Northern California Daily Calendar
Southern California Daily Calendar

The Poetry Flash Reading Series will move from Cody's Books on Fourth Street, Berkeley, when that location closes in March. Our March 1, 2008 reading will take place on Fourth Street; our April 5, 2008 reading will take place at Cody's brand new location, 2201 Shattuck Avenue, in downtown Berkeley. The new location is at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way, across the street from Berkeley BART, and near parking garages. The Grand Opening is on April 1, 2008.

From 1982-2006, Poetry Flash curated one of the West Coast's most exciting, inclusive, and longest running reading series at Cody's Books on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, a leading, historically significant, independent bookstore. (The series began in the late sixties/early seventies.) That store closed on July 10, 2006. However, the Poetry Flash reading series continues, alive and well. Over one-hundred writers---primarily poets---continue to be introduced each year by our host, Poetry Flash Associate Editor Richard Silberg in various locations listed below. Now, as in the past, our series is open to diverse poetics, while providing a forum for poetry's best. For a statement by former Cody's President Andy Ross on the 2006 closing of Cody's on Telegraph, see below.
For more information on the Poetry Flash Reading Series, call (510) 525-5476. 

SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2008, 7:00
Poetry Flash at Cody's:
SIXTEEN RIVERS PRESS READING:
DAN BELLM, TERRY EHRET & GILLIAN WEGENER

This is a publication party for Sixteen Rivers Press:
Dan Bellm's first book of poems, One Hand on the Wheel, was the inaugural volume in the California Poetry Series; his second, Buried Treasure, won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize and the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award. Alicia Ostriker says of Bellm's third collection, Practice, "I am in awe of how Bellm's poems perform a dance with and against Holy Scripture. And I keep coming back to his lines about 'the way the body addresses the soul/ lending it shape/ lending it comfort and sorrow.' Practice is like a long prayer of wonder, gratitude, pain and loss and tenderness." Former Sonoma County Poet Laureate Terry Ehret has also published three books of poems, Lost Body, which was selected by Carolyn Kizer for the National Poetry Series, Translations from the Human Language, which won the Commonwealth Club of California Book Award and the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize. Her new book is Lucky Break; Ursula K. Le Guin has enthused about her work, "Terry Ehret is a wonderfully various, resourceful poet. Her play with forms works always towards ease and freedom. Her timing is faultless, a joy in itself; and her fearlessness is exhilarating."
The Opposite of Clairvoyance is Gillian Wegener's first full-length book of poems; her chapbook, Lifting One Foot; Lifting the Other, won a prize from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation in 2006. Pattiann Rogers praises her debut volume: "Gillian Wegener has the perceptive skill of a wordsmith, the ear of a musician, the study, perplexity and caring curiosity of a human alive to the world."
CODY'S BOOKS, 2201 Shattuck Avenue, corner of Allston Way, downtown Berkeley, (510) 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com. Across the street from Berkeley BART, near parking garages.
For information, Poetry Flash: (510) 525-5476, www.poetryflash.org.

SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2008, 7:00
Poetry Flash at Cody's:
F.D. REEVE, JACK FOLEY & ADELLE FOLEY

F.D. Reeve is a poet, fiction writer, critic, and translator; the author of more than two dozen books, his latest is the book of poems The Blue Cat Walks the Earth, a sequel to earlier poetic adventures of the Blue Cat. These poems are a wild, tasty mix of whimsy, wit, honed language, and a deep political passion to address the mess we humans have made of our world. Widely published in such journals as The American Poetry Review, Sewanee Review, and the anthology Poets Against War, his honors include the New England Poetry Society's Golden Rose Award and an award in literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Jack Foley is a poet, a critic, and a radio host. Among his books of poems are Words for Adelle, Gershwin, Exiles, and Adrift. His critical books include O Powerful Western Star; Foley's Books: California Rebels, Beats, and Radicals; and his newest from Ren Hen Press, The Dancer and the Dance: A Book of Distinctions. He is host of Wednesday's Cover to Cover on KPFA, and he recently edited ALL: A James Broughton Reader. A contributing editor of Poetry Flash, Foley is currently working on an 800-page timeline of California poetry from 1940 to 2005.
Adelle Foley is an arts activist, a performance poet, and a writer of haiku. Along the Bloodline is her first full-length book of poetry.
CODY'S BOOKS, 2201 Shattuck Avenue, corner of Allston Way, downtown Berkeley, (510) 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com. Across the street from Berkeley BART, near parking garages.
For information, Poetry Flash: (510) 525-5476, www.poetryflash.org.

The last Poetry Flash at Cody's Telegraph reading was held on June 4, 2006. Sad news for a Bay Area institution, but there it is. Poetry Flash readings are continuing at Cody's Books on Fourth Street, Berkeley, and at other venues to be announced.

BERKELEY'S TELEGRAPH AVENUE TO LOSE CODY'S BOOKS;
CODY'S REMAINS STRONG ON FOURTH STREET IN BERKELEY
AND ON STOCKTON STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO

May 10, 2006

Andy Ross, owner and president of Cody's Books, Inc., has announced that Cody's oldest store, on Telegraph Avenue near the University of California in Berkeley, will close its doors on July 10, 2006.

Cody's Books on Fourth Street in Berkeley and Cody's Stockton Street in San Francisco, as well as Cody's School and Book Fair division, remain open, healthy, and intent upon continuing to provide the best of independent bookselling.

Ross noted the fifteen-year sales decline in the south-of-campus area, resulting in Cody's Telegraph Avenue doing only one-third of the business it did in 1990. The company's attempt to keep this store open has caused a loss of over $1,000,000.

"It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that Cody's will be closing our doors at the Telegraph Avenue store for the last time on July 10. We will continue to operate our stores on Fourth Street in Berkeley and on Stockton Street in San Francisco.

The Telegraph store has been declining in sales for more than 15 years. We are now doing only 1/3 of the business that we did here in 1990. We have lost over $1,000,000 attempting to keep the store open. As a family business, we cannot continue to afford these ruinous losses.

The book business has changed over this period. Many of our customers have found other sources for their books. In particular, the Internet has taken quite a bite out of sales, particularly the scholarly and academic titles that have always been our specialty.

This is Cody's 50th year in business and our 43rd year at this location. During this period, Cody's has been engaged in the great issues of our time. As America increasingly turned to huge mass merchants and disembodied Internet retailers in their buying habits, Cody's always urged people to support stores in their communities.

During the 60's, Cody's was part of the great anti-war movement that began in Berkeley. In 1989, we were the first victim of international terrorism in the United States. We were bombed during the Rushdie Affair. After the bombing, Cody's staff voted unanimously to continue carrying The Satanic Verses, even in the face of threats to our lives. This was a great and heroic act of commitment to humanistic values by simple booksellers. It was truly our finest hour.

Throughout this period, we spoke of the dangers of economic concentration in bookselling on the part of chain stores. Sadly our warnings have come to pass. Stores like Cody's have become truly rare. The few that remain are cherished by their communities.

Cody's is an idea, not a building. That idea will endure in our other stores on Fourth Street and in San Francisco. 

We leave Telegraph with great sadness, but with a sense of honor that we have served our customers and our community with such distinction; and that in our own way, we have changed the world for the better and will continue to do so.

Thank you, dear customers, for giving us that opportunity."

---Andy Ross