Sumiko Saulson

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This is me in 1988 at the age of 20, in the San Francisco Chronicle where I was profiled in an article called “The Bay Area Is Still A Magnet for Poets” by Carlos Vidal Greth. “Thirty years after the Beat Generation held literary court in North Beach, young poets still flock to the Bay Area seeking a spiritual home.” was the subtitle of the May 16, 1988 article.

The segment about me begins by discussing my poetry teacher at a free program for the homeless and marginally housed at Central City Hospitality House in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

The article says:

Jack Micheline, who lives in the Tenderloin, is one of the unofficial “professors” the emerging poets study. His book “River of Red Wine,” published in 1957 with an introduction by Kerouac, helped set the tone for the Beat Generation.

“San Francisco has always been a refugee camp for poets,” said Micheline, 57.

He worries, however, that younger poets fail to reach a wide audience.

“I tell them if they want to be heard, they should go into a bar and jump on a pool table or read their work on a Muni bus,” said the Bronx native. “Poetry gets in your blood like a hurricane. You’ve got to let it out.”

For 20-year-old writer Sumiko Saulson, however, poetry has been the calm eye in a stormy life.

Saulson said because her mother was in prison and her father was a heroin addict, she had to raise herself and her younger brother, a “Hare Krishna punk studying to be a heavy equipment operator.”

She migrated from Los Angeles to the Bay Area two years ago because she imagined it would provide a congenial environment for her art. Flat broke, she landed in a fleabag hotel in the Tenderloin.

The Tenderloin was an unlikely place to launch a literary career. Yet in the last two years, she has attended writing workshops at Hospitality House, a homeless shelter and cultural center, and has produced two self-published collections of poetry that she has sold through bookstores on consignment. She also has read her work at the Tenderloin Self-Help Center and other social service and “outreach” organizations.

“I don’t see how those places are inferior to a Berkeley coffeehouse or a highbrow bookstore,” said Saulson, who wears steel-rim glasses, a painted leather jacket and braids dyed the color of a polluted sunset.

“The Tenderloin excites me,” she said. “New ideas are generated here because necessity nurses invention. It’s a bad place only if you let yourself get into trouble. You can sleep on the street and not get beaten up.”

Saulson, who sings in a band called Poetic Justice, writes the lyrics of a rebellious child forced to grow up fast:

God doesn’t care about my hair

Or the kind of clothes I wear

If I’m straight or if I’m gay

God will love me either way.

Jesus was an outcast, too

Not Mr. Authority, like you.”

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Sumiko Saulson’s short story  “The Dessicated Heart”  has been published in Manor of Frights, which was edited by Emerian Rich and released on HorrorAddicts on Jun 23, 2023. Additionally, an audio podcast of the story was released on the HorrorAddicts.net Podcast Episode 222 on June 24, 2023 (read by Read by Emerian Rich and Rish Outfield).

Hear the podcast at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horroraddicts-net/id286123050

Imagine a Victorian house where every room is cursed with a frightful existence. Are monsters in the halls? Ghosts left to fester in the library? Or are the rooms themselves enchanted with malevolent energy? What was summoned long ago and what doorways were left open? Manor of Frights is a collection of tales all set in different rooms of the same house.

With authors: Judith Pancoast, Daphne Strasert, Loren Rhoads, Mark Orr, Michael Fassbender, R.L. Merrill, Sumiko Saulson, Ollie Fox, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Rosetta Yorke, Amanda Leslie, Lesley Warren, BF Vega, DW Milton, D.J. Pitsiladis, Jason Fischer, and Emerian Rich.

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Sumiko Saulson’s “Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun: Queer Ghoul Clans + Sires” has been published in  Girls Write These Worlds (@GirlsWriteWrlds) PRIDE ISSUE Z3: Pride and Resistance.  

Queer Ghoul Clans + Sires- taking characters from their novel Warmth, Sumiko has adapted the ancestry and clans for TTRPG! 6 playable clans to bring flavor to your ghoul rp! Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun – The six major Queer Ghoul Clans and their Sires run the gamut from the hoity-toity traditionalist Afflicted (who pretend to be vampires) to the peaceful cottage-core Eaters of the Dead (who would never consume the flesh of living humans); from the fierce Warriors of Seraphim to the cloak and dagger hacktivist Shadow Army; from the near-feral Lizbet of Legion to the kinky leather House of Fadrique. All of them are just trying to stay alive – now that most of humanity is on to them!

This all-LGBTQIA+ author and artist ‘zine is themed around pride. From stories, items, and locations of triumph, joy, and equality, to NPCs of resistance, and every authentic representation in between, this ‘Zine is system agnostic. This Zine is so full of PRIDE that it burst through the word count & filled 76 pages of original TTRPG content created entirely by a 2SLGBTQIA+ team! From authors and artists to editors, layout, sensitivity readers, and admin! 

Pick up your copy of this downloadable zine at  https://t.co/s13xRDFdc9

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Sumiko Saulson’s “The Denouement of Freeze-Dried Coffee”  has been published in “We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror” released on Gloom House Publishing on June 16, 2023.

“The Denouement of Freeze-Dried Coffee” by Sumiko Saulson is an evocative and disturbing dystopian tale of horrors both all too real and all too possible.” – Bibliophilia Templum

For the marginalized and oppressed, the expression of dread varies greatly. There has been no safer place than art to communicate such powerful thoughts and feelings. And never have these voices been so embraced as in the horror genre. Hence, the existence of this important book—We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror. Comprised of twelve stories, We’re Here boldly speaks its mind, presents old and new horrors, and celebrates the beautiful spectrum of otherness. Even in fiction, we live our truths.

Contributing authors: Judith Sonnet, Hailey Piper, Angelique Jordonna, Sumiko Saulson, Michael R. Collins, Pippa Bailey, Ruth Anna Evans, Evan J. Peterson, Dan B. Fierce, James Lefebure, Anton Cancre and Jason LaVelle

“We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror is everything the title promises and everything you want it to be. All the stories are by exceptional LGBTQ+ authors, and these stories range from horrifying to evocative to impactful, and all things in between.” – Bibliophilia Templum

‘We’re Here’ delivers twelve exciting tales spanning horror, dark fantasy, and a bit of futuristic science fiction” – James G. Carlson

“Horror is speculative, but it is also a spectrum, and this anthology offers a wide variety of that spectrum through tales of the supernatural, creature features, religious trauma, and even psychological horror.” – Samantha Hawkins

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Sumiko Saulson’s short story “A Confusion of the Gods” is in Blackened Roots: An Anthology Of The Undead, released June 23, 2023.

In the horror comedy “A Confusion of the Gods,” DeathCon, the Annual Convention of the Gods of Death taking place in Pittsburgh this year, had been interrupted by an unexpected uprising of the dead! Ravenous, ambling corpses have resurrected and are roaming the earth. Who authorized this? No one seems to know! These Gods need to find out. Someone has got to pay.

Mocha Memoirs Press and Nightlight Podcast are proud to present Blackened Roots: An Anthology of the Undead – a groundbreaking anthology celebrating nontraditional zombie stories from the African diaspora. The anthology is co-edited by Stoker-nominated and award-winning editor and writer Nicole Givens Kurtz and 2022 World Fantasy Award® Winner and 2022 Ignyte® Winner, producer, and editor Tonia Ransom at NIGHTLIGHT.

Blackened Roots is a unique collection and will be a must-have for zombie lovers. Blackened Roots takes the zombie mythos back to its roots. Drawing from a variety of cultural backgrounds, Blackened Roots imagines a world of horror and wonder where Black protagonists take center stage – as zombies, as hunters, as heroes. From a haunting recipe to sibling rivalry, a singing zombie cowboy, a slave ship, and disobedient gods stories, Blackened Roots is a groundbreaking Afrocentric zombie anthology celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the African Diaspora.

Featuring stories by award-winning authors Eden Royce, Craig L. Gidney, Milton Davis, Sumiko Saulson, Marc Abbott, Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Steven Van Patten, Brandon Massey, and Errick Nunnally.
Pick up a copy at https://mochamemoirspress.com/product/blackened-roots/

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Saturday, June 24 at 1pm Locus Awards Panel “The Idea Factory: Strategies for Invention” with Ysabeau S. Wilce, Audrey T. Williams, Emily Flummox (Chris Hughes) Locus Publications, 655 13th St. #100, Oakland CA 94612,

Saturday, July 8 at 1pm – Workshop on Erotic Storytelling and Writing at SOMA Second Saturdays, 12th Street between Folsom and Harrison near Eagle Plaza in San Francisco

Sunday, July 9 from 2pm to 9pm Haight Street Speakeasy at Haight Ashbury Free Clinic 558 Clayton St, San Francisco, CA 94117 (Princess Chris Hughes) is also reading there.

Thursday, July 13 – Saturday, 15 ReaderCon 32 – Boston Quincy Marriott in Quincy, MA

Friday, July 21 – 4pm Berkeley ZineFest, Workshop “How to Write and Create Comic Zines” Berkeley Public Library – Central Branch – 2090 Kittredge St, Berkeley, CA 94704

Friday, July 28 – Sunday, July 30 – Midsummer Scream Horror Convention, Long Beach Convention Center, 300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802

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Thursday, June 15

Come by the Dealer’s Room and catch me at the Black Women in Horror Booth!

Friday, June 16

9:00am EDT
Perspectives on Mental Health in Horror
Lee Murray • Sumiko Saulson • Brian Matthews • Anton Cancre • Jessica Peter • Tim Waggoner

10:00am EDT
Author Reading
Rachel Searcey • Sumiko Saulson • Carol Gyzander • Rachel Harrison

1:00pm EDT
Quoth the Raven: The Rise of Dark Poetry
Marge Simon • Timons Esaias • Sumiko Saulson • Colleen Anderson • Stephanie M. Wytovich • S. Alessandro Martinez

6:15pm EDT
Mass Author Signing
Michael Potts • Francesca Maria • Colleen Anderson • Ken McGregor • Denise Tapscott • John Palisano • Christopher Hawkins • Dianna Sinovic • Jacob Moon • Brad Center • Joe Radkins • Corey Niles • Edward Flora • Lee Allen Howard • Dutch Pearce • Bil Richardson • Mike Allen • Dacia Arnold • Michael Bailey • barbara barnett • Sally Bosco • S.A Bradley • Kenneth W. Cain • Anton Cancre • Christa Carmen • James Chambers • Michael Cieslak • Darcy Coates • Garrett Cook • Holley Cornetto • Ellen Datlow • Craig Davidson • Charlene Elsby • Thom Erb • Stephanie Feldman • Patrick Freivald • Teel James Glenn • Jewelle Gomez • J. L. Gribble • Carol Gyzander • Sarah Hans • Brad Hodson • Timothy G. Huguenin • Gabino Iglesias • Scott Johnson • John Kachuba • Lisa Kastner • Alma Katsu • Todd Keisling • Brandon Ketchum • Pamela K. Kinney • Rae Knowles • Vanessa Lanang • John Edward Lawson • CJ Leede • P.L. McMillan • Bridgett Nelson • Steven Van Patten • Nelson Pyles • Michael Allen Rose • Zachary Rosenberg • Rebecca Rowland • Sumiko Saulson • Kathleen Scheiner • M. Lopes da Silva • Tommy B. Smith • Jeff Strand • Richard Thomas • Tamika Thompson • Jared Vickery • Catriona Ward • Rebekah L Webb • Jaye Wells • Wrath James White

Saturday, June 17

Catch me in the Dealer’s Room at the Black Women in Horror Booth!

4:00pm EDT
A Decade of Black Women in Horror
Tamika Thompson • Kenya Moss-Dyme • Sumiko Saulson • Linda D. Addison • Rhonda Jackson Garcia AKA RJ Joseph • L. Marie Wood • Paula D. Ashe • Jewelle Gomez

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1pm – I am teaching a class on how to write erotica at SOMA Second Saturdays in San Francisco (12th Street between Harrison and Folsom by Eagle Plaza, outside the Eagle SF)

2pm – The first ever live and in person Erotic Storytelling Hour, with readers from the Bay Area Bisexual/Pansexual Alliance, including Dominique Leslie, Mila Guerrero, Princess Chris Hughes, Pangressive, and GenericPica! You won’t want to miss this stellar lineup of talented, amazing, and amusing writers, readers and performers!

7pm – I will be reading at A Celebration of Queer Zines at Tamper Room in Fremont opening reception for an art exhibit featuring art from local queer zinesters!

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