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.com

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. 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.