Profile
Nancy Gross is the editor and publisher of
The Bubble, a boutique journal, first named
The Ojai Bubble, of feature articles and regionally created literature (poems, short stories, creative essays and book excerpts).
The Bubble sells in about 50 locations, 20 in the Ojai Valley, and the rest scattered from Los Angeles to Goleta.
www.theojaibubble.com
Nancy was a poet long before she was a journalist. Her writing, whether poetry or prose, moves deftly between whimsy and weightiness. As some readers of The Bubble noted, the publication is very fresh. One person said it is like "a tomato from your [Nancy's] own garden." Along those lines, she sells the magazine at the Ojai Certified Farmer's Market about once a month.
Many locals can find a venue to be published in The Bubble. It is an edited publication, often themed, and fitting contributions from all kinds of regional writers and artists are considered for publication.
Nancy has had a career working in small hotels, while she earned her BA in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara and raised her two daughters. She spent about a three years as a freelance journalist, with articles appearing in The Whole Person Calendar, The Ojai Valley Visitor's Guide and Agents Magazine. For one year she was a contract staff reporter for the Ojai Valley News.
Nancy and her children moved to Ojai from Camarillo in January of 2,000. She had her eye on Ojai for about ten years before the winter winds carried her here. She's lived in Thousand Oaks and the San Fernando Valley for parts of her adult life. She spent her childhood and early teens in New Jersey, in a community near Princeton and Trenton. She gives Ojai Pizza and Boccali's pizza both the stamp of approval from an East Coaster!
Posts
Ancient societies formed their communal identities with the help of shared oral traditions: stories of where they came from, how to live amidst life’s conundrums and where they were going. Stories also helped define the individual, and his or her place in the community group.