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Jose Antonio Villarán

Jose Antonio Villarán and Sesshu Foster

20 NOVEMBER 2022 — sunday

Poetry Flash presents a reading by Jose Antonio Villarán, Open Pit, and Sesshu Foster, City of the Future, online via Zoom, free, 3:00 pm PST (Register to attend: please click here; you will receive an email with a link to join the reading)

Please join us for a virtual reading on Sunday, November 20 at 3:00 pm PST. We are excited to bring you this 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.

Featured books for this event are available at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash.

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Jose Antonio Villarán's new collection is Open Pit. He is author of two previous collections, including la distancia es siempre la misma and el cerrajero. He is also author of one book of translation, Album of Fences, by Omar Pimienta. Sandra and Ben Doller say, "Jose Antonio Villarán's Open Pit affectively pits global addictions against personal extractions, calculating the enormous human and environmental weight of techno-privilege. Hurtling down the superhighway of forms—the ocean on one side, the desert on the other—the poems in this book accumulate into a desperate investigation of complicity, commodity, and heredity, as they swerve from Sacramento to San Diego to Lima to China to dust. The open pit of the title—of the exploited town of Morococha, of the raided earth itself—echoes and plumbs as it is stripped bare, as it is offered to the poet's young son Miqel, the future. This text is a necessary addition to the canon of disembordered political poetry which, here, honestly acknowledging its own limits, dilates the aperture." He holds an MFA in Writing from UC San Diego and is a PhD candidate in Literature at UC Santa Cruz.

Sesshu Foster is a poet, novelist, and veteran public school teacher. Foster's most recent poetry collection, City of the Future, is "the poetic soundtrack of a people and a place, of their history and their dreams." He is co-author, with artist Arturo Romo, of the surrealist, multigenre novel ELADATL: A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines. Ben Ehrenreich says "ELADATL is strong medicine against the erasures of history, a mega-vitamin for struggles yet to come." Foster has taught writing in East Los Angeles, at the University of Iowa, the California Institute for the Arts, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work has been published in The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, Language for a New Century: Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, and State of the Union: 50 Political Poems. Foster earned his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He lives in Alhambra, California.




Daily Listings

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19 SEPTEMBER 2026 — saturday

  • Beyond Baroque presents "What Remains: Erasure as Resistance and Reclamation," a generative writing workshop with Elina Katrin, recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Lambda Literary, the Vermont Studio Center, and Periplus, at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, Los Angeles, $95.49 general admission, $84.99 for members, 11:00 am (Tickets available: www.eventbrite.com/e/what-remains-erasure-as-resistance-and-reclamation-tickets-1996286048309?aff=ebdsoporgprofile)
  • 45th annual NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS, honoring the books and authors of Northern California, as well as California translators state-wide; presentation of the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service, the NCBA Groundbreaker Award, and the NCBA Recognition Award, 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_2026 or sfpl.org)

20 SEPTEMBER 2026 — sunday

  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Award-Winning Poets," with readings by Farnaz Fatemi, Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate Emerita; Ellen Kombiyil, Raleigh Review's Geri Digiorno Multi-Genre Prize-winner, and Claire Drucker, 2026-2028 Sonoma County Poet Laureate, with event host Kary Hess, Copperfield's Books, 140 Kentucky Street, Petaluma, free, 2:00 pm (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Found Poets in The Round," with readings by Lorrie Chang, Mahrs Emerson Schoppman, mOody bLaCk, with event host Original Giotis, The Phoenix Theater, 201 Washington Street, Petaluma, free, 1:00 pm (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • The Freight presents Rumi's Caravan, an evening of spoken word with musical accompaniment in an improvised poetic conversation that meanders through moods of prayer and grief to humor and celebration, with words by poets from Rumi and Hafiz to Yeats, Rilke, Neruda, and Mary Oliver, benefitting the Middle East Children's Alliance, The Freight, 2020 Addison Street Berkeley, $30 advance, $35 at the door, 7:30 pm, doors open 7:00 pm (Tickets available: secure.thefreight.org/16039/16041-rumis-caravan-260920)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Sixteen Rivers Press Poets," with poetry readings by Dane Cervine, Lenore Myers, and Carolyn Miller, with event host Terry Ehret, Hotel Petaluma, Ballroom, 205 Kentucky Street, Petaluma, free, 11:00 am (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Taurean Horn and Friends," with readings by Donna Emerson, Jack Crimmins, and Dr. Jeanne Powell, with event host Bill Vartnaw, founder of Taurean Horn Press and Petaluma Poetry Walk director emeritus, Usher Gallery, 1 Petaluma Boulevard North, Petaluma, free, 4:00 pm (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Tender Hearts Poets," with poetry readings by Maw Shein Win, Lourdes Figueroa, and Luisa Giulianetti, with event host Ingrid Keir, Jess Brown Design, 144 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, free, 5:00 pm (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk and the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum present "Translator Poets," with readings by Pat Nolan, Adrian Arias, and Francesca Bell, with event host Jennifer Barone, The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum, 20 Fourth Street, Petaluma, free, 3:00 pm (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Word Flights," with readings by Deyci Carrillo López, Wendy M. Thompson, and Cintia Santana, with event host Daedalus Howell, The Big Easy, 128 American Alley, Petaluma, free, 6:00 pm (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)
  • Petaluma Poetry Walk presents "Youth Poets," with readings by Elizabeth Foster, Nika Grajqevci, and Juno Phipps, with event host Maxine Flasher-Düzgünes, Keller Street CoWork, 140 Keller Street, Petaluma, free, Noon (petalumapoetrywalk.org/2026-schedule)

21 SEPTEMBER 2026 — monday

22 SEPTEMBER 2026 — tuesday

23 SEPTEMBER 2026 — wednesday

24 SEPTEMBER 2026 — thursday

25 SEPTEMBER 2026 — friday

26 SEPTEMBER 2026 — saturday

27 SEPTEMBER 2026 — sunday

28 SEPTEMBER 2026 — monday

29 SEPTEMBER 2026 — tuesday

30 SEPTEMBER 2026 — wednesday


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