Join facilitator Salvatore Salerno, poet laureate of Modesto, for the third MoSt Poetry Summer Workshop of 2022. We will meet on Saturday, August 20 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. at the Stanislaus County Modesto Library. Participants are requested to bring a poem or two in working drafts, or even brief phrases of potential poems, to the workshop. They will be guided on using repetitive elements in their poetry to create momentum and flow. This workshop is free and in person!
MoSt Poetry on Saturday featuring Nancy Aidé González and Gary Thomas
Nancy Aidé González and Gary Thomas will read their poetry on August 13, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. during MoSt Poetry on Saturday at the Carnegie Arts Center, located at 250 North Broadway in Turlock, CA. There will be light refreshments and an open mic following the featured poets. This event is free and open to the public.
Nancy Aidé González is a Chicana poet, educator, and activist. Her work has appeared in Huizache: The Magazine of Latino Literature, La Tolteca, Mujeres De Maiz Zine, Hinchas de Poesía, Fifth Wednesday Journal and several other literary journals. Her work is featured in Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice, Sacramento Voices: Foam at the Mouth Anthology, Lowriting: Shots, Rides, and Stories from the Chicano Soul, and Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century.
. Gary Thomas grew up on a peach farm outside Empire, California. Prior to retirement, he taught eighth grade language arts for thirty-one years and junior college English for seven, sharing and discussing at least one poem every day with his students. He has presented poetry workshops for statewide organizations, festivals, and conferences. He has had poems published in In the Grove, Time of Singing, and The Comstock Review, among others, and in the anthology More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets. He is currently vice president of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center. All the Connecting Lights, published by Finishing Line Press, is his first full-length collection.
MoSt Poetry Book Club Vantage by Taneum Bambrick
MoSt Poetry Book Club will meet Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 4:30 pm Pacific at the Modesto Stanislaus County Library downstairs in the Maker’s Space. Sara Coito will lead a discussion of this month’s selection, Vantage by Taneum Bambrick. One or two copies of the book are still available to borrow at the library desk.
Winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize, selected by Sharon Olds (who writes the introduction), Vantage is a fictionalized account of the poet’s time spent working as the only woman on a six-person garbage crew around the reservoirs of two massive dams. Bambrick began writing poems in order to document the forms of violence she witnessed towards the people and the environment of the Columbia River. Power—literal and metaphorical—runs through the collection and its stories, as Bambrick finds connection across the lines.
Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Linda Scheller & Zubair Ahmed
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center presents Second Tuesday Poetry, featuring Zubair Ahmed and Linda Scheller
Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Time: 7:00 pm PST
RSVP for Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArcu6oqD4sGNDZmBo6MV6JoEG46YsUVpYJ
Linda Scheller
Linda Scheller is a poet, playwright, and essayist whose work has recently been published in Colorado Review, On the Seawall, Arkana, Sugar House Review, Terrain, The Museum of Americana, and The Wild Word. Her first book of poetry, Fierce Light, was published by FutureCycle Press in 2017. Recent honors include finalist for the Barrow Street Press Poetry Book Prize and The Word Works Washington Prize as well as Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations. She is a founding board member of MoSt Poetry, serves on the Stanislaus County Arts Council, programs for KCBP Community Radio, and belongs to the Modesto Chapter of the National League of American Pen Women. Wind & Children, her new poetry book, was published by Main Street Rag on June 8, 2022.
“Linda Scheller’s Wind and Children is a tragic and beautiful exposition of a teacher’s heart. Tinged with the uncertain fates of her children, California climate chaos, and bright birdsong, these poems sing as a poignant “flute for the wind” in a broken “system that fosters indifference.” Through exquisite metaphor and gripping imagery, this “mother of thousands” pens 36 years of service with grace and wonder, regret and hope. And like a true teacher—with love. ~Kai Coggin, educator and author of Mining for Stardust
“In Linda Scheller’s Wind and Children, fifth graders sit “hunched and silent/like a cloud of butterflies/forced to earth.” We worry over them, their parents, their homes, the violence that surrounds them. Scheller refuses to turn away from difficult realities, yet seeks understanding, looking to the natural world. Reader, you’ll travel far before you’ll find a more thoughtful guide than the one you meet and learn to love in the pages of this moving, care-filled book.” ~Christopher Citro, author of If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun
“Scheller brings the focus of her lens to the world, showcasing a lifetime of literary lessons, poetic remembrances, and artistic manifestations. This volume is a beautiful addition to her work.” ~Indigo Moor, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something
For more information and links to publications, please go to lindascheller.com.
Zubair Ahmed
Zubair Ahmed was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He works as an engineer in Oakland. He also writes poetry, having been named by Poets & Writers magazine as one of the top debut poets of 2012. His collection City of Rivers (McSweeney’s, 2012) was nominated for the California Book Award. Zubair’s works have appeared in Poetry Magazine and The Believer, among others, and have been translated into Swedish and French.
Humor in Poetry Workshop
Join facilitator Linda Scheller for Humor in Poetry, the second MoSt Poetry Summer Workshop of 2022. We’ll meet on Saturday, July 16 from 1-3pm PT at the Stanislaus County Modesto Library. Participants will examine poems containing humor, consider methods and ideas for creating humor in poetry, and write first drafts of a poem enhanced by humor. Free and in person!