Introducing our 2023 North State Voices columnists

One says he’s been described as a “Corning hillbilly, an L.A. Okie, a hippie, a socialist, a cowboy and a dancing fool.”

One is a journalism student who didn’t find out about this competition until two days before the deadline — and had to work a full-time shift at her job the next day, but found a way to submit her entry on time anyway.

The third built quite a backlog of story material during a life that has seen her do everything from singing with the Gospel Choir in London to getting on a first-name basis with every cat in the Barber Neighborhood.

And the fourth just happens to be a neighbor of Ernie Washington, one of our current columnists — a fact she discovered after retrieving his wandering Springer Spaniel from an orchard (a fact we haven’t yet verified with Ernie, but we’ll take her word for it).

Together, they are our newest group of North State Voices writers that will grace this page every Thursday throughout 2023.

Their names are Dale Rasmussen, Maricarmen BecerraGonzalez, Katie Posey and Georgia Zweber, and they’ve got the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of Sheryl Kennedy, Ronald Angle, Kathy Sweenson and the aforementioned Ernie Washington.

“I think this is as interesting of a mix of North State Voices columnists as we’ve had,” said E-R editor Mike Wolcott. “They’re all storytellers with a knack for offering unique views on every-day life experiences — and those experiences run quite a diverse range.”

North State Voices is an E-R tradition going back more than 20 years. Every fall, we have a competition, inviting readers to submit two sample columns while telling us a little about themselves. We assemble a judging panel and pick the four entries we like best, and those writers take turns submitting columns throughout the year.

We’ll begin with Rasmussen, who works as a public defender in the dependency court, where he represents parents and children involved in the CPS process. He’s also worked in agriculture and in a sawmill, and as a carpenter and a proofreader.

“My ultimate goal is to enhance what I consider to be the essential characteristics of a letter to the editor: Engage the reader, argue contrary positions, amuse, irritate, do not overstep the boundaries, and summarize with a logical conclusion,” he wrote.

Becerra-Gonzalez, a fourthyear journalism student at Chico State, found out about this competition at the last minute and, in best journalist fashion, crafted an award-winning entry anyway.

In one sample column, with the headline “Please don’t touch me, I just want to dance,” she wrote that while not a big partier, “One thing I have always loved to do is dance. Dancing in a dark room to mediocre music, in a room full of people who are too drunk to remember?

I’m in.” And from there? It’s a matter of “There’s prey on the dancefloor and predators that circle said dance floor hoping to find their next catch. Here’s the thing about predators, they can’t take a hint.”

Posey has a good number of life experiences in a great number of places that should make for interesting reading. From studying English and French at Chico State to studying children’s literature at graduate school in London, she started teaching at the community college level and lived 11 years on the East Coast, teaching students from the ages of 3 to 73 along the way.

In one sample column, she wrote “What does welcoming mean anyway? I think part of it means being open to learning from others and understanding their experiences could teach us something. It means being vulnerable and intentional about going deeper in relationship. That’s not always safe. It can be scary. But to be truly understood, we have to open up. I have to let you see my dreams, hopes, even fears, in some cases.”

Zweber moved here from the Bay Area in 2016 after, in her words, “being enchanted by a Chico State grad (who is now my partner) and a piece of property on Comanche Creek in the Barber Area.” Approaching retirement, she said she’s really looking forward to spending more time writing, and North State Voices seemed like the perfect outlet.

Based on her entry, it’ll be a good fit indeed. In one sample column, she wrote of her disdain for electronic Christmas cheer:

“I received another Christmas card today. This one an email. It’s a charming animated scene with snow, a tree, and a Labrador. It has appealing background music. It’s captivating and creative. I hate it. … Once a year, if someone wants to send me cheer, I really like to get something tangible.”

“Tangible thoughts” are what North State Voices are all about anyway. Congratulations to our winners and thanks again for all of our readers who have served as columnists throughout the years.