Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2016-08-09 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Join us for our monthly reading series and open mic following the reading! This month’s featured poets include Mai Der Vang and members of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle.

Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie
2016-08-28 14:00 - 17:00 | Carnegie Arts Center, Gemperle Gallery, 250 N. Broadway Ave., Turlock, CA, United States
Come join us at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock for our next installment of the quarterly Poetry on Sunday series, featuring Laura Bayliss, Pat Egenberger, Lynn M. Hansen, and Jennifer Lagier. This event is FREE and open to the public, with an open mic following the reading. Join us in celebrating the spoken word!
Click here to download the PDF flyer.
Laura Bayless is the author of three collections of poetry, The Edge of the Nest, White Streams and Touchstones, and Persistent Dreams. Her poems have appeared in local and national publications, and anthologies, including Dancing on the Brink of the World, Selected Poems of Point Lobos, Porter Gulch Review, The Homestead Review, and Blue Heron. She is co-editor of an award-winning compilation of stories and poems about the Carmel River – Passion for Place. She participated in seven Women’s Voices readings at the Carl Cherry Center in Carmel and multiple Women and Food art and poetry presentations on the Monterey Peninsula. “In the practice of writing poems I find what has been waiting for me, what sheds another layer of pretense. I am uplifted, enriched, reconciled, and reminded of all that I do not know. I cast my poems to itinerant winds, unquestioning of where they might reseed in the meadow of another heart.”
Pat Egenberger‘s first published poems appeared in the early 1970’s in Original Works, a multi-language journal. Locally, Song of the san Joaquin, Modesto Poets’ Corner, and Between Sheets have published her poems over the years. Her work was included in the anthology More Than Soil More Than Sky, the Modesto Poets. Other publications include Spirit of the Rose Journal, Women Talking, Women Listening, and Medicine Jug. Pat taught for about 38 years in public schools–middle school through university–various subjects, such as English, foreign languages, art/drama electives, and video production. She enjoys learning foreign languages, exploring various art media, doing volunteer work, and spending special time with grandchildren. She lives in Modesto with her husband of 49 years, Leroy.
Lynn M. Hansen, author of Flicker, Poems by Lynn M. Hansen, has lived in the Modesto, California area since 1955. Her roots are rural as reflected in her poetry celebrating Valley living. A naturalist and trained biologist she uses her poetry to immortalize natural environments like vernal pools and grasslands special to the Central Valley. She is Past President of the Modesto Chapter of National League of American Pen Women, a founding member of MoSt Poetry Center, a member and 2014 Grand Prize winner of the Ina Coolbrith Circle’s annual Poets’ Dinner Contest. Her poems have appeared in The Pen Woman; More Than Soil, More Than Sky, an Anthology of the Modesto Poets; Quercus Review; hardpan; and Song of the San Joaquin, among others. She lives with her husband Richard Anderson in Modesto, California not far from the Tuolumne River, lifeblood for Valley farmers and spawning salmon.
Jennifer Lagier has published ten books and in literary magazines. She taught with California Poets in the Schools, co-edits the Homestead Review, helps coordinate monthly Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Sunday readings. Forthcoming books: Harbingers (Blue Light Press), Scene of the Crime (Evening Street Press), Camille Abroad (FutureCycle). Website: http://jlagier.net

Modesto Poet Laureate @ Queen Bean
2016-09-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Queen Bean Coffee House, 1126 14th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Our new Modesto Poet Laureate (and founding Board member of MoSt) Stella Beratlis will be featured in the Queen Bean’s poetry reading series this month! Join us and show your support for poetry in the community.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2016-09-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Join us for our monthly reading series and open mic following the reading! This month’s featured poets are from awg.

U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera
2016-09-18 15:00 - 16:30 | Carnegie Arts Center, 250 N. Broadway, Turlock, CA, 95380, United States
United States Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, is coming to the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock, and we could not be more excited.
Mr. Herrera will give a reading on Sunday, September 18 at 3:00 P.M. Seating is limited for the event, so please purchase your tickets soon. Individual tickets are $25 general, $20 for Carnegie Arts Center and MoSt members, and $15 for students. A select group of premium tickets are available for $50 and will include a pre-lecture reception (starting at 2 P.M.) and book signing with the author.
Tickets can be purchased at the link below.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/juan-felipe-herrera-reading-tickets-25586839927

Great Valley Bookfest
2016-10-08 10:00 - 16:00 | Bass Pro Center, 280 Lifestyle Road, Manteca, CA, 95337, United States
Come and see MoSt members and a panoply of authors from the Central Valley and beyond!
Celebrate the fun of reading with author talks, autographs, cooking demos, workshops, costume parade, contests, vendors, and books, books, books! — Admission is free!
MoSt president Gillian Wegener and board member Linda Scheller will be reading in the Poets’ Corner, and MoSt board member and treasurer Sarah Stevenson will be presenting in the afternoon on the Mystery! Thriller! Romance! stage. Dozens of authors will be available all day, chatting with readers and selling books in the Author Alley.
Take some time out on a Saturday to celebrate the love of reading! For more information, visit the Great Valley Bookfest website.
The Great Valley Bookfest is held at:
The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley (aka Bass Pro Center)
Highway 120 at Union Rd exit
280 Lifestyle Road
Manteca, CA 95337

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2016-10-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Come join us at the Second Tuesday reading series at the Barkin’ Dog Grill! This month, our poets are Jerry Fleming and Melchor Sagahun, and as always, you are invited to stay for the open mic after the reading.
Also, we are giving away tickets to this year’s Ill List Poetry Slam! But you have to be here to win…so don’t miss this one!

Poetry Reading at the Library
2016-10-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Stanislaus County Library, 1500 I Street, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
On Saturday, October 29 at 2:00 at the downtown Modesto library, there will be a poetry reading! Modesto Poet Laureate Stella Beratlis and former Poet Laureate Gillian Wegener will be reading with Bay Area poets Rosa Lane and Nina Lindsay. Stay after the reading for a Q&A and book signing.
All four poets have books published by Sixteen Rivers Press. Join us for a great afternoon!

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog *Date Change
2016-11-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Our usual Second Tuesday reading is being held a week later — same time, same place — with Modesto Poet Laureate Stella Beratlis and Alice Anderson. Come join us for a reading followed by our usual open mic!

Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie
2016-12-04 14:00 - 17:00 | Carnegie Arts Center, Gemperle Gallery, 250 N. Broadway Ave., Turlock, CA, United States
Our 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.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-01-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
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.

Writers Resist: Modesto Louder!
2017-01-15 18:30 - 21:00 | Prospect Theater Project, 1214 K Street, Modesto, CA, United States
Official Press Release:
MODESTO WRITERS JOIN NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO “RE-INAUGURATE” DEMOCRACY
“Writers Resist” Event Planned Locally
for January 15th, 2017
MODESTO, California, December 31, 2016 — A recent Facebook post unleashed a nationwide movement of writers organizing and promoting independent “Writers Resist” events to reclaim democracy planned for January 15, 2017.
The flagship Writers Resist event, founded by poet Erin Bilieu and co-sponsored by PEN America, will feature famous literary figures braving January weather on the steps of the Public Library in New York City to read historic and contemporary writings on the ideals of democracy and free expression. Additional Writers Resist events, are being held in Boston, Los Angeles, Oakland, Austin, Portland, Omaha, Seattle, London, Zurich, Hong Kong, and many more cities.
Locally, the City of Modesto’s poet laureate, Stella Beratlis—along with writer Shanyn Vitti Avila and poet Elizabeth Sousa—is organizing Writers Resist: Modesto in response to concern during the recent Presidential campaign over public cynicism, disdain for truthfulness, and the unleashing of hatred and bigotry. Beratlis, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters of Stanislaus County, wanted to present an event which might galvanize Modesto audiences to become active in the civic life of the community, support nonprofits that address social justice issues, and network with like-minded people while having fun.
Thirty readers, including Lillian Vallee, Manny Moreno, Trudy Wischemann, Sam Pierstorff, Flora Carter, Paula Treick DeBoard, Aishah Saleh, Nancy Maya, Chad Sokolovsky, Optimism One, and many others are scheduled to read their own work plus selections from the Constitution and from diverse voices addressing the ideals of democracy and free expression.
The Modesto event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Prospect Theater, 1214 K Street in downtown Modesto on Sunday, January 15, starting at 6:30 pm. Doors open at 6:00 pm. Organizers will be raising funds at the event to support the work of the Modesto Peace/Life Center, specifically to help underwrite its planned radio station.
Writers and interested public who want to attend can visit www.writersresist.org for a list of cities holding readings. To contact local organizers, please write to writersresistmodesto@gmail.com or call 209-613-9283
###
Writers Resist (www.writersresist.org) is a national network of writers driven to #WriteOurDemocracy by defending the ideals of a free, just and compassionate democratic society. #WritersResist

5th Annual Modesto Poetry Festival
2017-02-04 09:30 - 16:00 | St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1528 Oakdale Road, Modesto, CA, 95355, United States
Each year in February we organize and hold an all-day poetry festival featuring workshops, readings, and a featured poet. This year, we are proud to welcome featured poet Susan Wooldridge as our guest poet and workshop leader.
Join us on Saturday, February 4th, 2017 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Modesto for a day of poetry, learning, and inspiration! Click on the image at right to download the PDF flyer, and you can click here to download the registration form (which also has details about this year’s festival poetry contest).
Themes for this year’s contest are 1. Across the Generations; 2. Rivers and Streams; 3. Fault Lines; 4. Polarities / Attractions. Submissions to the poetry contest must be postmarked by the CONTEST DEADLINE: JANUARY 11, 2017. Please see the form for more information.
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Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-02-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Due to Valentine’s Day, our February edition of Second Tuesday will be held on Tuesday, February 21st!

Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie
2017-02-26 14:00 - 17:00 | Carnegie Arts Center, Gemperle Gallery, 250 N. Broadway Ave., Turlock, CA, United States
Our 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:
Noel Crane began writing poetry six years ago and hasn’t stopped. Her poetry explores her childhood struggles with listlessness and excessive daydreaming. Noel has a Bachelor’s degree in English. When she’s not writing, she enjoys yoga, hiking, and plants. Noel is currently working on another degree in Horticulture.
Tom Myers is a retired elementary teacher who was raised and still lives in the Great Central Valley with his wife and assorted pets. Wild places sustain him and frame much of his poetry. He is a founding board member of MoSt. Desert Treasure is his third chapbook.
Lillian Vallee is a writer, translator, retired college instructor and amateur naturalist who lives at the center of the world, in Modesto, in California’s Great Central Valley, a region of immense riches and only partially realized potential. Vallee’s work expresses her region’s telluric mysteries, its profound failings and everyday striving for healing and wholeness.
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.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-04-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Join us for our monthly reading series and open mic at the Barkin’ Dog Grill in Modesto! This month’s reading features our own Gillian Wegener reading from her new book This Sweet Haphazard, as well as her fellow Sixteen Rivers poet Erin Rodoni, author of Body, In Good Light.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-05-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Join us for our monthly reading series and open mic at the Barkin’ Dog Grill in Modesto! This month’s reading features MoSt board member Linda Scheller celebrating her debut poetry collection, Fierce Light, out now from Future Cycle Press. Our second reader is TBA.

Aileen Jaffa Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony
2017-05-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Carnegie Arts Center, 250 N. Broadway, Turlock, CA, 95380, United States
Come join us at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock for the Awards Ceremony for this year’s Aileen Jaffa Young Poets Contest! First, second and third place winners in each category will receive cash awards from the MoSt Poetry Center. Prizes are: First Place $25, Second Place $15, Third Place $10. In addition, the Modesto Branch of the National League of American Pen Women will award a $60 Aileen Jaffa Outstanding Poem award in each of two combined categories, Categories 1 and 2, and Categories 3 and 4. The current president of the NLAPW Modesto chapter will present the awards, and you’ll get to hear a reading featuring the winning poems.

California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia
2017-07-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Carnegie Arts Center, 250 N. Broadway, Turlock, CA, 95380, United States
MoSt is excited to announce that California Poet Laureate, Dana Gioia, will be at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock for a reading and conversation. This event is free and open to all, so please join us for a wonderful evening of poetry. See below for more information:

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-08-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Join us for a great reading this Tuesday, August 8 at the Barkin’ Dog in downtown Modesto at 6:00. This month’s poets are Modesto’s own Gordon Preston and William O’Daly.
William O’Daly has translated eight books of poetry by Pablo Neruda, all published with Copper Canyon Press. He’ll publish his ninth book of Neruda’s poetry, Book of Twilight, with Copper Canyon in October, 2017. His collection of poems, Water Ways, was published in 2017, and his homage to Neruda, The Road to Isla Negra, in 2015, both by Folded Word Press.
Gordon Preston has appeared in Cutbank, Five Points, Miramar, Missouri Review, and Rattle. He is a founding member of MoSt, Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center. His newest publication is What Morning Brings, a mini-chapbook from Tiger’s Eye Press Infinities.

Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie
2017-08-27 14:00 - 17:00 | Carnegie Arts Center, Gemperle Gallery, 250 N. Broadway Ave., Turlock, CA, United States
Our Poetry on Sunday quarterly reading series at Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock continues on August 27 at 2 pm–feel free to print and distribute the flyer, available as a PDF right here.
Featured readers:
Sy Margaret Baldwin was born and raised in the West Midlands of England. Presently she lives in the Sierra of California where she worked from 1992 to 2008 as a Wildlife Technician for the Stanislaus National Forest. Her poems has been published widely in literary magazines. Her poetry collection, Signal Fires, was published in 2014 by Word Project Press.
Salvatore Salerno has an M.F.A. from University of North Carolina, where he was awarded The Academy of American Poets University Prize. He worked as a poet and playwright in the Visiting Artist Program in North Carolina. More than 110 of his poems have appeared in such magazines as Descant, Poem, and Quercus Review. His poetry books are Sunleaf, Inkboat and the recently released New Wine in Old Barrels. Salvatore is a founding member of Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center.
Linda Scheller‘s writing has appeared in nearly 50 journals and anthologies including Notre Dame Review, Lone Star Legacy, Slipstream, Howling Dog, Hawaii Pacific Review, and The Distillery. FutureCycle Press recently published Ms. Scheller’s first book, Fierce Light, a collection of persona poems based on years of research into the lives and accomplishments of 36 women from world history and culture. For more information, visit her website at www.lindascheller.com.
Gillian Wegener is the author of a chapbook, Lifting One Foot, Lifting the Other (In the Grove Press, 2001), a full-length collection, The Opposite of Clairvoyance (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2008), and was a coeditor of More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets (Quercus Review Press, 2011). Her most recent collection, This Sweet Haphazard, was published this year by Sixteen Rivers Press. She is founding president of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center, has served as poet laureate for the City of Modesto, and has run the Second Tuesday Reading Series for the past eight years. She lives in Modesto with her husband, daughter, and a button-eating dog.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-09-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
September’s 2nd Tuesday Reading Series is on September 12 at 6:00 at the Barkin’ Dog! Our featured poets are Erica Goss and Ed Coletti.
Erica Goss served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California from 2013-2016. She is the author of Night Court (2014, Pushpen Press) and Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets (2012, Finishing Line Press) Her latest poetry collection, Wild Place, won the 2016 Lyrebird Prize from Glass Lyre Press. Widely published, Erica was the host of Word to Word, a Show About Poetry, on KCAT Cable TV in Los Gatos, and wrote The Third Form, a column about video poetry, for Connotation Press. She is the co-founder of Media Poetry Studio, a poetry-and-film camp for teen girls. Erica lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches classes in poetry and video.
Ed Coletti is a poet, painter, fiction writer and middling chess player. Recent poems have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, North American Review, Volt, Spillway, and Blueline. Most recent poetry collection The Problem With Breathing (Edwin Smith Publishing –Little Rock- 2015). Ed also curates the popular ten-year-old blog “No Money In Poetry.” He lives with his wife Joyce in Santa Rosa, California.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-10-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
October’s 2nd Tuesday Reading Series is on Tuesday, October 10 at 6:00 at the Barkin’ Dog! Our featured readers are Andrena Zawinski and Jim Beggs.
Andrena Zawinski was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA but has made the San Francisco Bay Area her home since 2000. Her latest collection of poetry is Landings. She has two previous collections: Something About (a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award) and Traveling in Reflected Light (a Kenneth Patchen Poetry Prize). Her poetry has received accolades for lyricism, form, spirituality, and social concern. She is also Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com.
Jim Beggs has only written perhaps seven poems, but he has written about a poet–his book on Henry Reed (“Naming of Parts”)–and he has set a dozen familiar poems to music or matched them to songs we all know and love.

Great Valley Bookfest
2017-10-14 10:00 - 16:00 | Bass Pro Center, 280 Lifestyle Road, Manteca, CA, 95337, United States
Come join us at the Great Valley Bookfest in Manteca this weekend! We’ll have a wide range of fabulous readers on the dedicated poetry stage, including Sacramento Poet Laureate Indigo Moor. You can also visit our table in the Authors’ Alley for more information about what we do, and to learn more about becoming a member or volunteer.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-11-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
November’s 2nd Tuesday Reading Series is on November 14 at 6:00 at the Barkin’ Dog! Our featured poets are Iris Jamahl Dunkle and Marisol Baca. Don’t forget to stay for our open mic after the reading!

Poetry on Sunday @ Carnegie
2017-12-10 14:00 - 17:00 | Carnegie Arts Center, Gemperle Gallery, 250 N. Broadway Ave., Turlock, CA, United States
Our Poetry on Sunday quarterly reading series at Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock continues on December 10th at 2 pm in the Gemperle Gallery–click here or on the image at right to view the PDF flyer.
Featured readers for the December reading:
Angela Morales Salinas was born in Cerritos, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and emigrated to the United States as a child. She has lived in the San Joaquin Valley for most of her life, and taught Kindergarten for twenty-seven of her forty-year career as an educator. She has been published locally, and was proud to be included in More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets (Quercus Review Press, 2011). Angela was there when the Licensed Fools came into existence, and is happily continuing her foolish ways.
Born in Los Angeles, Mark Nicoll-Johnson has lived in Modesto since 1980. In 2014, he retired after nearly 40 years of teaching, the last 24 of which as a member of the Department of English at Merced College, where at one time or another he counted among his colleagues Angela Morales and Meg Withers.
Linda Toren is a retired elementary school teacher who lives in the foothills of Calaveras County along with her husband, a horse, chickens, two goats, a box turtle, and cats and dogs. She teaches poetry in two local schools, is an active Friend of the Library and belongs to two writer’s groups—Licensed Fools (Modesto/Turlock) and Pine Grove Writer’s Group (PGWG—“Pig Wigs”.) Her most current poems appear in Out of the Fire by Manzanita Press.
Meg Withers has been writing to save her sanity since she was about 9. She has been published in literary journals and other creative projects. She has been anthologized, and has three published books: Must Be Present to Win (Ghost Road 2005), A Communion of Saints (TinFish 2008). Shadowed: Unheard Voices (Press at Fresno State 2014). The latter was edited with Joell Hallowell. The basis for Meg’s work is concern with the attempt to silence voices.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2017-12-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
December’s 2nd Tuesday Reading Series is on December 12 at 6:00 at the Barkin’ Dog! Our featured poets are the Meter Maids. Don’t forget to stay for our open mic after the reading!

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog
2018-01-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St, Modesto, CA, 95354, United States
Join us for the January Barkin’ Dog reading on Jan. 9 at 6:00 at the Barkin’ Dog Grill in downtown Modesto. We have two great featured readers and our most excellent open mic to look forward to.
Chiyuma Elliott is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly work and teaching focus on poetry and poetics, visual culture, and intellectual history from the 1920s to the present. Before joining the Berkeley faculty, Elliott was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, and Assistant Professor of English, Creative Writing, and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi. A Cave Canem Alumni Fellow, she has also received fellowships from the American Philosophical Society, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Vermont Studio Center. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College and her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Elliott’s first book of poems, California Winter League, was published by Unicorn Press in December of 2015. Her creative work has appeared in the African American Review, Callaloo, the Collagist, the Notre Dame Review, the PN Review, and other journals. She is the co-editor of several poetry chapbooks: African American Poetic Responses to Faulkner (2015 / U Press of Mississippi), Of Rivers ( 2016 / Southern Humanities Review), and an untitled ​group of poems inspired by the Gordon W. Bailey Collection (forthcoming). She is currently at work on a poem cycle called Vigil, and a scholarly monograph about poetics in the New Negro movement.
Stella Beratlis grew up in a Greek-American family in Northern California. Her work has appeared in Quercus Review, Penumbra, Song of the San Joaquin,In Posse Review, California Quarterly, and other journals, as well as in the anthology The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010). She is coeditor of the collection More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets(Quercus Review Press, 2011). Beratlis is a librarian in Modesto, where she lives with her daughter. Alkali Sink is her first collection of poems.

6th Annual Modesto Poetry Festival
2018-02-03 09:30 - 16:00 | St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1528 Oakdale Road, Modesto, CA, 95355, United States
We are thrilled to announce the details of our 6th Annual Modesto Poetry Festival, coming up on February 3rd!
Each year in February we organize and hold an all-day poetry festival featuring workshops, readings, and a featured poet. This year, we are proud to welcome featured poet William O’Daly as our guest poet and workshop leader.
Join us on Saturday, February 4th, 2017 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Modesto for a day of poetry, learning, and inspiration! Click on the image at right to download the PDF flyer, and you can click here to download the registration form (which also has details about this year’s festival poetry contest).
Themes for this year’s contest are 1. Arrivals and Departures; 2. The Disappearance of Things; 3. Empty Spaces; 4. Inheritances. Submissions to the poetry contest must be postmarked by the CONTEST DEADLINE: JANUARY 11, 2018. Please see the form for more information.

Poetry Out Loud County Finals
2018-02-07 18:00 - 20:00 | CA
MoSt is coordinating the county competiton of the Poetry Out Loud contest, a national recitation contest for high school students. The county competition will be held at MJC on Feb. 7 at 6:00. If you are interested in participating as a judge or just coming to see these talented students perform amazing poetry, please email us at info@mostpoetry.org.
