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Poetry Flash Reading Series
Cintia Santana and Dan Alter
4/28, Berkeley
more info
Sixteen Rivers Press: Christina Lloyd, Murray Silverstein, Alice Templeton
5/19, Berkeley
more info
Carolyn Tipton and Sandra Yannone
6/20, Berkeley
more info


Fog and Light: Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Kathleen McClung, Diane Frank, more

24 JUNE 2021 — thursday

Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading to celebrate Fog and Light: San Francisco Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here, a new anthology, with contributors Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Jodi Hottel, Kathleen McClung, Gwynn O'Gara, and editor Diane Frank, online via Zoom, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)


Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual reading on Thursday, June 24 at 7:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you this anthology celebration via Zoom. To register for this reading, please click on the link in the calendar listing above. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.

This reading is co-sponsored by Moe's Books in Berkeley; Fog and Light is available at bookshop.org/lists/poetry-flash-readings.

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Many of these bio notes are from the Fog and Light anthology:
Vince Gotera's recent book is The Coolest Month, a collection of poems written everyday throughout April, in response to NaPoWriMo and Poem-a-Day prompts. Maureen Thorson says, "Vince Gotera's The Coolest Month leans into T. S. Eliot's bromide for April while turning it on its head.…An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but as Gotera shows, a poem a day can help chase away the blues." Now a professor in Iowa, Gotera was born and raised in San Francisco. He grew up in the Haight-Ashbury and was a teenager during the Summer of Love. "As a lead guitarist," Vince says, "I was influenced by the rock bands that played around The City: Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Charlatans, The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Santana, and many others. In fact, I fondly remember being an eighth grader at St. Agnes School on Ashbury and hearing The Dead rehearsing in their house across the street." Gotera left for grad school in the Midwest and hasn't lived in The City since. "But I am always excited to visit and enjoy the dazzling diversity, charming neighborhoods, and utter beauty of San Francisco, forever home."

Ken Haas's first full-length collection, Borrowed Light, won the 2020 Red Mountain Press Discovery Award. Ellen Bass said, "…Ken Haas's first collection of poems…is complex, vibrant, capacious and wildly imaginative. With affection and wonderful clarity, Haas describes a childhood of 'taking infield practice and shagging flies,' Atlantic City's 'sunburn and saltwater taffy,' a trip into Manhattan to see the legendary John Coltrane, who 'emptied his arms in a wave that even now speaks to the kind of man I could become.' But it would be a mistake to call this book nostalgic. Haas is keenly aware of the darker forces of history. The same Antisemitism that forced his grandparents to flee Nazi Germany is alive and well today—'we just forgot that shirt-wise brown is brown, words do burn, and we can see the rest from here.'" Haas's work has appeared in over fifty literary magazines, journals, and anthologies. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the Betsy Colquitt Poetry Award. He grew up in New York City, but has lived for the past forty-four years in San Francisco.

Jodi Hottel is a sansei, third generation Japanese American. She is author of the chapbooks Out of the Ashes, Voyeur, and Heart Mountain, her collection of poems about the Japanese American incarceration, winner of the 2012 Blue Light Press Poetry Prize. Most of those families were initially taken to a temporary detention site at the Tanforan race track in San Bruno, now the site of a shopping mall.

Kathleen McClung's books include Temporary Kin, Three Soul-Makers, A Juror Must Fold in on Herself, The Typists Play Monopoly, and Almost the Rowboat. Julie Kane wrote of Temporary Kin, " Kathleen McClung is a master of the sonnet crown. In her skilled hands, that venerable form expands to encompass active shooter drills, smartphones, and Lyft drivers, as well as songbirds, the sea, and the moon." She fell in love with San Francisco at age nine when she came with her mother on a Greyhound bus to see Carmen at the War Memorial Opera House. She cried when they had to leave at the intermission to catch the bus back to Sacramento. For over thirty years, Kathleen McClung has lived, taught, and written on the foggy west side of San Francisco.

Gwynn O'Gara's books include Snake Woman Poems, with a foreword by Nanos Valaoritis, and the chapbooks Fixer-Upper, Winter at Green Haven, Fruit of Life, and Sea Cradles. She grew up in San Francisco and left many times, almost always coming back. For twenty-five years she worked as a California Poet in the Schools and served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2010-2011.

Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems; her 2021 collection is While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems. Los P. Jones said this of Frank's 2018 book, Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines: "In this new and startling collection, Diane Frank's poems transcend not just genres but entire dimensions. When she speaks to J.S. Bach, she really means it and when Bach speaks back, she listens—entirely—the way certain moths perceive sound via their whole body, even their wings. How is this accomplished? It will seem to come through the poems themselves—their music, tonal qualities and subjects, yet it goes even deeper as it pushes up like duende through the soles of your feet." She is also the author of Blackberries in the Dream House, winner of the Chelson Award for Fiction, two other novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Himalayas. She teaches at San Francisco State University and Dominican University and lives in the Outer Sunset in San Francisco, where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form. She selected the poems for the Fog and Light anthology.




Daily Listings

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24 APRIL 2024 — wednesday

  • Point Reyes Books presents iconic novelist Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, celebrating her latest book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Red Barn, 75 Bear Valley Road, Point Reyes Station, $40, each ticket comes with a copy of the book, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.ptreyesbooks.com/events)
  • The Los Angeles Public Library and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles are pleased to present "Ekphrasis," an evening with poet Gabriele Tinti presenting his ekphrastic poetry series with a talk on this form of writing; special guests to include actors Robert Davi, Joe Mantegna, and Jamie McShane, Getty Head Curator Kenneth Lapatin, and LACMA educator Chelo Montoya; Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 West 5th Street, Los Angeles, free, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/ekphrasis)
  • City Lights, ALTA Journal, and Heyday Books celebrate the publication of Greg Sarris's new short story collection, The Forgetters, and the paperback release of his memoir in essays, Becoming Story: A Journey Among Seasons, Places, Trees, and Ancestors, City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, free, 7:00 to 9:00 pm PDT (For more information: https://citylights.com/events/greg-sarris-in-conversation-with-blaise-zerega)

25 APRIL 2024 — thursday

  • The Writing Forward Reading Series at Santa Clara University presents a Poetry Reading & Conversation with Daniel B. Summerhill, Divine, Divine, Divine and Mausoleum of Flowers; James Cagney, Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour of Chaos Theory, and Martian: The Saint Of Loneliness, Cave Canem Fellow and PEN Oakland Award-winner; and Ashia Ajani, storyteller and environmental educator, We Bleed Like Mango and Heirloom, sponsored by the Santa Clara Review and Santa Clara University Creative Writing/ English Department, Saint Clare Room, Santa Clara University Library, Third Floor, Santa Clara University campus, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, free and open to the public, 6:00-7:30 pm PDT (For more information, contact: santaclarareview@gmail.com)
  • The Marin Poetry Center's Poetry Reading Series presents Tshaka Campbell, MUTED WHISPERS, 2022-23 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate and winner of two Grand Slam Champion titles, with acclaimed poet Dorianne Laux, Life On Earth, in celebration of National Poetry Month, Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, free, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm PDT (To attend, register here: millvalleylibrary.libcal.com/event/11738225; for more information: marinpoetrycenter.org)
  • The Booksmith presents Gerri Lewis reading from her new novel, The Last Word, The Booksmith, 1727 Haight Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.booksmith.com/event/gerri-lewis; direct questions by email to: tickets@booksmith.com)
  • The Poetry Center, in conjunction with TurkxTaylor Initiative, presents "Trans Temporal Resistances," writers and artists deconstruct trans archives and architecture through text and movement, featuring performances by three local writers, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, Rowan Powell, and Mason J., co-curated by Emji Saint Spero and Leila Weefur, Tenderloin Museum, 398 Eddy Street, San Francisco, free, 7:00-8:30 pm PDT (More information here: poetry.sfsu.edu)
  • San Francisco Public Library presents a reading by Bay Area poets Dena Rod, Scattered Arils, Taneesh Kaur, Thawing: A Poetic Memoir, and Tony Aldarondo, reading from new work, hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck, What Unseen Thing Blows Wishes Across My Surface?, Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room A, Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00-7:30 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2024/04/25/performance-new-poetry-books-bay-area-poets-read-recent-publications)
  • Writers Read Ukiah presents Haiku Night, featuring a presentation and reading of haikus and other short forms of poetry, followed by an open mic reading, six-minutes per reader, emceed by Michael Riedell, Grace Hudson Museum, 431 South Main Street, Ukiah, $5 suggested donation, 7:00 pm PDT (Email: innisfreeriedell@gmail.com for more information)
  • Green Apple Books presents a celebration of poet José Vadi's new collection, Chipped: Writing from a Skateboarder's Lens, with "This Old Ledge" host, Ted Barrow, Green Apple Books, 1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.greenapplebooks.com/event/9th-ave-jos%C3%A9-vadi-ted-barrow)

26 APRIL 2024 — friday

  • City Arts and Lectures welcomes Catherine Lacey, Biography of X, Pew, The Answers, Nobody Is Ever Missing, and journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Chloé Cooper Jones discussing Jones's new memoir, Easy Beauty; Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, $39, 7:30 pm PDT (For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: www.cityarts.net/event/chloe-cooper-jones)
  • The Book of Light Poetry Series, a reading series that celebrates the spirit and soul of the poetry of Lucille Clifton, featuring Jackson Holbert, winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and author Winter Stranger, Books Inc., 1344 Parks Street, Alameda, free, 6:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.booksinc.net/event/jackson-holbert-books-inc-alameda)

27 APRIL 2024 — saturday

  • This workshop, "Writing Historical Fiction," taught by historical novelists Siobhan Curham, The Storyteller of Auschwitz, and Linda Joy Myers, The Forger of Marseille, covers the key elements of writing historical fiction including idea, research, character, and plot, Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, $105, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.bookpassage.com/event/writing-historical-fiction)
  • Fourth Saturdays presents a reading with featured poets Jodie Hollander, Nocturne, and Veronica Michalowski, One: Family of Poetry, free, Claremont Helen Renwick Library, 208 N. Harvard Avenue, Claremont, free, 2:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.facebook.com/fourthsaturdayspoetry)
  • The International Poetry Film Festival will feature nearly forty experimental, narrative, documentary, and animated poem-based film screenings from around the world; The Wanda Coleman Theater, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, $30,1:00-6:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: poetryfilmfestival.org)
  • "Lines From Within: Poetry From the Inside Out," is a generative poetry workshop and craft laboratory with Dr. Mary-Alice Daniel,Mass for Shut-Ins and A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing, attendees create a signature style in their writing, find their comfort zone, nurture originality, defeat writer's block, and help to develop an individual writing practice, Orvene S. Carpenter Community Center, Ray D. Prueter Library, 510 Park Avenue, Port Hueneme, free,1:00-3:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.vencolibrary.org/library-events/lines-within-poetry-inside-out-dr-mary-alice-daniel-0427241300)
  • In celebration of National Poetry Month, PoemDome 19, the 19th annual Poems In-Front-Of-The Dome, an open mic with no mic poetry event, will be held across from San Francisco City Hall; featured guests include "Diamond" Dave Whitaker, poet and radio host Global Val Ibarra, poets Charlie Getter, Richard Ivanhoe, Dan Brady, and Jorge Molina, "Poetry Circle in the Town Square," City Hall Plaza, the park between City Hall and San Francisco Public Library, Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco, free, all ages, 2:00-4:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.poemdome.net)
  • Sonoma Valley Authors Festival presents "Authors on the Plaza" featuring authors David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, Colm Tóibín,The Magician, and Amy Tan,The Joy Luck Club, Sonoma Plaza, 453 First Street East, Sonoma, free, registration required, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: svauthorsfest.org/authors-on-the-plaza)
  • City Lights, Morbid Curiosity, and Strange Attractor Press present an afternoon in appreciation of the life and work of Mel Gordon, in celebration of the posthumous publication of his Cabarets of Death: Death, Dance and Dining in Early Twentieth-Century Paris, a documentation of three cabaret-restaurants in the Montmartre district of Paris from 1892 until 1954, moderated by Joanna Ebenstein and Peter Maravelis, with Maer Ben-Yisreal, Ati Citron, J. Hoberman, La Pustra, Mark Pilkington, Jill Tracy, Christina Ward, and others, online via Zoom, free, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT (To register, visit Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/voluptuous-life-a-tribute-to-the-life-and-work-of-mel-gordon-tickets-810502062487?aff=oddtdtcreator)

28 APRIL 2024 — sunday

  • Litquake and Litcamp present, "How They Did It: High-Stakes Memoir," a conversation with five intrepid authors of recent memoir including Eddie Ahn Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice, Sylvia Brownrigg,The Whole Staggering Mystery: A Story of Fathers Lost and Found, Margaret Juhae Lee,Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History, Susan Lieu,The Manicurist's Daughter, and Carvell Wallace,The Sixth Man, Another Word for Love; the event will be moderated by author Rachel Howard, The Risk of Us, Page Street Co-Working Space, 297 Page Street, San Francisco, free, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.litquake.org/upcoming-events.html)
  • San Francisco Public Library presents a reading featuring contributors to the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, including Nicole Henares, Karen Melander-Magoon, Phyllis Klein, Cesar Love, Ed Mycue, Antoinette Vella Payne, Rafael Pineda, Dan Richman, Alice Rogoff, John Rowe, Eva Helene Stern, and Nellie Wong, Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room A, Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 4:00-5:00 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2024/04/28/performance-poetry-preserves-44-years-vital-verse)
  • Medicine for Nightmares presents the Odd Verse Reading Series, a poetry reading and open mic that amplifies underrepresented voices, in a safe space for discourse, community solidarity, and collective action for social justice, Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore, 3036 24th Street, San Francisco, free, donations welcome, 4:30-7:00 pm PDT (More information here: medicinefornightmares.com/events)
  • Poetry Flash presents a reading by Dan Alter, My Little Book of Exiles, and Cintia Santana, The Disordered Alphabet, 2727 California Street, a cooperative art space, Berkeley, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).

29 APRIL 2024 — monday

  • Mechanic's Institute presents "No Poetry No Peace," a reading celebrating human poetic expression, hosted by award-winning multidisciplinary writer Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte, featuring poets Aileen Cassinetto, Lisa DeVuono, Poems from the Playground of Risk, Benjamin Gucciardi, West Portal, Lucille Lang Day, Becoming an Ancestor, O'Cyrus, Sacred, and Noah Warren, The Complete Stories, Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, free for members, $10 nonmembers, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.milibrary.org/events/events-activities)
  • City Arts and Lectures welcomes historian Doris Kearns Goodwin as she discusses her new book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, a historical biography inspired by notes, journals, and letters by Goodwin's late husband, Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, $49, 7:30 pm PDT (For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: www.cityarts.net/event/doris-kearns-goodwin-3)

30 APRIL 2024 — tuesday

  • A celebration for the launch of prizewinning anthropologist Angela Garcia's moving work of narrative nonfiction, The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos, based on over a decade of research, Garcia's book examines the anexos, community-based recovery houses serving people struggling with addiction in Mexico City, City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, free, 7:00 to 9:00 pm PDT (For more information: citylights.com/events/angela-garcia)
  • Green Apple Books presents a celebration of novelist Sylvia Brownrigg's new memoir, The Whole Staggering Mystery, with novelist Anne Raeff, Only the River, Green Apple Books, 1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.greenapplebooks.com/event/9th-ave-sylvia-brownrigg-anne-raeff)
  • Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet Ray Jane, Black Like That, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
  • Skylight Books presents poet Callie Siskel, celebrating her debut collection, Two Minds, joined in a reading by poets L.A. Johnson, Little Climates, and Armen Davoudian, The Palace of Forty Pillars, Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, free, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-callie-siskel-presents-two-minds-w-la-johnson-armen-davoudian)
  • The Booksmith presents Sasha Vasilyuk in celebration of her new novel, Your Presence Is Mandatory, The Booksmith, 1727 Haight Street, San Francisco, free, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.booksmith.com/event/sasha-vasilyuk; direct questions by email to: tickets@booksmith.com)

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