Check out our contests section for information on the Aileen Jaffa Young Poets Contest, a poetry competition for K-12 students in Stanislaus County! Winners will be honored with cash prizes and will be invited to read their work in a ceremony at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock on Sunday, May 21st. Read more about it on the contest page, download the entry form, and please feel free to spread the word!
Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie
Our Poetry on Sunday quarterly reading series at Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock continues on December 4th at 2 pm–feel free to print and distribute the flyer, available as a PDF right here.
Featured readers:
Noel Crane began writing poetry six years ago and hasn’t stopped. Her poetry explores her childhood struggles with listlessness and excessive daydreaming. Noel has a Bachelor’s degree in English. When she’s not writing, she enjoys yoga, hiking, and plants. Noel is currently working on another degree in Horticulture.
Tom Myers is a retired elementary teacher who was raised and still lives in the Great Central Valley with his wife and assorted pets. Wild places sustain him and frame much of his poetry. He is a founding board member of MoSt. Desert Treasure is his third chapbook.
Lillian Vallee is a writer, translator, retired college instructor and amateur naturalist who lives at the center of the world, in Modesto, in California’s Great Central Valley, a region of immense riches and only partially realized potential. Vallee’s work expresses her region’s telluric mysteries, its profound failings and everyday striving for healing and wholeness.
Gillian Wegener has had poetry published in Spillway, Packinghouse Review, Sow’s Ear, and Wherewithal. Her chapbook Lifting One Foot, Lifting the Other was published by In the Grove Press in 2001, and her first full-length collection of poetry, The Opposite of Clairvoyance was published in 2008 by Sixteen Rivers Press. Her second collection, This Sweet Haphazard, will be published in early 2017. In the meantime, she hosts the monthly 2nd Tuesday Reading Series, is founding president of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center, and served as poet laureate for the City of Modesto from 2012-2016.
Second Tuesday @ Barkin’ Dog
Due to Valentine’s Day, our February edition of Second Tuesday will be held on Tuesday, February 21st!
Jan 07
5th Annual Modesto Poetry Festival: Enter Your Work Now!
The contest deadline for our annual poetry festival is coming up soon: January 11, 2017 is the last day you can submit your work! Even if you don’t have poems to submit, please join us on Saturday, February 4th, 2017 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Modesto for a day of poetry, learning, and inspiration!
This year, we are proud to welcome featured poet Susan Wooldridge as our guest poet and workshop leader. Click here to read more about the festival in Stanislaus Connections.
Click on the image at right to download the PDF flyer, and you can click here to download the registration form (which also has details about this year’s festival poetry contest).
Themes for this year’s contest are 1. Across the Generations; 2. Rivers and Streams; 3. Fault Lines; 4. Polarities / Attractions. Submissions to the poetry contest must be postmarked by the CONTEST DEADLINE: JANUARY 11, 2017. Please see the form for more information.
Writers Resist: Modesto Louder!
Official Press Release:
MODESTO WRITERS JOIN NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO “RE-INAUGURATE” DEMOCRACY
“Writers Resist” Event Planned Locally
for January 15th, 2017
MODESTO, California, December 31, 2016 — A recent Facebook post unleashed a nationwide movement of writers organizing and promoting independent “Writers Resist” events to reclaim democracy planned for January 15, 2017.
The flagship Writers Resist event, founded by poet Erin Bilieu and co-sponsored by PEN America, will feature famous literary figures braving January weather on the steps of the Public Library in New York City to read historic and contemporary writings on the ideals of democracy and free expression. Additional Writers Resist events, are being held in Boston, Los Angeles, Oakland, Austin, Portland, Omaha, Seattle, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, and many more cities.
Locally, the City of Modesto’s poet laureate, Stella Beratlis—along with writer Shanyn Vitti Avila and poet Elizabeth Sousa—is organizing Writers Resist: Modesto in response to concern during the recent Presidential campaign over public cynicism, disdain for truthfulness, and the unleashing of hatred and bigotry. Beratlis, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters of Stanislaus County, wanted to present an event which might galvanize Modesto audiences to become active in the civic life of the community, support nonprofits that address social justice issues, and network with like-minded people while having fun.
Thirty readers, including Lillian Vallee, Manny Moreno, Trudy Wischemann, Sam Pierstorff, Flora Carter, Paula Treick DeBoard, Aishah Saleh, Nancy Maya, Chad Sokolovsky, Optimism One, and many others are scheduled to read their own work plus selections from the Constitution and from diverse voices addressing the ideals of democracy and free expression.
The Modesto event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Prospect Theater, 1214 K Street in downtown Modesto on Sunday, January 15, starting at 6:30 pm. Doors open at 6:00 pm. Organizers will be raising funds at the event to support the work of the Modesto Peace/Life Center, specifically to help underwrite its planned radio station.
Writers and interested public who want to attend can visit www.writersresist.org for a list of cities holding readings. To contact local organizers, please write to writersresistmodesto@gmail.com or call 209-613-9283
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Writers Resist (www.writersresist.org) is a national network of writers driven to #WriteOurDemocracy by defending the ideals of a free, just and compassionate democratic society. #WritersResist