A Jubilee of Books!
Co-sponsored by the Pacifica Bookstore and PGI Alumni Association, the Alumni Authors Book Faire covered the Ladera Lane lobby in a rainbow of books. The Book Faire took place on Friday night, after a day of keynotes and breakout sessions devoted to writing and publishing. Dave Laughlin and PGIAA worked hand in hand to reach out to over 50 authors through both mail and email, to invite them to come back to Pacifica and introduce their publication(s) to the community of their peers. We were delighted with the response; twenty authors accepted the call! Several more wrote back with their support-and-regrets, and nearly all who wrote back expressed enthusiasm and excitement about the idea.
The authors each stood behind a lovely pile of shiny new books bearing their name and fairly glowed with the combined experience of being back on Pacifica’s grounds and speaking about their cherished work to a receptive audience—an audience of people who could understand the language of depth and myth, no less!
From the standpoint of a would-be post-dissertation author, it looked like a dissertation defense minus the angst and exhaustion, with instead a massive dollop of mutual appreciation and joy. Ok, I’ll just say it: it was a love-fest. The authors each expressed both a glowing gratitude and a humble authority, inspiring to witness.
Alumna-author Ruth Meyer sent these words after the book-faire and signing: “Thanks for making such a rich experience possible. It felt to me as if we authors were living out Pacifica’s mission of bringing soul into the world. To stand together in an arc facing the doors of the institute as the sun began to set felt to me as if we were bound together in ritual. Thanks to Jennifer [Selig] for hosting the ritual in such a caring way….. Bravo!” Thank you to all involved for helping the Alumni Association fulfill part of its goal to connect and promote our alumni!
– submitted by Beth Anne Boardman, Ph.D. (Myth 2012)
