Poetry Night Reading Series: Lois P. Jones and William O’Daly

The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature Lois P. Jones and William O’Daly at 7 PM on Thursday, May 18th, 2023, on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis.

Lois P. Jones is a finalist for the Alpine Fellowship award in poetry. She has won the Bristol Poetry Prize, the Lascaux Poetry Prize for a single poem, the Tiferet Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2018 Terrain Poetry contest judged by Jane Hirshfield. Jones’ work appears or is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets – Poem A Day, Poetry Wales, Mslexia, Plume, Guernica Editions, Vallentine Mitchell of London; Verse Daily, Tupelo Quarterly, Narrative and others. 

Jones’s first collection Night Ladder was published by Glass Lyre Press in 2017 and was a finalist for the Julie Suk Award and the Lascaux Poetry Prize for a poetry collection. She is a screening judge for Claremont University’s Kingsley-Tufts Awards. Since 2007, Jones has hosted KPFK’s Poets Café, co-produced the Moonday Poetry Series, is a contributor for the Los Angeles Review of Books and acted as poetry editor for Pushcart and Utne prize-winning Kyoto Journal.

William O’Daly studied poetry at the University of California, Santa Barbara with Kenneth Rexroth, Hugh Kenner, and many others, and with his friend and mentor Sam Hamill, he served as assistant editor of Spectrum magazine. In 1972, he co-founded Copper Canyon Press with Hamill, Tree Swenson, and Jim Gautney.

O’Daly’s published works include eight books of translation of the late-career and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda and Neruda’s first volume, Book of Twilight — all published by Copper Canyon Press. Book of Twilight was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Translation of Poetry for 2018. Books of O’Daly’s own poems include The New Gods (Beltway Editions), The Whale in the Web (Copper Canyon), as well as Yarrow and Smoke, Water Ways (a collaboration with JS Graustein), and The Road to Isla Negra, the latter three published by Folded Word Press. In March 2023, the Los Angeles Master Chorale included three poems from The New Gods and one from Water Ways in the world premiere of Reena Esmail’s “Malhaar: A Requiem for Water,” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he received the American Literary Award from the bilingual Korean American journal Miju Poetry and Poetics in September 2021. His poems, translations, essays, and reviews have been published in numerous journals and multimedia exhibits. He has received national and regional honors for literary editing and instructional design and served on the national board of Poets Against War.

This event will take place on the roof of the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street) at 7 PM on Thursday, May 18th, 2023. An open mic will follow the featured performers. Open mic performances will be limited to three minutes or two items, whichever is shorter. As Robert Southey says, “Be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.” The open mic list typically fills by 6:50 PM, so please arrive early if you would like to perform something during the 8 o’clock hour. Attendees who request to be added to the list after 7 PM will be invited to try again at a subsequent event.

The Facebook event page for the May 18th, 2023 Poetry Night can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1324636244750774/

The Poetry Night Reading Series, taking 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. This event is supported by Katerina Hanks, producer of The Poetry Night Reading Series.

Find out more about the Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com.