
Cintia Santana
Photo: Rewa Bush
Cintia Santana and Dan Alter
28 APRIL 2024 — sunday
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).
Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series.
Featured books for this reading will be available for signing at the event and at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash. This event will be posted on the Poetry Flash YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UClwdR-uPFNz7XxbBbLcnoEA.
MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Dan Alter's debut poetry collection is My Little Book of Exiles. Matthew Zapruder says, "'Could I have come from nowhere,' asks this poet, who searches his irretrievable past and mysterious present for meaning. Through gorgeous, ambitious, impeccable lyrics, provisionally and with a deep reverence for mysteries, he finds it again and again. This smart, funny, sad, kind book is an act of salvage, and solidarity, a pleasure to read, a wonderful achievement and a gift to us all." Dan Alter's writing can be understood as a spanning of many worlds and distances. He has published poems widely in journals including Field, Fourteen Hills, Pank, and ZYZZYVA. He has been a fellow of the Arad Arts Project, and a finalist for the Rosenberg Award for Poems on the Jewish Experience. He is a member of the Community of Writers at Olympic Valley, and holds an MFA from Saint Mary's College of California. He makes his living as an electrician and lives in Berkeley.
Cintia Santana's debut poetry collection, The Disordered Alphabet, was short-listed for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance 2023 Golden Poppy Award in Poetry and received the 2023 North American Book Award's Silver Medal in Poetry. David Baker says, "Cintia Santana is a superb new poet, serving up gusts of generative energy and acute intelligence. There's wordplay galore in The Disordered Alphabet, but so much more: temptation and swoon, confession, exposure, and the kind of daring formal agitation that accomplishes one rigorous shape after another to enable Santana's discoveries and her complex harmonic voicings. The alphabet may be disordered, and the cosmos awhirl, but this book is a crystalline achievement of rapture, balance, and brilliance." Santana's poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2016 and 2020, the Best of the Net Anthology 2023, Poets.org, Poetry Daily, Split this Rock, and numerous journals. Her honors include fellowships from CantoMundo and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. She teaches literary translation and poetry workshops in Spanish and in English at Stanford University.


Daily Listings
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14 AUGUST 2026 — friday
- Artists' Television Access, City Lights, and PM Press present a four-day seven-film Guy Debord retrospective hosted by Ken Knabb, translator and radical theorist, to celebrate release of The Cinema Must Be Destroyed: The Films of Guy Debord, along with recent re-releases of other works by Ken Knabb, today's program features "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni," Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, $10, 7:00 pm (citylights.com/events/the-cinema-must-be-destroyed-the-films-of-guy-debord)
- Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore presents Robert Hass, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and 1995-1997 US Poet Laureate, introducing his new book A Third Commonness: Essays on Poetry, Poetics, and the Natural World, in conversation with Brenda Hillman, book signing to follow, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm (THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT, RSVP TO JOIN WAIT LIST: mrsdalloways.com/event/2026-08-14/robert-hass-third-commonness)
15 AUGUST 2026 — saturday
- Artists' Television Access, City Lights, and PM Press present a four-day seven-film Guy Debord retrospective hosted by Ken Knabb, translator and radical theorist, to celebrate release of The Cinema Must Be Destroyed: The Films of Guy Debord, along with recent re-releases of other works by Ken Knabb, today's program features "Guy Debord: His Art and His Time," Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, $10, 7:00 pm (citylights.com/events/the-cinema-must-be-destroyed-the-films-of-guy-debord)
- San Francisco Public Library Bernal Heights presents Sally Love Saunders to discuss poetic process and read from her new poetry collection Sally's Casserole, San Francisco Public Library, Bernal Heights Branch, 500 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, free, 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, reservation required: call (415) 355-2810, email bhemfr@sfpl.org, or sign in at the library reference desk (sfpl.org/events/2026/08/15/author-sally-love-saunders-sallys-casserole)
16 AUGUST 2026 — sunday
17 AUGUST 2026 — monday
18 AUGUST 2026 — tuesday
19 AUGUST 2026 — wednesday
- In anticipation of the upcoming releases of A Crown of Thorns and Roses The Acotar Countdown Book Club is revisitng the romantasy saga by Sara J. Maas, 2945 College Avenue, Berkeley, $30, 6:30 pm (www.booksociety.social/event-details/the-acotar-countdown-book-club-2026-08-19-18-30)
- Pegasus Books Downtown presents Devyn Defoe, celebrating the release of her debut novel Burnside, in conversation with novelist Kate Folk, Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:00 pm (pegasusbookstore.com/event/2026-08-19/devyn-defoe-burnside-kate-folk)
20 AUGUST 2026 — thursday
21 AUGUST 2026 — friday
22 AUGUST 2026 — saturday
- Berkeley Poetry Festival presents "Poetry Takes Root," a free community fundraiser, the celebration features poetry readings by Natasha Dennerstein, Jennifer Hasegawa, and James Cagney, along with music, dance, refreshments, community prizes, and opportunities to support Berkeley Poetry Festival; funds raised will help the organization expand its programs, partnerships, and opportunities for poets and audiences; Donkey & Goat Winery, 1340 Fifth Street, Berkeley, 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm, free/donations encouraged (For information and accessibility inquiries, email: theberkeleypoetryfestival@gmail.com, or visit www.berkeleypoetryfestival.com)
23 AUGUST 2026 — sunday
24 AUGUST 2026 — monday
25 AUGUST 2026 — tuesday
26 AUGUST 2026 — wednesday
- Bathers Library presents Summer Symposium, a five-day series of talks, readings, workshops, screenings, performances, and gatherings, August 26-30, Wednesday-Sunday, schedule TBA second week of August, Bathers Library, 2310 Telegraph Avenue, and other venues around Oakland, early-bird tickets $40-$100, regular tickets $60-$120, volunteers welcome (Tickets available: bathers-library.square.site/product/summer-symposium-2026-early-bird-passes/ENFWV7WZ6GLFVGRVNMG5JIJV?cs=true&cst=custom&utm_source=bathers-library.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=summer-symposium-2026)
27 AUGUST 2026 — thursday
28 AUGUST 2026 — friday
29 AUGUST 2026 — saturday
- Fourth Saturdays Poetry at the Claremont Library presents a reading by Anna Zumbahlen, poet and educator, and Serena Chopra, poet and multidisciplinary artist, Helen Renwick Library, 208 North Harvard Avenue, Claremont, free, 2:00 pm (www.claremontlibrary.org/monthly-poetry-readings.html)
30 AUGUST 2026 — sunday
31 AUGUST 2026 — monday
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