Messages of hope and inspiration despite despair are carefully crafted within the world of poetry and prose, with words flying off the page and into one’s imagination. To bring the page-to-life concept from figurative to literal, Santa Monica has its own word-obsessed woman’s memoir to thank.
Known by many names, including Library Girl, Susan Hayden has cultivated community around literacy in the area while balancing her own path as a poet and novelist. For 14 years, Hayden has hosted, created, produced and curated the Library Girl series at the Ruskin Group Theatre, bringing together the best in local writing and music around a monthly theme. The 14th anniversary show at the Ruskin takes place Sunday surrounding the poetry of Murray Mednick.
For Hayden, curating events at the Ruskin goes back to before Library Girl, as the theater hosted the Hayden-produced one-man show for husband and actor Christopher Allport. Allport tragically passed away shortly after the show, and the theater aided in the grieving process by giving Hayden creative freedom for her own shows.
“They saw it as a continuation of the expressive life and collaboration Chris and I shared during the nearly twenty years of being together,” Hayden wrote in her new memoir, “Now You Are a Missing Person.” “They wanted me to have something that was mine, where I could rebuild my world while creating a space for other artists.”
The collaboration at the Ruskin also involved son Mason Summit, who would begin each Library Girl show with a couple of songs. All those songs later, he would land in Nashville with music partner Irene Greene in the Americana duo Prickly Pair. Including her son, along with the countless other poets and writers, in the process has been an “anchor,” reviving the poet after the sudden deaths of her husband, father and childhood best friend.
“I created Library Girl to find meaning in my life again … I was looking for a second home, a new community of writers, artists and musicians,” Hayden said. “I started that first show not knowing what I was doing and the event has evolved ever since. It’s become a second home for so many others.”
Stating that she still finds “surprises and delights every month,” Hayden enjoys the “freshness” of not being overbearing in terms of what writers will be reading, and inviting collaborators to bring new ideas so it isn’t just about her interests and perspectives.
“I also make a point of supporting the small presses of Los Angeles a few times a year, to present the writers from those presses, giving them a listening audience and an opportunity to sell more books and gain new readers,” she noted.
With Now You Are a Missing Person, Hayden added to the published works in her prolific career, with as many talents as she has nicknames. As a playwright, her works have been performed on KPFK’s Pacifica Performance Showcase and produced at venues such as the MET Theatre and Padua Playwrights. Her poetry has been as lauded as her prose, as her poetry and stories were published in anthologies such as the bestselling Los Angeles In the 1970s/Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine.
Remarking how different it is to present others as compared to presenting herself, the confidence Hayden gained writing the memoir and fighting for independent bookstores to carry it mirrors the journey of Missing Person. The memoir works through the suddenness of her close losses through a series of “explorations to claim equilibrium and a sense of self.”
While creating the Library Girl series was fulfilling for her, she acknowledged that she was “hiding out” when it came to her own writing, and the process of releasing the memoir helped her get over stage fright and shyness. Aiding her in the process were fans on social media who appreciated Library Girl and wanted to see Hayden’s memoir successfully on store shelves.
“My initiation [to the book world] was getting the door slammed in my face by … supposedly ‘independent’ [area] bookstores who wouldn’t carry my book because it was published by a small press that didn’t take returns,” she said. “And those bookstores also wouldn’t book me for an event because I wasn’t a celebrity or a famous author … I was so sad, I took to posting about it on Facebook, asking for help from my community … and people came out of the woodwork to guide and assist me. It was miraculous. Everything transformed.”
Finding stores like Book Soup in West Hollywood to carry the memoir, she says she “found my strength in coming forward with my own work,” strength seen on stage and through her one-of-a-kind mixture of poetry and prose.
“When I began to write this book, it felt natural for me to create my story in these different forms, as kind of a collage,” she said. “Each form conveys a different level of intimacy … I found that shifting the genres gave breathing room between each piece, which was especially helpful in those parts exploring loss and grief. The way this all held together was being certain my voice was consistent throughout.”
To purchase Now You Are a Missing Person from Moon Tide Press and find more information on the Library Girl series, visit susanhayden.com