Santa Cruz poets making a weekly podcast and live poetry events
Author: dion lissner oreilly
Dion O'Reilly third book, Limerence, was finalist for The Floating Bridge Press John Pierce Chapbook Competition for Washington State Poets. She is the author of Sadness of the Apex Predator (Cornerstone Press 2024) and Ghost Dogs (Terrapin 2020). Her work appears in Cincinnati Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Tar River Poetry, and Rattle. She is a podcaster at The Hive Poetry Collective, leads private poetry workshops, and is co-editor of En•Trance Journal. She splits her time between a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains and a residence in Bellingham, Washington.
Cate Kennedy is the author of two short story collections, a novel, three poetry collections and a memoir. Her awards include the Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Poetry for her collection “The Taste of River Water” (Scribe, 2011) and the NSW People’s Choice Award for her novel “The World Beneath” (Scribe 2009, published Australia, the U.S.A, the U.K, France and Hong Kong). Her short story collections are both on the Australian school syllabus as study texts. She teaches widely both in Australia and the U.S., and has just completed her PhD in Creative Writing.
Kemi Alabi reads and discusses poems from her book Against Heaven which was selected by Claudia Rankine for the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award. Find more about Kemi on her website and at the Academy of American Poets website. Against Heaven can be purchased on Amazon.
Hear Tim Fitzmaurice talk about and read from his book of poems, The Things We Take With Us: New and Selected. We talk about writing, poodle personas, Santa Cruz, and community in poetry. Bonus tracks: Tim singing and playing guitar!
The Things We Take With Us is available in Santa Cruz at Bad Animal Books and Bookshop Santa Cruz and by contacting him at timfitz@ucsc.edu. That way the book is free with a contribution to the Prison Arts Project at williamjamesassociation.org.
You can find Tim on IG @tim.fitzmaurice1 and on Facebook
Please join poets and writers Charles Atkinson, Ellen Bass, Jack Foley, David Swanger, Hannah Sward and Ken Weisner celebrate the life and work of Santa Cruz’s beloved poet Robert Sward who died this past February. Hosted by Julie Murphy, this episode includes the guests’ favorite poems of Robert’s and their remarkable remembrances of him. Robert was a gifted poet, prolific writer, beloved friend, father and husband with a great sense of humor and deep insights.
Robert Sward 1933 – 2022
Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, 2016-2018, Robert Sward has taught at Cornell University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and UC Santa Cruz. A Fulbright scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, he was chosen by Lucille Clifton to receive a Villa Montalvo Literary Arts Award. His 30 books include: Four Incarnations (Coffee House Press), now in its second printing; Heavenly Sex; The Collected Poems (1957-2004); and THE TORONTO ISLANDS, a bestseller. Widely published in traditional literary magazines and anthologies, Sward has served as contributing editor to “Web Del Sol,” “Blue Moon Review,” and other online publications since 1995. Born and raised in Chicago, Robert Sward served in the U.S. Navy in the combat zone during the Korean War (1951-1953) and later worked for CBC Radio and as book reviewer and feature writer for The Toronto Star and The Globe & Mail.
Francesca Bell and Dion O’Reilly read some of their favorite poets and a few poems of the own. Francesca reads from her next book What Small Sound and her previous collection, Bright Stain. Dion reads from her debut collection, Ghost Dogs, and from her upcoming collection Sadness of the Apex Predator. They also read a little Maggie Smith and a few other favorites.
Journal X poets Carla Schick, Claudia Ramírez Flores, and GusTavo A. Guerra Vásquez read and discuss their poems, touching upon themes of racial oppression, jazz, homophobia, border violence, culture, ancestry, “Watsón(ville)”, and more. Journal X, also known as Xinachtli Journal, is a literary/arts magazine focusing on social justice issues. To read the journal, visit https://www.cabrillo.edu/journal-x/.
About the poets:
Carla Schick is a Queer activist for liberation, educator and union activist, lover of jazz and language. They have worked for an education system that empowers our students. Published in SF City College’s Forum, Milvia Street, Sinister Wisdom, Earth’s Daughters, and online, at The Write Launch and A Gathering of the Tribes, they received their Certificate in Creative Writing/Poetry from Berkeley City College.
Claudia Ramírez Flores is a poet, fearless writer and Mexican immigrant who highlights crucial social issues in our world by writing about immigration, mental health, death and healing. She seeks to give a voice to the thousands of missing people in México. She has studied at Cabrillo College, UC Berkeley and Yale University.
GusTavo Adolfo Guerra Vásquez (he/him) is a multimedia artist whose work has been featured in La Raíz, Fingir, Arte Latino Now, The Coiled Serpent, and The Wandering Song. A GuatemaLAngelino, GusTavo facilitates artistic workshops on poetry and social justice through his consulting work on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility leadership. You can see his work at IDEALbridges.com or follow him on instagram as @poetartista. You can subscribe to his YouTube channel at gMeing. GusTavo lived in Santa Cruz and Watsonville during the 1990’s where he organized cultural events like “Noche de Artistas” and the “Sabor a Chocolate” art exhibit.
Join host Julia Chiapella and guest teacher, writer, and poet Patrice Vecchione as they chat about grief, feminism, and reckoning with a parent’s death. Julia will also share poems by students participating in the Young Writers Program’s Word Lab.
Shara McCallum reads from and discusses her book No Ruined Stone, a finalist for the 2022 Rilke Prize. Join us as we explore this riveting alternate history that spans Scotland and Jamaica, colonialism and self-determination, the literary tradition and the individual poet. Hear Shara’s wonderful stories about the making of her sensitive and searching new collection.
Reading from her debut poetry collection, Earth, My Witness, Magdalena Montagne discusses the power of poetry and nature in her healing journey as a survivor of child sexual abuse. “When I despaired, Earth held me,” she writes in her eponymous poem. Magdalena also shares recent poetry about BLM and social oppression.
A long-time facilitator of drop-in writing workshops, Magdalena Montagne has collaborated with libraries throughout northern California to bring her Community Poetry Circles to participants of all ages. She has also worked with elders in assisted living facilities for almost a decade, bringing her WisdomVerse curriculum to those with Alzheimer’s and other cognitive and physical impairments. Magdalena has worked with California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Council Santa Cruz County, and more. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and her first book, Earth, My Witness, was published in 2020 by Finishing Line Press.
The Hive Poetry Collective 