
Meryl Natchez
Dean Rader and Meryl Natchez
19 MARCH 2023 — sunday
Poetry Flash presents a reading and a conversation in poems by Meryl Natchez, Catwalk, and Dean Rader, Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry, in person, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).
Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series.
Featured books for this event will be available at the event. Dean Rader's are also available at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash.
MORE ABOUT THE READERS
"In this reading and conversation in poems, the poets will read poems that seem to speak to each other's work—from tales of the inimitable Frog and Toad children's books, the scenes from Reservoir Dogs, to the standard territory of love, sex, death and most everything else, except taxes."
Meryl Natchez's fourth book, Catwalk, received an Indie Best Book 2020 Award from Kirkus Reviews. Jericho Brown says, "Meryl Natchez casts the kind of spells that amount to a more precise definition for the "changing same" of what lyric poetry really is. Yes, these poems show a gift for formal dexterity with haibuns and cinquains and nonce verse, but what I love about them is how much of the world—how much of a life—Natchez conjures in the space of a few lines. From the biology of earthworms to the pitfalls of a forty-year love affair, there is no place this poetry won't touch." Meryl Natchez's work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, Hudson Review, Poetry Northwest, Literary Matters, The American Journal of Poetry, Tupelo Quarterly, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. For more see www.merylnatchez.com.
Dean Rader's most recent poetry collection is Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry, a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award. ZYZZYVA wrote of it, "By writing honestly about the difficulties of self-representation, Rader represents himself as a writer who cares deeply about his audience and his craft." His previous collection, Works & Days, won the T.S Eliot Prize. Eric Weinstein wrote of it, "his poems ask the difficult questions in accessible ways, ways rendered all the more effective via wry humor and an eye for the darkly poignant." Writer, scholar, and critic as well as a poet, Dean Rader also writes about Indigenous studies, modern and contemporary art, and visual culture. He is a professor at the University of San Francisco and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry.


Daily Listings
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23 SEPTEMBER 2023 — saturday
- Point Reyes Books presents poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield, The Beauty, longlisted for the National Book Award, reading from her new collection, The Asking: New and Selected Poems, copies of the book will be available for purchase, Point Reyes Presbyterian Church, 11445 CA-1, Point Reyes Station, $10, 3:00 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.ptreyesbooks.com/event/jane-hirshfield)
- Arts of Point Richmond, with the Marin Poetry Center, present Lily Iona MacKenzie, reading from her two new books, Dreaming Myself into Old Age: One Woman's Search for Meaning, a hybrid memoir, and California Dreaming, a collection of poems, in conversation with Christine Cote, editor and publisher of Shanti Arts Press, online via Zoom, free, Noon-1:00 pm PDT (RSVP to attend: www.artsofpointrichmond.com/events/book-launch-for-two-books-by-lily-iona-mackenzie)
- Beyond Baroque presents "Beyond Barock: A Day of Latinx Punk, Social Justice, and Literature," featuring Juanita Mantz, Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, Richard T. Rodriguez, A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and U.S. Latinidad, Michelle Cruz Gonzales, The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk, and Margaret Elysia Garcia, the daughterland poems, with a musical performance by punk band Bad Boys Dance Party, free, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach, Los Angeles, event starts at Noon PDT, the open mic reading is at 2:00 pm (Register to attend: www.beyondbaroque.org)
- Fourth Saturdays presents a reading with featured poets Angela Peñaredondo, All Things Lose Thousands of Times, winner of the Hillary Gravendyk Regional Book Prize, and Nancy Murphy, The Space Carved by the Sharpness of Your Absence, books will be available for purchase at the event, free, Claremont Library, 208 N. Harvard Ave, Claremont, 2:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.facebook.com/fourthsaturdayspoetry)
- Marin Poetry Center presents Prartho Sereno, former Poet Laureate of Marin County and author of Indian Rope Trick, winner of the 2018 Blue Light Book Award, reading from her new collection, Starfall in the Temple, with musical accompaniment, refreshments will be served at the event, free, Redwoods Presbyterian Church, 110 Magnolia Ave, Larkspur, 2:30-4:00 pm PDT
24 SEPTEMBER 2023 — sunday
- Poetry Flash Reading Series presents their festive season opening, a book launch for poet and writer Judy Bebelaar, Sky Holding Fall, reading with poet Jeanne Wagner, Everything Turns Into Something Else, followed by refreshments and music, The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).
25 SEPTEMBER 2023 — monday
26 SEPTEMBER 2023 — tuesday
- Cobalt Poets presents a reading by featured poet Vayl Luella Larkin, followed by an open mic, online via Zoom, free, 7:30 pm PDT (Register to attend: www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html)
- The Booksmith presents novelist Adam Mansbach, Go the Fuck to Sleep, celebrating the launch of his new book, The Golem of Brooklyn, in conversation with comedian and director W. Kamau Bell, Do the Work!, First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway, Oakland, $10 general admission, $25 ticket includes a signed copy of the book, 7:00 pm PDT (Purchase tickets here: (www.booksmith.com/event)
27 SEPTEMBER 2023 — wednesday
28 SEPTEMBER 2023 — thursday
- Writers Read Ukiah presents poet Robin Gabbert, Diary of a Mad Poet, who will give a lecture on ekphrastic poetry and read from her new book, The Clandestine Life of Paintings in Poem, Grace Hudson Museum, 431 South Main Street, Ukiah, $5 suggested donation, 7:00 pm PDT
29 SEPTEMBER 2023 — friday
30 SEPTEMBER 2023 — saturday
- 42nd Annual Northern California Book Awards, honoring the published works and authors of Northern California, as well as California translators state-wide, presenting the FRED CODY AWARD, RECOGNITION and GROUNDBREAKER AWARDS, and awards in FICTION, POETRY, CREATIVE NONFICTION, GENERAL NONFICTION, CALIFORNIA TRANSLATION IN POETRY, CALIFORNIA TRANSLATION IN PROSE, CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, YOUNGER READERS, MIDDLE GRADE, YOUNG ADULT, bookselling follows, selected by Northern California Book Reviewers and sponsored by Poetry Flash, Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, free, 2:00 pm PDT (Check back for updates, poetryflash.org/programs/?p=ncba_2023 or https://sfpl.org/events)
- Sacramento Poetry Alliance presents a poetry reading by Camille Norton, Corruption, and Stella Beratlis, Dust Bowl Venus, Sacramento Poetry Alliance, 1169 Perkins Way, Sacramento, free, 4:00 pm PDT (More information here: www.facebook.com/sacramentopoetryalliance)
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