Dear Friends of Poetry,
On Thursday, May 21, 2026, Poetry Night will feature the poets Molly Fisk and Kirsten Casey. We meet at 7 p.m. inside the spacious John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street in Davis, and we hope you can join us!
Our featured poet for May 21 will be Molly Fisk.
Born in San Francisco, poet Molly Fisk earned a BA at Radcliffe College/Harvard University and an MBA at Simmons College Graduate School of Management.
Molly Fisk’s new book, Walking Wheel: Poems, was published by Red Hen Press on April 7, 2026. Fisk is also the author of the poetry collections The More Difficult Beauty (2010), Listening to Winter (2000), and Terrain (1998) and a volume of radio essays, Blow-Drying a Chicken: Observations from a Working Poet (2013).
Fisk’s honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Marin Arts Council, and the California Arts Council as well as a Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize in Poetry, a Dogwood Prize, and a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Fisk served as Nevada County’s poet laureate from 2017 to 2019. She lives in Nevada City, California.
Opening the evening of poetry will be Kirsten Casey.
Kirsten Casey served as Nevada County Poet Laureate from 2021 to 2025. A longtime member of California Poets in the Schools, she also serves as regional coordinator for the organization. She earned her M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Her first full-length poetry collection, Ex Vivo: Out of the Living Body (Hip Pocket Press, 2012), draws on unusual stories, striking language, and the mysteries of the human body. Her recent manuscript, Grieving Birds, which explores historical and literary figures grappling with social media and modern life, was a finalist for the Gunpowder Press Dryden-Vreeland Poetry Prize.
In 2019, Casey taught high school workshops as part of Molly Fisk’s Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship project and co-edited California Fire & Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology, which includes one of her poems. Casey has lived in Nevada City for more than three decades with her husband and is the mother of three grown children, who, she says, patiently assist her with technology.
You are invited to visit the Facebook page for this event.
Doors and open-mic signups open at 6:30 p.m.; the first featured reader begins at 7 p.m.; open mic starts at 8 p.m. Open mic performers will be asked to limit what they share to two items or four minutes, whichever is shorter. The open mic list is typically full by 6:45 p.m. People who show up early to help set up chairs will always earn a spot on the open mic list. We expect open mic favorites Michael Gallowglas, Mercedes Ibañez, Joe Bacchus, and Allegra Silberstein to perform.
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, see some of his recent essays on Substack: https://andyjones.substack.com/. One post lists the almost 400 poets who have ever featured at the Poetry Night Reading Series.
Upcoming Poetry Night readers will include Kelli Russell Agodon, Katie Peterson, Wendy Silk, Dianna Henning, Lara Gularte, Terry Moore, Julia Levine, and others.
Please plan to join us on every first and third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at the John Natsoulas Gallery for the Poetry Night Reading Series.
Our Poetry Night Schedule for 2026:
June 4 — Bill O’Daly and Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
June 18 — Robin Becker and Danielle LeMay
July 2 — Dianna Henning and Lara Gularte
