Please join host Gary Thomas at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 16, 2026 at Carnegie Arts Center (250 North Broadway Ave., Turlock, California) for a poetry reading featuring Cleo Griffith and Sheila D. Landre. There will be light refreshments and an open mic time following the featured poets. This event is free and open to the public.
Cleo Griffith has been widely published in journals such as Main Street Rag, Straylight, and Westward Quarterly. She has been on the editorial board of Song of the San Joaquin since it began in 2003. She lives with her cats, Amber and Mister, and an assortment of barn swallows, lizards, scrub jays and other creatures among the artist-rich environment of the Central Valley. Her first book, The Yellow Dress, was published last year.
Sheila D. Landre is a retired English and Spanish teacher, a minister, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was raised in a military family and has lived in Ohio, Louisiana, San Antonio, Yokohama, Washington, D.C., and Heidelberg. She came to Santa Cruz in 1965, then Capitola and Salinas before coming to Modesto in 1976. She is a graduate of Cal State Stanislaus and taught at Turlock Junior High until her retirement. Sheila has been writing poetry since childhood. Her work has been appeared in many California publications including ZamBomba!, In the Grove, Song of the San Joaquin, Stanislaus Connections, Penumbra, and Modern Bride Magazine. She is currently finishing Volume 124 of her journal.
