Sierra Scrolls
Tales and Tidbits about the People and Places of the Sierra Nevada
Welcome!
Do you love reading, writing, nature, people, diversity, and California, specifically the Sierra Nevada mountains? If so, you are in the right place.
Welcome to the Sierra College Press Newsletter. This is our first, so we appreciate your interest. Sierra College Press is all about the Sierra Nevada, and this is the place to check in, to learn, and to commune with others online who love Muir’s “Range of Light.”
We Have Stories to Tell
We hope you love our home as much as we do, and now is the time to tell you about important information to preserve and conserve this amazing place. The mission of the Sierra College Press is to inform and inspire readers by sharing ideas, knowledge, and scholarship about the Sierra Nevada region. We hope to accomplish our mission by sharing our work with you.
Who We Are
Sierra College Press was founded in 2002 after Sierra College faculty and staff participated in an extraordinary project honoring the 20th anniversary of Japanese internment during World War II called Standing Guard. The project led to compilation of oral histories that became the book Standing Guard, the Press’s first publication. At the time, the Sierra College Press was the first and only complete academic press operated by a community college in the United States. Today, it remains one of only a handful of community college academic presses nationwide. Please visit the Sierra College Press website for more information.
What We Do
Sierra College Press publishes books and educational materials regarding the Sierra Nevada region.
The Press is fortunate to partner with Heyday Books in Berkeley, California. Heyday publishes around twenty-five books a year, founded two successful magazines, and has taken a lead role in hundreds of prominent public education programs throughout the state. In addition to its own highly regarded books, Heyday has co-published with many influential institutions, such as the University of California, Berkeley; California State Library; California Historical Society; Yosemite Conservancy; and Save the Redwoods League to name but a few.
Sierra College Press and Heyday Books:
The Illuminated Landscape: A Sierra Nevada Anthology (2010
Tahoe Beneath the Surface: The Hidden Stories of America's Largest Mountain Lake (2010)
California Glaciers (2012)
Sierra Stories: Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots and Rogues (2014)
King Sequoia (2016)
Gold Rush Stories: 49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss and Luck (2017)
Sierra Wildflowers (2019)
Hellacious California: Tales of Rascality, Revelry, Dissipation, and Depravity, and the Birth of the Golden State (2020)
Hansen’s Field Guide to the Birds of the Sierra Nevada (2021)
Flowering Plants of the Sierra Nevada (2025)
Additionally, SCP has published books and eJournals on its own:
Standing Guard: Telling Our Stories (2002)
Sierra Foothills Nature Guide: A Guide to Biology and Ecology of the Sierra College Nature Trail (2002)
Journal of the Sierra College Natural History Museum (2008-2015)
Snowy Range Reflections, Journal (2008-2015)
Sierra College Press facilitates the Sierra Journal, a student-produced literary and arts magazine.
Sierra College Press produces the annual Sierra Writers Conference.
Past conferences have hosted many well-known writers such as Sands Hall, Kim Culbertson, Louis B. Jones, Molly Fisk, Jordan Fisher Smith, Gary Noy, Josh Weil, Pam Houston, Grant Faulkner, James McBride, Kim Stanley Robinson, Obi Kaufmann, Deborah Miranda, and Maxine Hong Kingston.
The next Sierra Writers Conference will be held online and in-person February 24th through March 6th.
Looking to the Future
Our goal is to inspire and inform people about our unique environment in the hopes that we can preserve it for future generations. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to providing you with more valuable information and entertainment regarding the flora, fauna, people, and places in the Sierra Nevada region.
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