The Poets of Fresno: Summer Reading Series 2010
The Poets of Fresno: Summer Reading Series 2010, in June, July and August at the Revue Café in the Tower District, will feature readings by some of the elder statesmen of Fresno poetry along with a number of other established and up-and-coming Fresno poets. The reading series is both a summer celebration of the rich Fresno poetry tradition and a fundraising event for The Ash Tree Poetry Series of Fresno Poets edited by Fresno native David St. John. The Ash Tree Series is an imprint of Tebot Bach Press of Huntington Beach, California a non-profit literary press founded by Mifanwy Kaiser. Over the past several years St. John has edited and Tebot Bach has published the poetry of Michael Clifton, Sam Pereira, Bruce Boston, and, coming this fall, a collection by Glover Davis.
Fresno became a recognized center of poetry beginning in 1958 with the arrival of Philip Levine to teach at then Fresno State College. Levine established a nationally recognized undergraduate poetry writing program with fellow poets Peter Everwine and C. G. Hanzlicek. Since then, over 75 poets from Fresno State have achieved national and international reputations, including two state poet laureates.
A recent example is Fresno’s Brian Turner and his award winning, and internationally acclaimed book Here, Bullet. Publishers Weekly said of Here, Bullet (2005) that it was likely the most discussed debut of the decade. It’s a hard act to follow, but Turner manages well… his newest book, Phantom Noise is now available from Alice James Books.
Still another example is Jeffrey Schultz, a graduate of CSU Fresno and the University of Oregon Master of Fine Arts program. Schultz now lives in Los Angeles and teaches at Pepperdine University. He received the 2009 “Discovery” Boston Review prize, and his poems have appeared in such prestigious publications as Poetry, Great River Review, Northwest Review, Poetry Northwest, Willow Springs, and elsewhere. Schultz, along with his father-in-law C.G. Hanzlicek, will be reading together in June.
St. John was also a student of Levine and Hanzlicek and was a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is a recipient of many national prizes, including a prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and three National Endowment for the Arts grants. He currently teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he served as Director of the Ph.D. Program in Literature and Creative Writing.
Glover Davis, Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at San Diego State University and one of the original 20 Fresno poets published in 1970 in the seminal anthology Down at the Santa Fe Depot has a new book of poems, Spring Drive, to be released this fall under the imprint of the Ash Tree Poetry Series. After retirement, Davis moved back to Fresno and currently lives in Coarsegold. He will read in July.
St. John’s efforts have also led to the recent publication of the poetry of Michael Clifton. Clifton was one of the original 20 Fresno poets published in Down at the Santa Fe Depot and has taught in the English Department at Fresno State since 1982. His book Whatever Lasts in Winter Lasts is one of the titles edited by St. John and published by Tebot Bach. Clifton and several other Fresno poets will be reading in August.
The three poetry readings in The Poets of Fresno: Summer Reading Series 2010 will be held on the fourth Tuesday of June, July and August, this summer (June 22, July 27, and August 24) at 7:00 p.m. at the Revue Café, 620 East Olive Avenue, in Fresno’s Tower District. The suggested donation for the event is $5.00.
More information about The Poets of Fresno: Summer Reading Series, 2010 can be found at: summerreadings2010.wordpress.com/
