
Rebecca Foust
Rebecca Foust and Diane Frank
26 APRIL 2026 — sunday
Poetry Flash presents a poetry reading by Rebecca Foust, You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems, and Diane Frank, Prayer to the Invisible, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 3:00 pm (poetryflash.org).
The featured books will be available at the reading and at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash. This event will be posted on the Poetry Flash YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UClwdR-uPFNz7XxbBbLcnoEA. Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series.
MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Rebecca Foust's new book is You Are Leaving the American Sector: Love Poems. Her previous collection, ONLY, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Ellen Bass says, "In Only, her luminous new collection of poems, Rebecca Foust's gifts are in full flower. Richly imagistic and achingly lyrical, these poems wrestle with the big questions-religion, immigration, climate change, politics, parenting, autism, and death-all on a deeply intimate level. Like an impressionist painter, she uses light to capture the immediacy of the present, the passage of time. Foust's most remarkable gift is showing us '…the world as it is: gorgeous in its mortal wound.'" Her other books include Paradise Drive, Press 53 Award-winner and Poetry Society of Virginia Book Award; God Seed (with artist Lorna Stevens), Foreword Book of the Year Award for Poetry; and All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song. She has received the James Dickey Prize, the New Ohio Review Prize, James Hearst Prize, Poetry International Prize, and Pablo Neruda Award. Foust's poems have appeared widely, in The Hudson Review, Iowa Review, Narrative, Ploughshares, POETRY, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She is Poet Laureate Emerita of Marin County, and divides her time between northern California and northern Minnesota.
Diane Frank is a poet and musician. Her new book of poems is Prayer to the Invisible, Thomas Centolella says, ""In her new collection, Diane Frank relies on two of her most beloved motifs: dreams and music. She employs them as talismans against what her mother, a marvelous singer, calls (in my favorite poem) the mishigas—the craziness—of the world. In a touching tribute to her friend who was killed in the Tree of Life shooting, Frank says, 'Our prayers grow out of the shadow / of necessity.' The shadow where, as Jung reminds us, the affirmations of dreams and music and poetry can contend against ever-impending doom." She is the author of nine books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. While Listening to the Enigma Variations won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. She's editor of three anthologies: River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the Twenty-First Century; Fog and Light: San Francisco through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here; and Pandemic Puzzle Poems. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, was nominated for the Pulitzer. Diane Frank is editor of Blue Light Press.


Daily Listings
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11 SEPTEMBER 2026 — friday
- Et Al Gallery presents Street Poets Publish Books, a poetry reading featuring Sarah Menefee, Monolith, Bridget Clancy, Charlie Getter, and Martin Hickel, open mic to follow, Et Al Gallery, 2831A Mission Street, San Francisco, free, 5:30 pm-7:30 pm (etaletc.com/events)
12 SEPTEMBER 2026 — saturday
- Sixteen Rivers Press presents a poetry reading by Molly Fisk, Walking Wheel, Inaugural Poet Laureate emerita of Nevada County, and Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Frangible Operas, former Wallace Stegner fellow, Camille Norton will introduce, Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley, free, 3:00 pm (sixteenrivers.org/readings-events)
13 SEPTEMBER 2026 — sunday
14 SEPTEMBER 2026 — monday
15 SEPTEMBER 2026 — tuesday
16 SEPTEMBER 2026 — wednesday
17 SEPTEMBER 2026 — thursday
18 SEPTEMBER 2026 — friday
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
- Fourth Saturdays Poetry at the Claremont Library presents a reading by poet and essayist Maurya Simon, The Blue Bridge, and Adam O. Davis, poet and editor, Helen Renwick Library, 208 North Harvard Avenue, Claremont, free, 2:00 pm (www.claremontlibrary.org/monthly-poetry-readings.html)
27 SEPTEMBER 2026 — sunday
28 SEPTEMBER 2026 — monday
29 SEPTEMBER 2026 — tuesday
30 SEPTEMBER 2026 — wednesday
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