Jean Valentine
Photo: Max Greenstreet

Maxine Hong Kingston, Fred Marchant, Jane Mead, Jean Valentine

4 DECEMBER 2015 — friday

Poetry Flash presents a reading by acclaimed poets and writers Maxine Hong Kingston, Fred Marchant, Jane Mead, Jean Valentine, request ASL interpreters one week in advance from editor@poetryflash.org, wheelchair accessible, Diesel, A Bookstore, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, note different time, 6:30 (510/653-9965, dieselbookstore.com)

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Maxine Hong Kingston’s most recent book is the memoir-in-verse I Love a Broad Margin to My Life. The books that have brought her fame throughout her career include The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, and The Fifth Book of Peace. She’s also editor of Veterans of War, Veteran’s of Peace, an anthology of writings from more than a decade of writing-and-meditation workshops she’s led for Vietnam veterans and others to heal themselves through art. Among her honors are the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, PEN West Award in Fiction, and a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Fred Marchant was one of the first officers of the US Marine Corps to be honorably discharged as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. His book Tipping Point, which arose from those experiences, first published in 1993, was re-issued in 2013. Other books of poems include Full Moon Boat; House on Water, House in Air; and The Looking House. He is the founding director of the Creative Writing Program and the Poetry Center at Suffolk University in Boston where he is a Professor of English.
Jane Mead’s new book is Money Money Money |Water Water Water. Cole Swenson says, “It’s a beautiful, seamless book that never stops gathering force—one in which the strength, brilliance, and movement of the phrase is the ultimate ecosystem.” She’s the author of three previous collections, most recently The Usable Field, and she’s the recipient of grants and awards from the Whiting, Guggenheim, and Lannan foundations.
Jean Valentine’s new book of poems is Shirt in Heaven. She has published twelve previous books of poetry; her collection Door in the Mountain won the National Book Award in 2004. She co-translated Dark Elderberry Branch, poetry and prose of Maria Tsvetaeva, with Ilya Kaminsky, and edited a book of essays on the poetry of Eleanor Rass Taylor, The Lighthouse Keeper. In 1965, she won the Yale Younger Poets Award for her first book, Dream Barker. The recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, she lives in New York City.