Laurel Benjamin, Caroline Goodwin, Robin Michel, Lisa Rosenberg
26 OCTOBER 2025 — sunday
Poetry Flash presents Women in a Golden State, California Poets at 60 and Beyond, an anthology celebration and contributor's reading featuring poets Laurel Benjamin, Caroline Goodwin, Robin Michel, and Lisa Rosenberg, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm (poetryflash.org).
Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series. The featured anthology 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
Laurel Benjamin's new book is Flowers on a Train. Lorette C. Luzajic says, "Laurel Benjamin has an uncanny way of getting inside you even though her words are about someone else. Her exquisite poetry stirs up memories and impressions as if you shared them. These are poems about difficult conversations and loneliness, of beauty and regret. The bridge between reader and writer is made of art and jazz and faded photographs, of beloved poets whose words inspire hers and ours." Her poems have appeared in Lily Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Taos Journal of Poetry, Mom Egg Review, and elsewhere.
Caroline Goodwin's recent books include Old Snow, White Sun; Madrigals; Trapline; and The Paper Tree. Aileen Cassinetto says, "Exquisite and precise, Caroline Goodwin's newest poetry collection, Old Snow, White Sun…traverses various terrains with grace and a commitment to astonishment. Ferocity and decaying bodies populate these poems but also tenderness and rhythmic hope. Find in these poems a heron, a river, a hurricane, a floodgate, a levee, a story. "The one where the girl is strong enough. The one where she survives." Where she dwells and how she rises. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University, She lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Robin Michel is the author of the award-winning chapbook, Things Will Be Better in Bountiful, and the full-length collection, Beneath a Strawberry Night Sky. She is a professional writer, editor, and creative writing instructor. Her poetry and fiction have been widely published in print and online journals. Her honors include awards from the Mendocino Coast Writers' Conference, and Soul-Making Keats Awards (poetry and fiction); she has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. She founded Raven & Wren Press in 2019, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lisa Rosenberg's most recent collection is A Different Physics, winner of the American Legacy Book Award for Poetry. A former space program engineer trained as a physicist, her work has been recognized by a Djerassi Leonardo Residency, Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and MOSAIC America Fellowship. She served as the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County and is a frequent speaker on the confluence of the arts and sciences. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Plume, Poetry, and California Fire & Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology.


Daily Listings
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13 AUGUST 2026 — thursday
- Hollie Hardy presents a six-session poetry revision workshop with the goal of refining toward publication in a generous and supportive environment, meeting August 13 to October 22, alternating Thursdays, for written feedback and small group workshops, bring new or old work, optional revision prompts also provided, online via Zoom, $475, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm (Sign up at: holliehardy.com/shop/p/poetry-revision-workshop-fall-2026)
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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