Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center

Poetry Workshop: Finding Inspiration from Surprising Sources
2021-02-06 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom
Finding Inspiration from Surprising Sources:
A Workshop Event with Maw Shein Win

And!! Two afternoon workshops :
The News from Poetry, with Gary Thomas
Poetry from Phrases, with Linda Scheller

When: Saturday, February 6, 2020 10:00 am-2:00pm
Where: Zoom Event (please register below for details)
Registration: $15 – Click here to register via Eventbrite!
Maw Shein Win is a poet, editor, and educator who lives and teaches in the Bay Area. Her poetry chapbooks are Ruins of a glittering palace (SPA/Commonwealth Projects) and Score and Bone (Nomadic Press). Invisible Gifts: Poems was published by Manic D Press in 2018. She was a 2019 Visiting Scholar in the Department of English at UC Berkeley. Win is the first poet laureate of El Cerrito, California (2016 – 2018), and her new full-length poetry collection is Storage Unit for the Spirit House on Omnidawn. She often collaborates with visual artists, musicians, and other writers. Visit her website at mawsheinwin.com
Click below to download a PDF flyer:

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog - on Zoom!
2021-02-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and host Stella Beratlis are pleased to welcome Josiah Luis Alderete and Anthony Cody for Second Tuesday Poetry on Tuesday Feb. 9, 2021. Join the reading via Zoom at 7 pm: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91076973120
Open Mic signup: https://form.jotform.com/berattle/secondtuesday

Josiah Luis Alderete is a full blooded Pocho Spanglish speaking poet from La Area Bahia who learned to write poetry in the kitchen of his Mama’s Mexican restaurant. He first began performing his poetry in San Francisco’s Mission District at the infamous Cafe Babar’s Thursday night readings and was one of the founding members of San Francisco’s outspoken word troupe, The Molotov Mouths. He is also a radio insurgente whose stories have appeared on KALW’s “Crosscurrents” and whose show, “The Spanglish Power Hour,” aired on KPFA. He curates and hosts the monthly Latinx reading series Speaking Axolotl at Nomadic Press in Oakland. Josiah Luis Alderete’s first book of poems, Baby Axolotls y Old Pochos, is forthcoming from Black Freighter Press.
Anthony Cody is the author of Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, April 2020), winner of the 2018 Omnidawn Open Book Contest selected by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry , and longlisted for the PEN America / Jean Stein Book Award. He is a 2020 Poets & Writers debut poet and a 2020 Southwest Book Award winner from the Border Regional Library Association. A CantoMundo fellow from Fresno, California, Anthony has lineage in both the Bracero Program and the Dust Bowl. His poetry has appeared in The Academy of American Poets: Poem-A-Day, Gulf Coast, Ninth Letter, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, The Boiler, ctrl+v journal, among others. Anthony is a member of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle where he co-edited How Do I Begin?: A Hmong American Literary Anthology. He is a recent MFA-Creative Writing graduate from Fresno State where he continues to collaborate with Juan Felipe Herrera and the Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio. Anthony has received fellowships from CantoMundo, Community of Writers, and Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference. Anthony won the inaugural 2020 CantoMundo Guzmán Mendoza / Paredez Fellowship for his work-in-progress poetry manuscript, “The Rendering”, selected by Aracelis Girmay. He serves as an associate poetry editor for Noemi Press and a poetry editor for Omnidawn.

Poetry on Sunday Series
2021-02-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
Download the PDF Flyer here!
Please join us for the February edition of MoSt’s quarterly Poetry On Sunday Readings on Sunday, February 21st at 2:00 P.M., featuring local poets Ed Bearden and Cleo Griffith. While we look forward to a time we can all gather again at the Carnegie Arts Center, this time we’ll be on ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83974391144
Open Mic Time follows, including poems from the New Year’s Poetry Challenge.
Free and open to the public. Join us in celebrating the written and spoken word!

Ed Bearden has been published in Penumbra, Quercus Review, In The Grove and the anthology More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets. He is the recipient of the 2007 Award in Literary Arts presented by the Stanislaus Arts Council. His poetry has received three Pushcart Prize nominations. He was the 2008-2012 Poet Laureate for the City of Modesto. His work is scheduled to appear later this year in Evening Street Review.
Cleo Griffith was Chair of the Editorial Board of Song of the San Joaquin for its first twelve years and remains on the Board in its 17th year. She is vice-president of the Modesto branch of the National League of American Pen Women. Widely published, she lives in Salida, California with her cats Amber and Neil.

Coffee, Tea, & Poetry
2021-02-27 08:00 - 09:30 | Zoom
Join us for a new event…Coffee, Tea, and Poetry, a way to start the day with poetry! Share what poetry collection you’re reading now and a poem or two from that collection.
Bring your chosen morning beverage and join us on Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85021113353?pwd=[REDACTED]
For more detailed Zoom information, please check our latest Poetry Everywhere newsletter or contact us at info@mostpoetry.org!

MoSt Board Meeting
2021-03-04 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom
Our next MoSt Poetry Board meeting will be held on Thursday, March 4th, at 6:30 pm via Zoom. If you are interested in attending, please email info@mostpoetry.org for more information.

Deadline: Modesto Poem
2021-03-08 | CA
In honor of Modesto’s 150th anniversary, MoSt invites you to contribute to a community collaborative poem! Write a quatrain (a four-line poem) celebrating what you love or appreciate or think is pretty true about Modesto. Everyone of all ages and poetic experience levels is welcome to submit. Send your Modesto poem to info@mostpoetry.org with Modesto Poem in the subject line. The deadline has been extended to March 8th, but why wait that long. Send your Modesto poem in today!
Help spread the word! Share this with your family and friends! Even people who don’t live in Modesto, but have a connection to Modesto are welcome to jump in and submit!
One quatrain per person, please, and we at MoSt reserve the right not to publish any quatrain that includes profanity or negativity beyond the scope of this project. We like honesty, but we won’t publish insult or injury.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog - on Zoom!
2021-03-09 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and host Stella Beratlis are pleased to welcome Iris Jamahl Dunkle and Cathryn Shea for Second Tuesday Poetry on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Join the reading via Zoom at 7 pm: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/96055243749
Open Mic signup: https://form.jotform.com/berattle/secondtuesday

Iris Jamahl Dunkle writes and lives in Northern California. An award-winning literary biographer, essayist, and poet, her academic and creative work challenges the western myth of progress by examining the devastating impact that agriculture and overpopulation have had, and continue to have, on the North American West. Taking an ecofeminist bent, her writing also challenges the American West’s androcentric recorded history by researching the lives of women. As Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, she witnessed first-hand the devastating 2017 wildfires. These fires were the catalyst for her latest collection of poetry West : Fire : Archive and her investigation of her family’s migration to California during the Dust Bowl. Twitter: @irjohnso
Cathryn Shea’s poetry has been published in New Orleans Review, Typishly, After the Pause, burntdistrict, Permafrost, Tar River Poetry, and elsewhere; she has also been shortlisted or selected for a variety of poetry prizes, including winning the Marjorie J. WIlson Award, judged by Charles Simic. She’s the author of four chapbooks and her first full-length collection, Genealogy Lesson for the Laity, was just published in September 2020 by Unsolicited Press of Portland, Oregon. Poet Thomas Centolella author of Almost Human (Tupelo Press, winner of the Dorset Prize),Terra Firma, Lights & Mysteries, and Views from along the Middle Way (Copper Canyon), notes the following about Cathryn’s work: “Focused chiefly on the domestic life, with all its “important confusion,” but also ranging into the transpersonal, Shea holds a particular regard for subjects that have vanished or are on the verge of vanishing, and does her best to rescue them with her appealingly quirky style, sometimes comic, sometimes melancholy, and always vested with affection.” Follow Cathryn on Twitter: @cathy_shea.

Coffee, Tea, & Poetry
2021-03-27 09:00 - 10:00 | Zoom
The March edition of Coffee, Tea, and Poetry is coming right up on March 27 at 9:00am. That’s a change of time from the previous 8:00am start, so you can set your alarm for an hour later. Bring whatever your morning beverage of choice is and whatever poetry you’re reading for a great chat and a great way to start the day! Hosted by Sal Salerno.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81521738825?pwd=[REDACTED]
For more information, please contact us at info@mostpoetry.org.

MoSt Board Meeting
2021-04-01 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom
Our next MoSt Poetry Board meeting will be held on Thursday, April 1st, at 6:30 pm via Zoom. If you are interested in attending, please email info@mostpoetry.org for more information.

Coffee, Tea, & Poetry
2021-04-10 09:00 - 10:00 | Zoom
The April edition of Coffee, Tea, and Poetry is coming up on April 10 at 9:00am. Bring whatever your morning beverage of choice is and whatever poetry you’re reading for a great chat and a great way to start the day! Hosted by Sal Salerno.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88966133427?pwd=[REDACTED]
For more information, please contact us at info@mostpoetry.org.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog - on Zoom!
2021-04-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and host Gillian Wegener are pleased to welcome Sixteen Rivers Press poets Stella Beratlis and Dane Cervine Second Tuesday Poetry on Tuesday April 13, 2021. Join the reading via Zoom at 7 pm: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/94208575176 and sign up for Open Mic (3 mins each poet) following the featured poets.
Open Mic signup: https://form.jotform.com/berattle/secondtuesday

Stella Beratlis grew up in a second-generation Greek-American family in Northern California. Her first collection of poems, Alkali Sink, was published by Sixteen Rivers Press in 2015 and was a nominee for the Northern California Book Awards in poetry. Her work has also appeared in numerous journals, including Harbor Review, Penumbra, Song of the San Joaquin, In-Posse Review, and California Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010) and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology (Story Streets, 2020). She is coeditor of the collection More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets (Quercus Review Press, 2011) and served as the poet laureate of Modesto from 2016 to 2020. Beratlis lives and works as a librarian in Modesto.
About Dust Bowl Venus:
With tenderness, wit, and humor, Dust Bowl Venus explores the fragility of love, good health, and the Earth. Rooted not just in the city of Modesto but also in the music, legends, and community of the Central Valley, these poems brilliantly reflect a struggle to find beauty in the contradictions of our contemporary lives. Amazingly thoughtful and musical, these are poems we should all read. —Judy Halebsky, author of Spring and a Thousand Years and Sky=Empty
“The poems in Stella Beratlis’s Dust Bowl Venus ring with the clarity of a shovel strike against stone, each line cracking against the next, igniting spark after glorious spark. And yet, like the seasonal lake bed on which Modesto sits, like the many hands ‘making mud out of dry soil,’ every poem aches toward tenderness. In one poem, Beratlis asks ‘What grows here?’ before revealing the bounty—heirloom tomatoes, holy basil, kindness—that can be coaxed from this ‘city of drought.’ But darker things grow here, too: a tumor ‘the consistency of a potato,’ fear, terror that ‘builds cell by sticky cell.’ Here, to grow, and to love, is to risk vulnerability. These’“bone-and-ligament / narratives’ of grief and yearning, illness and healing, perseverance and resistance, beat with so much heart in this fiercely beautiful book.” —Erin Rodoni, author of Body, in Good Light and A Landscape for Loss
“Stella Beratlis’s Dust Bowl Venus animates California’s Central Valley as a postmodern Prometheus, an eco-sapient Frankenstein with whom we wrangle, wrestle, and fall madly in love. With sass and grit and grace, Beratlis’s craft is brilliant in its imagistic associations that jolt and jump cut in powers of ten. These poems stir us with the urgency of the Anthropocene and form a ‘mycorrhizal web’ that connects us to the mantle of deep time.” —Rosa Lane, author of Chouteau’s Chalk and Tiller North

Dane Cervine is a poet whose recent books include Earth Is a Fickle Dancer (Main Street Rag), and The Gateless Gate – Polishing the Moon Sword, from Saddle Road Press in Hawaii. Previous poetry books include Kung Fu of the Dark Father, How Therapists Dance, The Jeweled Net of Indra, and What a Father Dreams. Dane’s poems have won awards from Adrienne Rich, Tony Hoagland, the Atlanta Review, Caesura, and been nominated for a Pushcart. His work appears in The SUN, the Hudson Review, TriQuarterly, Poetry Flash, Catamaran, Miramar, Rattle, Sycamore Review, and Pedestal Magazine, among others. You can read more about Dane’s work at his blog: https://danecervine.typepad.com/
About The World Is God’s Language:
“Dane Cervine’s new book, The World Is God’s Language, is a raft for troubled souls, a balm for aching hearts, and a tree of koan-like wisdom nuggets to be squirreled away and returned to again and again. These prose poems often address loss and difficulties but with a lightness of touch that emphasizes the spiritual lessons they can embody. . . . Dane Cervine steadies us with his attention to each word, his deceptive simplicity of language, and his calibrated spirituality—which outlines mysteries, rather than attempting to fill them in. These remarkable poems are Rumi-like pearls.”
—David Sullivan, author of Seed Shell Ash
“Dane Cervine’s poems cast their attention on the everyday—his father’s slippers, an orange cat, the last biscuit in a box—and find the extraordinary in what’s in front of all of us. Even when the poems take place in distant locales, Cervine makes magic with simplicity. Hand in hand, he takes his readers to the edge, and willingly, we jump with him.”
—Patrice Vecchione, author of My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry & Speaking Your Truth

Poetry Book Club
2021-04-21 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom
Join us for the latest edition of the MoSt Poetry Book Club! We’ll meet on Wednesday, April 21st at 6:30 pm. In the meantime, pick up a copy of Indigo Moor’s excellent new collection, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, now available at the front desk of the Modesto Library. Tom Myers and Tom Portwood will lead a discussion about the collection that evening. Please join us!
Zoom link: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/92507601303

Annual Benefit Gala
2021-04-25 14:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
SAVE THE DATE!
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center will hold its benefit on Sunday, April 25th, from 2-4 pm, on Zoom. There will be music, there will be poetry, and while we still won’t be able to be in person, we will share the amazing camaraderie of our poetry community and seriously rejoice in that!
To buy tickets, please go to most2021.eventbrite.com. If you would like to support our gala fundraising effort, please visit our Fundly page.
Our featured poets for the event will be longtime MoSt supporters Lee Herrick and Indigo Moor. To download a copy of the flyer, please click here.

Lee Herrick is the author of three books of poems: Scar and Flower, finalist for the 2020 Northern California Book Award, Gardening Secrets of the Dead and This Many Miles from Desire. He is co-editor of the anthology The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit (Orison Books). His poems appear widely in literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies such as HERE: Poems for the Planet, with an introduction by the Dalai Lama; Indivisible: Poems of Social Justice, with an introduction by Common; One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form; and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology. His prose has appeared in Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, and elsewhere. He served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. Born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted to the United States at ten months, he teaches at Fresno City College, where he co-founded the forthcoming Social Justice and Cultural Center, and in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada University.
Indigo Moor is a multi-genre, award-winning writer and teacher. His second book of poetry, Through the Stonecutter’s Window, won the Northwestern University Press’s Cave Canem prize. His first book, Tap-Root, was published as part of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. His stageplay, Live! at the Excelsior, was a finalist for the Images Theatre Playwright Award. Indigo is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program—where he studied poetry, fiction, and scriptwriting—and a graduate member of the Artist’s Residency Institute for Teaching Artists. A musician and photographer, Indigo’s collaborations include the Artists Embassy International Dancing Poetry Festival, the Livermore Ekphrastic Project, and the Davis Jazz Arts Festival.

MoSt Board Meeting
2021-05-06 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom
Our next MoSt Poetry Board meeting will be held on Thursday, May 6th, at 6:30 pm via Zoom. If you are interested in attending, please email info@mostpoetry.org for more information.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog - on Zoom
2021-05-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and host Stella Beratlis are pleased to feature poets Lelania Fowler and Salvatore Salerno for Second Tuesday Poetry on Tuesday May 11, 2021. Join the reading via Zoom at 7 pm (https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/92855890148) and sign up for open mic (3 mins each poet, maximum 10 poets) following the featured poets.
Zoom link: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/92855890148
Open Mic signup: https://form.jotform.com/berattle/secondtuesday

Lelania Fowler
Born and reared on the Eastside of Santa Barbara, California, Lelania Fowler experienced a Chicano/Hippie hybrid childhood. Later as a homeless teen, she bounced between Long Beach, Hollywood, and her hometown of Santa Barbara before relocating to Sacramento. In the late 1980s, she became part of a thriving music and arts scene and she began songwriting for local musicians.She writes about PTSD, sexual violence, California nature themes, and is a mental health activist.Her poetry has most recently been published in Quiet Rooms, a global anthology published by Cold River Press. Under a Milk Glass Moon is her first collection of poetry.
About Under a Milk Glass Moon:
“An excellent debut collection of poetry. Lelania’s long strophic lines and sparkler-like images propel these excursions into another realm. The work is not lyrical or narrative but cuts a lovely landscape between these genres. Refreshing to read and re-read.” –D.R. Wagner
“Lelania Fowler’s Under A Milk Glass Moon is, I am convinced, a collection of hymns to the Hindu goddess Kali, Mother of All, adorned in her necklace of human heads. There is a female energy in this writing to which I, as a male, have been blind and deaf, a feminine language in which I am not fluent. Even so, the poems themselves contain keys to help me unlock doors I
never knew existed.” —Robert Lee Haycock

Salvatore Salerno
Salvatore Salerno has an M.F.A. from University of North Carolina, where he was awarded The Academy of American Poets University Prize. He is retired from teaching English and Drama at Grace Davis High School. More than 120 of his poems have been published in numerous periodicals. His latest poetry book is Hello, Posterity. He has also independently published volumes of nonfiction, plays, and short stories.
Salvatore is a board member of Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center, and he is also the president of the Stanislaus Audubon Society. He is the current poet laureate of Modesto.

Coffee, Tea, & Poetry
2021-05-22 09:00 - 10:00 | Zoom
Join us for Coffee, Tea, and Poetry! A Saturday morning conversation about the poetry you’re reading. You can read from the latest book you’re reading, and if you’d like, share a few poems from that book on your screen. Hosted by Sal Salerno.
May 22, 2021 09:00 AM Pacific Time
Join the Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83413965246?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 834 1396 5246
Passcode: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,83413965246#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,83413965246#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (Tacoma)
For more information, please contact us at info@mostpoetry.org.

Poetry on Sunday Series
2021-05-23 14:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
Please join us for the May edition of MoSt’s quarterly Poetry On Sunday Readings on Sunday, May 23rd at 2:00 P. M. While we look forward to a time we can all gather again at the Carnegie Arts Center, this time we’ll be on ZOOM. Join us, too, for the Open Mic time following the featured readers!
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85841157090
Click here to download the PDF flyer.

Josiah Luis Alderete is a full-blooded Pocho, Spanglish-speaking poeta who has been an active part of la Area Bahia’s spoken word scene for over twenty years. He was a founding member of outspoken word group “The Molotov Mouths” and is the curator and host of the long-running monthly Chicanx/Latinx reading series “Speaking Axolotl” which happens the 3rd Thursday of every month in el Zoom mundo. Josiah’s book of poems, Baby Axolotls y Old Pochos is being released this April from Black Freighter Press.
Whether sharing stages with legendary beat poets or your favorite Hip Hop emcees, Andru Defeye’s unorthodox writing and performance style has made him a fixture behing microphones around the country. 2020 saw the release of his critically acclaimed Frequency album, followed shortly after by his crowning as the youngest Poet Laureate in California capitol history. From Sacramento to Staten Island and SXSW, Andru served as the Director of Communications for Sol Collective from 2009-2020. In 2014 Defeye founded Zero Forbidden Goals, a support system for creatives dedicated to innovating arts equity, experiences, and education. ZFG’s guerilla art activations including National Guerilla Poetry Month, Chainlink Poetry, and The Intersection have been covered and recreated around the globe.
Angela Drew is a mother, dancer, poet, and spoken word performer who has loved the rhythm of words for as long as she can remember. Born in Berkeley, CA, she began writing at age eight and has always understood that words have the power to soothe, stir, or solidify connection. Thus, her lifelong love affair with storytelling began. Angela has performed at various venues throughout Modesto, Sacramento and Bay Areas, including Modesto Junior College, Modesto’s inaugural “Ill List Poetry Slam” at the State Theater, the Gallo Center for the Arts, in a Sankofa Community Theater production of The Journey—The African American Experience, and the Hildegard Festival of Women in the Arts, Turlock and the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center’s poetry event “Words Worth Speaking,” to name a few. Angela’s spoken word piece, “BWE: The Black Woman Experience” was recently featured at the 2020 NAACP Modesto/Stanislaus Virtual Black Graduates Recognition Ceremony and her poetry was included in COLLISION VI, the February 2020 exhibit at the Mistlin Gallery which featured poet-photographer collaborations.

Submission Deadline: Song of the San Joaquin
2021-06-01 | CA
The deadlines for the Song of the San Joaquin have been changed to the first day of March, June, September, and December as more time is needed to get the books mailed before each of the readings. That means the next deadline is June 1, which is coming right up! See the Song of the San Joaquin website for more information: http://www.chaparralpoets.org/SSJ.html

MoSt Board Meeting
2021-06-03 18:30 - 19:30 | Google Meet
Our next MoSt Poetry Board meeting will be held on Thursday, June 3rd, at 6:30 pm via Google Meet. If you are interested in attending, please email info@mostpoetry.org for more information.

Second Tuesday @ Barkin' Dog - on Zoom!
2021-06-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center and host Stella Beratlis are pleased to feature poets Indigo Moor and Jennifer K. Sweeney for Second Tuesday Poetry on Tuesday June 8, 2021. Join the reading via Zoom at 7 pm (https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/94454258218). Open mic (3 mins each poet, maximum 10 poets) following the featured poets.
Join reading: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/94454258218
Open mic following featured readers. To sign up: https://form.jotform.com/berattle/secondtuesday

Jennifer K. Sweeney
Jennifer K. Sweeney is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Foxlogic, Fireweed, winner of the Backwaters Prize from Backwaters Press/University of Nebraska. Her other collections are Little Spells (New Issues Press, 2015), How to Live on Bread and Music (Perugia Press), and Salt Memory (Main Street Rag). She is the recipient of many awards, including the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Perugia Press Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry workshops at the University of Redlands in California, and is known for a decade-long practice of private instruction and manuscript critique.
Foxlogic, Fireweed can be purchased from the University of Nebraska Press, linked from Jennifer’s website: https://www.jenniferksweeney.com/
About FOXLOGIC, FIREWEED
“Foxlogic, Fireweed is a torn map of a state where all words are proximate to mystery. Venturing into terra incognita, into territory that might be anima mundi, maybe, reader, you think you know the lineaments, but they are altered. Altared. Yes, to dream space, but wilder, wider—this metal into bird, stone into air, mother into vulpine. Sweeney is breathing strangeness into a small body of words, and the expanses open exponentially.”—Marsha de la O
​“The logic of Foxlogic, Fireweed is human and humane; it’s the logic of a penetrative tenderness and an embodiment always on the verge of dispersing into fox, or deer, or rain. . . . These are not bandwagon poems. They don’t mug for the camera. Rather, they enact a love ‘sourced in loneliness’ where ‘with our little keys of witness’ we find each other—the very definition of the lyric poem.”—Diane Seuss

Indigo Moor
Indigo Moor is the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento. His fourth book of poetry, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, took second place in the University of Nebraska Press’ Backwater Prize. His second book, Through the Stonecutter’s Window, won Northwestern University Press’s Cave Canem prize. His first and third books, Tap-Root and In the Room of Thirsts & Hungers, were both part of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Indigo is an adjunct professor at Dominican University and visiting faculty for Dominican’s MFA program, teaching poetry and short fiction.
Indigo is a former faculty member at the Stonecoast MFA Program, where he graduated in 2012 with an MFA in poetry, fiction, and scriptwriting. He’s a playwright as well: his full-length stageplay, Live! at the Excelsior, was a finalist for the Images Theatre Playwright Award, and the subsequent screenplay has been optioned for a full-length film.
Indigo is a Cave Canem fellow, former resident artist at 916 ink, and a graduate member of the Artist’s Residency Institute for Teaching Artists.
A 10-year veteran of the US Navy and a twice-decorated Gulf War Veteran, Indigo divides his time between writing, teaching, and Integrated Circuit Layout Designer for computer companies.
About EVERYBODY’S JONESIN’ FOR SOMETHING
“Narratives don’t always belong to history’s victors,’’ writes Indigo Moor. If this line gives you pause, I strongly suggest you carry Moor’s brilliant book, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, home with you. In this dazzling book, you will read just how closely this poet has been paying attention, to us, to his histories, foreign and domestic, to our mighty (and sometimes mighty confusing) nation. Jonesin’ is a verse flashlight to all the corners you thought no one was supposed to pay attention to, line by beautifully crafted line, truth by earned truth. You’ll reach the last line of the last poem, and trust me, that’s when the hunger for more will begin.”—Cornelius Eady, author of The War Against the Obvious
“Indigo Moor’s new collection shuttles between searing rebuke and hopeful anguish with accents of hard-edged humor. What I love most is the clarity of thought—the no-holds-barred, no-punches-pulled sharpness of the language that carries the reader through each poem, jonesin’ for the next. Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something invites you out of your complacency and fuels a restlessness that reminds you that you’re alive, that this is no time for sleeping.”—Tim Seibles, author of One Turn around the Sun

Coffee, Tea, & Poetry
2021-06-13 17:00 - 18:00 | Zoom
Join host Sal Salerno for June’s edition of Coffee, Tea, and Poetry on June 13 at 5:00pm. Share some poems from a recent book of poetry you’ve read or are reading. You can even share your screen ahead of time to show us a poem or two as you read.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88441350895?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 884 4135 0895
Passcode: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,88441350895#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,88441350895#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (Houston)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 884 4135 0895
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpBEzPgcN

Summer Poetry Workshop
2021-06-19 13:00 - 14:30 | Zoom
MoSt Board member Linda Scheller will be teaching our first summer poetry writing workshop, “Lyricism in Narrative Poetry,” on June 19 from 1:00-2:30. This will be a great afternoon of creating new poetry and thinking deeply about what makes a narrative poem sing. As always, this workshop is free and open to the public.
Zoom link: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/97349758852
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +13126266799,97349758852# or +13462487799,97349758852#
Or Telephone
+1 312 626 6799 (US Toll)
+1 346 248 7799 (US Toll)
+1 646 876 9923 (US Toll)
+1 669 900 6833 (US Toll)
+1 253 215 8782 (US Toll)
+1 301 715 8592 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 973 4975 8852

Poetry Book Club
2021-07-07 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom
Join host Gary Thomas for a discussion of The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser, published by Graywolf Press (2021) and winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets in 2020, selected by Harryette Mullen. 5 copies of the book are available (while they last) to check out at the Modesto Library (1500 I Street.)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82732577059
Meeting ID: 827 3257 7059
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,82732577059# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,82732577059# US (Houston)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 827 3257 7059
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kiqOZoIJk

Coffee, Tea, and Poetry
2021-07-10 08:00 - 09:00 | Zoom
Join host Salvatore Salerno for Coffee, Tea, and Poetry on July 10th at 8:00am Pacific Time. Share some poems from a recent book of poetry you’ve read or are reading. You can even share your screen ahead of time to show us a poem or two as you read.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88375358118?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 883 7535 8118
Passcode: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,88375358118#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,88375358118#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (Tacoma)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 883 7535 8118
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcG9fybkKY

MoSt Annual Meeting
2021-07-11 09:00 - 11:00 | Davis Park, 2701 College Ave, Modesto, CA, 95350, United States
Save the date for our annual meeting on Sunday, July 11th at 11:00 9:00 AM.
UPDATE: Due to the forecast heat for Sunday, we’ve opted to go back to Zoom for the annual meeting. Time remains at 9 am.
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91423468395
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +16699006833,91423468395# or +13462487799,91423468395#
Or Telephone:
Dial:
+1 669 900 6833 (US Toll)
+1 346 248 7799 (US Toll)
+1 253 215 8782 (US Toll)
+1 301 715 8592 (US Toll)
+1 312 626 6799 (US Toll)
+1 646 876 9923 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 914 2346 8395

Second Tuesday Poetry with David Campos and J.J. Hernandez
2021-07-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center presents Second Tuesday Poetry featuring Fresno poets David Campos and J.J. Hernandez
DAVID CAMPOS, the son of Mexican immigrants and a CantoMundo Fellow, is the author of two collections–his newest, American Quasar, was just published by Red Hen Press and is a textual-visual collaboration with the artist Maceo Montoya. His debut collection, Furious Dawn, was the winner of the 2014 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. Campos’s work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and The Normal School. He’s the winner of Annual Prairie Schooner Strousse Award for the best group of poems in Prairie Schooner. He teaches English at Fresno City College and he lives in Clovis, California.
“David Campos’ American Quasar is a true force of collaboration that implores a new vision of exegesis with the renowned artist, Maceo Montoya. How can we love what hurts us, and how can we love the things we hurt? Here is a speaker kneeling in reverence to a god, a lover, or a self which we can acutely love and hurt at the same time. Set in the storied landscape of the California Central Valley, this book is an indictment of what America has burned or buried, and a document of all that has nonetheless survived in the ashes: the name of a distant father, the gravity of the past on our chest. Powerfully surreal and imagistic, Campos is a necessary voice both tender and unrelenting, a voice that is both wound and salve. How fortunate we are for the gifts of poet and artist at the height of their powers.”—Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, author of Centzontle
J.J. HERNANDEZ is a Colorado-born poet with roots in the California Central San Joaquin Valley. He earned both a BA in English Education and an MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry from CSU, Fresno. While attending Fresno State, J.J. was the inaugural Graduate Artist in the Laureate Lab: Visual Words Studio, working under the supervision of Juan Felipe Herrera. J.J. Is currently a writing/composition instructor at various colleges across the Central San Joaquin Valley. His work has been supported by the Community of Writers and has been published in various literary journals.
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/92854068503
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +16699006833,92854068503# or +13462487799,92854068503#
Or Telephone:
Dial:
+1 669 900 6833 (US Toll)
+1 346 248 7799 (US Toll)
+1 253 215 8782 (US Toll)
+1 312 626 6799 (US Toll)
+1 646 876 9923 (US Toll)
+1 301 715 8592 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 928 5406 8503
International numbers available: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/u/an21oyc36

Summer Poetry Workshop "Time Travel Through Poetry"
2021-07-31 13:00 - 14:30 | Zoom
In this workshop we will explore the past and future through poetry. Our history, science, mythology, and, most importantly, our imaginations will be our guides. Facilitated by Karen Baker, this free poetry writing workshop will begin at 1:00pm Pacific Time on Saturday, July 31, 2021. “A poem is the most efficient form of time travel” –Kevin Young, poetry editor of the New Yorker and new director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Topic: Poetry Workshop, Time Travel Zoom Meeting
Time: Jul 31, 2021 01:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87665048170

Meeting ID: 876 6504 8170
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,87665048170# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,87665048170# US (Tacoma)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 876 6504 8170
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kmgS5SMHS

Second Tuesday Poetry Reading with Nicca Ray and Michelle Cernuto
2021-08-10 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
The Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center features authors Nicca Ray and Michelle Cernuto for the August installment of Second Tuesday Poetry. Join us for a great mix of poetry, ghost fiction, and punk rock memoir on Tuesday, August 10 at 7 pm on Zooom. Hosted by Stella Beratlis with open mic following the featured readers.

Zoom: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91909197367
Open mic signup: https://form.jotform.com/berattle/secondtuesday

NICCA RAY
Nicca Ray’s poetry collection, BACK SEAT BABY, was recently published by Chris D.’s Poison Fang Books. In the forward, Ann Magnusun writes, “Plumbing the depths of uncertainty and loneliness, Ray finds gold in the collective swamplands of our souls.” The poet, Charles Plymell, calls Back Seat Baby the “High Noon of poetry.”

Nicca Ray’s memoir RAY BY RAY: A DAUGHTER’S TAKE ON THE LEGEND OF NICHOLAS RAY (Three Rooms Press, 2020) has been called “harrowing, beautifully written and near-impossible to put down” by Shelf Awareness and “a daring revelation of strength and survival, told unflinchingly, bravely, with empathy, sympathy and ultimately an understanding of a great artist who is almost impossible to fathom,” by Ronee Blakely, actress, singer and Academy Award nominee.
Nicca is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a 2020 Acker Award recipient.

MICHELLE CERNUTO
Michelle Cernuto is the author of the recently published YOU USED TO KNOW ME, a fictional coming-of-age account of growing up in Las Vegas in the 80s.

“A mash note from beyond the grave to a lost Vegas. 1980s punk teen dysfunction… a melancholic travelogue through a spiritual wasteland. The self-effacing murder victim gives us a matter-of-fact, blow-by-blow commentary as she haunts both her friends and her predator in a suburban, desert dystopia…. We see ominous harbingers of Death rushing headlong towards us, much like an out-of-control carnival ride…locked into one final, endlessly accelerating rollercoaster to oblivion. There’s no getting off, and the effect is harrowing and masterful.– Chris D. (author of No Evil Star, Dragon Wheel Splendor and Other Love Stories of Violence and Dread, Mother’s Worry, et.al.; singer/songwriter of the bands The Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen)

“A vivid recollection of a crazy time in the crazy place of the American Southwest…a transitional time before entire cities were turned into theme parks. Magically real, her story echoes the truth of the women I grew up with, who fought an oppression they could feel empirically but not always articulate with street smarts and sheer guts. And then there are the ghosts…” – Victor Krummenacher (of bands Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom and The Third Mind)

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91909197367
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +16699006833,91909197367# or +13462487799,91909197367#
Or Telephone:
Dial:
+1 669 900 6833 (US Toll)
+1 346 248 7799 (US Toll)
+1 253 215 8782 (US Toll)
+1 646 876 9923 (US Toll)
+1 301 715 8592 (US Toll)
+1 312 626 6799 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 919 0919 7367
International numbers available: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/u/aeu6vPmQF

Poetry On Sunday Series featuring Dane Cervine & Stella Beratlis
2021-08-15 14:00 - 16:00 | CA
Join host Gary Thomas and our featured readers Stella Beratlis and Dane Cervine for the Sunday, August 15th edition of MoSt’s Poetry On Sunday Series readings on Zoom, beginning at 2:00 P. M. Pacific Time.
Stella Beratlis is the author of Alkali Sink (2015) and her latest collection, Dust Bowl Venus (May 2021). Her poems have appeared in the anthologies The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Franciso Bay Watershed (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010) and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology (Story Streets, 2020). Beratis served as Modesto’s poet laureate from 2016-2020 and works as a librarian there.
Dane Cervine is a poet whose recent books include Earth Is a Fickle Dancer (Main Street Rag), and The Gateless Gate – Polishing the Moon Sword, from Saddle Road Press in Hawaii. Previous poetry books include Kung Fu of the Dark Father, How Therapists Dance, The Jeweled Net of Indra, and What a Father Dreams. Dane’s poems have won awards from Adrienne Rich, Tony Hoagland, the Atlanta Review, Caesura, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His work appears in The SUN, the Hudson Review, TriQuarterly, Poetry Flash, Catamaran, Miramar, Rattle, Sycamore Review, and Pedestal Magazine, among others. You can read more about Dane at his blog: https://danecervine.typepad.com/
Here is the Zoom link to the reading:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83375142037
Meeting ID: 833 7514 2037
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,83375142037# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,83375142037# US (Houston)
Stella’s latest book, Dust Bowl Venus, and Dane’s new book, The World is God’s Language, have recently been published by Sixteen Rivers Press. For more information about the authors and the books, go to these pages on the Sixteen Rivers site:
https://sixteenrivers.org/authors/stellaberatlis/
https://sixteenrivers.org/authors/dane-cervine/
Our usual Open Mic Time will follow the featured readers. We look forward to seeing you!

Coffee, Tea, and Poetry with Sal Salerno
2021-08-22 16:00 - 17:00 | Zoom
Join Modesto Poet Laureate Sal Salerno & friends at 4 pm, and bring along some poetry you’ve been reading to share with others.
Topic: Coffee, Tea, and Poetry
Time: Aug 22, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83414790977?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 834 1479 0977
Passcode: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,83414790977#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,83414790977#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (Houston)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
Meeting ID: 834 1479 0977
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcAqLXvTpI
