Beginning its fifth year in the city of Davis, the Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome a UC Davis poetry favorite, Alan Williamson, on Thursday, February 2nd at 8 P.M. He will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street in Davis.

One of the most important poet-critics of his generation, Alan Williamson has received a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship. Williamson has taught for the UC Davis English Department since 1983, having previously taught at the University of Virginia, Harvard University, and Brandeis University.

Alan Williamson studied poetry with Robert Lowell at Harvard University, earning a Ph.D. in 1969. While Williamson published numerous works, including both literary criticism and his own poetry, Williamson’s Pity the Monsters: The Political Vision of Robert Lowell (1974) helped distinguish him as an esteemed poet-critic. Some of his other poetry collections include, “Love and the Soul” (The University of Chicago Press, 1995) and “The Muse of Distance” (Knopf, 1988). The University of Chicago Press stated that Williamson was “the unequalled detective of the mythic reverberations behind the psyche’s complex inner weather.”

The new millennium brought new works by Williamson. The Pattern More Complicated: New and Selected Poems (2004) inspired this praise from the University of Chicago Press: “Williamson’s verse is a refreshing example of how delicately the personal can intersect with the public in a love for the considered life . . . and the recurrence of themes across the span of four previous collections [presents] a survey of a major American poet in a single volume.” Professor Williamson directed Dr. Andy’s dissertation, and continues to be a favorite poet and professor of many students and faculty at UC Davis and beyond.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at the John Natsoulas Gallery to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The open mic list is usually full by the time the featured poet is introduced at 8pm. The Poetry Night Reading Series, organized and hosted by Andy Jones, occurs on the first and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Alan Williamson

What: The Poetry Night Reading Series

When: Thursday, February 2^nd, 8 pm

Where: John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street

Media Contact: Andy Jones

poetryindavis@gmail.com

The John Natsoulas Gallery 530-756-3938

www.poetryindavis.com

Find the Facebook page for this event at:

http://www.facebook.com/events/240796659330001/

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis Facebook group mailing list:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2290130152&ref=ts

Dr. Andy Jones is a poet, MC, faculty member at UC Davis, radio talk show host, academic technology center academic director, and public speaker. Andy has taught writing and literature classes at the University of California, Davis since 1990, and since 2000 has hosted “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour” on KDVS, Wednesday afternoons at 5:00 P.M. Among the 1,000 guests he has interviewed on the radio show have been Sherman Alexie, Margaret Atwood, Ian MacKaye, and Gary Snyder. Andy also coordinates and hosts the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California (first and third Thursdays at the John Natsoulas Gallery).

His poems have appeared in many small journals and newspapers, including Poetry Digest, Epicenter, A Light Left On, The Homestead Review, Snakeskin, The Blue Moon Literary and Art Review, and The Sacramento News and Review. Andy is working on a variety of book projects, including a book on creativity and professional development, and a book on parenting (co-authored by his wife, Kate). His next poetry book, newly in search of a publisher, is titled Cages. Andy’s last book of poetry, Split Stock, was published in 2006. He has performed poetry throughout Northern California, and in Nara, Japan.

Monday’s reading will feature outrageous personae poems, a few Jukie poems, and a light roasting (a toasting, really) of Sacramento Poetry Center and Sacramento Poet Laureate Bob Stanley, who will be present. I have given more solo readings in Japan than in California in recent years, so I hope you will consider joining me in Sacramento Monday to hear some of my new work, and some (of my) old favorites. An open mic follows.

Andy Jones Reads Original Poetry

Monday, November 14^th

7:30 PM

The Sacramento Poetry Center

1719 25^th Street (at 25^th and R Streets)

Sacramento, CA

The Facebook event can be accessed here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=192572734156357

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome poets Briony Gylgayton and Patricia Killelea on Thursday, June 16^th at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street.

A recent graduate of UC Davis, Briony Gylgayton has won multiple awards for her writing, including placing second for the University of California system-wide 2010 Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize, and placing for both creative writing categories in the 2010 Pamela Maus Contest for Creative Writing, winning first in fiction and second in poetry. Her Creative Writing Honors Thesis, a manuscript of poetry about psychological disorders, was awarded the 2010 Elliot Gilbert Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Honors Creative Work. Briony Gylgayton will begin her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in August, 2011.

Patricia Killelea is the author of the new poetry collection Other Suns, now available from Swan Scythe Press (2011). Originally from the Bay Area, California, Patricia has placed her poems in The Seizure State, The Tule Review, and Suisun Valley Review, among others. She is currently a doctoral student in Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis, and holds an M.A. in English & Creative Writing, also from the University of California at Davis. She has taught the Introduction to Native American Literature course at UCD since Fall 2009.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at the John Natsoulas Gallery to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series, organized and hosted by Andy Jones, occurs on the first Wednesday of the month at Bistro 33, and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Briony Gylgayton and Patricia Killelea

What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, June 16^th, 2011 at 8 pm
Where: John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1^st Street
Media Contact: Andy Jones
poetryindavis@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery – 756-3938

www.poetryindavis.com

Find the Facebook event for this event at:

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis mailing list on Facebook at:

Australian writer and poet Pippa Whishaw and Dr. Andy Jones are excited to present a special event, The Sustainable Poetry Variety Show, on Thursday June 2^nd at 4 P.M. Poets, musicians and other talented artists will perform outside on the front porch of the Turtle House at 217 2^nd Street, Davis, on the theme of “Sustainability.”

Featuring is Spring Warren, author of a new book, The Quarter-Acre Farm, an account of deciding—despite all resistance—to take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden the yard of her Davis home. It’s a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating. Longtime Davis resident Spring Warren graduated from Black Hills State College in Spearfish, South Dakota and received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis. Her novel Turpentine (Grove Atlantic, 2008) received Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Award, the bronze medal in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year for Historic Fiction, and was a recommended title of the New York Center for Independent Publishing. She will be reading from The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year.

Also featuring is Eskimo Pie. A certified docent and gardener for the UC Davis Arboretum, Eskimo Pie is a longtime board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center, and the author of several chapbooks, including Eskimo Pie Girl Dreams (1997), Matsuyoi: 50 Haiku for the Moon (2000), The Cook Inlet Poems (2005), Border Crossing (2006), A Celtic Epic (2007), and 200 San Juan Ridge Haiku for Lew Welch (2008). She has placed poems in dozens of local and national journals, and has worked as a poetry and journal editor for more than 25 years.

This is an inaugural event. Anyone is welcome to come. There will be a small open microphone section after the main reading on the theme of Sustainability or anything related; please sign up at the beginning of the show.

Who: Spring Warren, Eskimo Pie and other talented poets, musicians and artists

What: Sustainable Poetry Variety Show

When: Thursday June 2^nd at 4 P.M.

Where: Front Porch of the Turtle House, 217 2^nd Street Davis

Media Contact:
pippawhishaw@gmail.com

www.poetryindavis.com
The Facebook page for this event is:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194095013969742

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome poet Dennis Schmitz to the Bistro 33 stage on Wednesday, June 1^st at 8:30 P.M.

Dennis Schmitz is the author of several books of poetry, including We Weep for Our Strangeness (1969), Double Exposures (1971), Goodwill, Inc (1976), String (1980), Singing (1985), Eden (1989), About the Night: Selected and New Poems (1993) and more recently, The Truth Squad (2002). His work has also appeared in the Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, The Nation, Paris Review, the Chicago Review and Zyzzyva. Schmitz has received numerous awards, including the di Castagnola Award for best book-in-progress, the Shelley Memorial Award for distinguished achievement, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1976, 1985 and 1992. He co-edited the poetry section of the 20th volume of the Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Schmitz graduated from Loras College and the University of Chicago, and has taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and for more than thirty years at California State University in Sacramento, where he now lives. His students have included Raymond Carver, Charlene Ungstad and Gary Short.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at Bistro 33 to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series, hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Brad Henderson, occurs on the first Wednesday of the month at Bistro 33 at 8:30 P.M., and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 8 P.M. There is an open microphone segment after the main reading, at 9:30 at Bistro 33 and 9:00 at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Dennis Schmitz

What: The Poetry Night Reading Series

When: Wednesday, June 1^st at 8:30 P.M.
Where: Bistro 33, at 226 F Street

Media Contact:
PoetryinDavis@gmail.com

Find the Facebook page for this event at:

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis mailing list on Facebook at:

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome poets Lawrence Dinkins and Josh Fernandez on Thursday, May 19^th at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street.

Lawrence Dinkins [a.k.a. NSAA, pronounced en-sah-ah] is a dynamic and expressive Sacramento poet whose poems attack injustice and inhumanity. NSAA explores the African American experience, commenting on youth movements, musical rhythms, and social justice. He makes up half of the Jazz-performance duo Electropoetic Coffee. He has just released a new book, Sub American, a collection of poems dealing with the concept of being a hyphenated American. In the book he explores a broad range of topics ranging from President Bush and Hurricane Katrina to the Civil Rights Movement.

Josh Fernandez was born in Denver, raised in metropolitan California and now lives and works in Midtown Sacramento where he attends CSU Sacramento as a master’s candidate in the English Department. He writes for Spin.com, Boulder Weekly, San Antonio Current and the Sacramento News and Review. His poetry is widely published, and he is often asked to speak on ethnic diversity, abuse and addiction, and his background as a writer and poet. Fernandez was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his poem “The Last Thing He Said.” Josh Fernandez’s first, full-length collection of poems, Spare Parts and Dismemberment, was released May 1 on R.L. Crow Press, and it was reviewed in this week’s Sacramento News and Review.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at the John Natsoulas Gallery to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series, organized and hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Brad Henderson, occurs on the first Wednesday of the month at Bistro 33, and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Lawrence Dinkins and Josh Fernandez

What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, May 19^th, 2011
Where: John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1^st Street
Media Contact:
Andy Jones
poetryindavis@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery – 756-3938

www.poetryindavis.com

Find the Facebook event for this event at:

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis mailing list on Facebook at:

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome poet and novelist Greg Glazner to the Bistro 33 stage on Wednesday, May 4^th at 8:30 P.M. (new time!)

Born in Anson, Texas, Greg Glazner earned a BA from Hardin-Simmons University, and an MA and MFA from the University of Montana. Glazner’s books of poetry include From the Iron Chair, which won the prestigious Walt Whitman Award, and Singularity, both published by W.W. Norton. He has also been awarded the Bess Hokin Award for Poetry and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, Glazner is completing a multi-genre novel, Rag in a Loud Wind. Sections of the novel have appeared in magazines including Seneca Review, Ploughshares, Colorado Review, Idaho Review, and Iron Horse Literary Review. He is currently a visiting writer teaching advanced poetry seminars at UC Davis.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at Bistro 33 to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series, hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Brad Henderson, occurs on the first Wednesday of the month at Bistro 33 at 8:30 P.M., and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 8 P.M. There is an open microphone segment after the main reading, at 9:30 at Bistro 33 and 9:00 at the John Natsoulas Gallery. We hope you can join us on May 4th!

Who: Greg Glazner

What: The Poetry Night Reading Series

When: Wednesday, May 4^th, 8:30 P.M.

Where: Bistro 33, at 226 F Street

Media Contact:
PoetryinDavis@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery – 756-3938

Find the Facebook page for this event at:

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis mailing list on Facebook at:

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome poet, translator, and educator Chana Bloch to the Bistro 33 stage on Wednesday, February 2^nd at 8 P.M.

The subject of an entire panel at the most recent meeting of the Modern Language Association, Chana Bloch is the author of four books of poems: The Secrets of the Tribe, The Past Keeps Changing, Mrs. Dumpty, and Blood Honey. She is co-translator of the biblical Song of Songs and six books of contemporary Israeli poetry, including The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai and his magnum opus, Open Closed Open, and Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch. She is also the author of a critical study, Spelling the Word: George Herbert and the Bible.

The book awards of Chana Bloch include the Poetry Society of America’s Di Castagnola Award for Blood Honey, the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry for Mrs. Dumpty, the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, and the Book of the Year Award of the Conference on Christianity and Literature for Spelling the Word. Her work has appeared in many journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Field, Kenyon Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, Poetry and Threepenny Review, and has been reprinted in the Best American Poems, The Pushcart Prize, and other anthologies. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, in poetry and in translation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Bloch now serves as poetry editor of Persimmon Tree, an online journal of the arts by women over sixty. She is a Professor Emerita of English at Mills College, where she taught for over thirty years and directed the Creative Writing Program.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at Bistro 33 to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series, hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Brad Henderson, occurs on the first Wednesday of the month at Bistro 33, and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery, both at 8 P.M., with an open microphone segment at 9 P.M.

Who: Chana Bloch

What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Wednesday, February 2^nd, 8pm
Where: Bistro 33, at 226 F Street

Media Contact:
PoetryinDavis@gmail.com
www.poetryindavis.com

Please visit www.poetryindavis.com to sign up for the Poetry Night mailing list.
The Facebook page for this event is:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121390057934435

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis mailing list on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2290130152&ref=ts

Note: Bryan Dietrich, originally scheduled to perform on February 2^nd, will be unable to join us because of a family emergency. We are grateful to Chana Bloch for agreeing to step in to share her poetry with so little notice.

Come to the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street) at 8:00 tonight for the Second Annual Confluence College Poetry Tour!

John Murillo is the author of the poetry collection, Up Jump the Boogie. His work has appeared in such publications as Callaloo, Court Green, Ninth Letter, and Ploughshares, and is forthcoming in Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of African-American Poetry.  His choreo-play, Trigger, has been commissioned by Edgeworks Dance Theater and is scheduled for production in Spring of 2011.
Dorine Jennette’s essays, poems, and reviews have appeared in journals such as Puerto del Sol, the Journal, Ninth Letter, Coconut, the Los Angeles Review, and the Georgia Review. Her work has also appeared in the anthology, Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes, by C&R Press. Jennette’s new book, Urchin to Follow, was recently published by The National Poetry Review Press.
Lawrence Dinkins [a.k.a. NSAA, pronounced en-sah-ah] is a dynamic and expressive Sacramento poet whose poems attack injustice and inhumanity. NSAA explores the African American experience, and transcends it, commenting on youth movements, musical rhythms, and social justice.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early at the John Natsoulas Gallery to secure a seat, and to sign up for a spot on the Open Mic list. The Poetry Night Reading Series, hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Brad Henderson, occurs on the first Wednesday of the month at Bistro 33, and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery, both at 8 P.M., with an open microphone segment at 9 P.M.

We hope to see you there!