
Eliot Schain
Ken Haas, Erin Rodoni, Eliot Schain
27 SEPTEMBER 2020 — sunday
Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading and discussion on the theme of "Love Poems and Why Now," with Eliot Schain, The Distant Sound, Erin Rodoni, Body, in Good Light, and Ken Haas, Borrowed Light, online via Zoom, free, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link and information on how to join the reading)
MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual event on Sunday, September 27 at 3:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you "Love Poems and Why Now," a poetry reading and discussion with Ken Haas, Erin Rodoni, and Eliot Schain via Zoom. To register for this event, please click here. After you register, you will receive an email with a link and information on how to join the reading. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.
Eliot Schain's new collection is The Distant Sound. D. Nurkse said of it, "Eliot Schain is a treasure—a poet with a sharp edge and a broad canvas. Some artists have irony, some have vision; Schain has both and tests them against each other with fire and wit. The results are wild, beautiful, and necessary." Eliot Schain's previous books include American Romance (Zeitgeist Press) and Westering Angels (Small Poetry Press). His poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Santa Monica Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and Miramar, among other journals, as well as in two anthologies: The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed, and Christopher Buckley and Gary Young's Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems and Poetics from California.
Ken Haas's first full-length collection, Borrowed Light, won the 2020 Red Mountain Press Discovery Award. Ellen Bass said, "…Ken Haas's first collection of poems…is complex, vibrant, capacious and wildly imaginative. With affection and wonderful clarity, Haas describes a childhood of 'taking infield practice and shagging flies,' Atlantic City's 'sunburn and saltwater taffy,' a trip into Manhattan to see the legendary John Coltrane, who 'emptied his arms in a wave that even now speaks to the kind of man I could become.' But it would be a mistake to call this book nostalgic. Haas is keenly aware of the darker forces of history. The same Antisemitism that forced his grandparents to flee Nazi Germany is alive and well today—'we just forgot that shirt-wise brown is brown, words do burn, and we can see the rest from here.' Yet what emerges overall is a celebration of the immigrant." His work has appeared in over fifty literary magazines, journals, and anthologies. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the Betsy Colquitt Poetry Award.
Erin Rodoni is the author of two poetry collections: Body, in Good Light (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2017) and A Landscape for Loss (NFSPS Press, 2017, winner of the Stevens Award). Her forthcoming collection, And if the Woods Carry You, won the 2020 Southern Indiana Review Michael Waters Poetry Prize and will be published next year. Ilya Kaminsky said, "I love how wisdom enters the moment of passion in these poems, where we see ourselves living here, on this earth, 'believing // in these bodies.' This is a marvelous debut." Her poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Blackbird, Colorado Review, Best New Poets, and The Adroit Journal, among others. Her honors include The Montreal International Poetry Prize, the Ninth Letter Literary Award, and an AWP Intro Journals Award.


Daily Listings
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5 SEPTEMBER 2025 — friday
- Golden Sardine presents a Book Release for A Congregation of Alligators, poetry by Grayson Thompson, with Victoria Ruiz and Frankie Sanchez, from Write Bloody Publishing, Golden Sardine, wine bar with a poetry bookstore, 362 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, free, 7:00 (www.goldensardinesf.com/events)
6 SEPTEMBER 2025 — saturday
- North Bay Letterpress Arts and the Laguna Foundation present the opening reception for "Watershed Moment," a new exhibit featuring original works by the printers at NBLA, some in collaboration with poets, celebrating the unique beauty of the Laguna de Santa Rosa through the connection of language, image, and place, light refreshments, free, Laguna Environmental Center, 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, 3:00 to 5:00 (watershedmoment.eventbrite.com)
- 44th annual NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS, honoring the books and authors of Northern California, as well as California translators state-wide; writer and activist Rebecca Solnit will receive the FRED CODY AWARD for Lifetime Achievement and Service, Paul Yamazaki, principal book buyer at City Lights Books for over fifty years, will receive the NCBA GROUNDBREAKER AWARD for Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale, and presentation of awards in FICTION, POETRY, CREATIVE NONFICTION, GENERAL NONFICTION, TRANSLATION IN POETRY and PROSE by California translators, and CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: Younger Readers, Middle Grade, Young Adult; bookselling and a reception open to all in the SFPL's Latino/Hispanic Community Room follows, nominated books are selected by the Northern California Book Reviewers, event presented by Poetry Flash and the San Francisco Public Library, with our community partners Women's National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter and Mechanics' Institute Library, Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free and open to the public, 2:00 pm (Check back for updates and nominee announcements, poetryflash.org/programs/?p=ncba_2025 or https://sfpl.org)
- ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee presents The Earring of Madame de… (1953), co-hosted by ZYZZYVA Editor Oscar Villalon, introducing the film will be acclaimed writer Alexander Chee, followed by a conversation with Colombian writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras; a book signing follows at the end of the screening, tickets are limited, Roxie Theatre, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco, $13.62 to $17.62, 12:30 (roxie.com/film/zyzzyva-movie-matinee-with-ingrid-rojas-contreras-the-earrings-of-madame-de-35mm)
7 SEPTEMBER 2025 — sunday
8 SEPTEMBER 2025 — monday
9 SEPTEMBER 2025 — tuesday
10 SEPTEMBER 2025 — wednesday
11 SEPTEMBER 2025 — thursday
12 SEPTEMBER 2025 — friday
13 SEPTEMBER 2025 — saturday
14 SEPTEMBER 2025 — sunday
- Poetry Flash presents a reading featuring Rafaella Del Bourgo, launching her new book, A Tune Both Familiar and Strange, poems, and Sally Ashton, Listening to Mars, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm (poetryflash.org).
15 SEPTEMBER 2025 — monday
16 SEPTEMBER 2025 — tuesday
17 SEPTEMBER 2025 — wednesday
18 SEPTEMBER 2025 — thursday
19 SEPTEMBER 2025 — friday
20 SEPTEMBER 2025 — saturday
21 SEPTEMBER 2025 — sunday
- The 28th annual Petaluma Poetry Walk is an annual poetry festival founded in 1996, this year features 26 poets at eight venues: 11:00 am, Hotel Petaluma, Ballroom, 205 Kentucky Street: Sixteen Rivers Press kicks off the Walk with Judy Halebsky, Moira Magneson, and Patrick Cahill, with event presenter Terry Ehret; Noon, Keller Street CoWork, Main Lounge, 140 Keller Street: Unsolicited Press Poets, Cathryn Shea, LeeAnn Pickrell, and Kerry Donoghue, with event presenter Daedalus Howell; 1:00 pm, The Phoenix Theater, 201 Washington Street: Found Poets in The Round, Grayson Thompson, Original Giotis, and Bernice Espinoza, with event presenter Josh Windmiller; 2:00 pm, The Big Easy, 128 American Alley: Black Lawrence Press Poets, Cassandra Dallett, Tureeda Mikell, and Paul Corman-Roberts, with event presenter Ingrid Keir; 3:00 pm, Copperfield's Books, 140 Kentucky Street: The Headliners, Dorianne Laux, Life on Earth, and Joseph Millar, Shine, with event presenter Kary Hess; 4:00 pm, Usher Gallery, 1 Petaluma Blvd. North: the Translator Poets, Nancy Morales, Terry Ehret, Amanda Moore, with event presenter Dave Seter, Sonoma County Poet Laureate; 5:00 pm, The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum, 20 4th Street: The Library Youth Poets, Meg Hamill, Lisa Zheng, and Anaya Ertz, with event presenter John Johnson; 6:00-8:00 pm, Aqus Café, 189 H Street (this location is the farthest, you might want a ride for this venue): The Grande Finale: The Shape of Love with Jennifer Barone, Justin Cole Demeter, Ingrid Keir, Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter, Kelechi Ubozoh, Bill Vartnaw, with event presenter Kary Hess; all in walking distance across Petaluma, all free, 11:00 am to 8:00 pm (For more information, visit: petalumapoetrywalk.org)
22 SEPTEMBER 2025 — monday
23 SEPTEMBER 2025 — tuesday
24 SEPTEMBER 2025 — wednesday
25 SEPTEMBER 2025 — thursday
26 SEPTEMBER 2025 — friday
27 SEPTEMBER 2025 — saturday
- Fourth Saturdays: Poetry at the Claremont Library presents a reading by the Fourth Saturdays Team, the organizers of the series: Lucia Galloway-Dick, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, Genevieve Kaplan, and George Hammons, Claremont Helen Renwick Library, 208 N. Harvard Avenue, in the Claremont Village, Claremont, free, 2:00 (909/621-4902, www.claremontlibrary.org/monthly-poetry-readings.html)
- The Sitting Room presents a Round Table Discussion on "The Poetry of Marianne Moore: Just Fiddle or Genuine?" led by Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter, bring your own favorite poems by Moore or poems of hers that you find challenging, The Sitting Room, Cotati, 2:00-4:00 (Registration required, sittingroomlibrary.org/events)
28 SEPTEMBER 2025 — sunday
29 SEPTEMBER 2025 — monday
30 SEPTEMBER 2025 — tuesday
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