11/8/14

Pam HoustonPam Houston’s most recent book is Contents May Have Shifted. She is also the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel Sight Hound, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me. Stories on Stage Davis will present Houston’s story “The Best Girlfriend You Never Had,” which appears in Waltzing the Cat and was included in The Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike. Her other stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, and The 2013 Pushcart Prize. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. She is Professor of English at UC Davis, directs the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers, and teaches in The Pacific University low residency MFA program and at writer’s conferences around the country and the world. She lives on a ranch at 9,000 feet in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. (Photo: Adam Karsten)

Kelley OgenKelley Ogden will read “The Best Girlfriend You Never Had” by Pam Houston. Ogden is an actress, writer, director, producer, and co-founder of KOLT Run Creations, a local fringe theater company. She has a BFA in performance from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago and has acted in theaters across the country. Her work has been seen locally with KOLT, Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, Main Street Theatre Works, Theater Galatea, Big Idea Theatre, and Capital Stage.

Karen LevyKaren Levy is an Israeli-American writer. Born in Israel, Levy spent most of her childhood traveling between her native land and the United States. Commuting between these two countries and having a keen eye for detail have afforded Levy the knowledge necessary to recount the immigrant experience in a candid style. Following her military service, Levy pursued her studies in the United States where she earned a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Davis, and an MA in English/Creative Writing from Sacramento State University, where she teaches composition and interpretation of literature. Her work has appeared in Welter Magazine, So to Speak, Blue Moon, The Meadow, The Yolo Crow, and Shifting Balance Sheets: Women’s Stories of Naturalized Citizenship & Cultural Attachment by Wising Up Press. My Father’s Gardens (Homebound Publications 2013) is nominated for the 2014 Pushcart Prize. She lives in Davis, California with her husband and two children.

Ruby SketchleyRuby Sketchley, a veteran of Stories on Stage Sacramento, is thrilled to be making her Stories on Stage Davis debut. She will read excerpts from My Father’s Gardens by Karen Levy. In the past Sketchley has served as a board member with the Capital Film Arts Alliance, and currently she is a company member at Big Idea Theatre. Locally she has performed at Big Idea,  KOLT Run Creations, Resurrection Theatre, Main Street Theater, Closet Door Theatre, and Another Square Production Company. She can also be seen and heard on television and radio commercials, as well as feature and short films. She and her husband have a film production company and they are in the final stages of a documentary on home death care. About Stories on Stage Sketchley says, “Having a story read to me takes me back to my childhood where I was free to paint the pictures in my mind.” She hopes you will find your own magical pictures as you listen to November’s stories.