Kim Addonizio

Sierra Poetry Festival: Kim Addonizio, Randall Mann, Annie Finch, Anthony Cody, more

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)