Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour

The 4/8/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Lily Van Middlesworth is a poet who is published in various literary magazines across the country. She holds a BA in writing from Savannah College of Art and Design. Lily has recently sold her first screenplay.Brad Buchanan taught literature and creative writing at Sacramento State University until his retirement in 2016. His poetry, short fiction, and scholarly articles have appeared in more than 200 journals. He has published four collections of poetry, including The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019), three academic books, and a medical memoir.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 4/1/2026 edition of Dr.Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Jenny Kaminer is an interdisciplinary scholar of Russian culture whose publications have encompassed a broad range of historical epochs—from the nineteenth century to the present day—as well as genres and media, including, drama, prose, film, and television. Kaminer established their reputation within the field of Slavic Studies as a specialist in gender and Russian culture, the representation of maternity in particular. Their first book, Women with a Thirst for Destruction: The Bad Mother in Russian Culture (Northwestern UP, 2014), received the Heldt Prize for Best Book in Slavic/East European/Eurasian Gender Studies.Natassia Choi and Julia Holten are students at UC Davis. They are employees of ASUCD, and are helping organize the 2026 Whole Earth FestivalFind out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 3/25/2026 edition of Dr.Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Paul Corman-Roberts is the author Bone Moon Palace from Black Lawrence Press (2021) a CLMP Firecracker nominated full length poetry collection. He is also author of the graphic chapbook The Sincere (with illustrator Ray Swaney) from Libran Apocalypse Books (2022.) He is a founder and current organizer of the Beast Crawl Lit Festival  in Oakland CA. He currently teaches workshops for the San Francisco Creative Writing Institute. He sometimes fills in as a drummer for the U.S. Ghostal Service, The Jennifer Blowdryer Band and the Poznansky Sisters, but mostly he is just exhaustedFind out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 3/18/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Dave Boles has worked as an Alternative Publisher, Writer and Designer since 1982. Founder of the magazine Primal Urge, he also created The Sacramento Free Press and Cruisin' Magazine. He has published, designed, edited and written numerous books, magazines and articles both nationally and internationally. His publishing company, Cold River Press, has helped many new writers, artists, poets, illustrators and photographers further their careers. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 3/11/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourMary Mackey is a bestselling author and award-winning poet who has written fourteen novels some of which have appeared on the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller Lists. She is also the author of nine volumes of poetry including The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, winner of a the 2019 Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by a Small Press and a 2018 CIIS Women’s Spirituality Book Award; Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 Oakland PEN Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence; and Creativity, a non-fiction exploration of how ideas and bursts of insight come, not just to writers, but to us all. In 2025 Marsh Hawk Press published In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse, a collection which not only asks us to imagine what the world will be like as the Earth’s climate changes, but how we can preserve joy and compassion in times of catastrophe.Dr. Jeremy DeWayne Greene received a Bachelor of the Arts in Psychology with a Minor in African American & African Studies from the University of California-Davis (UCD). He also received his Masters of the Arts in Education (School Psychology) and Pupil Personnel Services Credential from California State University-Sacramento (CSUS). Mr. Greene is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist via the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and, in his spare time, writes, records, and performs spoken word poetry around Shanghai. Though previously from Sacramento (California), Mr. Greene connects strongly with his familial roots firmly planted in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 3/4/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:John López’s research takes a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to examining the visual, material, and spatial practices between early modern Europe and the New World. López earned a Ph.D. from the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art program at MIT and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago. He is currently writing a book, The Aquatic Metropolis, that examines the centuries-old efforts by the Aztec and Spanish to end catastrophic inundation at Mexico City via image making, urban planning, and environmental change. López’s research has been supported by the National Endowment of the Humanities, the John Carter Brown Library, the Newberry Library, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, the Social Science Research Council, and the Academic Council of Learned Society, among others.  Michael G. French is an arts and theatre events marketing specialist for the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. He promotes performances and events for the departments of Art and Art History, Cinema and Digital Media, Design, Music, and Theatre and Dance. French previously held similar positions at Southern Utah University’s College of Performing and Visual Arts, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, Pacific Conservatory Theatre and the Walnut Street Theatre. He earned his bachelor’s degree at New Jersey City University.Connie Johnstone is a Professor of English and Chair of Creative Writing at American River College. Johnstone, is a former hospice chaplain with Kaiser Permanente, she specialized in Narrative Therapy during her career transition. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. The River of Perpetual Departure is Connie Johnstone’s first book of poetry. Her poems have appeared in many journals: Amethyst Review; The Brussels Review; The Calendula Review; Comstock Review; Ginosko Literary Journal; Gyroscope; Loss: Anthology 9; The Orchards Poetry Journal; Ravenous: le Terroir de Montolieu; Paris: Great Cities Vol. 1; Spoon Knife Anthology: Numbers; Tule Review; Voices 24; and others.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 2/25/2026 edition of Dr Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Anthony Xavier Jackson is the recent winner of The 2024 Sacramento Poetry Week’s Annual Poetry contest. Anthony Xavier Jackson has been writing poems and songs since his teens, drawing inspiration from sci-fi, myths, all genres of music, and all manner of spiritual pursuits, including recovery. Anthony has recently published his first collection of poetry, The Razor of Your Smile, available on Amazon and other venues. Anthony has enjoyed publishing honors from the likes of Bar Bar, Wingless Dreamer, Dipity, The Word’s Faire, and Tule Review 2024. Anthony is a member of GTFO Poetry Collective based in Sacramento. You may find his poems paired with his music on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Anthony is also a Substance Use Disorder Counselor who aspires to Social Work credentialing. Anthony firmly believes everyone deserves healing.Bahia Yackzan is a Talk4TV, radio and podcast host. Her program Its Your Voice engages conversations in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yackzan, a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner, is also the founder of Know What You Want Coaching. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 2/17/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Patrick Burns (Music Director) is a Sacramento-based composer, music director, and arts administrator whose work spans musical theatre, opera, and interdisciplinary performance. At UC Davis, he previously served as accompanist for The Threepenny Opera. Regional credits include music direction and conducting for theatres and universities throughout California, New York City, and nationwide. Patrick spent five years as Production Manager at Broadway Sacramento, where he oversaw large-scale musical productions and supported the development of emerging artists. He maintains an active creative practice alongside his work in arts leadership and education.Michael G. French is an arts and theatre events marketing specialist for the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. He promotes performances and events for the departments of Art and Art History, Cinema and Digital Media, Design, Music, and Theatre and Dance. French previously held similar positions at Southern Utah University’s College of Performing and Visual Arts, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, Pacific Conservatory Theatre and the Walnut Street Theatre. He earned his bachelor’s degree at New Jersey City University.Susan Wolbarst is a reporter for the weekly Independent Coast Observer in rural Gualala, California. Her work has been published in pioneertownlit.com, The Ledge Poetry and Fiction Magazine, Naugatuck River Review, Poetry Now, Yolo Crow, Valley Voices, Eat This Poem Anthology, and others. She self-published one cookbook. When she’s not writing, Susan enjoys hiking, kayaking and cooking the world’s offerings in her three cast iron pans.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 2/10/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Ted Geier received his PhD. in Critical Theory and Comparative Literature from UC Davis in 2015, followed by a Mellon Postdoctoral post in the Rice University Humanities Research Center as an investigator on the Rice Seminars 2015-16 project, “After Biopolitics.” He recently co-founded and is Associate Editor of the UC Press journal, Animal History: https://online.ucpress.edu/ah His primary philosophical specialties are in moral theories pertaining to animals and environmental studies, while his broader training and expertise include narrative theory, literature and film, economic-cultural analysis, American Studies, the History of Ideas, and Interdisciplinary Humanities. He is especially interested in Disney and eco-apocalyptic themes. Dr. Geier organized an animal studies research group at UC Davis and was formerly Managing Editor of Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Environment (Oxford UP) and Research Editor in the Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Program. He has published two books, an edited journal issue, and various book chapters and scholarly articles (mostly about animals and culture). Current projects include an edited volume on Cormac McCarthy and environment and a book on Terrence Malick.Cristina Deptula is a a copy writer, enthusiastic publicist, and social media manager. Will find and hone your core messages, then identify and reach influencers and audiences over traditional and social media to spark worthwhile conversations about complex topics. Deptula’s freelance journalistic writing encompasses topics ranging from autism research to climate change to biophotonics to the Mars rover launch.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 2/4/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourVaani Tiwari is an IB Diploma student and emerging researcher focused on the psychology of identity, culture, and mental health. Her work explores why people think and cope the way they do, and how storytelling can make behavioral science more accessible. Tiwari's first book, an Amazon #1 bestseller in Asian American Poetry, examined adolescent mental health and identity through a narrative-psychological lens. She has since been published with Novelly, featured in literary magazines, and awarded the Governor’s Medallion in the Arts. Beyond her research, Tiwari creates psychology-centered social content with multiple viral videos and serve as an IB Ambassador at her school. Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of Memoir Nation, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author. He has published three books on writing: The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story; Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo; and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. He’s also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 1/28/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourDr. Mahnaz Badihian is an Is a Poet, painter, and translator whose work has been published in several languages worldwide. Mahnaz runs the Literary magazine MahMag.org to bring the world’s poetry together.  She finished translating a book about the uprising in Iran in 2009 called Spalding Arise with Jack Hirschman, published in San Francisco in 2014. She received her MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Her latest poetry collection, Raven of Isfahan was Published in 2019. She edited 300 pages of Covid, Anthology Art, and poetry from around the world in 2020. She is a member of the San Francisco RPB (Revolutionary Poet Brigade). In 2018, Mahnaz had three days of an art exhibition in San Francisco. Her new collection of poems, Ask the Wind was nominated for Pushcart by Vagabond in 2022. Mahnaz traveled to many countries for poetry events, including Kerala, Chile, Cuba, Italy, England, Bolivia, Peru, and more. Mahnaz is a guest poet at the Kathmandu poetry festival in February 2023. Her Novel Gohar was published in 2024.Lissa Provost is the founder and chaos director of New Alexandria Creative Group. She's the author of a poetry book, chapbook, and a journal/planner for neurodivergent or medically challenged individuals called Maggie's Planner. She's also the Director of the San Francisco Writers Conference.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 1/21/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourSusie Meserve is a poet, essayist, and novelist. She’s been teaching writing for over twenty years. She has a certificate in mind-body coaching from The Embody Lab, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a BA from Tufts University. Susie lives in the Bay Area but is a New England girl at heart. Married to the love of her life and mother to two fantastically wonderful and strange sons, she is the author of the poetry collection Little Prayers and essays and poems that have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and many literary journals and anthologies. Susan D. is a Sacramento poet and community activist.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 1/14/2026 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourGabrielle Myers has earned a B.A. from Hampshire College in Massachusetts, an A.O.S. in Culinary Arts from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, an M.A. in English from the University of California at Davis, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s College of California. She has taught English courses at Saint Mary’s College, UC Davis, Diablo Valley College, Yuba College, Las Positas College, and Sacramento City College. Gabrielle's memoir, Hive-Mind, details her time of love, awakening, and tragic loss on an organic farm. Her poetry books Too Many Seeds (2021), Break Self: Feed (2024) and Points in the Network (2025) are published by Finishing Line Press. Her poetry books Go Forth: Lose Yourself into Life and La Ruta es Clara are forthcoming in 2026. Her poetry has been published in the Atlanta Review, Evergreen Review, Adirondack Review, San Francisco Public Press, Fourteen Hills, pacificREVIEW, Connecticut River Review, Catamaran, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Sand Hills, Sheila-Na-Gig, University of Alabama’s Al Dente, Cathexis Northwest Press, American University’s Folio, Reunion: The Dallas Review, and American Poetry Review. Gabrielle is the Farm-to-Fork columnist for Inside Sacramento magazineFind out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 1/7/2026 edition of Dr.Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour\Nina Amir, the Inspiration to Creation Coach, inspires writers and bloggers to create published products and careers as authors. Additionally, she helps her clients and readers achieve their potential, fulfill their purpose and make a positive and meaningful difference with their words. She is the author of How to Blog a Book, The Author Training Manual, and Creative Visualization for Writers, all published by Writer’s Digest Books. As a hybrid author, she also has published 17 books independently. She is a nonfiction book editor and doctor, proposal consultant, and an Author Coach and Trainer as well as a Book and Blog Coach. Some of her clients have sold 320,000+ copies of their books and been published by major publishing houses. Nina also is an award winning blogger and journalist, international speaker and founder of National Nonfiction Writing Month, also known as the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge, and the Nonfiction Writers’ University. Also a Certified High Performance Coach, Nina strives to help creative people Achieve More Inspired Results personally and professionally.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 12/17/2025 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourProfessor Gail Finney received her A. B. degree in German summa cum laude from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in comparative literature from UC Berkeley. She has also studied in Freiburg, Aix-en-Provençe, Tübingen, and Berlin. From 1980-1988 she taught at Harvard University as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of German. She returned to Harvard as a Visiting Professor of German in Spring 1997. Since 1988 she has been teaching at UC Davis as Professor of German and Comparative Literature. From 1997-2000 she held a halftime position as Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Personnel, and in 2007-2008 she worked as Faculty Assistant for Academic Personnel to the Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies.Ms. Sheila is a midwest native turned west coast lifer and is a work-force development and team-building professional with over 35 years of experience. She creates welcoming art experiences during the holiday season for empty-nesters and the elderly, including her Kwanza inspired Principle Paint Party. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 12/10/2025 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour:Catherine Dixon is a former Post-Doctorate in the Department of Animal Sciences at UC Davis, trivia buff, and cow-gut microbiome maven.Peter Shahrokh was born in Berkeley, California, in 1950.  He first picked up a watercolor brush in 2004, and currently produces many works in the medium. Shahrokh holds three graduate degrees from UC Davis, and more information about his watercoloring and ongoing endeavors can be found at https://www.petershahrokh.com/aboutFind out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

The 12/3/2025 edition of Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology HourThe Video Game Orchestra at UC Davis was started by Ziad Asadi and Sogol Aliabadi in 2017, with the goal of allowing college musicians to explore the wonders of video game music. What started out as a small group of 9 musicians has now grown into a community of more than 100 members! All of their members are current students or alumni of UC Davis, and all of our pieces are arranged by their own members. Each quarter, they select a theme for their concert that explores a genre of video games, allowing them to cover a diverse array of games throughout the year. In past concerts, they have played tracks from games such as Kingdom Hearts, Hades, Undertale, Journey and more. Catriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. She writes: preposterous 1930s private-detective stories about a toff; realistic 1940s amateur-sleuth stories about an oik; and contemporary psychothriller standalones. These are all set in Scotland with a lot of Scottish weather. She also writes modern comedies about a Scot-out-of-water in a “fictional” college town in Northern California. She has won multiple Anthonys, Agathas, Leftys and Macavitys for her work and been shortlisted for an Edgar, three Mary Higgins Clark awards and a UK dagger. McPherson is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 10/29/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Gbenga Adesina joins the program to discuss his recent publication Death Does Not End at the Sea, which asks questions about grief, immigration, and the art of poetry. Adesina states that every immigrant story is a private epic, and details how his book emerged from his lived experience, moving to America after the passing of his father. He reads a poem, “I Carried my Father Across the Sea,” before the next guests, Jon Racini and Diego Mitotli Martínez-Campos appear on the show. Jon is the curator/mentor on Written and Directed By and Diego is one of the directors of an original play. They elucidate features of their short form and one act plays, including No Que No, directed by Martínez-Campos. These plays will be performed at the Wyatt Pavilion theater. The program concludes with a talk by composers James Larkins and Bryndyn Moondy, featured ensembles at the Tap Root New Music Festival. Gbenga Adesina is a Nigerian poet and essayist. He is the author of the poetry collection Death Does Not End at the Sea (University of Nebraska Press, 2025), which was long-listed for the National Book Award.Adesina was the 2019–2020 Olive B. O’Connor Fellow at Colgate University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.Jon Racini is the author of two books: Contemporary Latina/o Theater: Wrighting Ethnicity (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008), and the Pragmatic Liberation and the Politics of Puerto Rican Diasporic Drama (University of Michigan Press, 2024, available open access thanks to UC Davis and the TOME initiative). His current scholarly work combines continued consideration of Latine theatre and performance with new thinking on writing and performance that explores expanded (experimental, creative, performative?) critical writing in relation to performance.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 10/24/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Arturo Mantećon is the first guest of the program. He discusses his move to Alabama to join his grandchildren, and his translations of Leopoldo María Panero. Mantećon highlights Panero’s logical approach to poetry and his psychiatry, while emphasizing that Panero’s institutionalized status does not reflect work that is chaotic. He reads a Panero poem, “Palabora de lectura,” before sharing two of his own poems that aimed to be in conversation with Panero's, titled “Parable of the Dictionary,” and “The four folds of nothingness.”  Mantećon credits Bill Lavender for taking a chance to reissue his translations of Panero and his own original, experimental works. He concludes the episode by sharing another poem about Marinda Melendez.Arturo Mantecón is a poet and literary translator whose poems have appeared in various reviews and anthologies. His books of translation include three volumes of the collected works of Leopoldo María Panero and selected works by Francisco Ferrer Lerín (for which he won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles award in 2017) and Mario Santiago Papasquiaro. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 10/16/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Chris Erikson is the first guest of the hour. He joins the program to discuss his recently released novella Henrytown, which operates not only as a piece of literature, but one of performance art. Erickson states the book's vernacular is drawn from Central Illinois, where he grew up. He talks about his book tour before reading a sample from Henrytown. Greg Miller is the second guest on the program. Miller joins in conversation with Erickson and Dr. Andy early in the episode, where he shares insights from his time as a book reviewer and an ice-cream scooper. Miller describes his mostly-short form fiction that he will read at the upcoming poetry in Davis series. He also reads a story, “Something Else.”Chris Erickson is the author of Henrytown, a debut novella recently published by Dzanc Books. Joe Wenderoth has said, “Henrytown is the funniest serious prose (and the most serious funny prose) I have encountered in contemporary American literature.” Erickson’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The American Reader, Gigantic, Action Spectacle, The Capilano Review, Seneca Review, PANK, benmarcus.com, The Hobo-Tramp Voice, Byline, and The Glacier. A graduate of the Creative Writing Program at UC Davis, Erickson is also the former host of “Boxcar Whitey’s Old-Time Music & Lore Progr’m,” which aired on KRCL FM Salt Lake City from 2003-05 and then on KDRT FM in Davis from 2006-08. He works as an educator in the City of Davis.Greg Miller has taught writing, journalism, and literature at UC Davis for more than 20 years. He previously worked as an ice cream scooper, a door-to-door salesman of fine knives, and an author of personalized detective novels. A former Fulbright Fellow and Editor in Chief of the journal Prized Writing, he has published more than 100 articles and reviews in places such as The Los Angeles Review of Books, The San Francisco Chronicle, Film News (Canada), Modern Drama, and The Michigan Quarterly Review. His degrees include an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College and a Ph.D. from UC Davis.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 10/8/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Peter Coyote joins the show to discuss Buddhism, Northern California, environmental activism, and his upcoming appearance at the Davis Jazz Beat festival. Coyote is the keynote speaker at the festival, which will take place on October 11th in Davis. It will be a multidisciplinary event, the first of its kind since the post-pandemic-era, that will have performers, art installations, and collaborations from the high school and college. The next guest on the program is Natalie Shapero. Her most recent release, Stay Dead, was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry. Shapero states that she feels her collections execute their own project, but her poetry arc as a whole is on a continuum of a larger inquiry. She shares two poems, “Larger Papers,” and “Black on Dark Sienna on Purple,” discusses housing markets, and credits her students for helping her immerse in inspiring writing communities. The last guest of the hour is the former host of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour Katerina Hanks. She details her upcoming art showcase at Delta of Venus in Davis, and plays a game where Dr.Andy guesses the name of her pieces!Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films, such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Cross Creek (1983), Jagged Edge (1985), Bitter Moon (1992), Kika (1993), Patch Adams (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), A Walk to Remember (2002), and Femme Fatale (2002). His voice work includes his narration for the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. He narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century (1992), winning an Emmy. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator in 2015 for his work on Ken Burns's documentary miniseries The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.Natalie Shapero’s latest book is Stay Dead (2025). Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, The Nation, and elsewhere. She is the author of the previous poetry collections Popular Longing (2021), Hard Child (2017), and No Object (2013), and she has performed at The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches writing at UC Irvine. Katerina Hanks is a local Davis artist and an alumna of UC Davis. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 10/1/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Sacramento poet Lawrence Dinkins (NSAA) joins the program to discuss his upcoming reading in Davis, aging, and the Sacramento poetry scene. Dinkins states that poetry readings are a democratic space where voices can be heard, and highlights how they foster special connections decoupled from traditional media. The Warrior Poet then reads, “Inner-City Love Poem,” before Indigo Moor joins the program. Moor updates listeners on his upcoming collection, Reconstruction of Eden, and shares his excitement about the upcoming 2027 Association of Writers & Writing programs 2027 conference. The last guest on the program is  Dr. Karma Waltonen, the former president of the Margaret Atwood society. She details California Free Thought Day,  which occurred Sunday, October 12th, at the state capital building. Waltonen encourages resistance to the current attacks on the first amendment.   Lawrence Dinkins (NSAA) is a Detroit transplant to Sacramento, and began writing poetry here a few decades ago. A dynamic performance poet (who describes his style as neo-folk spoken word), he has recorded two CDs: NSAA Live (The Mario Ellis Hill Recordings) and ElectroPoeticCoffee, with guitarist Ross Hammond. He organized and hosted poetry and 3 spoken word events for over twenty years, notably at Luna’s Café and at the Mahogany Urban Poets series. His Open Mic Sketchbook chronicles his hosting events in photographs, art and poetry. His selected poems, Warrior Poet, was published by Random Lane Press in 2019.Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento, Indigo Moor’s fourth book of poetry, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, took second place in the University of Nebraska Press’ Backwater Prize. Jonesin’—a multi-genre work consisting of poetry, short fiction, memoir pieces, and stage plays—was published in the spring of 2021. Through the Stonecutter’s Window, won Northwestern University Press’s Cave Canemprize. His first and third books, Tap-Root and In the Room of Thirsts & Hungers, were both parts of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Indigo is part of the visiting faculty for Dominican’s MFA program, teaching poetry and short fiction. His stageplay, Live! At the Excelsior, was a finalist for the Images Theatre Playwright Award. The subsequent screenplay was optioned as a full-length film.Dr. Karma lives and teaches and writes in Northern California. She writes about her successes and failures (the failures are mostly in dating and in figuring out how to treat chronic medical stuff) here for her friends and is surprised that anyone else reads this. She has three cats and a son (aka The Boy), who lives at home and goes to college nearby. Most of her writing is academic, but it’s on awesomely geeky topics like Doctor Who, The X Files, and Star Trek. She is an expert on The Simpsons, stand-up comedy, and Margaret Atwood. Her work has been featured at ComicCons and on NPR.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. NSAA and Bob Stanley will be the featured poets on October 2nd.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/24/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Laura Rosenthal is the first guest of the program. Rosenthal states that her practice as a public attorney taught her how to better negotiate the tension between viscerality and beng understood as a poet. She then shares some exciting upcoming events that she is participating in and leading, including one by Calyx, the oldest feminist literary journal in the U.S. Calyx will be hosting “Reproductive Rites: Writing the Write to Choose," which will serve as a collaborative workshop environment for attending parties. Laura also led a daylong workshop on writing as spiritual practice on December 14 for the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group. She reads a poem titled, “Dove.” Dr.Andy reads “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” before John Natsulouas joins the program to advertise the upcoming October 11th Jazz Beat Festival in Davis. It will be a multidisciplinary event, the first of its kind in the post-pandemic-era, that will have performers, art instillations, and collaborations from Davis highschool and university.A public interest attorney before returning to her first love, writing, Laura Rosenthal has published, or has poems forthcoming, in Chicago Quarterly Review, Raleigh Review, Tampa Review, Calyx, Calul, and other journals. Laura leads workshops on writing and spiritual practice. She holds degrees from Cornell University and Stanford Law School as well as an MFA from Pacific University.Fresh out of college, John Natsoulas began his work with Amnesty International in East and North Africa, where he campaigned against the imprisonment and torture of political prisoners. In 1986, Natsoulas organized Amnesty International’s first fundraising exhibition, Artists for Amnesty. The event precipitated the release of the Moroccan prisoner, Mohammed El Mousari. Natsoulas established a gallery in his hometown Davis, California where he could continue to pursue humanitarian causes through the arts.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/17/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas joins the episode to discuss her upcoming readings at the Poetry in Davis reading series, California Writer’s Club’s 100th anniversary reading, and her two most recent poetry publications, Handful of Stallions at Twilight and A Shared and Sacred Space. She states that writing as an isolated activity can be lonely, so the communities established at readings allow one to understand vulnerabilities and feel socially connected. Stevenson Grellas reads a poem titled “At Dinner Time,” which is fashioned after “On the Back Porch" by Dorianne Laux, and another titled “Deer in the Garden.” The next guest of the hour is John Bell. He speaks on his writing habits post-retirement, expressing gratitude for his newly acquired free time. Bell reads a poem from The Sacramento Poetry Center’s 2024 Tule Review titled, “The Hawks,” before outlining some ongoing events and collectives doing great work in the Sacramento poetry scene.Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a recent graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing. In 2012, her chapbook, Before I Go to Sleep, won the Red Ochre Press Chapbook contest. In 2018, her book In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for the CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, and her poem “A Mall in California” took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest. In 2019, her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Award. In 2020, her sonnet “Water Goddess” won first place in the Literary Nest poetry contest. In 2021, her collection Alice in Ruby Slippers was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize, receiving an honorable mention in the poetry category. John Bell, a graduate of the Wichita State University MFA program, is a retired English professor at American River College. His poetry has appeared in Thorny Locust, Tule Review, Sacramento Voices, Burning the Little Candle, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. In an earlier life he earned a BA in Spanish from the University of New Mexico. He lives in Sacramento with a demanding tomcat and sings bass in a local choir. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The 9/17/25 iteration of the Poetry Night reading series will feature poets Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas and John Bell.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/10/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Dr.Andy is joined by two Ph.Ds who are speaking at the upcoming 2025 Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology. SITT 2025 features UC Davis faculty during two-half days of online presentations on the mornings of September 11th and 12th. The first guest on the program, Tricia Bertram Gallant, will be giving the lead-off talk at SITT 2025 on The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (2025), which is also the title of her recently released book. Gallant discusses the role of teachers to facilitate and certify learning, tasks that are growing in complexity within the new technology landscape. She states that offloading cognitive tasks to AI as a student is fundamentally different from non-student offloading, as to achieve successful learning outcomes students must often overcome friction and frustration within their processes that AI can jump over for them. Margeret Merrill is the next guest on the program. Dr. Merrill is one of the primary organizers of SITT, and reflects on how SITT started, shifted virtual in 2020, and has grown to an annual event with an attendance of over 100 faculty members. She states that the Institute offers rich Q&A sessions. Merrill feels that the collaboration of multiple academic disciplines fosters a great space for bridging silos between different departments at R1 universities.  Tricia Bertram Gallant, Ph.D. is the Director of Academic Integrity and Triton Testing at UC San Diego, President Emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity. Tricia has authored numerous pieces on academic integrity and artificial intelligence. Her latest book (co-authored with David Rettinger) is The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (2025) and her next book on Generative Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity - co-authored with Mary Davis (UK) & Zeenath Khan (UAE) - will be published by Cambridge Elements in 2026. Margaret Merrill, PhD, is a Senior Instructional Design Consultant at the University of California, Davis. She works with faculty as they consider how to use technology in strategic and pedagogically sound ways in their face-to-face, hybrid, or online teaching. She creates and teaches workshops on technology and pedagogy, and researches, pilots, and supports technologies for teaching. Dr. Merrill is interested in how active learning, mobile learning, instructional use of video, and Universal Design for Learning can improve teaching and learning experiences. She has presented on mobile learning, accessibility, communities of practice, the design of faculty development programs, and communities among language instructors. Previously, Dr. Merrill has developed and implemented faculty support programs, created technology-supported foreign language learning materials for higher education and government projects, taught junior high French, and held the boom mic for the filming of a movie in Romania.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The 9/17/25 iteration of the Poetry Night reading series will feature poets Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas and John Bell.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/3/2025 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Neil McRoberts joins the program to discuss being a plant epidemiologist, educator, poet, and lifelong learner. He shares a poem called “San Lucas,” which spawned from his long work-related drives across California. McRoberts recalls his move to the United States in 2010, and expresses excitement about his upcoming reading with Catriona McPherson at this week's Poetry Night in Davis reading night series. Dr. Andy finished the episode by reading an essay from his Substack titled, “Serendipity and Friendship."Neil McRoberts has written poetry since a high school English teacher encouraged her class of 12 year olds to give it a go. In a notable early “triumph,” Neil won the high school annual speech contest four years later with a nihilistic tirade about the pointlessness of atomic bomb response drills, written in a mixture of prose and rhyming couplets. Since 2020, Neil has collaborated regularly with English ambient music composer and producer Harry Towell to write poetry for various releases on the WhitelabRecs label. His first professionally published poem will soon appear in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The featured readers for the September 4th, 2025 iteration of poetry night will be mystery novelist Catriona McPherson and Poet Neil McRobertsFind out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

Kindra McDonald joins the program to discuss THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS, an anthology at the intersection of poetry and climate change. McDonald states that the anthology serves as an outlet for poets to talk about their regions. She reads a poem “Lost and Found Fairtail,” before the next guest Luisa A, Igloria joins the program. Igloria outlines how central climate, and climate politics are to her poetics, and outlines the importance and inspirations behind theTHE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS anthology. The anthology has 210 contributors from researchers, poets, and conventional artists. She then reads two poems, one from Camille T. Dungy “Nematode”, and her own “Bats French Kiss With Mouthfuls of Blood.” The last guest of the hour is Mariam Ahmed, who speaks on the release of her first full-length collection, Hidden Parts. She discusses how University poetics and those communities are very special to her, and shares a poem titled “Laughter,” and an ode “Sleep/Keep.”Kindra McDonald is the author of the books Teaching a Wild Thing, In the Meat years, and Fossils. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is a teaching artist, educator, and conservationist, who leads a nonprofit organization in Norfolk, Virginia.Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Caulbearer (Immigrant Writing Series Prize, Black Lawrence Press; 2024), Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (Co-Winner, 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize, Southern Illinois University Press, 2020),The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2018), 12 other books, and 4 chapbooks. She was the inaugural recipient of the 2015 Resurgence Poetry Prize, UK—the world’s first major award for ecopoetry (now known as the Ginkgo Prize), selected by a panel headed by former UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. She is lead editor, along with co-editors Aileen Cassinetto and Jeremy S. Hoffman, of Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States (Paloma Press, September 2023). She is also co-editor, along with Aileen Cassinetto and David Hassler, of a new ecopoetry anthology to be released from Paloma Press on September 18, 2025 - THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS California poet Mariam Ahmed grew up in the Bay Area and Folsom. Ahmed has an MFA in Poetry from San Diego State University and a BA in English Literature with a minor in Sociology from the University of California, Davis, where she was a student of Dr. Andy. Her work has appeared in Poetry International, The Los Angeles Review, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place & Nature, and many other literary journals. Her debut full-length collection, Hidden Parts, was published in January 2025. A certified Poet-Teacher with California Poets in the Schools, Ahmed spends her days guiding young writers in the classroom. She also mentors youth through local nonprofits and teaches English to newly arrived Afghan women and children. Ahmed lives in San Diego, where she enjoys teaching yoga and finding inspiration by the ocean.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 8/20/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Dyson Kona Smith joins the program to talk about his post-graduate life, poetry, and his next steps. He outlines a desire to publish his manuscript, Tomboy Ballet, and reads an untitled poem and “Lai about Home Followed By Analysis.” Smith also shares that he is now a Data Analyst for Turning Point Community Programs, helping evaluate programs tailored to help Northern Californians on their recovery journeys. The next guest on the hour is Roman Spinale. Roman discusses leveraging social media as a tool to propel his comedy career, before sharing about an upcoming Fair Oaks event on Friday, August 22nd “Comedy Under the Stars,” which will start at 8:00 P.M. and feature great comedians far and wide. Dyson Kona Smith is a recent Statistics, English, and Sociology Graduate from the University of California, Davis.  He was awarded the Herbert A. Young Award as the College of Letters and Science’s Medalist, given to the graduating senior they determine the most outstanding. His honors thesis in Poetry, Tomboy Ballet recently won the Lois Ann Lattin prize for UC Davis’s Best Honors Creative Writing Project. Poems from the collection have been published in journals such as but not limited to Open Ceilings, Poet News, GTFO Poetry’s 2024 Anthology of Sacramento Poets, Euphemism and The Madison Review. Beyond poetry, Dyson is a social statistician who wrote his research thesis on the association between social proximity to gun violence and chronic health conditions in California. He has worked on other projects pertaining to housing insecurity in Davis and deaths of despair among formerly incarcerated persons. Dyson was previously a Community-Coordinator and DJ at the campus and community radio station KDVS, a Researcher at the UC Davis Innovations and Research Lab, and the producer of Dr. Andy’s poetry and technology hour.For over a decade Roman has been entertaining audiences with his signature brand of clean and introspective comedy. Today Roman can be seen regularly opening for Jay Leno, as well as touring dates across comedy clubs, corporate events, and private gatherings.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

Atim Udoffia is the first guest on the program, detailing her storied career in theatre. She speaks on her upcoming event, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like it which will show the weekends of August 22nd and August 30th at the CLARA auditorium in Sacramento. Brad Buchanon is the second  guest of the hour. Buchanon discusses chess, his medical memoir, and excitingly his upcoming novel Spy's Gate. He shares his writing process, some of the thematic inspirations for the novel, including The Queen's Gambit, and the self-titled poem for his next poetry collection.Atim Udoffia is a theatre artist and a mother of two working in theatre and film/video in the Sacramento and Bay Area. While continuing to expand her body of work as an actor and director, Udoffia aims to build a creative pipeline enabling trained, experienced theatre artists to initiate projects and generate their own creative opportunities. Favorite stage roles include Emilie in EMILIE LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT (The Stage @ Burke Junction), Lady Macbeth (STC), and Rosalind in AS YOU LIKE IT, which she also adapted and produced. Udoffia’s film credits include the feature films No Address, Fairyland, and Where Sleeping Dogs Lie. As a director, her work includes the solo show MINE FOR THE TRIBE, DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, OTHELLO, and the one-act CHARLIE AND NELL, for which she received a Best Director Award. Udoffia earned a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University before pursuing acting training in London and Los Angeles. Brad Buchanon’s poetry, short fiction, and scholarly articles have appeared in more than 200 literary journals. He has published four book-length collections of poetry, most recently Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Buchanan has also published three academic books, most recently ’Indict the Author of Affection’: Affectation and Catachresis in Hamlet (McGill-Queens University Press, 2023). His medical memoir, Living with Graft-Versus-Host-Disease, was published by Armin Lear Press in 2021. Spy's Mate, his historical chess-espionage thriller set in the late Cold War Soviet Union, will be published this fall.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 8/6/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Partners Robin Ekiss and Keith Ekiss are the first guests on the program. A former colleague of Dr.Andy’s, Robin reflects on her time at UC Davis, mentored by poets such as Sandra McPherson and Sandra Gilbert. Keith discusses his recent book, Burial Fragments, which co-won the Barry Sparks Poetry Prize for 2024 from Gunpowder Press. He describes the collection as his “San Francisco book report,” documenting change in the city since the dot-com bubble. They then both share poems, with Robin reading “The bird of God.” and Keith reading a piece titled “Explaining Shockley.” The next guest on the show is Santi Elijah Holley, who describes his recent publication in the New York Times column Letters of Recommendations, “I don’t believe in God I believe in Gospel music.” He describes his journey with gospel music, and how he came upon the genre later in life. Holley credits listening to music from a critical lens as a reason why he was able to become a successful writer, writing an award winning book about the Shakur family. He recommends the gospel songs “Previous Lord Take my Hand,” “How I Got Over” and “Sit down Servant." Robin Ekiss earned her MA in creative writing from UC Davis so many years ago that Dr. Andy was actually one of her graduate student colleagues. A former Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, she’s the author of The Mansion of Happiness, winner of the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize and a finalist for the Northern California Book Awards. Her poems and prose have appeared inThe Atlantic, POETRY, APR, and elsewhere. She’s a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for emerging women writers, and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Headlands Center for the Arts. Keith Ekiss is the author of two collections of poetry — Burial Fragments, co-winner of the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize for 2024 from Gunpowder Press — and Pima Road Notebook (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2010), a book about growing up on the edge of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona. As a translator, his works include The Fire’s Journey (Tavern Books, 2019), an epic poem by the Costa Rican writer Eunice Odio in four volumes and Territory of Dawn: The Selected Poems of Eunice Odio, published in 2016 by The Bitter Oleander Press. He has been a lecturer in the Creative Writing program at Stanford since 2007.Santi Elijah Holley is an award-winning journalist and a recipient of the 2019 Robert B. Silvers grant for Work in Progress, and a 2017 Oregon Literary Fellowship for nonfiction. His 2023 nonfiction book, An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created, was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice, an NPR selection for “Books We Love,” "Best Book of the Year" by Kirkus Reviews, and longlisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His book on Black American independent cinema is forthcoming by Mariner Books. He lives in Los Angeles.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Robin and Keith Ekiss will read at the 8/7/25 iteration of Poetry in Davis.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 7/30/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Allison Proffitt joins the show to discuss her upbringing in music and upcoming performances in Sacramento. Proffit outlines how her upbringing in Illinois, and transition to California helped develop her artistic sensibilities and practices. She details the Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento’s iteration of Dracula; or the town of Sibiu, which will show at the 24th Street Theater in Sacramento on August 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 & 17, 2025. Proffit then sings a song, “Corpus Christi Carol,” specifically the Benjamin Britten setting. The next guest of the hour is Joseph Finkelman, who describes his forthcoming solo show at Viewpoint Photographic Art Center which is located at 2015 J St Sacramento, held between 1-4 P.M. on August 10th. He then reads a poem which was published in the Marin Poetry Center’s 2024 Anthology, “The Sacred Plans of Small Spaces.” Finkelman finishes his segment by speaking on his poetic practices, which include writing thirty different poems in thirty different forms this past January.Allison Proffitt is a classical soprano who performs with the women's vocal ensemble Vox Musica and the Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento. Allison holds a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis, where she sang in the Early Music Ensemble. Allison works at UC Davis Health conducting clinical research studies. She also enjoys performing at Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis.Joseph Finkleman was born in Hollywood California. He was educated as a Photo-Journalist.  He was a Literature major both in German and English. In 1973 he changed majors and went to and graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with a BFA in 1974 and an MFA in 1976. He was a commercial photographer for over twenty years. Finkleman was a credentialed teacher in both photography and animation, and had taught off and on for the last 47 years. He has written numerous feature articles on photography besides having had a regular column for Close-Up Magazine, now defunct. Finkleman has been in 131 exhibitions over the last 57 years of his career. He has been a Spoken Word Poet for the last 30+ years with numerous featured readings. Finkleman and his wife Susan Finkleman developed a Two Voice poetry series, which resulted in a Chapbook by Rattlesnake Press and two CDs. He finished his first Graphic Novel in 2023 titled Happy Tooth and is currently working on his second novel titled Trouble in the Troupe.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 7/23/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Danielle Collins joins the program to discuss her journey as a burnout survivor. Because of her lived experience with burnout, Collins returned back to school to learn more about coaching others through the ongoing crisis. From their research, coaching experience, and their own journey, Collins wrote the book Work Comes Third:Eradicating Burnout in Overwhelmed Leaders and Their Weary Employees, a rally cry for those faced with burnout. Collins shares the themes of her book, explaining how to manage workloads and set boundaries with demanding bosses. The next guest on the show is Dave Boles, who reflects on his time at Cold River Press. Boles started the VOICES anthology to capture the art of Sacramento Valley region poets, and just published its newest iteration in 2025. Boles also details a special event celebrating the release, which is a five hour reading and potluck in Sacramento on July 26th. He shares two poems, “Circumstances” and a political poem “Inconsequential.” Danielle Collins is a previous fundraiser and burnout survivor. She returned to school to pursue a career more aligned with her values and then founded Primavera Strategies for Wellbeing. Today, she is a coach, author, and speaker, helping dedicated leaders who are burning out to renew their passions. Danielle believes that burnout affects the most committed employees, not the weakest. Collins recently published her first book titled, Work Comes Third:  Eradicating Burnout in Overwhelmed Leaders and Their Weary Employees. You can connect with her at PrimaveraStrategies.com.Dave Boles has worked as an Alternative Publisher, Writer and Designer since 1982. Founder of the magazine Primal Urge, he also created The Sacramento Free Press and Cruisin' Magazine. He has published, designed, edited and written numerous books, magazines and articles both nationally and internationally. His publishing company, Cold River Press, has helped many new writers, artists, poets, illustrators and photographers further their careers. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 7/16/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Dane Cervine joins the program to discuss how his meditative writing process has changed over time. He discusses the difference between his two recent releases, At Home in the [Burning] World, which reads like a nonfiction travel book, and Nine Volt Nirvana, a poetry collection. Cervine then shares samples of his work, a sample of Adela Najaro’s work, and praise for his and Adela’s writing group, Emerald Street Writers. Joseph Fasano is the next guest on the program. Fasano reflects on his training as a poet, and how it has led him to be apt to write his prose in multiple genres. He describes the importance of writing between tensions and trying to discover our wholeness as people through writing mediums. Fasano then reads a poem “Sudden Hymn in Winter,” before discussing what it means to write for other people versus just writing for other poets. Cervine also leads a discussion and shares praise for the late, great poet Andrea Gibson. The episode concludes Andrea Gibson's last reading and TV interview.Dane Cervine’s recent books of poetry include Nine Volt Nirvana (Word Poetry Press), DEEP TRAVEL – At Home in the [Burning] World (Saddle Road Press), The World Is God’s Language (Sixteen Rivers Press), Earth Is a Fickle Dancer (Main Street Rag), and The Gateless Gate – Polishing the Moon Sword (Saddle Road Press). Dane’s poems have won awards from Adrienne Rich, Tony Hoagland, the Atlanta Review, Caesura, and been nominated for multiple Pushcarts.Joseph Fasano is a poet and novelist whose works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His most recent books include THE LAST SONG OF THE WORLD and THE MAGIC WORDS.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 7/9/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Jamil Jan Kochai joins the show to discuss his upcoming reading at CapLit and his recent release, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak. Kochai details how his writing about Afghanistan and Sacramento grow with distance and in parallel to each other. He also discusses the writing process more broadly, and how that encompasses being a receptive learner. The next guest on the show is Naomi J. Williams, who further details the genesis of CapLit and their upcoming events. Williams discusses how CapLit goes about choosing novels that could be interesting as performances. She also shares praise for Priya Balasubramanian, who is performing at CLARA with Jamil 7/18/24 at 7 P.M. The last guest on the hour is Eve Imagine, who imparts on a conversation surrounding her recent release of autofiction, Body In Script. Imagine shares a section from her, titled “Heart Murmur.” She then outlines upcoming events, including a live reading on Facebook next Friday with Miriam Dorsett, and Rock Art by the Bay this upcoming Saturday.Jamil Jan Kochai is the author of 99 Nights in Logar (Viking, 2019), a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. His second book, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories (Viking, 2022), won the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize, the 2024 Clark Fiction Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award in Fiction. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Zoetrope, The Sewanee Review, VQR, and A Public Space, and they have been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker. He was a Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Kochai was born in an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, but his family originally hails from Logar, Afghanistan. He is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento, University of California, Davis, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Naomi J. Williams is the author of the novel Landfalls. Her short fiction and essays have appeared, most recently, in LitHub, Bourbon Penn, Electric Literature, the Brevity Blog, and the Sacramento Noir anthology. Honors include a Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories honorable mention, Best Horror of the Year recommendation, and artist residencies at Hedgebrook, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Willapa Bay, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. She’s taught creative writing at UC Davis, Sacramento City College, Saint Mary’s College, and, since 2018, the low-residency MFA program at Ashland University in Ohio. A biracial Japanese-American, Naomi was born and partly raised in Japan and lives today in Sacramento, California.Eve Imagine is a writer living in midtown Sacramento. She teaches English at Sacramento City College Working to get her first novel Body In Script in more readers’ hands.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 7/2/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Richard Loranger describes the creative panic that they have felt over the past couple years, taking on projects in many media, including podcasting and product naming. Along with these outlets, Loranger discusses writing in multiple genres and leading multiple workshops. Loranger shares three poems from an unpublished chapbook centered around the writing process, “The Truth,” “Your Body,” and “Bowery Poetry Club.” The next guest on the show is Jeffrey Bryant, the forthcoming author from Cherry Pie Press, which emerged from publisher Natasha Dennerstein in wake of the United States 2024 presidential election. Bryant then shares two poems titled “August Abade” and  “Kissing and Kissing.” The last guest of the hour is Terry Tierney, who reflects on the release process of their most recent release Why Trees Stay Outside. Tierney states how he believes that everything has a voice, and that he tries to platform the voice of the natural world through environmental activism in his poetics. He then reads the title poem of the collection, “Why Trees Stay Outside.” Richard Loranger is a multi-genre writer and spoken word artist who has been working around the United States for over forty years. He has done over 500 featured readings and performances from the Davis (CA) Jazz & Beat Festival to the main stage at Lollapalooza to The Bowery Poetry Club in New York. He leads writing workshops and offers a variety of literary services. He has work in over 100 journals and anthologies, and is the author of six books and ten chapbooks of poetry and flash prose.Jeffrey Bryant is a Pushcart-nominated queer poet. His work has appeared in numerous publications including the LA Times, LA Weekly, Synkroniciti Magazine, Quill and Echo and Tension Literary, as well as the anthologies Coiled Serpent, Altadena Literary Review, Shadowplay Literary Journal and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts. His debut collection The Catacombs of Vanished Lovers is forthcoming from Cherry Pie Press.Terry Tierney is the author of the poetry collections Why Trees Stay Outside and The Poet’s Garage and the novels Lucky Ride and The Bridge on Beer River. His poems and stories recently appeared in The Bellevue Literary Review, Remington Review, Reed Magazine, Ghost Parachute, Flash Fiction Magazine, Rust + Moth, Typishly, Valparaiso Poetry Review, The Lake, and other publications. He lives in the Bay Area with his family, including two fluffy cats and an enthusiastic Golden Retriever. Website: http://terrytierney.com.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Our July 3 Poetry Night will be a Wide-Open Mic night.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 6/11/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:The first guest on the hour is Nicolette Daskalakis, who joins the show to detail her career in the arts, which started as a high schooler at KDVS. Daskalakis reveals she was at one point the youngest ever staff member at the station, serving as the news director, before she went off to earn an undergraduate degree at USC and then to earn an MFA in France, impressively completed in the French language. Daskalakis details her inspirations for her most recent published poetry collection, Tell Me I'm Not On Fire (2024), before sharing a poem “Welcoming the Arsonist.” Dyson Kona Smith is the next guest of the hour, and he reflects on his undergraduate journey at UC Davis. Coming from Chicago, Illinois, Smith talks about his transition into academia and obtaining a multidisciplinary education. He shares praise for mentors, peers, and the campus-community radio station KDVS, before outlining the thematics of his senior thesis, Tomboy Ballet.  Smith then reads three poems, “Duplex,” “Mine/Chicago,” and “Afterlife Poem.”Born in the fog of San Francisco, Nicolette Daskalakis is a poet, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist based in Paris. Her writing has been anthologized by HarperCollins, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and published in numerous literary journals. Nicolette is the author of multiple poetry books, including Tell Me I'm Not On Fire (2024) and Portrait of Your Ex Assembling Furniture (2018). She holds a BA in Film & Television Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and an MFA from the institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulouse.Dyson Smith is a recent Statistics, English, and Sociology Graduate from the University of California, Davis. He was awarded the Herbert A. Young Award as the College of Letters and Science’s Medalist, given to the graduating senior they determine the most outstanding. His honors thesis in Poetry, Tomboy Ballet recently won the Lois Ann Lattin prize for UC Davis’s Best Honors Creative Writing Project. Poems from the collection have been published in journals such as Open Ceilings, Poet News, GTFO Poetry’s 2024 Anthology of Sacramento Poets, Euphemism and The Madison Review. Beyond poetry, Dyson is a social statistician who wrote his research thesis on the association between social proximity to gun violence and chronic health conditions in California. He has worked on other projects pertaining to housing insecurity in Davis and deaths of despair among formerly incarcerated persons. In the past school year, Dyson was a Community-Coordinator and DJ at the campus and community radio station KDVS, a researcher at the UC Davis Innovations and Research Lab, the producer of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour, a data analyst for Davis's Data Driven Change Club, and a submissions reader for the literary magazine Open Ceilings. His mom owned a bike shop in Chicago. June 20th we will be taking a Summer Break from Poetry Night. Please plan to join us on every subsequent first and third Thursday of the month at 7PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery for the Poetry Night Reading Series. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 6/4/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Heather Bourbeau joins the show to discuss her most recent release, Monarch, detailing that she spends a lot of time outside to better understand the protective lands which she writes about. Bourbeau then reads two poems, “Consequences: Cascades that Skew National Monuments,” and “Steelhead at Devil’s Gulch.” The next guest on the show is Tim Kerbavaz, who joins the show to recount his career as a Technical Producer and founder of Talon AV. He discusses his experiences building a queer-owned business in Yolo County, and the importance of small businesses supporting community-driven events like Davis Pride. Guests Morgan Strong and Breanna Garman finish the show representing events and ongoing showcases in the UC Davis Art Studio department, including their joint exhibit “Kindred Spirits” and the June 6th Art Walk from 12-3 P.M.Heather Bourbeau’s award-winning poetry and fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. Her writings are part of the Special Collections at the James Joyce Library, University College Dublin, and her latest poetry collection, Monarch, examines overlooked histories from the US West (Cornerstone Press, 2023). Much of her creative work is influenced by her work as a researcher, analyst, and writer with various UN agencies, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and UNICEF Somalia. In addition, she is a winter wildlife docent at Point Reyes National Seashore and organizes the annual Reyes the Pen writing workshop. She is currently working on a poetry collection about protected lands in the Western United States.Tim Kerbavaz is the Founder and Principal Technical Producer at Talon Audio Visual, a Yolo-County Based Technical Production Agency which he founded 15 years ago in a college bedroom in Davis. As a Technical Producer, Tim manages the behind the scenes tools and processes that enable live events to bring people together, with a focus on connectivity and accessibility solutions for live events. Talon AV is proud to be providing audio and production support to Davis Pride for the 11th consecutive year, this Saturday, June 7, in Davis Community Park.Breanna Garman is a 4th year UC Davis student soon to graduate with degrees in both Art Studio and Applied Chemistry. Garman serves as the programming director and a longtime DJ at the campus and community radio station KDVS.Morgan Strong is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in printmaking and visual art. Strong is an Undergraduate at UC Davis, Radio DJ at KDVS, and an artist who aims to experiment ruthlessly, use water as a reservoir, exhibitions as community, discursive questions to disrupt patterns of complacency, and her intuition as a compass.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Our June 5 Poetry Night will feature poets and authors Heather Bourbeau and Andrea Ross.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 5/28/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:UC Davis alumna Allison Field Bell discusses her upcoming, debut poetry collection ALL THAT BLUE, thinking through themes of sexuality and womanhood. Field Bell shares her journey in academia, starting as an undergraduate in Davis, California, then transitioning as an MFA student at New Mexico State University, and now as a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Utah. She then reads two poems from the collection, “O’Keefe Country” and “Garden.” Stephanie Roberts is the next guest on the show, and she reflects on her intentional humor within her poetics. Roberts explains how her recent collection, UNMET expands on the thematics of her first book, rushes from the river disappointment, exploring themes of justice and rescue. She then reads two poems, “Nothing of the Month Club” and one of the many poems in the manuscript titled “UNMET.” The last guest of the hour, Diane Frank, discusses her role as Chief Editor at Blue Light Press, and her newly published book Mermaids and Musicians. Frank states the novel is literary fiction, magical realism, and a romance, where a violinist falls in love with a mermaid. She outlines how the book chose her to write it, and is a labor of love. Frank closes the episode by sharing a long sample from her new novel.Allison Field Bell is a writer from California. She is a PhD Candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Utah, and she holds an MFA from New Mexico State University. Her debut poetry collection, ALL THAT BLUE, is forthcoming in 2026. She is also the author of two chapbooks, WITHOUT WOMAN OR BODY and EDGE OF THE SEA. Find more of her writing at allisonfieldbell.comStephanie Roberts is the Canadian author of the poetry collection UNMET (Biblioasis Books, April 2025).  Her debut collection, rushes from the river disappointment (McGill-Queen's University Press, May 2020) was an A.M. Klein Poetry Prize finalist. Widely featured in periodicals and anthologies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe such as Poetry Magazine, Atlanta Review, Event Magazine, New York Quarterly Books, Verse Daily, Crannóg (Ireland), and The Stockholm Review of Literature, she is the winner of The Sixty-Four: Best Poets of 2018 (Black Mountain Press). Stephanie was born in Panama, grew up in NYC, and is a citizen of three countries.Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. She is also Chief Editor of Blue Light Press. Her collection While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Diane plays cello with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra. She teaches poetry, flash fiction and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University. Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her website is www.dianefrank.com. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 5/22/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Eve West Bessier joins the program to talk about her New Mexico poetic endeavors. She shares details about her two most recent collections, both poetic micro-essays: Poems Before Breakfast (2023), and The Road Home (2024). Bessier shares two poems “The Clothes Translation Hope” and “This Labor Mess.” The next guest is Kevin Smokler, who discusses his new book, Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers, published by Oxford University. Smokler conducted 24 career-length interviews for this book, focusing on the successes of these women throughout their careers directing films. The last guest on the hour is Grant Faulkner, who details his new project, Memoir Nation, which highlights that everyone has a story to tell and a life to document. He also details the membership tiers and benefits that Memoir Nation has to offer.Eve West Bessier is a poet laureate emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico; and of Davis and Yolo County, California. She served on the steering committee for the Southwest Word Fiesta, and has been a festival presenter. Eve is a retired social scientist, educator, and voice coach. She is a published author, jazz vocalist, photographer and nature enthusiast currently living in Alamogordo, New Mexico.Kevin Smokler is the author of 4 books about pop culture including has latest Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers, out tomorrow. He also directs documentary films including the award winning VINYL NATION about the comeback of vinyl records in America, available at www.vinylnationfilm.com. He lives in San Francisco.Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of Memoir Nation, the co-founder of 100 Word Story, and an executive producer on America’s Next Great Author. He has published three books on writing: The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story; Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo; and Brave the Page, a teen writing guide. He’s also published All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories, and Nothing Short of 100: Selected Tales from 100 Word Story.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. On Tuesday, May 27th, we will have the monthly convocation of the Village Homes Performers’ Circle featuring the quintet NoteWorthy. NoteWorthy have fun writing, singing, playing, and sharing songs.  NoteWorthy includes Meri Superak, Wendy Silk, Meg Alison, Ron Goldberg and Mike Elfant.  Meg is celebrating the recent release of her second album, “No Matter What Breaks,” recorded at Foxtail Studios (https://megalison.hearnow.com/). All five members treasure the community and connections they’ve made at Performers Circle - some for over 20 years! Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 5/14/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Mary Mackey joins the show to discuss her poetics, the planet, and how to preserve hope and joy in the face of catastrophe. In her new book In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse, Mackey imagines what life may be like as the climate changes, and how that will move us to mobilize as people. Through her poetic series, she outlines how creating places where grief cannot enter, participating in collective activism, and fostering appreciation of the earth can help offset the impending fear and doom of climate change. Mackey shares two poems titled “Memories of Snow” and “The Kama Sutra’s Kindness: Position #4” before detailing her upcoming book tour, including locations in Davis, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Sacramento. The next guest is Robby Nykodym, who outlines their poetic journey that spanned the length of their undergraduate career, now a featured reader at Poetry Night in Davis. Nykodym describes the intersection between their molecular biology research and writing, outlining the different lenses that the fields take and how they help inform each other. They then read a poem titled “Bless This Body Pale.” Nykodym also discusses some of the thematics of their unpublished manuscript “This White Dress,” and the process of trying to publish that body of work. To end the show, Dr. Andy reads a poem, “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats.Mary Mackey became a writer by running high fevers, tramping through tropical jungles, being swarmed by army ants, and reading. She is the author of 9 poetry collections, including Sugar Zone, winner of a PEN Award, and The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, winner of the Eric Hoffer Award for Best Book Published by a Small Press. Her poetry has been praised by Wendell Berry, Jane Hirshfield, D. Nurkse, Al Young, Daniel Lawless, Rafael Jesús González, and Maxine Hong Kingston for its beauty, precision, originality, and extraordinary range. She is also the author of 14 novels including The New York Times bestseller A Grand Passion.Robert Nykodym is a poet and scientist, born and raised in Northern California. Their poetry is deeply personal, exploring the relationships between themself, the land in which they were raised, and the bodies around them every day. In addition to writing poetry, Robert spends their time following his creative vision through collage and photography. They can also frequently be found in the lab, researching molecular biology at the forefront of medicine. Their work has appeared previously in the Open Ceilings literary magazine. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Our May 15th Poetry Night will feature local poets Mary Mackey and Robby Nykodym. We meet at 7 PM on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, and we hope you can join usFind out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 5/7/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Doria E. Charlson joins the show to discuss the Department of Theater and Dance’s upcoming spring dance “Rules of Play.” She outlines the process behind the department’s plays, with an informal showing in the fall, and a formal showing in the spring quarter platforming the work of selected students. Charlson states the play highlights student’s unique dance training, interdisciplinary studies, modes of inquiry and approach to dance. This week's performance will highlight the legacy and generational impacts of racist practices in performance such as jim crow blackface minstrelsy. The next guest on the show is Mark Wish, who reads the first five minutes of his recent novel Necessary Deeds, which was nominated for a national book award. He describes his professional journeys, taking full time, adjunct, and editor positions alike. Wish also shares the thorough process of reviewing submissions for the anthology COOLEST AMERICAN STORIES. Doria E. Charlson is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC Davis. Doria earned her PhD in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies from Brown University, from which she also holds MA degrees in History and Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. She also earned a BA in History with a minor in Drama from Stanford University. Her manuscript project, Consuming Crises: Migrant Labor, Spectacle, and Precarity in the 20th Century considers how the laboring body becomes mobilized during moments of economic and social crisis. Doria’s research and scholarship is deeply informed by her decades of praxis as a dancer. She has trained with ODC/Dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, the Alvin Ailey School, the Joffrey Ballet School, and at Stanford University. She completed her residency as an oncology chaplain at UCSF Medical Center and holds a certificate in Interreligious Chaplaincy from the Graduate Theological Union. MARK WISH is the author of the novels Necessary Deeds, Watch Me Go, Show Up Look Good, and Confessions of a Polish Used Car Salesman, receiving praise from the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic's C. Michael Curtis, Salman Rushdie, Anne Serling, Daniel Woodrell, Jonathan Lethem, and Rebecca Makkai. Mark is also the founding editor of Coolest American Stories, an award-winning annual anthology of short stories by writers from all walks of life for readers from all walks of life. His own short stories have appeared in more than 125 print venues. He is the recipient of a Tobias Wolff Award, a Kay Cattarulla Award, an Isherwood Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize. His narrative poems have appeared in venues such as Poetry, The Iowa Review, Ecotone, Prairie Schooner, New York Quarterly, Post Road, and Poetry International. Mark served as the fiction editor of California Quarterly, was the founding fiction editor of New York Stories, and a contributing editor for Pushcart. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. On Thursday, May 1, the Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to present Patrick Grizzell and Oswaldo Vargas. We meet at 7 PM on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, and we hope you can join us! Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 4/30/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Oswaldo Vargas joins the show to discuss his role as a board member of the Sacramento Poetry Center, coordinating and facilitating events. Vargas discusses his efforts to highlight and platform the intersection of Sacramento’s queer and poetry communities together, and how his identity and life experience influence his poetics. He speaks on behalf of the Sacramento Poetry Center as a place that hosts open mics, events, memorials, educational events, and charitable efforts for community members in need. He shares a poem “Antiprom” before discussing his upcoming champbook project and prospective writing future. The next guest on the show is Patrick Grizzell, who details the Big Day of Giving in Sacramento, which serves as a celebration of the nonprofits serving the Sacramento region. He underlines his efforts to make the Sacramento Poetry Center more equitable, stating his efforts to include spoken word poetry in the newest iteration of the Tule Review. Grizell describes his new project The Vignettes, which he is hoping to publish in the coming years, before sharing a poem called “Help Me.” Oswaldo Vargas is a former farmworker and a 2021 recipient of the Undocupoets Fellowship. He has been anthologized in Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat Books, 2018) and Here to Stay: Poetry & Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (HarperCollins, 2024). His work can also be found in Huizache: The Magazine of a New America, the American Academy of Poets' "Poem-A-Day" series, and Narrative Magazine (among others). He lives and dreams in Sacramento, CA.Patrick Grizzell is a poet, songwriter, journalist and visual artist. His books include Dark Music, Chicken Months (about which Robert Bly wrote, "... the poems have a sweet spontaneity and tenderness.”), Minotaure Into Night (with sumi paintings by Jimi Suzuki), 13 Poems, It's Like That, and The Vignettes, a work in progress. A founding member and current president of, as well as an editor for, the Sacramento Poetry Center, he founded or co-founded most of the SPC publications, and was editor-in-chief of On The Wing, an arts magazine, and has written reviews and articles for many other publications. He has performed poetry and music with Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Leon Redbone, Jim Ringer, Ed Sanders, Robert Creeley, Gary Snyder, Shizumi Shigeto Manale, William Stafford, and others. His band, Proxy Moon, released its premiere CD in 2016. A second is in the works. John Lee Hooker once said he "sound pretty good" on the dobros.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. On Thursday, May 1, the Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to present Patrick Grizzell and Oswaldo Vargas. We meet at 7 PM on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, and we hope you can join us! Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, visit his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 4/23/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Barbra Ruth Sanders joins the show to speak on the publication of her debut collection. Hearing Voices. Ruth Sanders states that the collection took years of work and contains poems that touch on family, places from the past, and hearing voices. She shares two poems, one that closes the book, “Wayfinding at Pere Lachaise,” and another, “Ode to Wicklow Mountains,” before delving into a discussion surrounding her vivid imagery. The next guest of the program is Veronica Jarboe, who discusses her recently published chapbook Dragon Girl. Jarboe shares the title poem from her Chapbook and also describes how her creative projects often lead into each other. She discusses workshops with Joshua McKinney and the process of boiling down poems into a body of work. The last guest of the hour is Indigo Moor, who reveals he has a book coming out next March titled Reconstructing Eden. He discusses how jazz influences his work and explains his creation of the invented form “The Bastard Villanelle.” Moor ends his segment by sharing a poem, “Transubstantiation.”Barbara Ruth Saunders writes poetry, memoir, and criticism and performs at poetry readings and solo performance venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut poetry collection, Hearing Voices, was released in 2024, and her work has recently appeared at Highland Park Poetry and in the anthology, Silence is Consent.Veronica Jarboe is the author of the MicroChap collection i tell the finches with Rinky Dink Press, which earned her a Pushcart nomination. She is also the author of Sweethearts and Sorrows, and Dragon Girl with Bottlecap Press. Some of her other published works can be seen in Re-Side Magazine, Yours Poetically, Moss Puppy Magazine, The Broken Spine, Ethel, and Folio Magazine, among others. Veronica is currently an undergraduate English Major at California State University, Sacramento. Additionally, she is a prose and poetry reader for Moss Puppy Magazine. Veronica can be found on Instagram @veronicajarboe and Twitter @VJarboe.Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento, Indigo Moor’s fourth book of poetry, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, took second place in the University of Nebraska Press’ Backwater Prize. Jonesin’—a multi-genre work consisting of poetry, short fiction, memoir pieces, and stage plays—was published in the spring of 2021. 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 parts of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Indigo is part of the visiting faculty for Dominican’s MFA program, teaching poetry and short fiction. His stageplay, Live! At the Excelsior, I was a finalist for the Images Theatre Playwright Award. The subsequent screenplay was optioned as a full-length film.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 4/9/25 edition of Dr.Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Eric Paul Shaffer joins the show to discuss his upcoming and recent book publications, Free Speech and Green Leaves. Shaffer recounts his time at the University of California, Davis and discusses his most recent collection, written in two long sequences. Shaffer then praises Coyote Arts Press and reads a poem, “Watch for falling rocks” and two verses that can be sung along to The United States National Anthem. Julia B. Levine is the next guest on the hour, and details her upcoming reading on April 17th at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Levine discusses her various writing projects and her feelings upon being awarded a Pushcart and the 2024 Terrain Poetry Prize. She explains how she writes about death, love, sex, and aging, trying to articulate the unique vulnerabilities each of these domains contain. Levine then shares a poem titled “This American Spring.” Eric Paul Shaffer is author of nine volumes of poetry, most recently Free Speech and Green Leaves, Selected & New Poems, Even Further West, A Million-Dollar Bill; Lāhaina Noon, and Portable Planet. More than 650 individual poems appear in reviews in the USA, Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Nicaragua, India, Iran, Scotland, Singapore, and Wales. Shaffer received Hawai‘i’s 2002 Elliot Cades Award for Literature; Ka Palapala Po‘okela Book Awards for Lāhaina Noon (2006) and Even Further West (2019); and 2009 James M. Vaughan Award for Poetry. Shaffer is a retired professor of English and lives on Oʻahu.Julia B. Levine’s poetry has won many awards, including a 2021 Nautilus Award for her fifth poetry collection, Ordinary Psalms, (LSU press, 2021), as well as the 2015 Northern California Book Award in Poetry for her fourth collection, Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight, (LSU, 2014).  Recently she has won a 2024 Pushcart Prize in Poetry, the 2024 Terrain Poetry Prize, 2023 Oran Perry Burke Award in Poetry from The Southern Review, as well as a 2022 American Academy of Poetry Poet Laureate Fellowship for her work in building resilience in teenagers related to climate change through poetry, science, and technology. Her work has appeared in many literary journals, including, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review and Prairie Schooner.  She received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of California, Berkeley and an MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Her chapbook, Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction, won the Wolfson Poetry Prize and will be published in early fall, 2025.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in the John Natsoulas Gallery. The event is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 4/2/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Clarence Major joins the show to discuss his storied career as a writer and his upcoming release, Four Days in Algeria. He shares a poem from the collection titled “Closed on Sunday” before the next guest, Professor Anne Schilling joins the show. Professor Schilling details the upcoming play which is coming to the UC Davis Campus, “Diving Into Math with Emmy Noether,” which will play at the Wyatt Theater, April 9th at 6 P.M. The next guest of the hour is Seo Nguyen, who outlines some exciting upcoming events hosted by UC Davis’s Fashion and Design Society (FADs). Nguyen describes FADs new print magazine and their upcoming Fashion Show on Picnic Day, “Through the Looking Glass.” The last guest on the show is April Ossman, who details the thematics of her recent release, We. Her collection takes an unapologetically spiritual stance in bridging politicized divides, exploring conscious and unconscious prejudices with lyricism, warmth, and self-implicating humor. Ossman shares two poems, “Knee Deep” and “Deer Atilla.”Clarence Major won a National Book Award Bronze Medal for Configurations: New and Selected Poems. He is the author of seventeen collections of poems. His forthcoming collection is Four Days in Algeria (2025). He has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Harvard Review and many other periodicals. Major is distinguished professor emeritus in English at the University of California Davis.Professor Anne Schilling studies quantum algebras and representation theory using combinatorial methods. In particular she is interested in affine crystal graphs [2], which first arose in the exactly solvable lattice models in statistical mechanics. She is also involved in the study of affine Schubert calculus [1], which is a vast generalization of classical Schubert calculus. Many parts of her research involve computational experimentation. She is an active developer for Sage, http://www.sagemath.org/.Seo Nguyen is a third year double major in Design & Psychology. As the Co-editor in chief for FADS, Seo manages a team of graphic designers and is designing the first physical issue of the FADS magazine that will be printed in May! She derives a lot of inspiration from Japanese and editorial fashion magazines from the early 2000's and is creating something unique and physical to keep and remember FADS by.April Ossmann is the author of We (Red Hen Press, 2025), Event Boundaries and Anxious Music, recipient of a VAC Creation Grant, and former director of Alice James Books, and an independent editor at: www.aprilossmann.comThe Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in the John Natsoulas Gallery. The event is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The readers on 4/3/25 will be Clarence Major and April Ossmann. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 3/26/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Allison Proffitt joins the show to discuss the duality of her scientific and artistic practices. She details the upcoming event "ASSEMBLAGE: A Concert of Music Featuring Rare and Intriguing Instruments" which will feature seven newly commissioned works, highlighting the guzheng, shakuhachi, duduk, glass harp, kamancheh, and taiko drum. Proffitt then shares lyrics to “Mantra” by Santiago Veros. Chris Hennessy is the next guest of the program, and he shares exciting news about his upcoming memoir Touched by Hannah. He shares a sample from the manuscript before the last guest of the programs, Isabelle Sato joins. Sato speaks on her love and appreciation for the natural world, and how that influences her poetics. Sato describes the writing class she has been taking, which author Grant Faulkner teaches before sharing a poem   “Bright Midnight.”Allison Proffitt is a classical soprano who performs with the professional-level women's vocal ensemble Vox Musica. She has been performing in choirs for over twenty years. Allison holds a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UC Davis, where she sang in the Early Music Ensemble. Allison works at UC Davis Health conducting clinical research studies. She is a regular performer at Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis.Award-winning filmmaker, author, and speaker. Board Member, California Writers Club, Sacramento. Chris Hennessy dominated the San Francisco Bay Area's independent filmmaking scene from 1990 to 2018, marketing, selling, and producing over 1,500 professional projects for clients, including Google, eBay, the SF 49ers, Deloitte, Office Max, and The American Cancer Society. His digital content has garnered more than 8 million views across various platforms. After retiring from professional filmmaking in 2018, Hennessy launched his television series Yolo YoYo's which won Sacramento's Best New TV Cable Series (2019). The show attracted 125,000 Facebook views (TV stats unavailable), aired four segments on CBS's GoodDay Sacramento, and generated multiple newspaper articles written by Hennessy. The series' season two premiere, "Miracles on College Street"—produced to promote his forthcoming memoir, Touched by Hannah—won the prestigious 'Film Heals' award (most inspirational) at the 2022 Manhattan Film Festival and was runner-up for 'Best Narrative Episode West Coast' at the 2022 ACM Western Region WAVE Cable TV Awards.Isabelle Sato graduated UC Santa Barbara in 2020 with a B.S. in Physics. While in college she hosted 2 Startup Weekends. And after graduating, she worked as a Jr. Scientist at TAE Technologies in the field of fusion energy for 3 years doing computational plasma reconstructions. She left in Nov of 2023 and since then she has been exploring new topics and ways of being through reading, traveling, volunteering. She has recently picked up hobbies like poetry, music production, and designing clothes.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in the John Natsoulas Gallery. The event is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 3/19/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Michael Todd Gallowglas joins the show to discuss his upcoming reading and storytelling event at the John Natsoulas Gallery. On Thursday March 20th at 7:00 P.M., Gallowglas will be reading from his new book, The Re-Imagined Princess, a book that combines poetic narrative and storytelling. Gallowglas also shares a poetic section from his new book, and touches on his storytelling practice along with writing in multiple genres. The next guest on the show is Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas. She discusses the recent publication of her two books of poetry, and outlines how she sticks to a regimented schedule to keep her writing life on track. Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas cites being a lifelong scholar of the genre and an active reader as inspiration to her craft, and discusses the works and life of Slyvia Plath with Dr.Andy. She then shares a poem titled “Maybe If.”Michael Todd Gallowglas is a creative writer. He originally wanted to be a comic artist, but he couldn't draw, so he thought telling stories with words and sentences would be much easier. Three degrees in writing later, he occasionally wonders if he should have learned to draw instead. Still, with over 30 book credits to his name across fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, Gallowglas has settled into his stride. His most recent publications include Dance Among the Lighting Bolts, book four in his Tears of Rage sequence, The Four Principles of Engaging Writing, and The Re-Imagined Princess - an epic fairy tale in verse that explores the heroine's journey and the relationship between children and their imaginary friends, releasing on March 20th, World Story DayTo find out where he's performing next and to purchase books directly from him, you can visit his website - mtoddgallowglas.com.Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, with an MFA in Writing. She is a 13-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012, she won the Red Ochre Chapbook Contest with her manuscript Before I Go to Sleep. In 2018, her book In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for The CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, and her poem, A Mall in California, took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. Her poems have been published widely online and in print and recently featured in The Comstock Review, Poets and Artists, and Mezzo Cammin. She is a former editor-in-chief for the Tule Review and The Orchards Poetry Journal. Her latest collections of poetry, Handful of Stallions at Twilight (Finishing Line Press) and A Shared and Sacred Space (Kelsay Books), were released in 2024.The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in the John Natsoulas Gallery. The event is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 3/12/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Pia Baur joins the show to speak on her recent essay “Every Day Anew” which touches on her lived experience with epilepsy. The essay was recently chosen for the Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction and will be published in the Bellevue Literary Review this Spring. Baur then details her colleague Elizabeth Mitchell’s upcoming horror-sci-fi anthology called "The Claw Machine," which Baur will be contributing to. Will Alpers then joins the show to discuss his upcoming workshop, where he will teach prospective authors about self-publishing their work. He shares a poem titled  “In a middle school biology class”, before the last guest of the program, Grant Faulkner calls in. Faulkner describes the structure of his upcoming reading at Avid Reader in Davis, California where he will be discussing his book titled The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story. He also details how he came about starting his Write-minded podcast and his virtual writing classes that he runs out of Berkley, California.Pia Baur is a writer born to German and Korean parents and raised in the United States. She received her BA in English from UC Davis in 2011 and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana in Missoula. She lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. Will Alpers has self-published one book of poetry, The Demon is Curious About My $45 Lunch, which will soon be available for purchase on Amazon.Grant Faulkner is the co-founder of 100 Word Story, the co-host of the Write-minded podcast, and the author of The Art of Brevity: Crafting the Very Short Story, All the Comfort Sin Can Provide, a collection of short stories, and Fissures, a collection of 100-word stories. His “flash novel,” something out there in the distance, a collaboration with the photographer Gail Butensky, is coming out in September 2025 with the University of New Mexico Press. His essays on creativity have been published in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, and The Writer.  The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM in the John Natsoulas Gallery. The event is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 3/5/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Professor Jesse Drew joins Dr. Andy in the studio to discuss the Davis screening of his upcoming movie, Open Country. He shares details on the event, which is occurring this Friday, March 7, at Sudwerk‘s Beer Hall, before telling a  story about his time spent interviewing the American Folk legend Pete Seeger. The next guest on the hour, the poet Anthony Xavier Jackson, joins the show to speak about an event for late poet and friend Al Cortez. The event occurred Wednesday, March 5th at Sacramento’s California stage, but the organizers will still be collecting donations to pass on to the family of Al Cortez. The last guest on the hour, Christina Deptula, opens her segment by sharing a poem, “Spontaneous Grace.” She then shares details about an upcoming event, “The Hayward Lit Hop, " a writing group gathering to share and improve their respective crafts.Jesse Drew is an American artist, author, media activist, and educator. He became a teenage runaway at age 15, and lived on communes in Vermont and California. In 1974, he was a candidate for the State Legislature of Vermont on the Liberty Union Party ticket with Bernie Sanders. In 1975, he was recruited by Fred Ross to work for the United Farmworkers Union in California. He was a boycott organizer in San Francisco before moving into industrial organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Drew is now a professor in the Cinema and Technocultural Studies (CaTS) program at the University of California, Davis.Anthony Xavier Jackson is the recent winner of The 2024 Sacramento Poetry Week’s Annual Poetry contest. Jackson has been writing poems and songs since his teens, drawing inspiration from sci-fi, myths, all genres of music, and all manner of spiritual pursuits, including recovery. Jackson has recently published his first collection of poetry, The Razor of Your Smile, available on Amazon. Jackson is a member of GTFO Poetry Collective based in Sacramento. You may find his poems paired with his music on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Cristina Deptula is a UC Davis alumna, a science journalist, book publicist, and publisher of the online literary magazine Synchronized Chaos. Our March 6th, Poetry night will feature local poets Cindy Juyoung Ok, Jade Menshew, and Roy Magat. We meet at 7PM at the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis, and we hope you can join us.Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 2/26/25 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:Ethan Gallogy joins the show to discuss his award-winning novel The Trail, which follows two character’s journeys on the John Muir Trail. Gallogy shares his experiences on the John Muir Trail, stating that a month straight in the wilderness was an unforgettable experience. He reiterates the importance of being disconnected from technology, and outlines some of the traits of the novel's main character Gil. Gallogy then imparts some advice about how to go about hiking, seeking out trails, and joining hiking groups. Connie Poet then calls in to discuss her poetic habits, including submitting to a variety of journals, as well as setting writing goals. Post shares a poem titled, “The Wandering” before stating that she intentionally writes poems about topics like Sexual Assault in aim to help readers in their healing. She ends the episode by sharing another poem, this one in honor of her late brother titled, “Broken Metronome.”Ethan Gallogy is a local author and an avid hiker and backpacker. He graduated from UC Davis with a PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1993, has taught around the world, including at UC Berkeley and in mainland China, and is an emeritus professor from Santa Monica College, and has now returned to live in Davis. He has written two books and is the author of The Trail, an award-winning novel set on the John Muir Trail in the High Sierra.Connie Post’s work has appeared in Calyx, Slipstream, Comstock Review, 2 River, American Journal of Poetry, River Styx, Spoon River Poetry Review, Slippery Elm, and Verse Daily. Her poetry awards include the Caesura award, Liakoura award, and the Crab Creek Poetry Award.  Her full-length collections include Floodwater, Prime Meridian and Between Twilight. Between Twilight was a finalist in the 2023 Best Book Awards and the International book award. Her 2023 chapbook, Broken Metronome has been a finalist for six book awards and won the American Fiction award for a chapbook. The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, and by Thea and the other members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.