In 2011 at age 101, Tracey’s great aunt, Doris Louise Bailey Murphy passed away and left Tracey her box of diaries dating back to the mid-1920’s. More recently, Tracey published a novel, “Tongues of Angels” in 2002 and a book of poems, “Amaryllis: Collected Poems,” in 2009. She was also associate editor at “Alameda” and “Oakland” magazines and co-editor at “The East Bay Monthly.” She was founder of the East Bay literary fair, “Alameda Literati,” winning grants for its support, and editor of the literary magazine, “Red Hills Review.” Tracey became the founding editor of The Alameda Sun community newspaper and later its publisher, one of fewer than 85 female newspaper publishers in California at that time.

Everything was printed from film, which makes me feel petty for complaining about how tedious and time-consuming production is now. The newsroom was an office filled with typewriters, light tables, a wax roller, X-Acto knives, blue pencils and a photo reproduction wheel. “She had been in the trenches, so she whipped us into shape,” Tracey said.Īt that time, there were no computers. The adviser for the paper was Pulitzer Prize winner, Kathy Mitchell. She was on staff for three out of her four years at SRJC. Tracey thought that sounded like fun, so she joined the paper as a staff writer in the fall semester of 1981. “I was randomly passing a friend of mine, over there,” she pointed across the courtyard, “ and she said, ‘I’m on the Oak Leaf.’” Julia Park Tracey met me at the benches near the Santa Rosa Junior College Bookstore and told me how she discovered she wanted to be a writer. Shortly after I took the job of Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Oak Leaf Newspaper, I had the pleasure of meeting a former Oak Leaf writer with a successful career as a journalist and author. It’s like saying: I’m going to be a rock star or an actor. When I tell people I’m an English major, the response is usually, “What do you want to do, teach?” No, I want to write.

Tongues of Angels by Julia Park Tracey