Author Joan Gelfand reflects on a time of change and the changing times of activism.

There are so many aspects to Joan Gelfand’s professional life that it can be hard to keep up. She is a poet, a fiction and nonfiction writer, an academic, a writing coach, a public speaker and a visible member of the California literary community as the past president of the Women’s National Book Association.

Gelfand is coming to Monterey to discuss her newest book, Outside Voices: A Memoir of the Berkeley Revolution. It’s her own story of the 1970s in Berkeley, then the “it” city of progressive America.

“I started to write as a poet,” she says. “Poetry called me. And that was my main genre for many, many years.”

In her 30s, she “needed to write a novel,” just as much later she felt a calling to write You Can Be A Winning Writer, a book devoted fully to the art of writing. She also needed all those years to metabolize the material that is used in Outside Voices, where two languages – a very private one and a very public one – melt into one and still manage to include a solid dose of poetic prose.

The memoir is deeply rooted in second-wave feminism, inspired by Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan. In 1972, on election day, Gelfand cast her vote for George McGovern and boarded a plane from New York to California. There she found her tribe – a women’s community of artists, filmmakers, musicians, poets and writers. Until then, Gelfand had been surrounded by women who strove to be pretty and pleasant. Outside Voices reports the ups and downs of finding one’s way as an artist, living with a women’s band and forging an independent Jewish identity.

“The problems are the same,” she says about current student protests around the country – “Social justice, women’s rights, climate and antigun campaigns.” The difference is social media, for better or worse, she adds. Young people now are more likely to get involved in politics. On the other hand, they are easily targeted online, even by their employers.

“We still live in a democracy,” Gelfand says. “That’s thanks to this whole activism.”

Her own experience with social media has been rather positive. “I’m able to reach so many people now,” she says.

JOAN GELFAND will talk about the book 6-8pm Tuesday Feb. 20. Luminata Books & Gifts, 631 Cass St., Monterey. Free. 333-1110.