Author and activist Anne Lamott reflects on life and literature before her 70th birthday, and a talk in Carmel.

There is no lack of events celebrating International Women’s Day, March 8, 2024, in Monterey County. Considered by some older Americans as a Soviet import, the holiday was actually invented by the Socialist Party of America in 1909. In other words, it couldn’t be more American.

The longest celebration is being thrown by the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel, an institution run by women: Managing Director Beth Bowman and Artistic Director Christine Sandin. The center introduces no less than Women’s Week, with plenty of things to do before, during and after March 8 (for a complete schedule, see sidebar; for other events happening elsewhere in Monterey County, see Hot Picks).

Things kicked off on Wednesday, March 6 with the women of Sunset Center gathering on a KRML radio program, discussing experiences and hurdles creative women deal with. On Thursday, March 7, a concert titled “Trailblazing Women of Country” takes place, with a program that celebrates Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Then, on the holiday proper, the highlight of Women’s Week takes place – a meeting with beloved author Anne Lamott, who lives in Marin County, but decided to come to Monterey County for International Women’s Day to celebrate with local women.

LAMOTT HAS WRITTEN 20 BOOKS TO DATE, with the 20th, Somehow: Thoughts on Love, coming out in April. Seven of those are books of fiction, but Lamott is best known for her nonfiction, general reflections on life that make the reader feel that they are talking with a best friend, wise and honest.

Her writing is mostly autobiographical, dealing with life’s hardships and filled with self-deprecating humor. The most famous are her autobiographical books such as Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year (1993), Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994) or her more recent Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace (2014). Progressive and religious, Lamott has also written several collections of autobiographical essays on faith.

Her first book was Hard Laughter (1979), written for her father, known writer Kenneth Lamott, once he was diagnosed with brain cancer. A funny book about cancer.

As a narrator, Lamott is human, giving her readers permission to be human, too, to make mistakes and grow from them. The effect is soothing, the atmosphere is encouraging. In fact, Lamott sounds like herself across various media, whether it’s a book, a public event or in a one-on-one interview.

That book was also the end of her as an atheist and as a drinker. She dropped alcohol and found faith in her early 30s. Operating Instructions was her first bestseller. Bird by Bird, which contains advice from her writing father, is one of the most favorite books of all time, according to The Guardian.

Called, by the New York Times, a “lefty guru of optimism,” Lamott gave a TED Talk in 2017 that has been viewed almost 7 million times. The talk contains a list of things she knows for sure. On the list there’s information that everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared, even the people who seem to have it most “together” or that “almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

That particular sense of optimism, pragmatic but hopeful rather than pollyannaish, comes through in her forthcoming book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love, due out on April 10. An excerpt:

“One walks along the way mulling over old hurts and new ways to save and rescue family members – good luck with that – and ingenious schemes for alleviating the national political madness, world starvation, disease, tribal wars. Love often looks like grief. Love seems to be good friends with death, although I would prefer it was better friends with comfort and mirth. Love is compassion, which Neal defines as the love that arises in the presence of suffering. Are love and compassion up to the stark realities we face at the dinner table, and down the street, and at the icecaps, or within Iranian nuclear plants and our own Congress?

Maybe; I think so. Somehow.”

She spoke about her new book, and her journey as a writer, in an interview with the Weekly in advance of her appearance at Sunset Center.

Weekly: Did you have to learn how to become a writer?

Anne Lamott: My father was a writer. So I knew the writer’s habits. That you just have to sit down and write every day, whether you are in the mood or not and whether you have “inspiration” or not. You just sit down and do it. You write and something will happen.

There’s so much poetry in your prose. Do you read a lot of poetry?

It’s a miracle that a poet can capture a whole world or a whole secret moment in just a few words. I read a lot of poetry. I grew up on Wallace Stevens and e.e. cummings and [W.H.] Auden and Adrienne Rich. I love Ada Limón and Mary Oliver. That’s right off the bat.

Have you ever, perhaps as a child, considered for yourself other options than being a writer?

I played tennis. I was good at it and I ranked high in Northern California, but I didn’t have the right mindset, the psychological drive to do it. I really wanted to get out of competitive tennis.

There was a long time when I loved philosophy and English. I got a scholarship on the East Coast. When I dropped out [of college], I supported myself by teaching tennis and cleaning houses.

Your sense of humor is legendary – there’s so much of it in your books. How does it feel when you read a joke you wrote, let’s say, 20 years ago?

It’s funny because I think I was kind of more show-offy when I was younger. I thought I had to be funny in order for people to like me. And now, at this age – I will be 70 soon [April 10] – humor feels a little more organic. I’m not trying quite as hard. But I still find the world incredibly funny and absurd.

About the upcoming book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love, to be published on April 10: Your writing became almost spiritual. It’s simple and profound. In one of the interviews you said you are done with the form of a novel. Why is that?

God, I think I’m just old. A novel takes three very solid years to have a draft and then another year before it’s published. A novel is about keeping a lot of plates spinning in the air and I’m not sure I have the stamina.

I sure love to read novels. I keep not coming up with novels. But who knows what the future holds?

My new book will be published in April, for my 70th birthday, and then it will take me a few months before I make a decision on what to write next. Oh, gosh.

Women’s Week at Sunset Center celebrates women in the arts, past and present.

What is it?

Now I remember that in my late 40s the Washington Post told me to write those columns about getting older and I was offended.

I am still active. I don’t walk on hills anymore because of my hips, but I do my 6,000 steps each day. I play pickleball.

Do you keep a diary in addition to what you tell us about yourself in your books?

I don’t. I just scribble down notes all over the place. It’s very disorganized [laughter]. When something happens that was interesting to me on a given day, I write it down. And then I keep it where I can see it. I’m old-school; I always have pens and paper everywhere. It looks a little nutty, but the system has worked for me for 20 books now.

My advice is: Just get it down. When you overhear something in line, scribble it down.

You settled down and turned from a hippie into an adult relatively quickly. You dropped alcohol and found faith when you were in your early 30s.

I had my son when I was 35. Then Sam became a teenager and that time was very, very hard. He ended up in rehab for drugs and alcohol. Thank God he’s many years sober now. That helped me to grow up quickly. The book I wrote with Sam – Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son [by Anne Lamott and Sam Lamott, 2012] – is really the book that I would take with me to a desert island. Because that was when I grew up.

One time Sam called to tell me he will be a father. That was not my plan for him; my plan was college. Before we had this cozy, cuddly best friend relationship. We really had to go through a really wrenching time of separating out and then coming back together. His child turned out to be one of the biggest blessings of our lives.

I understood that I don’t have power over someone’s life; that I don’t even have power over my life. Which is different from being helpless. Life is just going to happen. But in recovery, you learn to accept life on life’s terms. Eventually, everything came together.

You wrote and spoke a couple of times about “flirting” with elderly people and with children. What do you mean?

It’s mostly about flirting with elderly. I always teach my children to be kind to people that are invisible – old and homeless. I encourage my children to, when they are in line in a store and see an older person, to say a sweet kind of thing. “I love your hat.” “Can I pet your dog?” So I mean flirting in this generic way, paying sweet attention to.

In one of your books, I found an expression “the beautiful Democratic Party.” Has anything changed in your attitude toward the Democratic Party? Is it the same party?

I was raised by liberals in the ’50s, with Democratic values. I was 6 when Kennedy was elected and my parents campaigned for him. It always rang a bell. It was always the party that was more willing to help the poor, children, elderly and the environment.

It still seems like a good fit for me. I think we progressive Christians are appalled by mainstream Christianity, what people do and say in the name of Christianity. We are ashamed of MAGA Christianity or Donald Trump pretending to be a Christian. Women’s rights, the poor and the environment are very important to me.

[A black cat appears on the screen, next to Lamott.]

She tries to eat my dreadlocks. See, I’m a homebody. I’m in my bed right now, with a cat. I like to write on my couch with an iPad too, but when I’m serious and filing the first draft of a book, I have to sit down in my tiny office. I love small cozy spaces. I bet you do too. You look like someone who enjoys small cozy spaces.

So I’m kind of a loner, but I’m trying to be social. I’m involved in the recovery community.

I know you love dogs and cats. Do you think they have a similar or different vibe? I even heard that you convinced your husband, who has cat allergies, to get you one.

I grew up with cats and dogs. The closest we know the love of God is through our pets. This love is unwavering. I mean, cats can be difficult, but most of the time they can’t wait to be with you again. This cat would crawl on me for hours. If I called Uber Eats, she would never leave. And who else can you say this about?

Do you know the Monterey Peninsula well?

Yes, we used to take regular field trips to the Aquarium. Also, my father wanted us to learn about John Steinbeck.

Some 20 years ago, I went [to Salinas] for a protest against closing a public library. It was a two-day event.

Also, one of my novels, Crooked Little Heart [1998] is inspired by the local kelp forest. The Peninsula is out of this world; it has this European-quality beauty. I just love it down there.

AN EVENING WITH ANNE LAMOTT takes place at 7:30pm Friday, March 8. Sunset Cultural Center, San Carlos Street and 9th Avenue, Carmel. $49-$85. 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org