Manzanita Writers Press is a nonprofit literary publisher and arts organization located at 325 Lewis Avenue in San Andreas, by appointment and scheduling in advance. Mailing: PO Box 215, San Andreas, CA 95249 – Phone: 209-728-6117
We bring writers, readers, and artists together through workshops, anthologies, book publishing, referrals, and events in the Mother Lode region of California. Our location in the scenic, rural Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County is inspirational to the many writers who reside here and in the surrounding rural counties.
Manzanita Writers Press has published at least 40 books, with several more in the works for 2023 and 2024.
We have organized readings, workshops, and events in the region, held writing contests, and promoted the literary and visual arts in Calaveras, Amador, and Tuolumne Counties.
Manzanita publishes works by regional and California writers and those with a connection to the Mother Lode and Sierra. MWP also prints Manzanita: Poetry and Prose of the Mother Lode and Sierra, a series of literary community anthologies that represent writers across the nation writing about this region. Our Voices of Wisdom anthologies of senior writers (4 volumes), community anthologies such as Out of the Fire, Pieces Vignettes, Wild Edges, and A Taste of Literary Elegance: Wine, Cheese and Chocolate. The books are available for purchase on our website and through Amazon.
We founded Manzanita Arts Emporium, the fine arts gallery, bookstore & publishing office in October 2015, not even a month after the Butte Fire ravaged our community Sept. 9- Oct. 1. We, along with our artist friends, wanted to create a place of beauty after all that devastation. As a publisher, we have been producing and publishing anthologies since 1984 and full-length books since 2004. But we wanted to expand into art, music, history, and culture, providing a place of joy for our community.
Sadly, we were forced to close the arts center, gallery, bookstore, and retail shop on June 29, 2020, due to the Coronavirus. However, we remain online with artist work and books available on the gallery pages at manzanitaartsemporium.com and in the online bookstore. We publish books in our region and meet clients via Zoom, phone, and at the Volunteer Center in San Andreas by appointment.
Special thanks to our major sponsor of the Manzanita Arts Emporium and Manzanita Writers Press over the last two years for their dedication to the arts in Angels Camp and Calaveras County:
Signal Service
Special thanks to the Calaveras Community Foundation for their support over the last three years, 2017-2019, with the Voices of Wisdom program, free writing classes for seniors 55-plus, and Voices anthologies throughout 2023. The Foundation funded the first three publications and the first year of classes and provided support for film and editing equipment for our Oral History project (2022-2024).
Improving Lives
Gratitude to California Humanities for their 2019 grant support for Voices of Wisdom classes in 2019. https://calhum.org and the 2022-2024 grant for the Oral History of Gold Country Project.
MWP Board of Directors
Monika Rose . . . President, Founding Director, Editor-in-Chief
Patricia Grant . . . Secretary, Acting Treasurer
Mary Sexton. . . Vice-President, Online gallery director
Linda Toren . . . Voices of Wisdom Director
Joyce Dedini–Runnells . . . Graphic Designer and Book Layout
Susan Barich . . . Grants Director & Planning Director
Don Urbanus . . . Distribution Director
Kathy Boyd Fellure . . . Amador Writers Liaison
Lydia Cameron . . . Oral History Project Coordinator
Aaron Cameron . . . Technology, Media and Layout Assistant
Nonvoting members:
Starlin Patrick . . . General Board – Distribution/merchandising assistant
Jackie Rogers . . . General Board – Accounting