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Lynne Thompson

Lynne Thompson and Dorianne Laux

25 JULY 2024 — thursday

Poetry Flash presents an exciting poetry reading by Dorianne Laux, Life and Earth, and Lynne Thompson, Blue on a Blue Palette, part of Poetry Flash's 50+ Anniversary celebration, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 7:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).

Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series.
Featured books for this reading will be available for signing at the event and at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash. This event will be posted on the Poetry Flash YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UClwdR-uPFNz7XxbBbLcnoEA.

MORE ABOUT THE READERS

Dorianne Laux's new book of poems is Life on Earth. Kwame Dawes says, "A prodigious imagination that somehow manages to sift through the ordinary, quotidian, and squalid realities of our world, to produce moments of grace and shimmering beauty, and empathetic illumination. Dorianne Laux is a national treasure, a poet of immense insight and masterful craft." Her previous collections include Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic's Circle Award; Smoke; Facts About the Moon; The Book of Men, which received The Paterson Poetry Prize; and Only as the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems, a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She's co-author of the celebrated book The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry, and she's authored a new book in that vein, Finger Exercises for Poets. She is a founding faculty member of Pacific University's low-residency MFA program, and lives in Northern California.

Lynne Thompson's new book of poems is Blue on a Blue Palette. Ellen Bass says, "Singing the blues in this beautiful and devastating collection, Lynne Thompson calls on the tradition of poets such as Patricia Smith and Adrienne Rich to examine a culture of loss for women and for people of color.…Thompson employs a variety of forms—from abecedarian to cento and villanelle—in skillful, smart, and generous poems that include allusions to nursery rhymes, Bible verses, musicians, artists, and writers to explore the tensions between creation and violence.…This is an important collection, one to keep close.…" Her previous collections include Beg No Pardon, winner of Perugia Press Prize and Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award; Start with a Small Guitar; and Fretwork, winner of the 2019 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize selected by Jane Hirshfield. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, her honors include an Individual Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles, Tucson Literary Festival Poetry Prize, and George Drury Smith Award for Achievement in Poetry 2023. She lives in Los Angeles and graced that city as Poet Laureate 2021-22.




Daily Listings

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2 APRIL 2025 — wednesday

3 APRIL 2025 — thursday

  • Literary Salon at Red Hen Press features novelist Nancy Kricorian, The Burning Heart of the World, whose fiction is based on post-genocide Armenian diaspora experiences, Lory Bedikian, Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body, winner of the 2023 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, and Arthur Kayzakian, The Book of Redacted Paintings, winner of the 2021 Black Lawrence Press Immigrant Writing Series, Red Hen Press, 1540 Lincoln Avenue, Pasadena, reception with refreshments, 5:30 pm PDT, program at 6:15 pm PDT (For more information and to RSVP, visit: redhen.org/event-calendar/literarysalon-april2025)
  • Lunch Poems, a monthly poetry reading, presents Geffrey Davis, One Wild Word Away, University of California Berkeley, Morrison Library, 101 Library Court, Berkeley, free, Noon PST (For more information, visit: www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/lunch-poems)

4 APRIL 2025 — friday

5 APRIL 2025 — saturday

  • Poet and activist-scholar Nat Raha, apparitions (nines), visiting from Edinburgh, Scotland, in conversation with Bay Area poet Willa Smart, Switch Wish, the authors will present readings of recent work before joining in conversation about trans writing and life, Et al., 2831a Mission Street, San Francisco, 6:30 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.smallpresstraffic.org/event/nat-raha-willa-smart)

6 APRIL 2025 — sunday

  • Poetry Flash presents a poetry reading to celebrate the Sixteen Rivers Press featured titles for 2025, Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong, the department of peace, Patrick Cahill, If we are the forest the animals dream, Moira Magneson, In the Eye of the Elephant, and Terry Ehret and Nancy J. Morales, award-winning co-translators of Plagios/Plagiarisms, Volume III, poems by Ulalume González de León, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).

7 APRIL 2025 — monday

  • Poet and member of the Suquamish Nation Cedar Sigo, All This Time, presents his new poetry collection, Siren of Atlantis, City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: citylights.com/events/cedar-sigo)

8 APRIL 2025 — tuesday

9 APRIL 2025 — wednesday

10 APRIL 2025 — thursday

11 APRIL 2025 — friday

12 APRIL 2025 — saturday

  • The ninth annual Sierra Poetry Festival, "Where Hope and History Rhyme," is an international festival marking National Poetry Month from the foothills of California's Gold Country to the High Sierra, celebrating the spoken word with readings, workshops, a literary fair, and youth performances, preceded by a month of pre-festival pop-up poetry events throughout the community; the Festival mainstage will feature Keynote address, "Hope, Uncertainty, and Creativity Notes on Living and Writing," by acclaimed poet and fiction writer Kim Addonizio, Exit Opera, with guitarist Danny Caron; morning readings by Anthony Cody, Borderland Apocrypha, Brynn Saito, Under a Future Sky, and writer, editor, and writing coach Karen Terry; Morning Workshops, "The Archival Self," with Anthony Cody, "Ancestral Poetics," with Brynn Saito, and "Responding to Current Events with Poems of History and Hope," with Karen Terrey; Open Mic Winners presented by zsa'lai; Poetry Out Loud with student finalists; "Putting the Punk Back in Poetry," with Joey Henry, Nevada County Youth Laureate; "A Conversation with poet and scholar Annie Finch, A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry and Calendars and Eve, poet Randall Mann, Deal: New and Selected Poems,, and classicist and translator Christopher Childers, moderated by Maxima Kahn; Afternoon readings with Cloudy Rhodes Carrier, Judy Crowe, Iranian-raised poet and translator from the Persian, Armen Davoudian, The Palace of Forty Pillars, and Mai Der Vang, Yellow Rain, Northern California Book Award-winner, Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and American Book Award-winner; Workshops: "Joining Poetry's Dances: Explorations in the Magic of Meter," with Annie Finch, "The Sound of Sound," with essayist and fiction writer Sands Hall; a selection of literary organizations will exhibit, Poetry Flash plans to be there; The Center for the Arts, 314 W. Main Street, Grass Valley, a full pass for workshops and readings is $45, purchase online; general admission $20-$45, free for students, Military, Veterans, and Gold Star families, 8:30 am-5:00 pm PDT (More information and tickets here: www.sierrapoetryfestival.org)
  • Angel City Review's Ten Years of Poetry in L.A. anthology brings together forty-four Los Angeles-based and connected poets that have contributed to the journal over the past decade, serving both as a best of poetry collection as well as a focused survey of the city's poetry in the last decade; contributors to the anthology will read their texts in The Wanda Coleman Theater, including Sesshu Foster, Teka Lark, Douglas Manuel, Marcus Clayton, and Lizeth De La Luz, hosted by Managing Editor Zachary C. Jensen, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, 681 Venice Boulevard, Venice, Los Angeles, $12, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-angel-city-review-ten-years-of-poetry-in-la-tickets-1285207723899?aff=oddtdtcreator)

13 APRIL 2025 — sunday

14 APRIL 2025 — monday

  • Former Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate Farnaz Fatemi and Santa Cruz County's new Poet Laureate Nancy Miller Gomez celebrate Gomez's 2025-26 appointment with wine, food, lively conversation, and poetry, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: bookshopsantacruz.com/poet-laureate-2025)

15 APRIL 2025 — tuesday

16 APRIL 2025 — wednesday

17 APRIL 2025 — thursday

  • Irish poet Seán Hewitt presents his debut novel, Solar Hits, in conversation with queer, Jewish poet, writer, and educator Sam Sax, Yr Dead, City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, 7:00 pm PDT (For more information, visit: citylights.com/events/sean-hewitt)

18 APRIL 2025 — friday

19 APRIL 2025 — saturday

20 APRIL 2025 — sunday

21 APRIL 2025 — monday

22 APRIL 2025 — tuesday

23 APRIL 2025 — wednesday

24 APRIL 2025 — thursday

25 APRIL 2025 — friday

26 APRIL 2025 — saturday

27 APRIL 2025 — sunday

28 APRIL 2025 — monday

29 APRIL 2025 — tuesday

30 APRIL 2025 — wednesday


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