SoHumBorn Is Back

SoHumBorn may be gone from the Humboldt Blogosphere but tonight she’s in the LA Times.   Reporter, Sam Quinones  interviewed her–taking  a look at her fiction and her life in an article sure to have growers talking all over trim scenes in the Emerald Triangle. I’m picturing being buttonholed everywhere I go tomorrow.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Part of what makes our community really close-knit is a sense of having to come together to protect our way of life,” said Shannon Bridges, a southern Humboldt resident and avid reader of SoHumBorn’s blog posts. “She was the first to write about it from the inside in such a public way.”

Couples argued over the stories. Chat rooms buzzed.

Then one day in February 2009, the blog vanished like the grower in SoHumBorn’s story. Readers were bereft. A rumor spread that angry growers had figured out who she was and ordered her to shut up.

Unsparing honesty

SoHumBorn’s stories gathered power from their unsparing honesty about weed life, its giddy freedom, its compromises and disaffections.

In the late 1960s and ’70s, hippies arrived in the lumber-depleted mountains of southern Humboldt County, searching for an alternative to mainstream America that was natural and honest.

Then came marijuana. At first, the hippies grew it for their own use. As its price rose relentlessly, they became entrepreneurs and outlaws. They proved surprisingly square. Pot money allowed them to create self-reliant villages. They had Little League and quilting bees and volunteer fire departments.

Want to listen to her read one of her stories? I recorded her reading Tooth Fairy-one of her sweetest pieces, I think–and the Times put an audio link on their site.

To read the rest of her stories, go here.

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Mr. Nice
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Mr. Nice
13 years ago

My boy heard from some other dude who actually read this L.A. Times article who thought this SoHumBorn’s stories were real stories. That may be bad communication but that is bad on the L.A. Times how they presented it too prolly. He asked me if I knew who “SoHumBum” was too.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Nice

I highly recommend listening to her read Tooth Fairy. I think it fairly portrays a grower family-the good times and the worries.

sohumjoe
Guest
sohumjoe
9 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Kym, the link of sohumborn reading the story is not working. Do you know where I could find the audio file?

Staff
Member
9 years ago
Reply to  sohumjoe

Sadly, no I don’t and that is a crime because it was beautiful.

Jennifer Savage
Guest
13 years ago

Just read the L.A. Times piece and am really happy they captured how captivating her writing is. She has such a sense of storytelling! Good to see she’s being encouraged.

Jennifer Savage
Guest
13 years ago

Just read the L.A. Times piece and am really happy they captured how captivating her writing is. She has such a sense of storytelling! Good to see she’s being encouraged.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
13 years ago

They made it clear it was fiction, but that similar things have likely happened.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
13 years ago

They made it clear it was fiction, but that similar things have likely happened.

Carol
Guest
13 years ago

I am looking forward to the book. When will it be published?

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  Carol

Well…Right now we’re looking for an agent and then a publisher. So when it will be published is question that can’t be answered until we get a publisher.

Carol
Guest
13 years ago

I am looking forward to the book. When will it be published?

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  Carol

Well…Right now we’re looking for an agent and then a publisher. So when it will be published is question that can’t be answered until we get a publisher.