West Trestle Review received a grant from the Auburn Arts Commission to run a new literary series and open mic. Events are live and in-person, streamed and recorded.
When: 5 p.m., Feb. 4 (Note time change.)
Where: City Hall, Council Chambers, 1225 Lincoln Way, Auburn
Details: Free event, hosted by West Trestle Review founding editor, Patricia Caspers.
Donations welcome. Masks Required.
When: 5 p.m., Feb. 4 (Note time change.)
Where: City Hall, Council Chambers, 1225 Lincoln Way, Auburn
Details: Free event, hosted by West Trestle Review founding editor, Patricia Caspers.
Donations welcome. Masks Required.
Upcoming Featured Readers
Feb. 4: Mahnaz Badihian is an Iranian/American poet, painter, and translator whose work has been published in several languages worldwide. Mahnaz runs the literary magazine MahMag.org to bring the world's poetry together. She finished translating a book about the uprising in Iran in 2009 called Spalding Arise with Jack Hirschman, published in San Francisco in 2014. She received her MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Her latest poetry collection, Raven of Isfahan, was Published in 2019. She edited 300 pages of the anthology Plague 2020: Covid-19, Poetry and Art from around the World. She is a member of the San Francisco RPB (Revolutionary Poet Brigade).
In 2018, Mahnaz had a three-day art exhibition in San Francisco. Her new collection of poems is Ask the Wind. She was nominated for a Pushcart by Vagabond in 2022. Mahnaz has traveled worldwide for poetry events, including Kerala, Chile, Cuba, Italy, England, Bolivia, Peru, and more.
March 4: Karla Brundage is a Bay Area based poet and educator with a passion for social justice. Born in Berkeley, California in the Summer of Love, Karla spent most of her childhood in Hawaii where she developed a deep love of nature. She is the founder of West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets. Karla is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Fulbright teacher and author of two books of poetry, Swallowing Watermelons and Mulatta- Not so Tragic, and a board member of the Before Columbus Foundation, which provides recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. Her editorial experience includes a pan-Africanist WO2WA poetry collection, Sisters Across Oceans (2021) and Our Spirits Carry Our Voices (2020), published by Pacific Raven Press; Oakland Out Loud (2007); and Words Upon the Waters (2006) both by Jukebox Press. Her poetry, short stories and essays have been widely anthologized and can be found in Hip Mama, Literary Kitchen, Lotus Press, Bamboo Ridge Press, Vibe and Konch Literary Magazine. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MA in Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Mills College.
April 1: Joyce E. Young is the author of a collection of poems, How it Happens, published by Nomadic Press (2018), which was nominated for a California Book Award. Her writing has appeared most recently in The Lake County Bloom, The San Francisco Public Library Poem of the Day, Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color, Smith Alumnae Quarterly, #MondayPoetryPause and Clearly Meant Presents: the Berkeley Public Library. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She writes poetry, essays, and is currently at work on a memoir. Joyce has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Smith College and a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University. She is a proud Brooklyn native who currently calls the San Francisco Bay Area home.
May 5: Devorah Major, San Francisco’s third Poet Laureate, is an award-winning poet and fiction writer, a creative non-fiction writer, performer, editor, and part-time senior adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She was poet-in-residence of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for 28 years. She has toured internationally in places such as Italy, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Belgium, England and Wales, as well as throughout the United States both performing her poetry and serving on panels speaking on African American poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry of resistance. She has two novels and seven books of poetry published.
Stream all readings here.
In 2018, Mahnaz had a three-day art exhibition in San Francisco. Her new collection of poems is Ask the Wind. She was nominated for a Pushcart by Vagabond in 2022. Mahnaz has traveled worldwide for poetry events, including Kerala, Chile, Cuba, Italy, England, Bolivia, Peru, and more.
March 4: Karla Brundage is a Bay Area based poet and educator with a passion for social justice. Born in Berkeley, California in the Summer of Love, Karla spent most of her childhood in Hawaii where she developed a deep love of nature. She is the founder of West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets. Karla is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Fulbright teacher and author of two books of poetry, Swallowing Watermelons and Mulatta- Not so Tragic, and a board member of the Before Columbus Foundation, which provides recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. Her editorial experience includes a pan-Africanist WO2WA poetry collection, Sisters Across Oceans (2021) and Our Spirits Carry Our Voices (2020), published by Pacific Raven Press; Oakland Out Loud (2007); and Words Upon the Waters (2006) both by Jukebox Press. Her poetry, short stories and essays have been widely anthologized and can be found in Hip Mama, Literary Kitchen, Lotus Press, Bamboo Ridge Press, Vibe and Konch Literary Magazine. She holds a BA from Vassar College, an MA in Education from San Francisco State University and an MFA from Mills College.
April 1: Joyce E. Young is the author of a collection of poems, How it Happens, published by Nomadic Press (2018), which was nominated for a California Book Award. Her writing has appeared most recently in The Lake County Bloom, The San Francisco Public Library Poem of the Day, Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color, Smith Alumnae Quarterly, #MondayPoetryPause and Clearly Meant Presents: the Berkeley Public Library. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She writes poetry, essays, and is currently at work on a memoir. Joyce has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Smith College and a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies from John F. Kennedy University. She is a proud Brooklyn native who currently calls the San Francisco Bay Area home.
May 5: Devorah Major, San Francisco’s third Poet Laureate, is an award-winning poet and fiction writer, a creative non-fiction writer, performer, editor, and part-time senior adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She was poet-in-residence of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for 28 years. She has toured internationally in places such as Italy, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Belgium, England and Wales, as well as throughout the United States both performing her poetry and serving on panels speaking on African American poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry of resistance. She has two novels and seven books of poetry published.
Stream all readings here.
Past Featured Readers
Jan. 7: Amanda Moore’s debut collection of poetry, Requeening, was selected for the 2020 National Poetry Series by Ocean Vuong and published by HarperCollins/Ecco in October 2021. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies including Best New Poets, ZZYZVA, and Mamas and Papas: On the Sublime and Heartbreaking Art of Parenting, and her essays have appeared in The Baltimore Review, Hippocampus Magazine, and on the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s blog. She is the recipient of writing awards, residencies, and fellowships from The Brown Handler Residency, In Cahoots, The Writers Grotto, The Writing Salon, Brush Creek Arts Foundation, and The Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts.
Poetry Co-editor at Women’s Voices for Change and a reader at VIDA Review and INCH, Amanda is a high school English teacher and lives by the beach in the Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco with her husband and daughter.
Watch Amanda's reading here.
Dec. 3: Christian Kiefer's novels have appeared on best of the year lists from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist and have received rave reviews in The Washington Post, Oprah.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, Brooklyn Rain, Library Journal, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He is the author of the novels The Infinite Tides, The Animals, Phantoms, and the novella One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left to Hide.
Christian is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for his short fiction and has enjoyed a long second career in music, under the auspices of which he has collaborated with members of Smog, Pedro the Lion, DNA, 7 Seconds, John Zorn’s Naked City, Sun Kil Moon, Boxhead Ensemble, Califone, Cake, Kronos Quartet, Wilco, Low, Fun, Anathallo, and The Band, among many others.
He holds a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of California at Davis and has served as contributing editor for Zyzzyva, fiction reader for VQR, and as the West Coast editor for The Paris Review. He teaches at American River College in Sacramento and is the Director of the Ashland University MFA.
Watch Christian's reading here.
Nov. 12: (postponed) Devorah Major, San Francisco’s third Poet Laureate, is an award-winning poet and fiction writer, a creative non-fiction writer, performer, editor, and part-time senior adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She was poet-in-residence of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for 28 years. She has toured internationally in places such as Italy, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Belgium, England and Wales, as well as throughout the United States both performing her poetry and serving on panels speaking on African American poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry of resistance. She has two novels and seven books of poetry published.
Oct. 8: Susan Cohen is the author of Throat Singing, A Different Wakeful Animal, and the forthcoming Democracy of Fire. Her recent poetry appeared in 32 Poems, Northwest Review, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and won prizes from Red Wheelbarrow and Terrain.org. She lives in Berkeley.
Watch Susan's reading here.
Sept. 10: (postponed) Aileen Cassinetto is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and served as poet laureate of San Mateo County from 2019 to 2022. The founder of Paloma Press and author of two poetry collections, her work has been featured in POETRY, Marsh Hawk Press Review, Fellowship, and KALW Public Radio, among others. Her poems have also been set into orchestral music for upcoming concerts in Los Angeles and at Carnegie Hall. She is a 2022 Metro Film and Arts Foundation grantee, and currently serves as Commissioner for the County Commission on the Status of Women.
Aug. 13: Andrea Ross's memoir, Unnatural Selection, about her years as a wilderness guide searching for her biological family, was published in 2021. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, Terrain, The Conversation, Bay Nature, Mountain Gazette, and she has been featured on many podcasts about writing, wilderness travel, and adoption. During the 1980s and 1990s, Ross worked throughout the American West as a wilderness guide, a National Park Service Ranger, and a backcountry Search and Rescue captain. She is a faculty member in the University Writing Program at UC Davis.
Watch Andrea's reading here.
July 23: Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears (YesYes Books, May 2022), winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, and New England Review. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and Vermont Studio Center. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco.
Watch Shelley's reading here.
June 18: Claire Unis MD MFA is a board-certified practicing pediatrician whose creative nonfiction has been published in a number of journals including Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Awakenings Review, and East Iowa Review. Her memoir, Balance, Pedal, Breathe: A Journey through Medical School, was published in April 2022.
Watch Claire's reading here.
May 21: Chloe Martinez is a poet and a scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of the collection Ten Thousand Selves (The Word Works, 2021) and the chapbook Corner Shrine (Backbone Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah and elsewhere.
Watch Chloe's reading here.
May 14: Kim Shuck was San Francisco’s seventh Poet Laureate. Her poetry draws on her multiethnic background which includes Polish and Cherokee heritage, and her experiences as a lifelong resident of San Francisco. Her most recent book of poetry, Exile Heart, was published in 2021 by That Painted Horse Press.
Watch Kim's reading here.
Poetry Co-editor at Women’s Voices for Change and a reader at VIDA Review and INCH, Amanda is a high school English teacher and lives by the beach in the Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco with her husband and daughter.
Watch Amanda's reading here.
Dec. 3: Christian Kiefer's novels have appeared on best of the year lists from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist and have received rave reviews in The Washington Post, Oprah.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, Brooklyn Rain, Library Journal, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He is the author of the novels The Infinite Tides, The Animals, Phantoms, and the novella One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left to Hide.
Christian is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for his short fiction and has enjoyed a long second career in music, under the auspices of which he has collaborated with members of Smog, Pedro the Lion, DNA, 7 Seconds, John Zorn’s Naked City, Sun Kil Moon, Boxhead Ensemble, Califone, Cake, Kronos Quartet, Wilco, Low, Fun, Anathallo, and The Band, among many others.
He holds a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of California at Davis and has served as contributing editor for Zyzzyva, fiction reader for VQR, and as the West Coast editor for The Paris Review. He teaches at American River College in Sacramento and is the Director of the Ashland University MFA.
Watch Christian's reading here.
Nov. 12: (postponed) Devorah Major, San Francisco’s third Poet Laureate, is an award-winning poet and fiction writer, a creative non-fiction writer, performer, editor, and part-time senior adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She was poet-in-residence of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for 28 years. She has toured internationally in places such as Italy, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Belgium, England and Wales, as well as throughout the United States both performing her poetry and serving on panels speaking on African American poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry of resistance. She has two novels and seven books of poetry published.
Oct. 8: Susan Cohen is the author of Throat Singing, A Different Wakeful Animal, and the forthcoming Democracy of Fire. Her recent poetry appeared in 32 Poems, Northwest Review, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and won prizes from Red Wheelbarrow and Terrain.org. She lives in Berkeley.
Watch Susan's reading here.
Sept. 10: (postponed) Aileen Cassinetto is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and served as poet laureate of San Mateo County from 2019 to 2022. The founder of Paloma Press and author of two poetry collections, her work has been featured in POETRY, Marsh Hawk Press Review, Fellowship, and KALW Public Radio, among others. Her poems have also been set into orchestral music for upcoming concerts in Los Angeles and at Carnegie Hall. She is a 2022 Metro Film and Arts Foundation grantee, and currently serves as Commissioner for the County Commission on the Status of Women.
Aug. 13: Andrea Ross's memoir, Unnatural Selection, about her years as a wilderness guide searching for her biological family, was published in 2021. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, Terrain, The Conversation, Bay Nature, Mountain Gazette, and she has been featured on many podcasts about writing, wilderness travel, and adoption. During the 1980s and 1990s, Ross worked throughout the American West as a wilderness guide, a National Park Service Ranger, and a backcountry Search and Rescue captain. She is a faculty member in the University Writing Program at UC Davis.
Watch Andrea's reading here.
July 23: Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears (YesYes Books, May 2022), winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, and New England Review. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and Vermont Studio Center. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco.
Watch Shelley's reading here.
June 18: Claire Unis MD MFA is a board-certified practicing pediatrician whose creative nonfiction has been published in a number of journals including Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Awakenings Review, and East Iowa Review. Her memoir, Balance, Pedal, Breathe: A Journey through Medical School, was published in April 2022.
Watch Claire's reading here.
May 21: Chloe Martinez is a poet and a scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of the collection Ten Thousand Selves (The Word Works, 2021) and the chapbook Corner Shrine (Backbone Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah and elsewhere.
Watch Chloe's reading here.
May 14: Kim Shuck was San Francisco’s seventh Poet Laureate. Her poetry draws on her multiethnic background which includes Polish and Cherokee heritage, and her experiences as a lifelong resident of San Francisco. Her most recent book of poetry, Exile Heart, was published in 2021 by That Painted Horse Press.
Watch Kim's reading here.
