Please join host Gary Thomas at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Carnegie Arts Center (250 North Broadway Ave., Turlock, California) for a poetry reading featuring Cleo Griffith and Jesse Wolfe. There will be light refreshments and an open mic time following the featured poets. This event is free and open to the public. More info about poets here.
Jan 20
Poetry Out Loud Contest Feb. 3
You’re all invited to attend the Stanislaus County Poetry Out Loud contest on Tuesday, February 3 at the Prospect Theater Project.
Through this program, high school students across the country participate in a dynamic poetry recitation competition that is designed to improve their public speaking skills, help build confidence, and teach them about literary history and contemporary life.
Poetry Out Loud is a fun and dynamic way to introduce students to poetry.
Poetry Out Loud builds self-confidence and helps develop social and emotional maturity.
The thrill of competition encourages students to do their best and support their peers.
Poetry Out Loud creates lifelong lovers of poetry and creative writing.
Poetry Out Loud offers an opportunity for all types of students to succeed.
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center, in partnership with the Stanislaus Arts Council, is the local organization organizing and hosting the county-level contest. The winner (plus one alternate) move forward to the California Poetry Out Loud contest.
UPDATED: Poetry at the Carnegie featuring Jesse Wolfe and Stella Beratlis
PLEASE NOTE: Due to a necessary scheduling change, Jesse Wolfe will read with Stella Beratlis on 2/21/26. Cleo Griffith will be a featured reader at a future date to be determined. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please join host Gary Thomas at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Carnegie Arts Center (250 North Broadway Ave., Turlock, California) for a poetry reading featuring Jesse Wolfe and Stella Beratlis. There will be light refreshments and an open mic time following the featured poets. This event is free and open to the public.
Jesse Wolfe is a poet, scholar, and English Professor at CSU Stanislaus, where he has taught since 2006. His debut poetry chapbook, En Route, was published in 2020 by Cathexis Northwest Press, who will also publish his new volume, Breathe Again: A Polyphony, in 2026. He is the author of two scholarly books about modernist literature and the history of intimacy. He is currently working on a third scholarly book about African American modernism and ideas of progress.
Stella Beratlis is the author of Dust Bowl Venus. Her first collection Alkali Sink was a nominee for the 2016 Northern California Book Award in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in Harbor Review, California Quarterly, and In Posse Review. among others, and in the anthologies The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology. She was Modesto’s poet laureate from 2016-2020 and works as a librarian at Modesto Junior College.
Mini-Workshop for Teens: Write a Tiny Poem – Contest Deadline Jan. 31
Mini Workshop & Youth Poet Laureate Q & A
Valentina Zeff, current Stanislaus County Youth Poet Laureate, answers your questions!
Teens are invited to join Valentina on Zoom on one (or both!) of these two dates: Saturday, January 17 and Saturday, January 24, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. Valentina shares great tips on how to write a tiny poem for the Woven Words Teen Contest.
Then you can easily submit your poems to our contest! Deadline for that is January 31, 2026.
Feel free to drop in and meet Valentina and learn about the Woven Words: Teen Voices from the Central Valley Anthology.
January 17 Zoom Meeting
January 24 Zoom Meeting
Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Tara Rico & Juan Luzuriaga
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center is pleased to present Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Inaugural Poet Laureate of Manteca Tara Rico and San Luis Obispo poet Juan Luzuriaga
Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Time: 7:00 pm PST
Where: Bookish Modesto, 811 W. Roseburg Ave, in the Roseburg Square shopping center
The reading is free; drinks, snacks, and books are available for purchase at Bookish. Open mic following featured poets (3 min per poet); sign up at the event. Hosted by Gillian Wegener
Tara Rico
Tara Rico (she/her/ella) is a local writer, advocate, performer, and educator. She is the City of Manteca’s first Poet Laureate; her work can be found in collections such as the Tuleberg Press anthology The Fire Within: Labor, Art, and the Human Spirit.
Tara is also the founder of MAS Improv 209 and POETICAS Institute, a new nonprofit committed to bringing written, performing, and other creative art to the Central Valley and under-resourced communities.
Tara is an actor and comedian who has performed recently at the Pam Kitto Black Box Theater of Stockton, Modesto’s Prospect Theater, and at the Central Valley Gender Health and Wellness Center’s “Kings, Queens, and Comedians” drag show of 2024.
Juan Luzuriaga
Juan Luzuriaga was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and immigrated to the U.S. at 16 in 2000. He studied Neuroscience at Rutgers University and English at UC Merced. He teaches poetry in prisons, at Cuesta College, and California Poets in the Schools. He has been a featured panelist at UC Merced, Cuesta College Central Coast Writers’ Conference, Litfest and more, and he is a featured panelist at the 2026 San Francisco Writers Conference Poetry Summit.
He has been published in Acentos Review, San Diego Poetry Annual, Monterey Poetry Review, Cholla Needles, Poetry Breakfast, Matchbox Magazine, and in the anthologies Silence Is Consent, To Be Completely Honest, and Method Writers Speak. His collection, Chimborazo Whispers, is forthcoming from Blue Light Press.