Dear Friends of Poetry,
Please join us on Thursday, November 5, 2026, Poetry Night will feature the poets Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas and Heather Judy. We meet at 7 p.m. inside the John Natsoulas Gallery at 521 1st Street in Davis, and we hope you can join us!
The opener for our November 5 Poetry Night is Heather Judy.
Heather Judy is a poet and artist living in Sacramento. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Mills College in 2009. Before attending Mills, she received her BA in English from CSU, Sacramento where she won the 2005 Bazzanella Award for first place in poetry. Her poems have appeared in Tule Review, The California Quarterly, Flatmancrooked’s Thin Volume of Contemporary Poetry, and others. She is currently on staff at Tule Review, and co-curates for the Sacramento Poetry Center art gallery.
The featured poet for our November 5 Poetry Night is Carol Lynn Grellas.
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a recent graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing. In 2012, her chapbook, Before I Go to Sleep, won the Red Ochre Press Chapbook contest. In 2019, her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Award. In 2021, her collection Alice in Ruby Slippers was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. She has served as editor-in-chief for both The Orchards Poetry Journal and Tule Review. A thirteen-time Pushcart Prize nominee and seven-time Best of the Net nominee, Grellas has been published or anticipates work forthcoming in several notable journals, including The Comstock Review, Redactions, and Verse Daily. She is a former member of the Board of Directors for The Sacramento Poetry Center and Women’s Wisdom Art, an organization dedicated to supporting women’s wellness through creativity in all forms. She was recently awarded a certificate of achievement by the California Writers Club and named Centennial Poet for her contribution to their 100-year celebration. In 2026, she became a California Poet-Teacher in the Schools.
You are invited to visit the Facebook page for this event.
Doors and open-mic signups open at around 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 performances from open mic favorites, including Michael Gallowglas, Davis poet laureate Mercedes Ibañez, Joe Bacchus, Bob Bugg, and Allegra Silberstein.
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 tells the story of Dr. Andy’s favorite waterfalls..
Stay tuned! On November 19th, the Poetry Night Reading Series will return with poets Linda Scheller and Jesse Wolf. 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.
