Monthly:

Poetry Readings at:
Willow Glen Library

Third Thursday of Every Month
7:00 pm
1157 Minnesota Avenue
San José, CA 95125

FREE and open to the public

Poets @ Play

Second Sunday of Most Months
1:00 to 4:00 pm
Edwin Markham House in
History Park
1650 Senter Road,
San José, CA 95112

FREE and open to the public

PCSJ Events:

POETRY READINGS @ WILLOW GLEN LIBRARY
Third Thursday of Every Month
Thursday, May 17, 2012, 7:00pm
Featured Reader: John Landry
An open mic reading will follow
Willow Glen Library
1157 Minnesota Avenue, San José, CA, 95125
(408) 808-3045 or (408) 266-1361
Free and open to the public

John Landry, originally from New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he served as the city's poet laureate, first moved to San Francisco in 1977. During the 1970's and 1980's, he edited Patmos Press, publishing chapbooks by Everett Hoagland, Robert Lax, and others. He was co-editor of the anthology No End To Fall River (1984).

While in Washington in the late 1980's, working with the Community for Creative Non-Violence, he read at the Library of Congress at the invitation of U.S. Poetry Consultant Gwendolyn Brooks.

During the 1990's he was the "gatherer" for his poetry magazine collision, which included work by Robert Creeley, Marge Peircy, Ernesto Cardenal, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Jack Hirschman, to name the most familiar.

For years, he found livelihood as a quahogger, and in the factories, warehouses and libraries of New Bedford, Fall River, Washington, Austin, and San Francisco. He studied at Southeastern Massachusetts University, University of Massachusetts, Stonehill College, LSU, University of Texas, the Smithsonian Institute's Resident Associate program, and Naropa Institute of Buddhist Studies' Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

Subsequently, he served as an adjunct instructor at Bristol Community College, University of Massachusetts, and University of Applied Sciences in Fulda, Germany. He taught poetry and writing courses, as well as a series of courses and a seminar introducing students to figures of the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College. His mentors were Robert Creeley, Allen GInsberg, John Wieners and Denise Levertov.

John Landry has served as a contributing editor for the 50th anniversary anthology of Beatitude (San Francisco), New College Review (San Francisco), and The Newport Review. His book who will prune the plum tree when i'm gone/quién va a podar los ciruelos cuando me vaya was published by Editorial Cuneta in Chile in February 2010. His poems have appeared in many journals and have been translated into Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Hungarian, German, French, Italian, and Japanese.

POETS @ PLAY
returns Sunday, May 20, 11:00am to 4:00pm

This Sunday, please join Yuki Teikei Haiku Society and Poetry Center San Jose at Asian American Heritage Day at San Jose's History Park. We will be operating a haiku workshop and contest, for both children and adults, haiku readings, and art activity.

If we have enough interest and time, the Poets@Play group will also meet in the Markham House parlor during a portion of the time.

Have you ever wanted a quiet place to write? Or an informal gathering for collaborating with fellow poets about works in progress? That’s what Poets@Play is all about. We alternate between writing and sharing our works in progress. This is not a workshop, but rather a playhouse – some starter ideas and a comfortable place to play with words. Registration is encouraged, but not required, at poetsatplay@pcsj.org (we can also provide you with information on how to avoid a parking fee).

Edwin Markham House in History Park
1650 Senter Road, San José, CA 95112
Parking in city operated lots ($6 or $10)

POETRY READINGS @ WILLOW GLEN LIBRARY
Third Thursday of Every Month
Upcoming Featured Readers:
May 2012: John Landry
June: Len Anderson
July: Jose Luis Gutierrez
August: Santa Cruz poet laurate David Swanger
September: Marjorie Manwaring
October: Matthew Zapruder
November: Sally Ashton
December: Nils Peterson
An open mic reading will follow
Willow Glen Library
1157 Minnesota Avenue, San José, CA, 95125
(408) 808-3045 or (408) 266-1361
Free and open to the public

SHARON OLDS
Thursday, October 4, 2012
venue and time to be announced

Poetry Center San Jose will present one of contemporary poetry's leading voices. Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco and educated at Stanford University and Columbia University. She was the New York State Poet Laureate from 1998 to 2000. She teaches poetry workshops in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University and was one of the founders of the NYU workshop program at Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York. Her work has received the Harriet Monroe Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets, and the San Francisco Poetry Center Award. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Details of Ms. Olds' visit and reading are being finalized and will be announced soon.

To see what PCSJ has been up to lately, see the event archive.

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