Dear Friends of Poetry,
The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature authors Pam Houston, Shayne Langford, and Ibe Liebenberg at 7 PM on Thursday, June 8th, 2023, on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis. This event was rescheduled from May 4 – thanks for joining us for a rare second Thursday event!
Pam Houston is the author of the memoir, Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, as well as two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton.
Her stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards.
She teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and is co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at 9,000 feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.
Shayne Langford is a writer from rural Northern California. He worked as a fly fishing guide in Southwestern Colorado while earning an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis, where he now teaches in the English Department. Dr. Andy has performed the Shayne Langford story “Eggs” at Stories on Stage, Davis.
Ibe Liebenberg is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. He lives in Chico, California and works as a firefighter for the state, and a lecturer at Chico State University. He recently graduated with an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts. His work has been published in POETRY Magazine, The ThreePenny Review, Ecotone, North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Sugar House Review, American Journal of Poetry, and is forthcoming in Blackbird and Poetry Northwest. He recently was the winner of the 2023 Tribal College Journals student creative writing competition in both poetry and fiction.
This event will take place on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street) at 7 PM on Thursday, June 8th, 2023. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to three minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. As Robert Southey says, “Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” The open mic list typically fills by 6:50 PM, so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour. Attendees who request to be added to the list after 7 PM will be invited to try again at a subsequent event.
Because this event will take place on the gallery roof, please plan to dress in layers. It is likely to be warm at the start, followed by a rapid drop in temperature as the sun goes down. Please wear a mask when indoors at the John Natsoulas Gallery.
The Facebook event page for the June 8th, 2023 Poetry Night can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1298490611016797
The Poetry Night Reading Series, taking place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. This event is supported by Katerina Hanks, producer of The Poetry Night Reading Series.
Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting https://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, check out his weekly podcast at https://poetrytechnology.buzzsprout.com/ and his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.
Upcoming Poetry Night Events:
June 8th: Pam Houston, Shayne Langford, and Ibe Liebenberg
June 15th: Richard Robbins and Thomas Mitchell
July 6th: Erin Rodoni and Paul Aponte
July 20th: Susan Flynn and Jemi McDonald
Future readers will include Lee Herrick, Joe Wenderoth, Indigo Moor, Kim Stanley Robinson, Alan Williamson, Jeanne Foster, Lisa Rosenberg, Iris Dunkle, Julia Connor, Clarence Major, and other favorites.
The Poetry Night Reading Series has been committed to serving the literary and arts community in the city of Davis since 2011. Happening every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at the Natsoulas Gallery, each reading contains two featured poets followed by an open mic. Poetry in Davis was voted “Best Open Mic” in The California Aggie’s “Best of Davis″ edition and has been featured in Davis Life Magazine. Readers have included UC Davis faculty Francisco X. Alarcón, John Boe, Zinzi Clemmons, Joshua Clover, Jack Forbes, Sandra Gilbert, Brad Henderson, Pamela Houston, Clarence Major, Sandra McPherson, Katie Peterson, Margaret Ronda, Joe Wenderoth, and Alan Williamson, as well as many regional and traveling poets, including Molly Peacock, Jane Hirshfield, Dana Gioia, and James Ragan.
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Twitter- @poetryindavis
Instagram- @davispoetrynight
Facebook: Poetry in Davis
