The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome the renowned poet, critic, and essayist Dana Gioia for a special reading at noon on Thursday, May 17^th at 12 P.M. He will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street.

Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet, essayist, translator, and critic.  He received his B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford University and an additional M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

He is the author of four full-length collections of poetry as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon was honored with the 2002 American Book Award. Multilingual, Gioia has translated poetry from Latin, Italian, and German. His poems, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines and journals including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has also edited numerous literary anthologies including Twentieth Century American Poetry, 100 Great Poets of the English Language, The Longman Anthology of Short Fiction, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, and Literature for Life.

He served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009 and has been referred to as “The Man Who Saved the NEA” by Business Week Magazine. Additionally, his book of essays, Can Poetry Matter? was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture. For example, it inspired the KDVS radio show “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour.”

Dana Gioia has been honored with many awards and accolades, including ten honorary degrees. He is the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California.  For more information on Dana Gioia, please visit http://www.danagioia.net/.

This performance is made possible by extra financial support from the John Natsoulas Gallery, and the Cultural Action Committee of the City of Davis.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive early for this noon event at the John Natsoulas Gallery to secure a seat. The Poetry Night Reading Series, organized and hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Pia Baur, occurs on the first and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Dana Gioia
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, May 17^th at 12 PM
Where: John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street

Media Contact: Pia Baur
poetryindavis@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery 530-756-3938
www.poetryindavis.com

The Facebook Event can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/262716263826532/

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

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

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome the poet Carlos Reyes on Thursday, May 3rd at 8 P.M. He will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street.

Carlos Reyes is a noted poet and translator who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He is a frequent traveller and has given many readings internationally, including at the Bangalore International Centre, as well as in Ecuador, Panama, Spain, and Ireland.

A finalist for the Oregon Book Award, Reyes is the recipient of numerous other accolades, including the Ethel Fortner Award from St. Andrews College. He has had fellowships across the world, including the Yaddo Fellowship, the Fundación Valparaiso in Spain, and the Heinrich Boll Fellowship in Ireland. He was the fellow for The Oregon Arts Commission; he served as the poet-in-residence of the Joshua Tree National Park, and as the writer-in-residence at the Island Institute in Sitka Alaska.

He has been published in several notable journals and anthologies, and is the author of five books of poetry; most recently, Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart (Lost Horse Press, 2011).

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 Pia Baur, occurs on the first and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Carlos Reyes
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, May 3rd at 8PM
Where: John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street

Media Contact: Pia Baur
poetry.indavis@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery 530-756-3938
www.poetryindavis.com

The Facebook Event can be accessed here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/389909354387733/

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

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

Please also plan to join us for former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, for a noon reading on Thursday, May 17^th at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome award-winning poet Molly Peacock on a special night, Wednesday, April 18th at 8 P.M. She will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street.

Molly Peacock is one of the foremost poets writing in English today. She was an honorary fellow at The Johns Hopkins University, served as Poet-in-Residence at The American Poets’ Corner, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City, and served as President of the Poetry Society of America. She has received awards from the Danforth Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Peacock has performed her one-woman show in poems, The Shimmering Verge, Off Broadway and throughout North America.

Molly Peacock is the author of six books of poetry, including The Second Blush (Norton, 2008) and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems (Norton, 2002). Among her other works are a memoir called Paradise, Piece By Piece (Riverhead Penguin, 1998) and How To Read A Poem and Start A Poetry Circle (Riverhead Penguin, 1999). She is also the editor of a collection of creative non-fiction, The Private I: Privacy in a Public World and the co-editor of Poetry in Motion: One Hundred Poems from the Subways and Buses (Norton, 1996). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, and The Best of the Best American Poetry.

Currently, she is a faculty member of the Spalding University Master of Fine Arts program and lives with her husband, James Joyce scholar Michael Groden, in Toronto.

An open mic will follow this special Wednesday night performance by Molly Peacock. Come early to claim a seat.

The Poetry Night Reading Series is grateful to the Sacramento Poetry Center and the UC Davis English Department for generously co-sponsoring this event.

Who: Molly Peacock
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Wednesday 18th, 8 pm
Where: John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street

Media Contact: Pia Baur
poetryindavis@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery 530-756-3938
www.poetryindavis.com

The facebook event can be accessed here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/368582786513080/

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

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

Scot Siegel and Laurie Glover Read at the John Natsoulas Gallery on April 5th at 8PM
This performance will be immediately followed by a preview of Relapse by the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble.

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome Scot Siegel and Laurie Glover on Thursday, April 1st at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street.

Laurie Glover is a professor in the UC Davis University Writing Program, and also teaches classes for the English department and the Humanities Program. Dr. Glover’s poems have appeared in numerous literary journals. In 1975, she was among the top five poets chosen for The Atlantic Monthly’s Young Writers Competition. Since then, her poetry has appeared in journals such as Feast, Nimrod, Terrain, and Women’s Studies. She is currently completing her first full-length collection of poetry, Three Worlds, made up of sections called “Ancient,” “Dream,” and “This.” Her most recent book, co-authored with Victor Silverman and published in 2011, is titled California (On the Road Histories).

The poet Scot Siegel grew up in the East Bay and Lake Tahoe, but has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1987. His second full-length poetry collection, Thousands Flee California Wildflowers, was released in 2012 by Salmon Poetry. Siegel’s other volumes include Some Weather, Untitled Country, and Skeleton Says. His poems are anthologized in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual (UK), Open Spaces: Voices from the Northwest (Seattle: University of Washington Press 2011), Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (Salmon Poetry 2010), and Before We Have Nowhere to Stand (Lost Horse Press 2012), among others. He was awarded a fellowship-residency from Playa in 2012, and has received awards and commendations from Aesthetica Magazine, Nimrod International, and the Oregon Poetry Association. Siegel is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and edits the online poetry journal Untitled Country Review. He lives in Oregon.

Immediately after the featured poets conclude, the Poetry Night Reading Series is pleased to present a free preview performance by the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble. Relapse, a retelling of the myth of Orpheus using the sonnets of William Shakespeare, will be performed on the third floor of the John Natsoulas gallery. The after-party will take place at de Vere’s Irish Pub, 217 E Street in Davis. The Poetry Night Reading Series, organized and hosted by Andy Jones and produced by Pia Baur, occurs on the first and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Scot Siegel and Laurie Glover (with a performance of Relapse by the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble)
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, April 5th, 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

The facebook event can be accessed here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/2290130152/

The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble’s performance information may be accessed here: http://www.facebook.com/events/398388766839961/

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis Facebook group mailing list:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2290130152&ref=ts

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome Wendy Silk, Tony Dumas, and the Science Singers on Thursday, March 15^th at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street.

Wendy Silk and the Science Singers is a group formed as a result of the UC Davis arts and science fusion program which created the course “Science and Society 42: Earth, Water, Science, and Song.” The course is taught by scientist and Professor Wendy Silk along with musician and doctoral candidate Tony Dumas. The class writes and performs a variety of different musical genres; everything from rap ballads to smooth acoustic guitar serenades. Their songs convey their understanding of the class material and include lyrics that communicate such topics as the scientific method, the hydrologic, carbon and nitrogen cycles, soil, groundwater, rivers, and spatial and temporal variation.

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 Pia Baur, occurs on the first and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Wendy Silk, Tony Dumas, and the Science Singers
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, March 15^th, 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

The facebook event can be accessed here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/385685954792931/

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis Facebook group mailing list:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2290130152&ref=ts

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud welcome to Christopher Sindt and Kitty Liang on Thursday, March 1st at 8 P.M. He will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street.

Kitty Liang was born and raised in Beijing, China, and began writing short stories in Chinese at age thirteen, and eventually in English as well. She graduated with honors from UC Davis in 2008 with a degree in English and Chinese literature. She was the recipient of the 2010 Elliot Gilbert Poetry Prize and has been published in numerous magazines and literary journals, including The Sacramento News Review, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Hobart, and Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. She has cited a number of poets as strong influences on her writing, especially Joe Wenderoth, a UC Davis faculty member in the English department. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Creative Writing at UC Davis. 

Christopher Sindt is the director of the MFA creative writing program at St. Mary’s College, where he is also Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Studies. His most recent collection of poems, The Bodies, has just been published by Parlor Press’s poetry series, Free Verse Editions. He also published a chapbook entitled The Land of Give and Take. About The Bodies Jane Miller has said, “These poems are meditative histories of the natural world. They leap into the wild of earth, of feeling, and of language.”

Sindt earned his master’s degree in creative writing and PhD in English at UC Davis and has been in residence at UC Davis this past year as a participant in the American Council on Education Fellows Program. He has also had residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Mesa Refuge, and the Blue Mountain Center, and was the recipient of the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. His recent publications appeared in Free Verse, nocturnes, Pool, Swerve, and Xantippe.

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 and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Christopher Sindt and Kitty Liang
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, March 1st, 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

The Facebook event can be accessed here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/179274538850646/

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis Facebook group mailing list:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2290130152&ref=ts

The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome Jessica Kristie and Nora Bergamino, on Thursday, February 16^th at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street in Davis.

 Nora Bergamino is a poet and graduate student in the Creative Writing Program at UC Davis. She grew up at the Jersey Shore and came to Northern California in 2003. She holds a BA in Activism and Social Change from the New College of California and spent most of the previous decade working at non-profit organizations serving the Bay Area’s LGBTQ communities. She has received support from from the Tomales Bay Writer’s Workshop and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.  She resides in Oakland.

Jessica Kristie is a poet and the Writing Curator for ArtPlatform and the Co-Creator and contributor for the ArtPlatform book Inspiration Speaks. Kristie’s first volume of poetry, Dreaming in Darkness, won the 2011 Sharp Writ Award in Poetry, and was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Jessica’s second book Threads of Life, will be released March 2012 through Winter Goose Publishing. Her first spoken word CD, Road Maps, will be released during the summer of 2012. Jessica has been published in several online and print magazines such as Zouch, Muse, A Writer’s Point of View and TwitArt Magazines.

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: Jessica Kristie and Nora Bergamino
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, February 16th, 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

You can access the facebook event here:  http://www.facebook.com/events/344750352214150/

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

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

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

Beginning its fifth year in the city of Davis, the Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome Rae Gouirand on Thursday, January 19^th at 8 P.M. She will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street.

Rae Gouirand’s poems and essays have appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Columbia, The Kenyon Review: KROnline, Seneca Review, jubilat, Spinning Jenny, Bateau, Michigan Quarterly Review, Memoir (and), and two recent volumes of the Best New Poets series, & were selected for Verse Daily‘s Best of 2010 list. Her first collection of poems, Open Winter, was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, the Four Way Books Levis Prize, the Fordham University Press Poets Out Loud Prize, Utah State University’s May Swenson Award, Ohio State University Press’ The Journal Award, CSU-Fresno’s Philip Levine Poetry Prize, the Crab Orchard Poetry Series, Persea Books’ Lexi Rudnitski Prize, the Barrow Street Press Book Prize, the Dream Horse Press Book Prize, and other awards before being selected this past July by Elaine Equi for the 2011 Bellday Prize for Poetry.

An alumna of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Michigan, Rae is the winner of the Meijer Fellowship, the Hopwood Award, and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Santa Fe Art Institute; a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize; and the recipient of a 2009 award from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation for outstanding work by emerging poets. She lives in Davis, California, teaches private workshops in poetry and creative nonfiction, and works the double shift as Education Programs Manager for Memoir Journal and Writer-in-Residence for the nation’s only conservancy-sponsored public arts program at Cache Creek Nature Preserve.

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 and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Rae Gouirand
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, January 19^th, 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

The facebook event can be accessed here: http://www.facebook.com/events/224734354260430/

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

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

Beginning its fifth year in the city of Davis, the Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome Melanie Madden and Arielle Robbins on Thursday, January 5th at 8 P.M. They will be performing at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1^st Street.

Melanie Madden earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English at UC Davis, studying 20th Century American Literature. Winner of Gonzaga University’s Costello Poetry Award, Melanie has placed poems in Gonzaga’s literary annual, Reflection, and a short story, “Limited Visibility,” in the former UC Davis literary magazine, Seele, among other literary accomplishments. In 2011, Melanie finished a memoir, her first book-length project. This fall Melanie will begin work in an MFA program in creative nonfiction.

Raised in Florida and Turkey. Arielle Robbins received the Diana Lynn Bogart Prize for Fiction and a Tomales Bay Undergraduate Fellowship in 2010. Her poetry has been featured in Poetically Correct, a poetry anthology of young writers, and her poem, “Edits to My Mother’s Life” was a finalist in the 2010 Ina Coolbrith Poetry Contest. Currently, she is finishing her undergraduate studies in English with an emphasis in creative writing at UC Davis.

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 and third Thursday of every month at the John Natsoulas Gallery.

Who: Melanie Madden and Arielle Robbins
What: The Poetry Night Reading Series
When: Thursday, January 5^th, 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

You can access the facebook event here:  http://www.facebook.com/events/297383023633032/

You are also invited to join the Poetry in Davis Facebook group mailing list:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2290130152&ref=ts