The sitting room, in brief

J.J. Wilson is one of the founders of the original Sitting Room Library idea, back in the “dark ages” of the twentieth century, when it was so hard to find books by and about women. Although she wrote her thesis on the then nearly forgotten Virginia Woolf, it was not until she was swept up in the second wave of feminism that her re-education began—and it continues here at this niche library which has grown from 52 books to well over 7,000.

Susan Miller is one of the founders of the Sitting Room Library. She remembers the old location on east Cotati Avenue—the history of bake/yard sales and many excursions to hear famous women authors. Susan loves spending Fridays at the Sitting Room Library gathering ideas and listening to people speaking their truth. She finds the discussions stimulating and always goes away with new ideas to ponder and new books to read.

Barbara Lesch McCaffry has been a fan of the Sitting Room from its inception and is honored to serve on its Board of Directors and engage in many lively literary conversations. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a Professor Emerita of 20th Century British and American Literature in the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University. She has been affiliated with the University’s annual lecture series on the Holocaust and Genocide and with the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide.  She also coordinates lifelong learning programs at Congregation Ner Shalom.

Sharon Bard is an avid traveler and writer with multiple college degrees and a career  in educational administration and radio production.  She has long cherished words both oral and written, and delights in serving on the board of an organization dedicated to preserving women’s literature and art through a collection that runs the gamut from scholarly to whimsical.  Curious and involved in myriad projects, Sharon has facilitated workshops, round table discussions and contributed to the annual Sitting Room Library Anthology. She is deeply inspired by the authors and artists in this eclectic library, humbly attempting to follow their threads to keep creative and literary culture vibrant.  

Christy Davids is a poet, a teacher, and a birder. In the classroom she teaches creative writing, literature, theory, and gender studies in addition to research and writing. Some of her creative and critical work can be found at VOLT, PennSound, Jacket2, The Tiny, and the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet, among others. She is the author of three chapbooks: on heat (BOAAT Press), Dysphoric Geography (Neighboring Systems), and wanton (DoubleCross Press). In August 2023 she was a poet in residence at Millay Arts, and in April 2024 she was honored with an award for Excellence in Teaching by Temple University.

Chingling Wo is a Professor of English at Sonoma State University, where she has taught since 2005. Dr. Wo holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a specialization in British and Chinese literature, as well as a certification in Women’s Studies. She teaches courses in eighteenth-century British literature, world literature, and literary theory and practice. Her teaching reflects a wide range of interdisciplinary interests, including Mary Shelley's scientific imagination, environmental discourse centered on the figure of the Earthmother, and the theoretical implications of "thinking back through one’s mothers." Her current research explores the work of mourning and resilience, particularly as expressed in women's plague narratives from the eighteenth century to the present.