Saturday at the Carnegie featuring Shymala Dason and Louise Kantro
Please join us on Saturday, November 21, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. as we welcome Shymala Dason and Louise Kantro to the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock for a lovely afternoon of poetry with an open mic following our featured readers.
Shymala Dason is an immigrant from Malaysia to the US. Her poetry naturally centers on belonging and unbelonging in family and immigrant life. She has been shortlisted for the Flannery O’Connor short fiction collection award and been published in The Massachusetts Review, The Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is a developmental editor for fiction and memoir. Carrying the Ocean is her poetry debut.
Louise Kantro, a retired teacher who volunteers with foster kids, has published poetry and prose in such journals as SLAB, South Loop Review, The Chariton Review, Caesura, Monterey Poetry Review, and Song of the San Joaquin. Her poem “Displacement of Loss” was nominated for Best American Poetry in 2022. She has two poetry chapbooks: “Dwellingplaces” (Pudding House, 2010) and “A Wild Ride” (Finishing Line Press, 2026). Her poetry currently focuses on political and social issues.
“Shymala Dason crafts poems that interweave personal and cultural memories with deep reflections on loss, belonging, and identity, grounded in her experience as an immigrant. From the reviving monsoon rains of Malaysia to the storms of the Atlantic and Pacific, Dason takes readers on a profound journey that spans continents, cultures, and time. The saying is, ‘You can’t go home again.’ Dason both embraces that idea, and puts a unique spin on it. The final lines of the closing poem are, ‘I carry ocean.’ I admire those three words, so perfectly placed, so multilayered. This gorgeous book is for all who travel, who dream, and who seek home along the way.” –Malaika King Albrecht, author of The Stumble Fields.
A Wild Ride eloquently speaks to our need for clarity in a time of uncertainty and chaos. In poems that address many of today’s pressing issues, Louise Kantro expertly captures the 21st century American zeitgeist with precision and sensitivity. This is a collection that invites us to hop in, buckle up, and expand our horizons. Urgent and powerful, A Wild Ride compels the reader’s attention, inspires contemplation, and most importantly, generates compassion. –Linda Scheller, author of Laurels (Prickly Pear Publishing) and The Ghosts of 16 Larkin Street (The Word Works)