
Hannah Sward
Rose Black and Hannah Sward
27 APRIL 2023 — thursday
Poetry Flash presents "An Evening of Poetry & Memoir," reading and discussion with poet Rose Black, Green Field, and memorist Hannah Sward, Strip, both writers work with Right to Write Press, a nonprofit that supports emerging writers who are incarcerated in California prisons; in-person, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 7:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).
Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series.
Featured books for this event will be available for signing at the event and at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash. Proceeds from the in-person book sales will benefit Poetry Flash, and a portion of the online proceeds will also support the series.
MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Hannah Sward's new book is Strip: A Memoir. She tells of being abandoned by her mother and living with her poet father on an island with no stores or cars. Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee says, "Hannah Sward's memoir of how she blundered into the sex industry is touchingly honest, and written with a light touch." Booklist wrote, "Elegant prose, stripped of all sensationalism and demands for pity…a fresh, literary addition to the courageous and resonant addiction-memoir genre." Her writing has appeared in Halcoyne, Arts & Letters, Red Wheelbarrow, and Porter Gulch Review, among other magazines. She was Editor and Columnist at Third Street Villager Los Angeles, and has written for Fix and Your Tango. A longtime contributor at Erotic Review, she is also a Board member of Right to Write Press, a nonprofit that supports emerging writers who are incarcerated.
Rose Black's poetry books are Clearing, Winter Light, and Green Field. David St. John says, "Rose Black's superb new collection of poems, Green Field, is a sobering volume of recollections, reflections and meditations upon a life's ravaged hopes, the echoes of a personal past, and the raw realities of our present. Like fables and dreams gone dark in the lens, these poems instruct us in the complex measures we need to employ in determining what values still remain—and endure—in our lives." A Pushcart nominee, her poetry has been widely published, and her first two books are included in Yale's Beinecke Library for the Yale Collection of American Literature. She teaches poetry at Salinas Valley State Prison and is one of the founders of Right to Write Press, a nonprofit that promotes the growth of emerging poets who are incarcerated in California state prisons. She will read from her own work and from poetry by incarcerated writers, including Ubaldo Teque, Jr., who recently won first place in a statewide prison poetry contest with thousands of entries. She edited his chapbook, Niño Inmigrante. Rose Black lives and works at Renaissance Studios, an artists' collective in East Oakland.


Daily Listings
< previous month | next month >
1 OCTOBER 2023 — sunday
- Bazaar Writers Salon presents a reading with featured poets Michael Dumanis, My Soviet Union, winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry, Randall Mann, Deal: New and Selected Poems, Mira Rosenthal, The Local World, winner of the Wick Poetry Prize, and Andrena Zawinski, Born Under the Influence, hosted by poet Peter Kline, Mirrorforms, Bazaar Café, 5927 California Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.facebook.com/BazaarWritersSalon)
2 OCTOBER 2023 — monday
- Rivertown Poets presents a reading featuring Connie Post, Between Twilight, Ruth Nolan, Dry Waterfall, and Tobey Hiller, Crow Mind, followed by an open mic for up to twenty readers, three-minutes per reader, online, free, 6:15 pm PDT (Email: rivertownpoet@gmail.com to sign up for the open mic, more information here: www.facebook.com/RivertownPoetsAMuseingMondays)
- City Lights Books presents award-winning author Lisa Teasley, Glow in the Dark, celebrating her new collection of stories, Fluid, in conversation with poet Steven Reigns, the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood and author of Inheritance, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
3 OCTOBER 2023 — tuesday
4 OCTOBER 2023 — wednesday
- SOLD OUT: The Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters present historian Heather Cox Richardson, discussing her latest book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, in conversation with writer and activist Rebecca Solnit, Orwell's Roses, First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway, Oakland, 7:00 pm PDT (www.booksmith.com/event)
5 OCTOBER 2023 — thursday
- Lunch Poems, UC Berkeley's noontime reading series, presents poet dg nanouk okpik, Corpse Whale, winner of the American Book Award, Morrison Library inside Doe Library, 101 Library Ct., University of California campus, Berkeley, free, 12:10-12:50 pm PDT (More information here: www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/lunch-poems)
- Poetry Night Reading Series features poet and translator William O'Daly, The New Gods, with classical guitarist Louis Valentine Johnson, hosted by Davis Poet Laureate Dr. Andy Jones, John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street, Davis, free, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.natsoulas.com/poetry-night)
6 OCTOBER 2023 — friday
7 OCTOBER 2023 — saturday
- Beyond Baroque presents a reading with Four Feathers Press, featuring poets Alicia Viguer-Espert, To Hold a Hummingbird, Jackie Chou, Finding My Heart in Love and Loss, and Lynne Bronstein, Astray from Normalcy, emceed by Don Kingfisher Campbell, Four Feathers Press publisher, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, free, 2:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.beyondbaroque.org)
8 OCTOBER 2023 — sunday
9 OCTOBER 2023 — monday
10 OCTOBER 2023 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet Sigrid Saradunn, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
- City Lights Books presents novelist Justin Torres, We the Animals, winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, discussing his new book, Blackouts, in conversation with novelist Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You, longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize; this event is part of the Litquake 2023 Festival, Main Room at City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
11 OCTOBER 2023 — wednesday
12 OCTOBER 2023 — thursday
- San Francisco Public Library presents a reading that celebrates Iranian women and their current struggle, San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck, What Unseen Thing Blows Wishes Across My Surface?, joined by special guests from Iranian American Women in Network, Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room A, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00-7:00 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2023/10/12/kim-shucks-poem-jam)
13 OCTOBER 2023 — friday
14 OCTOBER 2023 — saturday
- Sacramento Poetry Alliance presents a poetry reading with Gail Entrekin, Walking Each Other Home, and Stewart Florsheim, Amusing the Angels, winner of the Blue Light Book Award, fSacramento Poetry Alliance, 1169 Perkins Way, Sacramento, free, 4:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.facebook.com/sacramentopoetryalliance)
- Strawberry Creek Walk, led by Nevada County Poet Laureate emerita Chris (J.C.) Olander, with poetry, eco-dance by Sharon Coleman, and nature commentary by Elizabeth Dougherty, on an easy walk along beautiful Strawberry Creek, meet at Center and Oxford, on the edge of the UC Berkeley campus, Berkeley, free, 10:00 am PDT (510/525-5476; for updates, see: Poetryflash.org)
- Celebrate Writers, Nature & Community at the 28th annual Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, in-person poetry and music alongside the Berkeley Farmers' Market, poets and speakers to be announced, to sign up for the We Are Nature Open Mic, email with WATERSHED OPEN MIC in the subject heading, to exhibit, email for arrangements, Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park, Berkeley, free, Noon-4:30 pm PDT (510/525-5476; To sign up for open mic or to exhibit, email: info@poetryflash.org; for more information: Poetryflash.org)
15 OCTOBER 2023 — sunday
16 OCTOBER 2023 — monday
- City Lights Books presents an evening with The Third Thing Press, showcasing short readings and screenings from the press's genre-bending offerings, featuring Alissa Hattman, Sift, interdisciplinary artist Summer J. Hart, Carlos Sirah, The High Alive: an Epic Hoodoo Diptych, poet Diane Exavier, The Math of Saint Felix, media artist M Freeman, The Illuminated Space: A Personal Theory and Contemplative Practice of Media Art, and artists Rana San and Chelsea Werner-Jatzke, co-founders of the Cadence Video Poetry Festival, moderated by Anne de Marcken, editor and publisher at The Third Thing Press, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
17 OCTOBER 2023 — tuesday
- City Lights Books presents best-selling novelist Ayana Mathis, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, reading from her latest book, The Unsettled, online via Zoom, free, Noon PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
- Poet and critic Norman Finkelstein, Further Adventures, and poet Peter Waldor, Understandings and Misunderstandings, read and celebrate the launch of their new books, Specs' Twelve Adler Museum Café, 12 William Saroyan Place, San Francisco, free, 7:00-9:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.specsbarsf.com)
- Cobalt Poets presents a reading with featured poet Jasmine Elizabeth Smith, South Flight, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
18 OCTOBER 2023 — wednesday
19 OCTOBER 2023 — thursday
20 OCTOBER 2023 — friday
21 OCTOBER 2023 — saturday
22 OCTOBER 2023 — sunday
- Village Poets presents a reading by poets Ambika Talwar, 4 Stars and 25 Roses, and Susan Suntree, Eye of the Womb, with an open mic, Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Avenue, Tujunga, Los Angeles, suggested donation of $5 per person, 4:30 pm PDT (More information here: villagepoets.blogspot.com)
23 OCTOBER 2023 — monday
24 OCTOBER 2023 — tuesday
25 OCTOBER 2023 — wednesday
26 OCTOBER 2023 — thursday
- The Center for Literary Arts presents best-selling author K-Ming Chang, Bestiary, longlisted for Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, reading from her latest work, including her recent book Gods of Want and forthcoming works Organ Meat and Cecilia, Hammer Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: hammertheatre.vbotickets.com/events)
27 OCTOBER 2023 — friday
28 OCTOBER 2023 — saturday
29 OCTOBER 2023 — sunday
30 OCTOBER 2023 — monday
31 OCTOBER 2023 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents "Macabre Poetry Night," with featured poet Brendan Constantine, Bouncy Bounce and Dementia, My Darling, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
< previous month | next month >