This is a free event!
Don’t miss this amazing literary event: Sunday, July 27th at 1PM at the Forest Theater, Arts in California Parks, a program by California State Parks and Parks California is proud to present –
Jan Beatty – is a poet and author of numerous poetry books, recipient of the Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry and the Creative Achievement Award in Literature from the Heinz Foundation. Beatty’s work has been published in the Atlantic, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, POETRY, BuzzFeed, North American Review, and Best American Poetry. She lives in Pennsylvania;
The event is moderated by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Emerita Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, author of Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb (University of California Press, forthcoming). West : Fire : Archive, a poetry volume, was published by The Center for Literary Publishing. Dunkle writes a weekly blog called “Finding Lost Voices,” reviving forgotten or misremembered women’s voices;
Forrest Gander – is a poet, translator, essayist, and novelist, 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and award winner of numerous fellowships, among them from the Whiting and the Guggenheim Foundations. Gander’s has been a signal voice for environmental poetics. His book Twice Alive focuses on human and ecological intimacies. He lives in Northern California;
Dana Gioia – is a poet, translator, critic, editor, and author of six volumes of poetry and literary award winner, among them the 2018 Poets Prize for his work 99 Poems: New & Selected. From 2003-2009 he served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts where he created Poetry Out Loud and the Big Read, the largest programs in the agency’s history. He served as California’s Poet Laureate from 2015-2018 and resides in Sonoma Co.;
Brian Martens – is a poet, CA Poet in the Schools instructor, a former Pond Farmer and long-time resident of West County. His book Three Raven Gate was published in 2019 and the latest, Merlin’s Wing, is forthcoming. He co-hosts the “Speakeasy,” a Santa Rosa Arts Center open-mic poetry & music event, and publishes a podcast, “The Spoken Symbol;”
Katie Peterson – is a poet and a past fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and grant-recipient from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Her latest work, Fog and Smoke, was just published by FSG this year. Her work has appeared widely in journals including the New Republic, the New York Review of Books, Poetry London, and Raritan. Having taught at Bennington College and Deep Springs College, she is currently teaching at UC Davis.
We are thrilled that Nicholas Xenelis, clarinetist and alto & tenor saxophonist, will join us to fill the interludes with beautiful sound. He is a member of the Sonoma County Philharmonic, Ukiah Symphony, and Symphony of the Redwoods as Principal and second clarinet and plays saxophone in the Wednesday Night Jazz Band in Petaluma.
We will be serving water, wine and bite-size artisan breads, and Russian River Books & Letters will be on site to sell books.
Parking is available just outside the park on the street ($0), or inside the park at $10 per car. You may park in the front parking lot or one mile past the entrance kiosk in the picnic area. The walk to the theater is a flat, easy walk through a stunning redwood grove, and will take about 10 or 15 minutes from your parking spot!
Please note: Stewards would like to reserve the small Forest Theater parking lot for those with restricted mobility. For more information call (707) 869-9177 ext 2.
Armstrong Redwoods Forest Theater, 17000 Armstrong Woods Rd, Guerneville, CA 95446.
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tP9ZTak62vtQQfsx9
Poetry in Parks is a free event and organized by the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods in cooperation with CA State Parks. Call 707-869-9177 ex 2 if you have any questions about this event.
Sorry, but this event is sold out.