Poetry Reading featuring Dana Gioia, Poet Laureate of California

The Ukiah Library is proud to present

A Special California Poet Laureate Poetry Reading

featuring Dana Gioia, Poet Laureate of California;

Ukiah Poets Laureate Emeriti:

Armand Brint, Linda Noel, & Theresa Whitehill;

& the Mendocino County Poetry Out Loud Champion!

Saturday, February 18^th 5 pm

Join California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia at the Ukiah Library on Saturday, Feb. 18^th at 5 pm for a special poetry event. This free event will feature poetry readings from Dana Gioia, Theresa Whitehill, Linda Noel, Armand Brint, and the winner of the Mendocino County Poetry Out Loud championship. This is Dana Gioia’s first appearance in Mendocino County as part of his ambitious 58-County California Poet Laureate tour.

Dana Gioia is Poet Laureate of California. Appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in December, 2015, Gioia serves as the state advocate for poetry and literature in libraries, classrooms and boardrooms across California.. An internationally recognized poet and critic, he is the author of five collections of poetry, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016). His critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. He has written three opera libretti and edited twenty literary anthologies. He served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009. He has been awarded 11 honorary doctorates. He is the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California where he teaches each fall semester. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California. For more information visit www.capoetlaureate.net.

Presented in partnership with the California Arts Council, the California Center for the Book, and the California State Library. Hosted by the Ukiah branch of Mendocino County Library.

Armand Brint has lived in Ukiah for almost 30 years. He was appointed as the City of Ukiah’s first Poet laureate from 2001 to 2003.  Armand is the author of three volumes of poetry, Schools of Light, Linwood Publishers, 1995; The League of Slow Cities, Tenacity Press, 2001; and In the Name of Wonder, Haley’s Press, 2014.  Armand has recently completed a new collection of poems, The Book of Second Chances and a book on writing poetry, titled, Bringing Poems to Life: Sixteen Keys to Make Your Poems Sing. Armand is the recipient of the 2013 Jane Reichhold International Prize for Haiku.  Armand teaches poetry workshops through the Emandal Farm’s residential ArtStay Program.

Linda Noel is of Koyoonk’auwi (Concow) descent and grew up in Mendocino County. She is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Ukiah, Ca. Her work has been included in many anthologies and she has a chapbook titled Where You First Saw the Eyes of Coyote. She resides in Mendocino County.

A California poet, graphic designer, and letterpress printer, Theresa Whitehill served as Poet Laureate for the city of Ukiah from 2009 through 2011 and has been involved her entire career in production of poetry readings and events. Whitehill’s two collections of poetry, A Grammar of Longing (2009) and A Natural History of Mill Towns (1993), were both published by Pygmy Forest Press.

Light refreshments will be served. For more information – please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us