Dear Friends of Poetry,
The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature poets Alan Williamson and Jeanne Foster at 7 PM on Thursday, February 1st, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.
Alan Williamson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, who teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. He is the author of six books of poetry, most recently The Pattern More Complicated: New and Selected Poems (University of Chicago Press, 2004) and Franciscan Notes (Tupelo, 2019). He has also published a number of books of criticism, most recently Dante and the Night Journey (Anthem First Hill Books, 2023). He is the co-translator, with Jeanne Foster, of The Living Theatre: Selected Poems of Bianca Tarozzi (BOA, 2017).
A student of Robert Lowell’s and a favorite interpreter of 20th century American poetry, Professor Williamson was the director of Dr. Andy’s doctoral dissertation. Dr. Andy is excited to welcome this poetry hero back to the Natsoulas Gallery for a reading.
Jeanne Foster grew up in New Orleans. She is Professor Emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California and former minister of the Modesto Unitarian Universalist church. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals: the most recent, Literary Matters 16.1. Others include Hudson Review, The Southern Review, APR, Narrative Magazine, Paris Review. Her first poetry book, A Blessing of Safe Travel, won the Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Award. Among her other books are Goodbye, Silver Sister, poetry, Northwestern University Press: Appetite: Food as Metaphor (BOA), an anthology of poems by women; and a critical work, A Music of Grace: the Sacred in Contemporary American Poetry (Lang). She is co-translator of The Living Theatre: Selected Poems of Bianca Tarozzi (BOA), which won the Northern California Book Award for Poetry in Translation. Her latest book of poetry is Your Form Became My Own (Kelsay Books, 2023). A selection of her poems translated into Italian are scheduled to be published in 2024. Her passion is ballroom dancing and, in particular, ballroom dancing in Tuscany.
This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street in Davis) at 7 PM on Thursday, February 1st, 2024. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to four 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.
Find the Facebook event for this much anticipated evening of poetry and stories at https://www.facebook.com/events/367780685975783
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 made possible by Katerina Hanks, producer of The Poetry Night Reading Series, with support from Helaina Flores and Cami Rothmuller.
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/.
Upcoming Events:
February 15: Cami Rothmuller and a special guest
Future readers will include Kim Stanley Robinson, Julia Levine, Julia Connor, Katie Peterson, Clarence Major, Bob Stanley, Mario Hill, and other favorites.
The Poetry Night Reading Series has been committed to serving the literary and arts community in the city of Davis since 2006. 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. The more than 375 featured poets 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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