Cynthia Hogue
Photo: University of Arizona Poetry Center

Cynthia Hogue, Louise Nayer, Tennison S. Black

3 DECEMBER 2023 — sunday

Poetry Flash presents a reading by poet and translator Cynthia Hogue, instead, it is dark, poet and memoirist Louise Nayer, Narrow Escapes, and Tennison S. Black, Survival Strategies, a National Poetry Series selection, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm PST (poetryflash.org).

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MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Tennison S. Black's new collection, Survival Strategies, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Adrienne Su. Donald Revell says, "With each poem, experience—whether tender or catastrophic—is birthed into new competence and clarity. There is a profound and literal refreshment in this book, one urgently needed now." Tennison Black's writing appears in SWWIM, Hotel Amerika, Booth, Bacopa Review, Wordgathering, New Mobility, and elsewhere. They are managing editor of Sundress Publications and Best of the Net and are the editor of the anthology on contemporary disability, A Body You Talk To. They live in Washington State.
Cynthia Hogue's tenth poetry collection is instead, it is dark. Ilya Kaminsky says, "How do other people's memories come to live in our bodies, how do they travel by means of language, from one human bod`y to another, across time and miles, painful miles? I ask this question out of sorrow, yes, but also in wonder, upon reading Cynthia Hogue's beautiful, transformative instead, it is dark, a book not of tales or dreams or historical accounts but of memories that survive us, that have already surviveds us, as they've entered the lyric. Open this book on almost any page and you will see not just World War II history, or its aftermath, but also what such histories do to our minds.…" Her recent ekphrastic Covid chapbook is Contain, and her new collaborative translation from the French of Nicole Brossard is Distantly, from Omnidawn. Among her honors are a Fulbright Fellowship to Iceland, two NEA Fellowships, and the Landon Translation Award from Academy of American Poets. She was the inaugural Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University. She lives in Tucson.
Louise Nayer's new book is Narrow Escapes: A Memoir. Katherine Seligman says, "Narrow Escapes is a riveting, beautifully told story of Nayer's journey across continents, but also through layers of grief from a childhood trauma, as she learns to find her way home. I will not forget this book." Louise Nayer's prose and poetry books include Keeping Watch; The Houses Are Covered in Sound; Burned: A Memoir, an Oprah Great Read and winner of the Wisconsin Library Association award; and How to Bury a Goldfish: 113 Rituals for Everyday Life, co-authored with Virginia Lang. Her writing appears in OZY, San Francisco Chronicle, Wear Your Voice, Arizona Daily, and elsewhere. Louise Nayer is a member of the Writer's Grotto, and teaches through OLLI UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.