Second Tuesday Feb. 10 – William O’Daly and Linda Marie Prather

Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center is pleased to present Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Linda Marie Prather and William O’Daly

Date: Tuesday, February 10, 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! 

WILLIAM O’DALY

William O’Daly, co-founder of Copper Canyon Press, is a poet and translator whose published works include eight books of translation of the late-career and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda and Neruda’s first volume, Book of Twilight — all published by Copper Canyon Press. Book of Twilight was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Translation of Poetry for 2018. His most recent book of poems, The New Gods, was published by Beltway Editions in September 2022. 

In addition to The New Gods, he is the author of four books of poems. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, recipient of the American Literary Award from the bilingual Korean American journal Miju Poetry and Poetics, and four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems, translations, essays, and reviews have been published in numerous journals and as part of multimedia exhibits and performances.

About The New Gods

“We need to sit on the rim/ of the well of darkness/,” Pablo Neruda wrote, “and fish for fallen light/ with patience.” In the poems of The New Gods, William O’Daly sits with us beside this well, each stunning metaphor shaping world after world of possibility. Here the dark currents of bitterness and grief, arrogance and war give way to the sweetness of a daughter’s questions or the shiver of a Sierra lake. From the charred rubble of Iraq to the snowy Andes of Neruda’s exile, O’Daly’s deep music guides us beyond the “machinery of destruction” into a new Parnassus where “every word blossoms erotic,” where heron, waterfall, moonlit pools, and sea all burn with the “inexhaustible light” of beauty and desire, and we “recognize this burning as our own.”

~ Terry Ehret, author of Lost Body and Night Sky Journey

LINDA MARIE PRATHER

Linda Marie Prather has been widely recognized, winning honors in both, poetry, and visual art. She has been featured in More Than Soil, More Than Sky/The Modesto Poets, Stanislaus Connections, and KCBP, and KQBM radio, Two Roads/A program of Art & Science, Poets Corner, A Circle of Voices, Penumbra, Poetry of the Sacred, The Story Teller, and others. She is a two-time nominee for a Pushcart Prize and was the recipient of the Pegasus Award from California Federation of Chaparral Poets. Linda co-edits the poetry quarterly, Song of the San Joaquin, and is an Arts and Letters member of the National League of American Pen Women.

Her latest and ninth book of poetry Everyday Mercies was released in 2025 and is available on Amazon.`

About Everyday Mercies

Everyday Mercies is a contemplative collection of poems that finds meaning in the often overlooked ordinary. From the quiet glory of morning light to the surprising resilience found in seasons of uncertainty, these poems invite us to pause and ponder the mercies granted us anew every morning.