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Poetry Flash Reading Series
Norman Fischer and Linda Norton
6/20, Online
more info
Fog and Light: Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Kathleen McClung, Diane Frank, more
6/24, Online
more info


Fog and Light: Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Kathleen McClung, Diane Frank, more

24 JUNE 2021 — thursday

Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading to celebrate Fog and Light: San Francisco Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here, a new anthology, with contributors Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Jodi Hottel, Kathleen McClung, Gwynn O'Gara, and editor Diane Frank, online via Zoom, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)


Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual reading on Thursday, June 24 at 7:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you this anthology celebration via Zoom. To register for this reading, please click on the link in the calendar listing above. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.

This reading is co-sponsored by Moe's Books in Berkeley; Fog and Light is available at bookshop.org/lists/poetry-flash-readings.

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Many of these bio notes are from the Fog and Light anthology:
Vince Gotera's recent book is The Coolest Month, a collection of poems written everyday throughout April, in response to NaPoWriMo and Poem-a-Day prompts. Maureen Thorson says, "Vince Gotera's The Coolest Month leans into T. S. Eliot's bromide for April while turning it on its head.…An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but as Gotera shows, a poem a day can help chase away the blues." Now a professor in Iowa, Gotera was born and raised in San Francisco. He grew up in the Haight-Ashbury and was a teenager during the Summer of Love. "As a lead guitarist," Vince says, "I was influenced by the rock bands that played around The City: Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Charlatans, The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Santana, and many others. In fact, I fondly remember being an eighth grader at St. Agnes School on Ashbury and hearing The Dead rehearsing in their house across the street." Gotera left for grad school in the Midwest and hasn't lived in The City since. "But I am always excited to visit and enjoy the dazzling diversity, charming neighborhoods, and utter beauty of San Francisco, forever home."

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.'" Haas's 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. He grew up in New York City, but has lived for the past forty-four years in San Francisco.

Jodi Hottel is a sansei, third generation Japanese American. She is author of the chapbooks Out of the Ashes, Voyeur, and Heart Mountain, her collection of poems about the Japanese American incarceration, winner of the 2012 Blue Light Press Poetry Prize. Most of those families were initially taken to a temporary detention site at the Tanforan race track in San Bruno, now the site of a shopping mall.

Kathleen McClung's books include Temporary Kin, Three Soul-Makers, A Juror Must Fold in on Herself, The Typists Play Monopoly, and Almost the Rowboat. Julie Kane wrote of Temporary Kin, " Kathleen McClung is a master of the sonnet crown. In her skilled hands, that venerable form expands to encompass active shooter drills, smartphones, and Lyft drivers, as well as songbirds, the sea, and the moon." She fell in love with San Francisco at age nine when she came with her mother on a Greyhound bus to see Carmen at the War Memorial Opera House. She cried when they had to leave at the intermission to catch the bus back to Sacramento. For over thirty years, Kathleen McClung has lived, taught, and written on the foggy west side of San Francisco.

Gwynn O'Gara's books include Snake Woman Poems, with a foreword by Nanos Valaoritis, and the chapbooks Fixer-Upper, Winter at Green Haven, Fruit of Life, and Sea Cradles. She grew up in San Francisco and left many times, almost always coming back. For twenty-five years she worked as a California Poet in the Schools and served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2010-2011.

Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems; her 2021 collection is While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems. Los P. Jones said this of Frank's 2018 book, Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines: "In this new and startling collection, Diane Frank's poems transcend not just genres but entire dimensions. When she speaks to J.S. Bach, she really means it and when Bach speaks back, she listens—entirely—the way certain moths perceive sound via their whole body, even their wings. How is this accomplished? It will seem to come through the poems themselves—their music, tonal qualities and subjects, yet it goes even deeper as it pushes up like duende through the soles of your feet." She is also the author of Blackberries in the Dream House, winner of the Chelson Award for Fiction, two other novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Himalayas. She teaches at San Francisco State University and Dominican University and lives in the Outer Sunset in San Francisco, where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form. She selected the poems for the Fog and Light anthology.




Daily Listings

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14 JUNE 2021 — monday

15 JUNE 2021 — tuesday

  • Kepler's Literary Foundation presents a book launch for In the Heights: Finding Home, with a discussion on the humble beginnings of the hit Broadway show and the importance of creativity and community, featuring award-winning composer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, playwright and lyricist Quiera Alegría Hudes, and writer and producer Jeremy McCarter, Young Radicals, $48 (ticket includes a copy of the book), online, 5:00 pm-6:00 pm PDT (Purchase tickets here: www.keplers.org/upcoming-events-internal/lin-manuel-21)
  • The Not Yet Dead Poets Society presents poet Charlotte Muse, reading from her new collection of poems, In Which I Forgive the River, open mic to follow, free, in person at Cafe Zoe, 1929 Menalto Avenue, Menlo Park, 5:00 pm PDT (More information: www.cafezoehub.com/music-events)
  • The Bay Area Book Festival presents novelist Keenan Norris, discussing The Confession of Copeland Cane, in conversation with poet and journalist Dr. Michael Datcher, Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story, free, online, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.baybookfest.org)
  • Cobalt Poets presents a reading featuring poet Kathabela Wilson, creator of Tanka Poets on Site, a pblic group on Facebook, open mic to follow, free, online via Zoom, 7:30 pm PDT (Zoom link here: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)

16 JUNE 2021 — wednesday

17 JUNE 2021 — thursday

  • The Mechanics' Institute presents a Juneteenth Tribute to James Baldwin, featuring a discussion of Baldwin's life and work with writer and editor James Campbell, Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin, essayist Clifford Thompson, What It Is: Race, Family and One Thinking Black Man's Blues, and poet and playwright Jewelle Gomez, Waiting for Giovanni, free for members, $5 for nonmembers, online via Zoom, Noon PDT (Register to attend: www.milibrary.org/events/juneteenth-tribute-james-baldwin-zoom-jun-17-2021)
  • Brilliant Playground presents "Freedom to Write," a workshop led by poet Maxima Kahn, Fierce Aria; attendees hone their writing skills by writing and sharing their work in a group and will practice writing on a regular basis, runs nine weeks, June 17 to August 19, with no session on July 22, $397, online via Zoom, 4:00-6:00 pm PDT (Enroll here: brilliantplayground.com/freedom-to-write)
  • Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry presents a poetry reading featuring Lake Country Poet Laureate Georgina Marie Guardado, Tree Speak and Finding the Roots of Water, open mic to follow, free, online via Zoom, 7:00 pm PDT (Email: blake@snakelyone.com for Zoom link/to sign up for open mic; more information here: www.artsmendocino.org/event/point-arena-third-thursday-poetry-series-virtual-zoom-reading-6)
  • The You're Going to Die Team presents Poetry, Prose, and Everything Goes…, an open mic reading and performance, share poetry, prose, music, artwork, dance, or any other performance with the community, five minutes per performance, "sign-ups" for the open mic will be available on the Zoom call, free, donations welcome, online, 6:30-9:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.facebook.com/events/802249803747481)
  • City Lights Books presents Laura Raicovich, author, former president and executive director of the Queens Museum, discussing her new book, Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest, about the origins of art museums as colonial institutions and how they can be reinvented to better serve the public, in conversation with activist and writer Malkia Devich-Cyril, free, online, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=event&event_id=3804)
  • Book Passage presents novelist and poet Ocean Vuong discussing his debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, a deeply moving family portrait written in the form of a son's letter to his mother, in conversation with novelist Robert Jones, Jr., The Prophets, $5, online, 5:30 pm PDT (Purchase tickets here: www.bookpassage.com/oceanvuong)

18 JUNE 2021 — friday

  • Point Reyes Books presents journalist and nature writer Cal Flyn discussing her new book, Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape, about spaces on earth abandoned by humans, whether from war, disease, or other disasters, that nature has sprung and reclaimed in astounding ways, free, online, Noon PDT (Register to attend: www.ptreyesbooks.com/event/cal-flyn)
  • Skylight Books presents TV writer Danielle Henderson, Maniac and Difficult People, discussing her new memoir, The Ugly Cry, in conversation with journalist Ann Friedman, Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close, free, online, 6:30 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-danielle-henderson-discusses-ugly-cry-ann-friedman)
  • San Diego Poetry and Art (SDPA) presents a poetry reading featuring poets and writers previously published in the San Diego Poetry Annual, as well as any newcomers and poets in the community who would like to read, free, online, 6:00-8:00 pm PDT (Sign up to read/to attend in the audience: poetryandartsd.com/2021/05/19/sdpa-june-11-18-open-readings)

19 JUNE 2021 — saturday

  • Book Passage presents a three-hour live poetry session led by former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Whale Day: And Other Poems and The Rain in Portugal; attendees will learn about the process of composing a poem and what goes on in a poet's mind when their writing is in progress, $75, online, 1:00-4:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.bookpassage.com/billycollins2021)
  • Poetry Center San Jose presents "Beautiful Black Books," a program featuring Black writers in conversation followed by an audience Q&A, featuring spoken word poet and clinical psychologist Dr. Donny Jackson, One Man Shown, boy, hosted by poet Tshaka Campbell, free, online, 7:00-9:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.facebook.com/events/192254569433957)
  • Art, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis Book Series presents a celebration for the publication of Poetry and Psychoanalysis: The Opening of the Field, by poet and psychotherapist David Shaddock, published by Routledge Press, who will read selections from his book as well as his poetry, followed by questions from the audience, free, online via Zoom, 10:00 am-11:30 am PDT (Zoom meeting ID: 822 3675 5632, password: Poetry; for more information, email: gahagman@optonline.net)

20 JUNE 2021 — sunday

  • City Lights Books presents an evening of readings from poets published by Black Ocean, an independent publisher based in Boston, featuring poets Carrie Olivia Adams, Intervening Absence, Zachary Schomburg, Scary, No Scary, poet and translator Hedgie Choi, and poet Nathan Hoks, Reveilles, The Narrow Circle, free, online via Zoom, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=event&event_id=3814)
  • The Marin Poetry Center presents the Traveling Show, a series of poetry readings featuring new and longtime members of MPC, this reading features poet James Gronvold, Word and Mortar, poet and cellist Tova Green, dancer and poet Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş, MPC's Inaugural Youth Poet Ambassador Harita Kalvai, poet Sharon Pretti, and poet Robin Lee, free, online, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.marinpoetrycenter.org/programs/trav-show)
  • Book Passage presents best-selling novelists Alka Joshi, The Henna Artist, and Sujata Massey, The Widows of Malabar Hill, discussing their new books, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Bombay Prince, respectively, in conversation with actor and activist Freida Pinto, known for movies such as Slumdog Millionaire and Desert Dancer, free, online, 1:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.bookpassage.com/event/alka-joshi-secret-keeper-jaipur)
  • Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading by Norman Fischer, There was a clattering as…, and poememoirist Linda Norton, Wite Out: Love and Work, online via Zoom, free, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)

21 JUNE 2021 — monday

  • Rivertown Poets presents a poetry reading featuring Anita May and Ernesto Garay, Reverberating Voices, open mic to follow, three-minutes per reader, hosted by poet and artist Sande Anfang, Xylem Highway, held the first and third Mondays of the month, free, online via Zoom, 6:15 pm PDT (Register to attend/sign up for open mic: aqus.com/rivertownpoets)

22 JUNE 2021 — tuesday

  • Skylight Books presents professor and writer Moya Bailey discussing her new book, Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women's Digital Resistance, delving into misogynoir, a term Bailey coined to describe the anti-Black and misogynistic ways Black women are represented in digital spaces, in conversation with activist Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us, free, online, 5:30 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-moya-bailey-discusses-misogynoir-transformed-mariame-kaba)
  • City Lights Books presents author and editor Benjamin Hedin, In Search of the Movement: The Struggle for Civil Rights Then and Now, reading from and discussing his debut novel, Under the Spell, free, online via Zoom, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=event&event_id=3767)
  • Join Poetic License Sonoma every fourth Tuesday for an evening of poetry readings featuring the nine poets that make up Poetic License Sonoma, Susanne Arrhenius, Jeffrey Bartfeld, Joseph Cutler, Paul DeMarco, Kusum Irene Jain, Leo McCloskey, Steve Trenam, Judith Vaughn, and Jaime Zukowski, with special guest poet Diane Frank, Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines, free, with donations welcome, 7:00-8:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: poeticlicensesonoma.com/events)

23 JUNE 2021 — wednesday

  • Point Reyes Books presents best-selling author Emily Rapp Black, Poster Child: A Memoir, discussing her new book Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, about her relationship to her body and the compulsion to hide disabilities that is often encouraged by ableist society, through the lens of Frida Kahlo's art and life, in conversation with poet and essayist Matthew Zapruder, Sun Bear, Why Poetry, free, online, 7:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.ptreyesbooks.com/event/emily-rapp-black-and-matthew-zapruder)
  • Book Passage presents writer and performer M. Leona Godin, The Star of Happiness, The Spectator and the Blind Man, discussing her new book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness, examining the history of blindness, the myths that have grown around it, as well as scientific studies and developments in accessibility, including the author's perspective as someone who began losing her vision at age ten, free, online, 1:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.bookpassage.com/event/m-leona-godin-there-plant-eyes-personal-and-cultural-history-blindness-online-event)

24 JUNE 2021 — thursday

  • Poetry Flash presents a virtual poetry reading to celebrate Fog and Light: San Francisco Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here, a new anthology, with contributors Vince Gotera, Ken Haas, Jodi Hottel, Kathleen McClung, Gwynn O'Gara, and editor Diane Frank, online via Zoom, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)
  • City Lights Books presents novelist Doug Henderson, discussing his new novel, The Cleveland Heights LGBTQ Sci-Fi and Fantasy Role Playing Club, in conversation with novelist K.M. Soehnlein, The World of Normal Boys, free, online, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=books_events)

25 JUNE 2021 — friday

  • Green Apple Books presents poet and essayist Jenny Bitner, reading from and discussing her debut novel, Here is a Game We Could Play, a story set in Pennsylvania in the 1990s that follows a woman who, stuck in the rundown industrial town where she grew up, turns to fantasy and books to escape the darker memories of her past, free, online via Zoom, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.greenapplebooks.com/event/virtual-event-jenny-bitner)
  • Junior High, Not a Cult, and Skylight Books present poet and former Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles Rhiannon McGavin reading from and discussing her new book, Grocery List Poems, free, held at Junior High, Inc.'s outdoor venue at 603 South Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California, 6:30 pm PDT (More information here: juniorhighlosangeles.com/calendar/rhiannonmcgavin)

26 JUNE 2021 — saturday

27 JUNE 2021 — sunday

  • San Diego Writers, Ink presents "The Poems of Charles Bukowski," a workshop led by poet and owner of Vault Publishing, Sunny Rey, Quotes and Poems by a Nobody, and poet and spoken word artist Anthony Azzarito, $36 members, $42 nonmembers, online, 10:00 am-Noon PDT (Enroll here: www.sandiegowriters.org/poems-of-charles-bukowski-sunny-rey)
  • The Claremont Library presents a reading featuring poets Romaine Washington, Purgatory Has an Address and Sirens in Her Belly, and Anna Leahy, What Happened Was, Aperture, part of the Fourth Sundays reading series, free, online via Facebook Live, 2:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.facebook.com/fourthsundayspoetry)

28 JUNE 2021 — monday

29 JUNE 2021 — tuesday

  • Green Apple Books presents novelist Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances and Little Labours, reading from and discussing her new novel, Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch, in conversation with novelist Paul La Forge, The Night Ocean, free, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.greenapplebooks.com/event/virtual-event-rivka-galchen-and-paul-la-farge)
  • City Lights Books presents poet and playwright Camille Roy discussing her new book, Honey Mine, a collection of short fiction exploring coming of age in Chicago's South Side and youth in the lesbian underground, in conversation with poet and writer Eileen Myles, Chelsea Girls, free, online, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=books_events)
  • Cobalt Poets presents a reading featuring poet Sharon Smith-Knight, Wine-Sip and Other Delicious Poems, open mic to follow, free, online via Zoom, 7:30 pm PDT (Zoom link here: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)

30 JUNE 2021 — wednesday

  • Point Reyes Books presents essayist Gillian Osborne reading from and discussing her new book, Green Green Green, a collection of essays exploring history, horticulture, and the green world, free, online, 6:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.ptreyesbooks.com/event/gillian-osborne)
  • City Lights Books presents novelist and essayist Kate Zambreno, Drifts, Appendix Project, discussing her new book To Write as if Already Dead, part novella, part study, exploring friendship, language, identity, and bodies against the backdrop of French writer Hervé Guibert's novel, To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, in conversation with writer T Fleischmann, Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through, free, online via Zoom, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.citylights.com/bookstore/?fa=books_events)

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