Poetry Reading with John Brantingham at the John Natsoulas Gallery
The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to feature visiting distinguished poet John Brantingham! He will perform on Thursday, February 20th at the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st street in Davis.
JOHN BRANTINGHAM was the first poet laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and the writer-in-residence at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona, California. He is a professor of English at Mt. San Antonio College where he coordinates the creative writing program and runs the yearly creative writing conference, Culturama. Along with his wife Ann, he has built a creative writing and arts community in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. They are also opening their new venture, The California Imagism Gallery in Ontario, California this spring.
John Brantingham’s work has appeared in hundreds of magazines including Writer’s Almanac, The Journal, Tears in the Fence, and Confrontation. He has been nominated for ten Pushcart Prizes and won a spot in The Best Small Fictions 2016 and was a semifinalist in The Best Small Fictions 2018. He is a fiction editor for the Chiron Review.
Brantingham is the co-creator of the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival and the Valley Poets Reading Series which has featured writers and poets from around the world and which seeks to create a vibrant literary community for the residents of San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys. He also serves as the president for the non-profit that funds the festival.
Brantingham is a widely sought speaker and educator. Along with teaching at his home institution, Mt. SAC, he has taught advanced courses in literary writing for NYU Shanghai, the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, and Cal State, Long Beach. He has read across the United States and in China, Canada, England, and Wales.
Brantingham co-edited The L.A. Fiction Anthology (Red Hen Books). His fifteen fiction and poetry collections include East of Los Angeles (Anaphora Literary Press), The Green of Sunset (Moon Tide Press), Let Us All Pray Now To Our Own Strange Gods (World Parade Books), Crossing the High Sierra (Cholla Needles Press), and California Continuum: Volume 1 (Pelekinesis Press), with Grant Hier.
In the summers, he and his wife teach free art and writing classes in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
Arrive early (about 7:35) to sign up for a spot on the open mic that will follow the readings by our featured poet. Hopeful readers who arrive after 7:40 will unfortunately find the list to be full, so please bring your short stories, poems, and songs to share. Participants will be asked to limit their performances to four minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. Performers with instruments are especially welcomed.
The Poetry Night Reading Series is hosted by Davis poet laureate emeritus Dr. Andy Jones and is supported by his team of elite 2020 interns.
“Writing is an act of reclamation and revolution. It is a dance with power.” Rae Gouirand
Media Contact: Andy Jones
aojones@gmail.com
The John Natsoulas Gallery ~ (530) 756-3938
Find the Facebook page for this event at https://www.facebook.com/events/1252125048509600/
