Mill Valley poet and filmmaker focuses on her craft during sabbatical

If life gives you a pandemic, write poetry. Well, that’s what Joan Baranow did when the Mill Valley resident’s long-planned sabbatical came in 2020. When the world slowed down, it gave the Dominican University of California professor time to write and read poetry as well as reflect back on her two decades-plus of work.

The result is three books — two full-length books and a chatbook — which she’s published over the last year: “A Slight Thing, Happiness,” “Aphids in the Rose” and “Reading...