Contemporary poetry and poets
The Poetry Santa Cruz reading for September, 2018, celebrated the passing of the Santa Cruz County poet laureate torch. Robert Sward concluded his two-year term, welcoming new laureate Danusha Lameris to launch her two years in the post. The event was held on Tuesday, September 11, 2018, at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
The two poets read from their own work, followed by a question-and-answer session with the SRO audience of more than sixty. Both poets and the Q&A are included in this podcast.
D. Nurkse and Nancy Miller Gomez read for Poetry Santa Cruz on June 12, 2018. The event was held at Felix Kulpa Gallery.
Nancy Miller Gomez’s work has appeared in River Styx, Rattle, The Bellingham Review, Nimrod and elsewhere. She was a semi-finalist for the 2017 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize and was nominated twice for a Pushcart. She recently completed her Masters in Fine Arts in Poetry at Pacific University and volunteers as the director of an organization that provides poetry and writing workshops to incarcerated men and women in Santa Cruz County. Her first chapbook, Punishment, was just published as part of the Rattle Chapbook Series:https://www.rattle.com/chapbooks/punishment/
The first Poetry Santa Cruz reading of 2018 featured a quartet of local poets (reading in this order): William Ward Butler, Meg Freitag, Lisa Allen Ortiz, and Debra Spencer. The reading, held at Bookshop Santa Cruz for a good-sized and receptive audience, was followed by a brief Q&A.
Audience members at the 3rd annual Voices of the River poetry reading enjoyed a beautiful October 1 Sunday afternoon and heard a lot of great poetry.
The event was sponsored by Poetry Santa Cruz, Coastal Watershed Council, Bookshop Santa Cruz, and Arts Council of Santa Cruz County.
Tuesday, July 11, was the monthly poetry reading sponsored by Poetry Santa Cruz. Hosted at Bookshop Santa Cruz, the event featured a quartet of local poets. In reading order:
A full house greeted the four readers – thanks to all who attended. The readings were followed by an interesting Q&A session with the poets. For those who couldn’t make it, or would like to hear it again, use the podcast player above.