Dear Friends of Poetry,
The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature an evening with poets Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas and Rina Wakefield at 7 PM on Thursday, July 18th, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, with an MFA in Writing. She is a thirteen-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012, she won the Red Ochre Chapbook Contest with her manuscript, Before I Go to Sleep. In 2018, her book In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for The CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, and her poem “A Mall in California” took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. In 2019, her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. In 2021, her collection, Alice in Ruby Slippers, was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize and awarded an honorable mention in the Poetry category. Her work can be found online and in print and has been featured in Mezzo Cammin, Verse Daily, and many other journals. She is a former editor-in-chief for Tule Review and The Orchards Poetry Journal. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Women’s Wisdom Art, an organization in Sacramento that supports women’s wellness through creativity in all forms. Her latest collections of poetry, Handful of Stallions at Twilight (Finishing Line Press) and A Shared and Sacred Space (Kelsay Books), have both been released in the summer of 2024.
Rina Wakefield is an active poet and speaker throughout El Dorado County and beyond. She is a collaborating artist in Myrtle Tree Arts, the producer for Storytelling Sunday at The Green Room, and the associate producer for the podcast Placertopia, all in Placerville, CA. Rina is dedicated to activism and an advocate for bringing the voices of underserved and underrepresented artists into the forefront of the arts community.
Rina was published in Art and Culture El Dorado’s chapbook Poets of the Firehouse Sessions, 2023. Her poetry has been featured in The Mountain Democrat and the literary journals Community Soliloquies, Lantern Magazine, and Coalesce. Rina is a Master’s Degree candidate studying Library Science with a focus on Cultural Archives at San Jose State University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature from Sacramento State University.
She is currently working on a prose poetry chapbook, as well as a creative non-fiction novel based on the female lineage of her Indigenous heritage. Her family line comes from the Purepecha people of the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico.
This event will take place on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street in Davis) at 7 PM on Thursday, July 18th, 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 at
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.
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:
August 1st: Participating Poets help to launch the new edition of Voices from Cold River Press
August 15th: Mercedes Ibanez
September 5th: Joshua McKinney and Susa Kelly-DeWitt
September 19th: Tana Jean Welch
October 3rd: Kacper Bartczak
October 17th: Tim Hunt
November 7: Julia Levine and Murray Silverstein
Please Google any of these poets to discover their many poetic accomplishments. Additional 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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