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PROGRAMS
D. Nurkse and Eliot Schain
Lubna Safi
Leila Chatti and Lubna Safi
23 JUNE 2022 — thursday
Poetry Flash presents a reading by Lubna Safi, Your Blue and the Quiet Lament, Walt McDonald First Book Poetry Prize-winner, and Leila Chatti, Deluge and , The Mothers: Poems in Conversation & A Conversation, co-authored with Dorianne Laux, 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 23, at 7:00 pm PDT. We are pleased to bring you this exciting event via Zoom. To register, 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.
Featured books for this reading are available at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash, www.writerscenter.org/product/the-mothers, and at Texas Tech University Press, www.ttupress.org/search-results/?supapress_order=publishdate-desc&page_number=2. This reading is co-sponsored by Moe's Books in Berkeley.
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MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Leila Chatti's debut full-length collection is Deluge, winner of the 2021 Levis Reading Prize and longlisted for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award. Naomi Shihab Nye said in The New York Times, "To write a series of poems out of extreme illness is a bracing accomplishment indeed. In Deluge…, Leila Chatti, born of a Catholic mother and a Muslim father, brilliantly explores the trauma. In a frightening two-year saga of a tumor and the 'flooding' it caused, Chatti finds not disassociation but deeper association with her own experience." She is also co- author of The Mothers: Poems in Conversation & A Conversation, a chapbook, with Dorianne Laux, and other chapbooks. Tunisian-American dual citizen born in Oakland, Chatti has lived in the United States, Tunisia, and Southern France. Her poems have received prizes from Ploughshares's Emerging Writer's Contest, Narrative's 30 Below Contest, Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize, and the Pushcart Prize, among others, and appear in The New York Times Magazine, Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, POETRY, The Nation, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Tin House, American Poetry Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Georgia Review, New England Review, Kenyon Review Online, Narrative, The Rumpus, and Best New Poets.
Lubna Safi's debut poetry collection is Your Blue and the Quiet Lament, winner of the Walt McDonald Prize First-Book Series in Poetry. Texas Tech University Press says, "Your Blue and the Quiet Lament records the textures of grief after a cousin's murder at the hands of the Syrian state reaches the poet through a long-distance phone call. The poems trace a narrative of arrest, imprisonment, and torture in Syria and interweave the difficulties a family experiences in the diaspora. Shifting between the death of poet Federico García Lorca and that of her cousin, Lubna's poetry contends with personal loss by distancing the meaning of one death through the intermediary of another. Yet the distortion of distance is already there—in the language, in the geographic space, in time, in the grief itself—tinged with blue." Along with poetry, Lubna Safi also writes fiction, literary criticism, and lyric essays. Her work has appeared in Guernica, The Journal, MIZNA, and elsewhere. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
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3 JULY 2022 — sunday
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4 JULY 2022 — monday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
5 JULY 2022 — tuesday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
6 JULY 2022 — wednesday
- Mrs. Dalloway's presents short story writer Leslie Kirk Campbell, reading from and discussing her new book, The Man With Eight Pairs of Legs, in conversation with novelist Keenan Norris, Brother and the Dancer, winner of the 2012 James D. Houston Award, in person, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, 7:00-8:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.mrsdalloways.com/events)
- The San Francisco Public Library presents San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin, author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes, winner of the California Book Award for Poetry, celebrating his debut record of spoken work poetry, I Go To The Railroad Track and Follow Them To The Station Of My Enemies, the event features a poetry reading by Eisen-Martin and friends, followed by a conversation about the work with Sonny Smith from Rocks In Your Head Records, in person, African American Center Exhibit Space, Third Floor, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00-7:30 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2022/07/06/performance-tongo-eisen-martin-spoken-word-album)
7 JULY 2022 — thursday
- Bird & Beckett presents a poetry reading featuring Julie Rogers, Life on Earth, and Peter Marti, Elephants I Didn't Ride, followed by an open mic, hosted by Michael Koch and Jerry Ferraz, in person, Bird & Beckett Music & Records, 653 Chenery Street, San Francisco, free, donations welcome, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: birdbeckett.com/poets-7-7-22)
8 JULY 2022 — friday
- Copperfield's Books presents author and playwright Barbara Graham, Eye of My Heart, discussing her new book, What Jonah Knew, a psychological thriller about mothers and sons across lifetimes, in conversation with nonfiction writer Lee Kravetz, Strange Contagion, followed by a Q&A, online, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.copperfieldsbooks.com/event/barbara-graham-conversation-lee-kravetz-online)
9 JULY 2022 — saturday
- Writers With Drinks presents a reading with journalist and novelist Vanessa Hua, Forbidden City, Amy Schneider, holder of the second-longest winning streak in Jeopardy!, mathematician Jordan Ellenberg, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything, and novelist Nina LaCour, We Are Okay, winner of the 2017 Printz Prize, Yerba Buena, all proceeds to benefit a local nonprofit, The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco, $5 to $20, no one turned away, 7:30-9:30 pm, doors open 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.writerswithdrinks.com)
- City Lights Books presents novelist James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late, 1994 Booker Prize-winner, discussing his new book, God's Teeth and Other Phenomena, in conversation with Alan Black, cofounder of the Scottish Cultural and Arts Foundation and author of Kick the Balls: A Bruising Season in the Life of a Suburban Soccer Coach, online via Zoom, free, 11:00 am PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
10 JULY 2022 — sunday
- The Literature, Film, Drama, and Music Contingent of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley presents speaker and poet Arif Gamal discussing his new collection, Morning in Serra Mattu: A Nubian Ode, a profound meditation on life in modern Sudan, online, free, 1:00 pm PDT (Zoom link here: us02web.zoom.us/j/84257017624)
- Marin Poetry Center presents their 2022 Traveling Show, a multi-reading summer poetry event where members perform their own work, this Part 3 featuring poets Grace Marie Grafton, Jester, Barbara Swift Brauer, Rain, Like a Thief, Marie Henry, Ann Robinson, Kate Peper, Dipped in Black Water, 2016 New Women's Voices Award-winner, and Cathy Shea, Genealogy Lessons for the Laity, online via Zoom, free, 3:00-4:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: marinpoetrycenter.org/events)
- The Green Arcade presents editor and essayist Tom Wetzel, discussing his new book, Overcoming Capitalism: Strategy for the Working Class in the 21st Century, an accessible read about capitalism and where power truly lies, and how the powerless can get the upper hand, in conversation with Leslie Leyba, co-op member of the worker-owned Rainbow Grocery, introductions by author and organizer James Tracy, Hillbilly Nationalists, in person, The Green Arcade, 1680 Market Street, San Francisco, free, 5:00 pm PDT (More information here: thegreenarcade.com)
11 JULY 2022 — monday
- Rivertown Poets presents a poetry reading featuring Abby Caplin, A Doctor Only Pretends: Poems about illness, death, and in-between, and Kathleen McClung, A Juror Must Fold in on Herself, followed by an open mic, three-minutes per reader, hosted by poet and artist Sande Anfang, Xylem Highway, online, free, 6:15 pm PDT (RSVP to attend/sign up for the open mic: aqus.com/rivertownpoets)
- Skylight Books presents novelist Meng Jin, author of Little Gods, finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award and Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, reading from and discussing her new book, Self-Portrait with Ghost, a collection of ten thematically linked stories exploring intimacy and isolation, in person, Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-meng-jin-presents-self-portrait-ghost)
12 JULY 2022 — tuesday
- City Lights Books presents feminist poet, translator, and activist Margaret Randall, author and editor of nearly 200 books and recipient of the 2019 Hayde'e Santamari'a Medal and the 2019 Poet of Two Hemispheres Prize, reading from and discussing her new book, Stormclouds Like Unkept Promises, an insightful collection of poetry that blends the political and the personal, featuring photographs by artist Barbara Byers, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
- Cobalt Poets presents an all-open reading with guest emcee Tara A. Elliot, poet and founder of Salisbury's Poetry Week, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
- Coastside Poetry presents a poetry reading featuring Marvin R. Hiemstra, Poet Wrangler: Droll Poems, Raven Understands: A Happy Memoir, open mic to follow, up to twenty readers, three-minutes per reader, spoken poetry only, online, free, 6:00-8:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: coastsidepoetry.org)
13 JULY 2022 — wednesday
- Point Reyes Books presents novelist and editor Emily Hall and short story writer and novelist Mark Haber, Reinhardt's Garden, longlisted for the 2020 PEN/Hemingway Award, both reading from and discussing their new novels, The Longcut and Saint Sebastian's Abyss, respectively, in conversation with novelist Mauro Javier Cárdenas, The Revolutionaries Try Again, Aphasia, online, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.ptreyesbooks.com/event/emily-hall-mark-haber)
14 JULY 2022 — thursday
- The San Francisco Public Library presents the monthly Poem Jam, hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck, Exile Heart, this month featuring San Francisco's Revolutionary Poets Brigade reading from their new anthology Storm Warning: Poets for the Planet / Building Socialism, with readings by poets Lisbit Bailey, Kristina Brown, Bobby Coleman, John Curl, Karen Melander-Magoon, and special guests, come for an evening of poems on the climate crisis and environmental and social justice, in person, Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room A, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 6:00-7:15 pm PDT (More information here: sfpl.org/events/2022/07/14/performance-kim-shucks-poem-jam-storm-warning-poets-planet)
- Santa Rosa Arts Center presents poet David Madgalene, I Heard a Journeyman Sing, with musical performances by Steve Shain on bass and songwriter Chris Bramble, followed by an open mic, hosted by Brian Martens, in person, Santa Rosa Arts Center, 312 South A Street, Santa Rosa, free, donations welcome, 7:00-8:30 pm PDT (More information here: santarosaartscenter.org/index.php/speakeasy-2-2)
15 JULY 2022 — friday
- Beyond Baroque presents a poetry reading featuring Susan Suntree, Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California, winner of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Narrative Poetry, and Tom Laichas, Empire of Eden, celebrating their new books, Dear Traveler and Sixty-Three Photographs at the End of a War, respectively, in person, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, free, 8:00-10:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html)
16 JULY 2022 — saturday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
17 JULY 2022 — sunday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
18 JULY 2022 — monday
- City Lights Books presents novelist Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Fruit of the Drunken Tree, winner of the silver medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, discussing her new memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, a passionately written exploration of her family's otherworldly legacy and the power of storytelling, in conversation with essayist Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias, in person in Kerouac Alley, next to City Lights Bookstore, between Columbus and Grant Avenue, San Francisco, free, 6:00 pm PDT (More information here: citylights.com/events)
19 JULY 2022 — tuesday
- Bookshop Santa Cruz presents award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist Erika Sánchez, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, discussing her new memoir, Crying in the Bathroom, a hilarious, insightful, and brutally honest collection of essays in which Sánchez delves into a range of topics from sex to white feminism to depression, in person, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.bookshopsantacruz.com/erika-sanchez)
- Cobalt Poets presents a poetry reading by Iván Salinas, with open mic to follow, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
20 JULY 2022 — wednesday
- Aunt Lute Books presents Home in the Bay, a reading series featuring the voices of those experiencing houselessness, gentrification, migration, and colonization, asking the question, What does home mean to you?, emceed by San Francisco Poet Laureate emerita Kim Shuck, Exile Heart, readers TBA, co-presented by Sogorea Te' Land Trust, POOR Magazine, Poets Reading the News, Black Freighters Press, and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, online, free, 5:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.eventbrite.com/e/home-in-the-bay-a-reading-series-the-third-event-tickets-348191208277)
- City Lights Books presents award-winning viral curator and poet Natasha Marin, reading from and discussing her new book, Black Powerful: Black Voices Reimagine Revolution, a breathtaking collection of reflections exploring the resilience, joy, and triumph of Black people everywhere, from over one-hundred Black voices, co-presented with McSweeney's, online, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
- City Lights Books presents novelist Jamil Jan Kochai, 99 Nights in Logar, reading from his new book, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
- Bird & Beckett Books & Records presents poet and translator Zack Rogow, reading from his latest collection, Irreverent Litanies, joined by fiction writer and poet Judith Serin, Gravity, in person, Bird & Beckett Books & Records, 653 Chenery Street, San Francisco, free, 7:00 pm PDT (More information here: birdbeckett.com)
21 JULY 2022 — thursday
- Point Arena Third Thursday Poetry presents a reading featuring poet Melissa Eleftherion-Carr, field guide to autobiography, prism maps, with open mic to follow, hosted by blake more, Poet Laureate of Point Arena, online via Zoom, free, 7:00 pm PDT (Email blake@snakelyone.com for the Zoom link, or to sign up for the open mic)
- California Institute of Integral Studies presents activist, biologist, and writer Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, discussing her new book, Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back, online, pay-what-you-can, suggested admission $10, 7:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.ciis.edu/public-programs/event-calendar/serano-julia-july-21-2022)
- City Lights Books presents novelist and short story writer K-Ming Chang, author of Bestiary, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, reading from her new collection, God of Want, stories centered around myth and memories, bodies, and the relationships of Asian American women, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
- 18th Annual San Francisco Writers Conference, keynote speakers include Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, and Lysley Tenorio, presenters include agents, publishers, editors, authors, and book marketing professionals, $75-$795, this conference was re-scheduled from February, in-person, Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, (For more information: www.sfwriters.org)
- Rivertown Poets presents a three-way poetry reading featuring Kelliane Parker, Down the Foggy Streets of My Mind, Dee Allen, A Bony Framework for the Tangible Universe, and Kimi Sugioka, Wile & Wing, Alameda Poet Laureate, followed by an open mic, ten-available slots, first come first read, hosted by poet and artist Sande Anfang, Xylem Highway, online, free, 6:15 pm PDT (More information here: aqus.com/rivertownpoets)
22 JULY 2022 — friday
- 18th Annual San Francisco Writers Conference, keynote speakers include Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, and Lysley Tenorio, presenters include agents, publishers, editors, authors, and book marketing professionals, $75-$795, this conference was re-scheduled from February, in-person, Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, (For more information: www.sfwriters.org)
23 JULY 2022 — saturday
- 18th Annual San Francisco Writers Conference, keynote speakers include Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, and Lysley Tenorio, presenters include agents, publishers, editors, authors, and book marketing professionals, $75-$795, this conference was re-scheduled from February, in-person, Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, (For more information: www.sfwriters.org)
24 JULY 2022 — sunday
- Poetry Flash presents a reading by D. Nurkse, A Country of Strangers: New and Selected Poems, and Eliot Schain, The Distant Sound, 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)
- 18th Annual San Francisco Writers Conference, keynote speakers include Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, and Lysley Tenorio, presenters include agents, publishers, editors, authors, and book marketing professionals, $75-$795, this conference was re-scheduled from February, in-person, Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, (For more information: www.sfwriters.org)
25 JULY 2022 — monday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
26 JULY 2022 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents a poetry reading featuring JR Turek, named Long Island Poet of the Year in 2019 and the author of several collections including A is for Almost Anything, Imagistics, and They Come and They Go, open mic to follow, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
- City Lights Books celebrates Issue 123 of the esteemed literary journal ZYZZYVA, with appearances from contributors to the journal, novelist Maggie Millner, Couplets: A Love Story, poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Quiet, novelist Ruth Madievsky, All-Night Pharmacy, and poet Chris Carosi, Fictions, hosted by Oscar Villalon, writer and managing editor of ZYZZYVA, online via Zoom, free, 6:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: citylights.com/events)
27 JULY 2022 — wednesday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
28 JULY 2022 — thursday
- Mrs. Dalloway's Richard J. Nevle, deputy director of the Earth Systems Program at Stanford University, and poet Steven Nightingale, The Hot Climate of Promises and Grace, reading from and discussing their new book, The Paradise Notebooks: 90 Miles Across the Sierra Nevada, a collection of essays and poetry contemplating natural phenomena in the Sierra Nevada, co-authored by Nevle and Nightingale, in person, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:00-8:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.mrsdalloways.com/events)
29 JULY 2022 — friday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
30 JULY 2022 — saturday
- No events listed for this date. Find out how to submit your event listing.
31 JULY 2022 — sunday
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