The Ink Spot where we create a coffeehouse ambiance, with both caf and decaf and a selection of teas available, and a variety of light refreshments brought by Salon participants.
Recent scandals involving fictionalization in works presented as true stories have highlighted the writer’s dilemma in balancing the demands of good storytelling with the requirement to stick to the facts. Laurel Corona, author of Until Our Last Breath (St. Martin’s Press, 2008), will share insights and lead discussion about the ethical and artistic issues involved in writing non-fiction. Using the same passage from several drafts of Until Our Last Breath, she will show how her understanding of these issues evolved, and how she resolved them in the published version.
September Salon — Banned Books Week
Our September Salon will feature a panel of three librarians—those who are on the front line of challenges against books and who are charged with defending our First Amendment Rights. Our panel includes Lynn Whitehouse, San Diego Public Library; Linda Salem, San Diego State University Library; and Steve Montgomery, El Cajon Valley High School Library. Each of these librarians has stories to tell and experiences to share. We hope you'll join us for what promises to be an enlightening and entertaining evening. We'd also like to invite you to bring a passage from your favorite Banned or Challenged book to share during the dialogue. You can get a list of the top 100 Banned or Challenged books at the Banned Books Week website. Lynn Whitehouse is the supervisor of the History/Information and Interlibrary Loan Sections of the Central Library of the San Diego Public Library. Lynn was the 2006 recipient of the California Library Association's Award for Excellence as a Public Librarian. Her program "Stories of Faith" won the Marshall Cavendish Excellence in Library Programming Award in 2005 and was nominated for the The Federation of State Humanities Councils' Schwartz Award by the California Council for the Humanities. Lynn is a consultant for the California State Library's Digital Storytelling Grant, a program she created with a LSTA grant. She is project director for the San Diego's One Book, One San Diego initiative. The initiative is a partnership with KPBS. She serves on the advisory board of the California History and Social Science Project at the UCSD. She has received and managed grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, National Video Resources, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Albertson's, Civic Collaborative of UCSD., the Smithsonian Institution, Modern Poetry Association, American Library Association, the California State Library, and the California Council for the Humanities. Lynn has served on a grant review panel for the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Public Programs. Steve Montgomery is a Library Media Teacher (Librarian) at El Cajon Valley High School. Steve began his teaching career at Valhalla High School, where he was a classroom English and Humanities teacher for ten years, and a Library Media Teacher for five years. While at Valhalla, Steve became the first Library Media Teacher chosen as the Grossmont Union High School District Teacher of the Year. He received his B.A. in Telecommunications and Film at SDSU. He holds two teaching credentials, also from SDSU, one in English and the other in Library Media. Steve has also earned a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. “Does Collaboration Boost Student Learning?,” an article by Steve, Bonnie Lange and Nancy Magee, was published in the June 2003 edition of School Library Journal, and has been used by the International Baccalaureate Training Program as a model for collaboration between librarians and classroom teachers. As a member of the California School Library Association, Steve has attended many statewide conferences where the issue of challenges to school library books is always a hot topic. Linda Salem is an Associate Librarian at San Diego State University. She is the author of Children's Literature Studies Cases and Discussions, a review of hot topics in children's literature since the 1970s, and cases in which books have been challenged for many reasons.
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Laurel Corona is the author of two historical fiction novels, The Four Seasons and Penelope's Daughter, and approximately 20 Young Adult titles for Lucent Books. She is a professor professor of English and Humanities at San Diego City College, teaching research writing, creative writing, critical thinking, humanities, and world religions. Laurel received her M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis. For more information, visit
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual American Library Association event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year marks BBW's 27th anniversary (September 27 through October 4), and the third year that San Diego Writers, Ink has held a special event in observance of the occasion.
