Dear Friends of Poetry,
Our April 17th, Poetry Night will feature local poets Julia B. Levine and Susan Browne. We meet at 7 PM on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, and we hope you can join us! The temperatures will be in the high 60s at 7 PM and then dip down to 59 degrees by the time we finish. Please dress in layers.
Julia B. Levine is the poet laureate emerita of the City of Davis. Levine’s poetry has won many awards, including a 2021 Nautilus Award for her fifth poetry collection, Ordinary Psalms, (LSU press, 2021), as well as the 2015 Northern California Book Award in Poetry for her fourth collection, Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight, (LSU, 2014).
Recently she has won a 2024 Pushcart Prize in Poetry, the 2024 Terrain Poetry Prize, 2023 Oran Perry Burke Award in Poetry from The Southern Review, as well as a 2022 American Academy of Poetry Poet Laureate Fellowship for her work in building resilience in teenagers related to climate change through poetry, science, and technology. Her work has appeared in many literary journals, including, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review and Prairie Schooner. She earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of California, Berkeley and an MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Her chapbook, Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction, won the Wolfson Poetry Prize and will be published in early fall, 2025.
Reading with Julia B. Levine will be Susan Browne.
Susan Browne’s fourth collection, Monster Mash, was published in March of 2025 from Four Way Books. Her poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, The Sun, Subtropics, The Southern Review, Superstition Review, Rattle, New Ohio Review, B O D Y, American Life in Poetry, and 180 More, Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. She has published three previous books of poetry, Buddha’s Dogs, Zephyr, and Just Living. Her poetry awards include prizes from Four Way Books, the Los Angeles Poetry Festival, the River Styx International Poetry Contest, The Fischer Poetry Prize, and the James Dickey Poetry Prize. She received a fellowship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. She has also collaborated to create a word/music CD. Her third collection, Just Living, won the Catamaran Poetry Prize. She lives in Northern California.
The open mic tonight starts at 8. Performers will be asked to limit their sharings to two items or four minutes whichever is shorter. The open mic list is typically full by 6:45. People who show up early to help set up chairs will always earn a spot on the open mic list. Thanks to the producer of Poetry Night, Robby Nykodym.
Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting https://www.poetryindavis.com. Encourage 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/. Also, see some of his recent essays on Substack: https://andyjones.substack.com/.
In 2025, we will feature the poets Robby Nykodym, Oswaldo Vargas, Patrick Grizzell, Chris Erickson, Dane Cervine, Brad Buchanan, and many more.
Upcoming Events:
April 17 – Julia Levine and Susan Browne, on the roof
May 1 – Patrick Grizzell and Oswaldo Vargas, on the roof
May 15 – Mary Mackey and Robby Nykodym, on the roof
Please plan to join us on every first and third Thursday of the month at 7 PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery for the Poetry Night Reading Series.
Fondly yours,
Dr. Andy Jones
Host, The Poetry Night Reading Series
