Summer Brenner

Summer Brenner (born March 17, 1945) is a writer and an activist. Brenner's works include short stories, novellas, noir crime, youth social justice novels, poetry. and a memoir.

Books and reception
Summer Brenner is an author known for her literary works, including novels and poetry. Her notable publications include "Dust: A Memoir," "Dancers and the Dance" and "My Life in Clothes." "Dancers and the Dance" has been praised for its exploration of the wisdom of the body and choreographic prose, while "My Life in Clothes" delves into the theme of clothing as an organizing principle, showcasing Brenner's rhythmic prose and ability to capture the universal in specific details.

Among her works are two noir novels with political themes, namely "I-5" and "Nearly Nowhere," which were published by PM Press/Switchblade. "Nearly Nowhere" was also released in France as "Presque nulle part" through Gallimard's Série noire.

Brenner's literary contributions extend to educational contexts, with "Richmond Tales, Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle" being taught in the West Contra Costa School District. The book sparked the "Richmond Tales Health and Literacy Festival" from 2011 to 2014 and inspired a theatrical adaptation in collaboration with the East Bay Center for Performing Arts and the Richmond Rotary. It was also chosen as the first "One City, One Book" selection for the City of Richmond and selected by the California Teachers Association for Read Across America..

Her work "Oakland Tales, Lost Secrets of The Town" received recognition from Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette McElhaney, who deemed it a relevant book for the youth of Oakland.” The novel has seen multiple theatrical adaptations, including performances by Skyline High School and Word for Word Performing Arts Company.

She has also written poetry and essays. Her work, "The Missing Lover," contains three novellas with illustrations by Lewis Warsh and was published in 2022. Her 2024 memoir "Dust" was featured in Literary Hub in June 2024.

Additionally, her literary papers are available at the University of Delaware's Special Collections.

Community projects and activism (selection)
Brenner is a board member of West County READS; a former tutor at the City of Richmond’s Literacy for Every Adult Program; a transportation justice advocate; an activist-writer for Amnesty International; part of the “Save Tookie” campaign for Stanley Tookie Williams; a member of the Retort collective; and a participant in the “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project” (2007–present), archived at the RBML, Columbia University.

Where We’re From is an inter-generational, cross-cultural oral history, poetry, and photography project for Richmond youth and their families in partnership with photographer Ruth Morgan and Community Works West.

Honors and awards (selection)
Richmond Tales, Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle received awards from the City of Richmond’s Historic Preservation Commission and Human Rights and Human Relations Commission; Ivy, Homeless in San Francisco from Children’s Literary Classics and Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards; and Oakland Tales, Lost Secrets of The Town from the Oakland Heritage Alliance.

In partnership with Community Works West, Brenner has been the recipient of grants from the California Arts Council, the Christensen Fund, the Creative Work Fund, the Rex Foundation, the Rogers Family Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, et al.

Productions and presentations (selection)
Brenner has collaborated and performed with musicians and poets G.P. Skratz, Andy Dinsmore, Bob Ernst, and Hal Hughes of Arundo / Smooth Toad, producing the album: Because the Spirit Moved.

Presentations include “Creating Place-Based Social Justice Fiction for Youth” at the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education Big Ideas Fest: Educating to Be Human, San Jose, California; and “Within. . . Without,” a photograph and text exhibit for the “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project” at the Arab Art Festival: Shadow and Light. Liverpool, England.

Fiction

 * Dancers and the Dance. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press. 1990. ISBN 0-918273-75-7
 * Presque nulle part. Paris: Gallimard Série noire 2554. 1999. ISBN 2-07-049800-X
 * I-5, A Novel of Crime, Transport, and Sex. Oakland: PM Press. 2009. ISBN 978-1-60486-019-1
 * My Life in Clothes. Pasadena: Red Hen Press. 2010. ISBN 978-1-59709-163-3
 * Nearly Nowhere. Oakland: PM Press. 2012. ISBN 978-1-60486-306-2
 * The Missing Lover. Brooklyn: Spuyten Duyvil, 2022. ISBN 978-1-933132-28-0

Nonfiction

 * Dust, A Memoir. Brooklyn, Spuyten Duyvil, 2024. ISBN 978-1-959556-46-6.

Novels for youth

 * Ivy, Tale of a Homeless Girl in San Francisco. Berkeley: Creative Arts. 2000. Illustrated by Marilyn Bogerd. ISBN 0-88739-287-3
 * Richmond Tales, Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle. Berkeley: Time & Again Press. 2009. Illustrated by Miguel “Bounce” Perez. ISBN 978-0-9779741-4-6
 * Ivy, Homeless in San Francisco. Oakland: PM Press/Daly City: ReachandTeach.com 2011. Illustrated by Brian Bowes. ISBN 978-1-60486-317-8
 * Oakland Tales, Lost Secrets of The Town. Berkeley: Time & Again Press. 2014. Illustrated by Miguel “Bounce” Perez. ISBN 978-0-9779741-6-0

Poetry collections / chapbooks

 * Everyone Came Dressed as Water. Albuquerque: The Grasshopper Press. 1973.
 * From the Heart to the Center. Berkeley: The Figures. 1977.
 * The Soft Room. Berkeley: The Figures. 1978.
 * One Minute Movies. San Francisco: Thumbscrew Press. 1996.
 * The Missing Lover, collages by Lewis Warsh. Brooklyn: Spuyten Duyvil. 2006.
 * Do You Ever Think of Me? Ontario: Rob McLennan above/ground press. 2021.

Anthologies (selection)

 * Rising Tides: 20th Century Women Poets (ed. Laura Chester). New York: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster. 1973.
 * Deep Down: The New Sensual Writing by Women (ed. Laura Chester). Boston: Faber & Faber.1988. ISBN 0-571-12957-9.
 * The Unmade Bed: Sensual Writing on Married Love (ed. Laura Chester). New York: HarperCollins. 1992. ISBN 0-06-016609-6.
 * The Stiffest Corpse (ed. Andrei Codrescu). San Francisco: City Lights Books. 1989. ISBN 0-87286-213-5.
 * American Poets Say Good-Bye to the 20th Century (ed. Codrescu & Rosenthal). New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. 1996. ISBN 1-56858-071-1.
 * Infinite City, A San Francisco Atlas, essay “Red Sinking, Green Soaring” (Rebecca Solnit). Berkeley: University of California Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-520-26249-2.
 * Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail: Stories of Crime, Love and Rebellion (ed. Phillips & Gibbons). Oakland: PM Press. 2011. ISBN 978-1-60486-096-2.
 * Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers Respond to the March 5, 2007 Bombing of Baghdad’s “Street of Booksellers” (ed. Beau Beausoleil & Deema Shehabi, guest editor Summer Brenner). Oakland: PM Press. 2012. ISBN 978-1-60486-590-5.
 * Jewish Noir (ed. Kenneth Wishnia). Oakland: PM Press. 2015. ISBN 978-1-62963-111-0.
 * The Year’s Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016 (ed. Rusch & Helfers). Toronto: Kobo Inc. 2016. ISBN 978-1-987879-43-8.
 * River of Fire: Commons, Crisis and the Imagination (ed. Cal Winslow). Arlington, MA: The Pumping Station. 2016. ISBN 978-0-9849216-6-9.
 * Berkeley Noir (ed. Jerry Thompson & Owen Hill). Brooklyn: Akashic Books. 2020. ISBN 978-1-61775-797-6.