Dear Friends of Poetry,
The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature an evening with Sacramento poet laureate Bob Stanley at 7 PM on Thursday, June 20th, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis. On the release of his new book, Language Barrier, Bob Stanley will be reading with Sacramento poets Autumn Newman and, a fan favorite, Lawrence Dinkins.
Bob Stanley studied poetry at Caltech and UCLA, and taught English and Creative Writing at Solano College, Sac City College, and Sacramento State University before retiring in 2021. President of Sacramento Poetry Center for a record 12 years, Bob has organized hundreds of poetry events, and he served as Sacramento Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2012. He has edited two anthologies: Late Peaches (2013), and Sometimes in the Open (2009). Bob’s poetry collections include Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger (Rattlesnake Press, 2009), Eleven Blue Strings (little m press, 2012), Miracle Shine (CW Books, 2013) and the e-chapbook November Sun (Random Lane Press, 2022). Bob lives in Sacramento with his wife, Joyce Hsiao, and they run online poetry seminars that help support small nonprofits. Bob’s newest collection of poems, Language Barrier, has just been published by CW Books in June 2024.
Autumn Newman will be returning to Davis to open for Bob Stanley. Newman writes poetry and book reviews. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in many journals including Pleiades, Cider Press Review, and River Heron Review, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, A Flower Burst Open, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2025. She received her BA from CSU Sacramento and her MFA in poetry from Stonecoast, and served as a Scansion Assistant for Annie Finch’s book How To Scan a Poem. Most recently she has invented the 0/30 poetry challenge so that poets with disabilities and other limitations can grow as writers without hurting their bodies or damaging their mental health. You can find Autumn on Instagram where she discusses poetry: @autumnnewman36 and on her blog where she discusses life with disability: disabled-poet.com.
The Poetry Night Reading Series is thrilled to welcome back Lawrence Dinkins for this event. NSAA (Lawrence Dinkins, Jr.) was born in Detroit, Michigan. After coming to Sacramento, he studied writing at Sacramento City College, and he has been writing poetry for nearly twenty years. Lawrence has served on the board of the Sacramento Poetry Center, and he has hosted monthly poetry events at both Mahogany Urban Poetry and Luna’s Café. Lawrence has published three collections with little m press, and his new and selected poems, Warrior Poet, was published by Random Lane Press.
This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street in Davis) at 7 PM on Thursday, June 20th, 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. There’s a good chance that creative luminary Chris Erickson may perform at the open mic this week.
Find the Facebook event for this much anticipated evening of all-star poets at https://www.facebook.com/events/819719153633825/
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/.
Future readers will include Julia Connor, Katie Peterson, 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 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, Laurie Glover, Brad Henderson, Pamela Houston, Andy Jones, Clarence Major, Sandra McPherson, Maceo Montoya, Katie Peterson, Kim Stanley Robinson, 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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