Second Tuesday @ Barkin’ Dog

Join us at the Barkin’ Dog for the January edition of the Second Tuesday Reading Series. Our featured readers will wow and inspire us with their work, and our Most Excellent Open Mic will knock your socks off.

Susan Cohen is the author of two poetry chapbooks and two full-length collections, including A Different Wakeful Animal, winner of the 2015 Meadowhawk Prize from Red Dragonfly Press and finalist for half a dozen other awards.  Stephen Dunn wrote: “There are pleasures in almost every poem in Susan Cohen’s excellent A Different Wakeful Animal, pleasures that arise out of an alertness to the natural world, and the original phrasing she seeks and regularly finds.” She earned an MFA after a career as a journalist, and lives in Berkeley.

Paul Neumann‘s first book of poetry was published in 2003. His second collection, This Valley, appeared in 2013 and was informed by his love for the land and the people in the Central Valley. Beginnings and Endings, his most recent collection,begins with a series of poems inspired by the birth of his granddaughter, Mary. The last segment of the book examines issues of aging, a subject influenced by his own sense of mortality.

MoSt Board Meeting

Our next Board meeting is Thursday, Jan. 19 at 6:30 at Tom Portwood’s home–email info@mostpoetry.org for more information!

Dec 07

Student Chapbook Contest: DEADLINE EXTENDED!

The deadline for our first annual student chapbook contest has been extended to January 1st, 2017! If you or someone you know is interested in entering poetry in the contest, read more about the guidelines here on our official contest page.

Download the updated flyer here.

Nov 24

Local Poetry Publication Opportunity!

From our friends at Stanislaus Connections:

Poetry about the themes of peace, justice and/or a sustainable environment can be submitted for A Gathering of Voices in Stanislaus Connections, a monthly publication of the Modesto Peace/Life Center. We accept original new and previously published poetry from poets of all ages.

Criteria for publishing: original poetry on topics listed above, a high resolution jpeg, and an activist/poetry bio.

Please send submissions to seekerseer@sbcglobal.net.
Website: www.stanislausconnections.org

Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie

dec2016carnegieflyerOur 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:

Stella Beratlis is the author of Alkali Sink (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2015) and co-editor of the collection More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets. Alkali Sink was a nominee for the Northern California Book Award in poetry this year. Stella was also very recently appointed Modesto Poet Laureate for the 2016-2018 term. She lives in the Central Valley and works as a public librarian in Tracy.

Rhony Bhopla was born in London and raised in California. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Sacramento Poetry Center, is the editor of Poetry Now, and moderates a weekly poetry workshop at the Sacramento Library. Rhony holds a Bachelor of Science with a minor in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Davis, and a multiple-subject teaching credential from San Francisco State University. Her work appears in: Medusa’s Kitchen, Brevities, Sacramento Voices, Flumes, among others. Ceremony, Rhony’s chapbook, includes reveries on ancestral themes.

debee loyd lives in modesto, writing, making music, teaching and reaching to put eager fingers on faux-ivory keys.  Gathering inspiration from everywhere.

creds:      one chapbook, noon, twilight, midnight, published by Kathy Kieth, Rattlesnake Press, 2005

time in the poet laureate box for the city of modesto

hours and fortunes spent chasing elusive spaces in my        brain where the best poetry hides.  Finally decided to        excavate on my own.

“poems visit like rain.   Am always waiting for the next downpour”.

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.