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Bruce Isaacson

Bruce Isaacson, Jan Steckel, Deborah Fruchey on Rudy Jon Tanner

19 SEPTEMBER 2021 — sunday

Poetry Flash presents a virtual Zeitgeist Press poetry reading by Bruce Isaacson, Leningrad to Las Vegas, and Jan Steckel, Like Flesh Covers Bone; poet and editor Deborah Fruchey presents the late Rudy Jon Tanner's If Thirst is Proof of Water, 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)


Please join us for a Poetry Flash virtual reading on Sunday, September 19 at 3:00 pm PDT! We are excited to bring you this Zeitgeist Press event 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 meeting. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series during these unprecedented times.

The featured books are available at www.zeitgeist-press.com.

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Deborah L. Fruchey's recent Zeitgest poetry collection is Three Kinds of Dark. Connie Post says, "A great new book from the well-known author of books, romances, and poems with emotional punch. The poems in this collection have verve, have a kick, and will leave your senses wanting more.…" Deborah Fruchey is also the author of Armadillo (poetry), two comedy romance novels, one self-help manual for the mentally ill, and Priestess of Secrets, a recent flash fiction collection. Her debut novel was chosen as a "Best Book" by the American Booksellers Association. A part of the Above Paradise and Café Babar scenes, her work appeared in the Babarian anthology, Poets from Hell. She edited If Thirst is Proof of Water, by the late Rudy Jon Tanner, and Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue, a tribute to the late poet Julia Vinograd.

Rudy Jon Tanner passed away in August 2021. If Thirst is Proof of Water, edited by Deborah Fruchey, is his first full-length collection, and was published in 2021 by Zeitgeist Press. Audio of him reading his own poetry will be presented at this event. Previously, he published two chapbooks, Picasso's Monkey, and The Accidental Beacons of Things Worn Away. Tanner studied piano and twentieth century composing at Oklahoma City University, where he also began writing poetry, while he continued to compose. He moved to California in 1980. He attended the Old Spaghetti Factory readings in North Beach, where he became friends with Julia Vinograd, along with her many friends who just happened to have a very natural talent for stunning poetry.

Jan Steckel's most recent book, Like Flesh Covers Bone, published by Zeitgeist Press, won the 2019 Rainbow Awards for LGBT Poetry and Best Bisexual Book. James Cagney says, "These poems have come for blood. Jan Steckel writes often humorous, always electrified poetry of great depth and courage. Take this journey!" Her poetry collection, The Horizontal Poet, won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. Her fiction chapbook, Mixing Tracks, and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital have also won awards. She lives in Oakland, California.

Bruce Isaacson's new book of poems is Leningrad to Las Vegas; Jack Hirschman says, "…a brilliantly composed novel in poems…very beautifully evoked…you will learn more about Russia soon after the end of the Soviet Union via Isaacson's terrific perceptions than you'll read anywhere." He is known here in the Bay Area both as a poet and the publisher of Zeitgeist Press, and is often associated with the Café Babar series, part of the SF spoken word revival of the 1980s. A graduate student with Allen Ginsberg at Brooklyn College, he was a finalist in the inaugural season of the Nuyorican Poetry Slam. The first Poet Laureate of Clark County, Nevada whose two million population includes Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip, he is the founder of Poetry Promise, Inc., a non-profit whose mission is the advancement of the knowledge and practice of poetry. Isaacson is the author of several previous collections, including Ghosts Among the Neon and The Last Lie.




Daily Listings

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17 SEPTEMBER 2025 — wednesday

18 SEPTEMBER 2025 — thursday

19 SEPTEMBER 2025 — friday

  • City Arts and Lectures presents Arundhati Roy reading from and discussing her new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, a soaring account of how the author became the person and writer she is, shaped by circumstance and her complex relationship to her extraordinary mother, in conversation with award-winning reporter Deepa Fernandes, Sydney Goldstein Theater, 275 Hayes Street, San Francisco, $59, 7:30 (www.cityarts.net/event/arundhati-roy-2)

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

  • Poetry Flash presents a poetry reading by Bruce Isaacson, Porpoisefully Wrong, and Paul Corman-Roberts, Bone Moon Palace, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 7:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).

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

  • Rumi's Caravan returns to Berkeley for recitations of world poetry, featuring an improvised poetic conversation with music, the presentation quotes from the works Rumi, Hafiz, Mary Oliver, Kabir, Wendell Berry, Neruda, Rilke, Robert Bly, Yeats, Naomi Shihab Nye, William Stafford, Maya Angelou, Leonard Cohen, Seamus Heaney, Denise Levertov, Antonio Machado, May Sarton and others, ticket sales support the work of the Middle East Children's Alliance; The Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, $30 Advance or $35 Door, 7:30 pm (rumiscaravan.com)

29 SEPTEMBER 2025 — monday

30 SEPTEMBER 2025 — tuesday


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