This years Local Teller Showcase will be on Friday, June 28th from 5:15-5:45
Shirley Dickard
Shirley is a fourth generation Californian whose ancestors came to the Yuba watershed in 1850 in search of gold. In the 1970’s, Shirley and her husband Richard came to the Yuba River to build a self-sufficient homestead along with a small community of back-to-the-landers. In 2020, at the age of 74, she wrote her first novel Heart Wood – Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future, drawing from her background as a gardener, naturalist, local school nurse, writer, historian, community-builder, and editor of the community newspaper. She has learned that while agencies learn from studies, communities learn from stories. Heart Wood is her way of sharing our stories of idealism, struggle, and hope while living with the past, present, and future of the place we call home.
Heart Wood – Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future will be available for purchase at the festival.
Deep in the heart of an old oak writing desk is a legacy that mysteriously connects three family women across centuries and generations in their fight for the earth’s future: Eliza: Post Gold Rush in the Sacramento Valley, late 19th century; Harmony: Back-to-the-land homestead in the Sierra Nevada, late 20th century; Amisha: Dystopic San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada, late 21st century. Heart Wood speaks of the collective power of feminine energy, as the three women reach across time to listen to the silence, hold the earth in their hands, gather the women, then do what must be done.
Winner for Visionary Fiction: National India Excellence Awards
Finalist for Thought Provoking Books, Eric Hoffer Book Awards
