Poetry Santa Cruz events upcoming in the next month in Santa Cruz County. Please see our Events page for future listings and a comprehensive list of literary events in and around Santa Cruz.
 

Poetry Santa Cruz Events
Tuesday November 18 7:30 PM	Lucille Clifton Reading Cancelled.  Lucille Clifton is ill and unable to travel to read in the First Annual Maude Meehan Memorial Poetry Reading.  Sadly we must cancel this reading.  We will try to bring her some time in 2009.
First Friday December 5 8:00 PM	Favorite Poem Project Reading featuring visual Artists reading favorite poems.  Mill Gallery, 131 Front Street, Santa Cruz.  Free.  Presented by Poetry Santa Cruz in coordination with the Santa Cruz Institute for Contemporary Art and the Santa Cruz First Friday Art Tour.
Tuesday December 9 7:30 PM	Joseph Stroud and Susan Freeman.  Capitola Book Café, 1475 41st Avenue, Capitola.  Free. [ Read more about this event. ]
Sunday December 14 2:00 PM	Poet/Speak Open Reading with featured reader Mary A. Carr.  Main Library upstairs Meeting Room, 224 Church Street, Santa Cruz.  Free.  Presented by Poetry Santa Cruz and hosted by Joyce Keller.

The reading by Lucille Clifton on November 18 is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.  This event is co-sponsored by the UCSC Division of Humanities and the UCSC Creative Writing Program.  Free parking for this event is funded by the Porter College George Hitchcock Poetry Fund.

These events are supported, in part, by a grant from the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County.  Poetry Santa Cruz is also grateful for the support of its members and donors, In Celebration of the Muse, and those who donated in memory of Maude Meehan.  The William James Association acted as our fiscal sponsor for our first four years.  Our readings are sponsored by Bookshop Santa Cruz, Capitola Book Café, The Attic, Casablanca Inn, The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Cabrillo College, KUSP and the National Writers Union Chapter 7.  Membership premiums have been donated by Graywolf Press, the University of Pittsburgh Press, Robert Sward, Coffee House Press, Copper Canyon Press, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  A voluntary donation of $3 may be requested at venues where collection of donations is permitted.

Poem by Ellen Bass on The Writer’s Almanac

Garrison Keillor read “After Our Daughter’s Wedding” by Ellen Bass, from her collection Mules of Love (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2002). The Writer’s Almanac can be heard on KAZU 90.3 FM daily at 9:01 AM and 8:01 PM.

Chris Watson’s Article on Lucille Clifton

Chris Watson’s Bookends column “Extraordinary woman, extraordinary voice,” in the November 16 Santa Cruz Sentinel praises Lucille Clifton’s new book Voices.  Lucille Clifton’s planned November 18 First Annual Maude Meehan Memorial Reading was canceled due to illness.  We hope to bring her to read in 2009.

The 2008 Louis Guillaume Prize for Prose Poems awarded to Voix de Glace/Voice of Ice by Alta Ifland

Santa Cruz poet Alta Ifland has been awarded the 2008 Louis Guillaume Prize for Prose Poems for her bilingual French/English collection Voix de Glace/Voice of Ice, published by Les Figues Press.  The prize is awarded each year for a collection of prose poems written in French.  Selected by an eleven-member jury, it is a French prize awarded to a Francophone writer of any nationality.  The prize is named after Louis Guillaume (1907-1971) who defined the prose poem as “an organic whole, a crystallized structure whose end is neither that of a narrative nor of a morality tale [and which] must concentrate all the qualities of the modern poem: condensation and speed of imagery.”  Voice of Ice / Voix de Glace will be added to the collection of previous award-winning titles, housed at the Bibliothéque Historique de la Ville de Paris.

Offset Press Suitable for Small Press Publishing

An offset press suitable for small press publishing is available for free to a serious person.  This ATF Chief with 11 X 17 inch plates needs minor adjustments to make tip-top, but little financial investment is required.  If you are interested, contact Norm at picapole@earthlink.net.

The Poetry Santa Cruz Video Archive Updated

Poetry Santa Cruz Video Archive has been updated with the October 14 reading by April Ossmann and Ed Pavlic, in addition to the September 9 reading by Brian Turner and Maggie Paul.

Submissions to Porter Gulch Review

Porter Gulch Review invites submissions of short stories, excerpts from novels, poetry, screenplays, plays, photography, and artwork for the 2009 issue by December 1, 2008.

Maximum two prose pieces (5,000 words each), and four poems per writer.  Submissions must be typed, single spaced and single sided—ONE copy only!  Your name should not appear on the hard copy.  Please include ONE cover page with your name, address, email, phone number, and title(s) of submission(s), as well as a duplicate of the files on a CD which also includes your name.

For art submissions, please have your name and contact information written on the back of each piece.  CD-Roms are acceptable with pictures in high-resolution, 600DPI files.

All submissions, whether art or written work, must include a 2-3 sentence bio along with your submission(s).  Originals of artwork and photograph may be retrieved at the public reading.

Send everything in a 9X12 envelope to: Porter Gulch Review, Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Drove, Aptos, CA 95003. Or email them as attachments to David Sullivan at dasulliv@cabrillo.edu.

Tor House Prize Winners Announced

The winner of the 2008 Tor House Prize for Poetry is Sean Nevin of Tempe Arizona for his poem “Sundowning.” The full announcement including the honorable mention poets and the poems are available on the Tor House website .

Blue’s Cruzio Café

Beau Blue has installed new animated performances on the Main Stage of his Blue’s Cruzio Café website.  High speed internet access is needed.  Featured poets are Tony Barnstone, F. D. Reeve, Robert Sward, C. E. Chaffin, Cat Townsend, Ashley Walker and Beau Blue, and featuring avatars and artwork by D. L. Law, Mel Holden, CoolCreators, Bill Cash and Beau Blue.
Click on "The Saloon," "The Stage Upstairs," "The Green Room," "Cafe After Hours" and "Beau Blue Presents" for more.

Central Coast Writers 2009 Spring Writing Contest

Central Coast Writers, the local branch of the California Writers Club, announces its 2009 Spring Writing Contest for poetry and short stories.  The Submission period is August 15 through November 15, 2008.  Winners receive $500.  See the CCW website for Contest Rules.

Poetry in the Good Times

The Santa Cruz arts and entertainment weekly newspaper Good Times prints a monthly column, Poetry Corner, which features poetry and essays about poetry.  Recent columns:
• Poems ftom The Beat Within in the October 23 issue.
• Poems by Timothy Green in the October 9 issue.
• Poems by April Ossmann in the September 18 issue.

Breaking into Print

• The anthology Sisters Singing: Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs, Poetry and Sacred Stories by Women is published by Wild Girl Publishing. Edited by Carolyn Brigit Flynn. It includes poetry by Deena Metzger, Gail Brenner, Ziggy Rendler-Bregman, Kate Aver Avraham, Linda Holiday, Andrea van de Loo, Patti Sirens, Carolyn Davis Rudolph, Maria Papacostaki, Mary Camille Thomas, Marigold Fine, Connie Batten, Lisa Espenmiller, Gretchen Sentry, Jean Mahoney. They read on November 25.
• Daniela Hurezanu and Stephen Kessler have co-translated Eyeseas (Les Ziaux), poems by the French novelist and poet Raymond Queneau (1903-1976).  The book is published by Black Widow Press.
• Stephen Kessler has a new book of essays: Moving Targets: On Poets, Poetry & Translation from El Leon Literary Arts in Berkeley. Pre-publication copies are available directly from the author through October.
• The 2008 issue of Ping•Pong, art and literary journal, featuring work by international writers and artists.  Available for $12 now in area bookstores.  The release party was Saturday, August 9 at Henry Miller Library.
• Rick Masten’s last collection poems, Take 3—Not Dead Yet, is available for $33 including postage from SunInk Publications, 37931 Palo Colorado Road, Carmel, CA 93923.
• Porter Gulch Review 2008 includes poems by Philip J. Wagner, Manuela Wehrmann, Nancy Hofmann, Adela Najarro, Ken Weisner, Julia Alter, Pam Lemke, Dan Phillips, Jennifer Pittman, Erin Redfern, Aaron Quiggle, Andrew Walsh, Amber Coverdale Sumrall, Lily Dayton, Carol Rodriguez, Jean Walton Wolff, Kathleen Flowers, Sylvia Bortin Patience, Jeff Towle, Martha Clark Scala, Helene Simkin Jara, David Thorn, Joan Safajek, Zoë Cross, Winifred Baer, Kathryn Petruccelli, Marilyn Jean, Pat Zylius, Shirley Ancheta, Robert S. Pesich, Len Anderson, Barbara Bloom, Jo Ann Birch, Marcia Adams, Douglas McClellan, Dane Cervine, Manfred Luedge, Jenny D’Angelo, Megan Bontrager and Joan Zimmerman.  The winner of the 2008 Porter Gulch Review Award is Zoë Cross.  Porter Gulch Review is edited by the students of David Sullivan’s English 1B class.  It is available in local bookstores and from the authors represented in it.  It will also be available online as a PDF, along with a PDF of student critiques of some of the poems.
• The most recent issue of Monterey Poetry Review, edited by Nicole Henares, is available online and includes poems by Peter Neil Carroll, Bernice Rendrick, John Laue. Neal Whitman, Sam Salerno, Jr., Kathleen Flowers, Gene Pare, Jose Torres, Flame, Tad Wojnicki, Jeanne Lupton, Dane Cervine, Rosalie Nelson, Susan Freeman, Isai Ambrosio, Jennifer Lagier, Diana Garcia, Nancie M. Brown, with artwork by Jill Fressinier and photography by Juleen Johnson.
• Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems and Poetics from California, editd by Christopher Buckley and Gary Young (2008, Greenhouse Review Press) includes prose poems by local poets Alta Ifland, Stephen Kessler, Morton Marcus, Doren Robbins, Joseph Stroud, Robert Sward and Gary Young, as well as many other fine prose poets, and essays on poetics.  This anthology was featured in the May 13 Poetry Santa Cruz at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
• J.P. Dancing Bear’s fourth collection and second full-size collection of poems, Conflicted Light, is available from Salmon Poetry in Ireland.
• Bryant Clifford not only has a book of poems and prose published, The Monarch of Evening Time, it has been made into a film.
• David Sullivan’s first collection of poems, Strong-Armed Angels, has been published by Hummingbird Press.  His launch reading was February 24 and books are available in the stores.
• Kathleen Flowers received the In Celebration of the Muse Chapbook Award, including publication of her chapbook Call it Gladness, at the In Celebration of the Muse reading on March 9.
• Morton Marcus’s literary memoir, Striking Through the Masks, 590 pp., is being published by Capitola Book Company and is in local bookstores.  The launch reading was March 13 in the Holy Cross Parish Hall. Readers and performers included California poet laureate Al Young, Deng Ming-Dao, Ellen Bass, Geoffrey Dunn, James D. Houston, Jean Wakatsuki Houston, Sandy Lydon, George Ow, Jr., Cheryl Anderson with the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus and Cantiamo singing two of Marcus’s poems from The Peace of Wild Things, which was performed at Carnegie Hall last year.  Articles appeared in the February 20 Metro and the March 6 Good Times.

National Poetry News

For national poetry news, check out Poetry Daily’s news and the Poetry Hut Blog.

Cool Poetry Santa Cruz T-shirts!

You can now own a cool Poetry Santa Cruz T-shirt, understated and very hip for those who know. All you have to do is become a member of Poetry Santa Cruz at the $50 level. You can get books, too.

Wishlist

Lend us a hand!  We are in need of volunteer effort. Please see our Wishlist Page to see how you can help. 

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