Dane Cervine
Dane Cervine’s recent books include Children of Obscura – This Mysterious Human (Sixteen Rivers Press), and Nine Volt Nirvana (Word Poetry Press) among others. Dane’s poems have won awards from Adrienne Rich, Tony Hoagland, the Atlanta Review, Caesura, and been nominated for multiple Pushcarts. His work appears in The Sun, the Hudson Review, TriQuarterly, Poetry Flash and many anthologies. danecervine.com
Reading at the Hotel Petaluma
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Lenore Myers
Lenore Myers spent her childhood and youth moving between different towns in Northern California. She continued an itinerant life abroad and in various parts of the United States, before settling in Napa, California with her family. Her first book is Afterimages (Sixteen Rivers Press 2026). Her poems and essays appear in a variety of literary journals. lenoremyers.com
Reading at the Hotel Petaluma
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Carolyn Miller
Carolyn Miller, a poet and painter living in San Francisco, is the author of four books of poetry: Random Universe; Route 66 and Its Sorrows; Light, Moving; and After Cocteau. Her essays and poems have been published in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Gastronomica, among other journals.
Reading at the Hotel Petaluma
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Elizabeth Foster
Elizabeth Foster is the 2026-2027 Marin Youth Poet Laureate. A senior at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, she’s a passionate student leader, serving as a Student Advocate for Speech with the National Coalition Against Censorship, and leading banned book clubs and workshops on anti-censorship action throughout the Bay Area. She’s a literacy and policy teacher, with the Youth Policy Initiative of San Francisco. She’s interested in using poetry and literature as tools of civic engagement and cultural change.
Reading at Keller Street CoWork
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Nika Grajqevci
Nika Grajqevci is the 2026-2027 Marin Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador. She’s a junior at San Rafael High and has had a passion for reading and writing since she was little. In recent years she’s fallen in love with the craft of poetry and finds it to be the ideal mechanism for not only exploring her own world but drawing attention for social causes relevant to all ages.
Reading at Keller Street CoWork
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Juno Phipps
Juno Phipps is the 2025-2026 Marin Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador. A senior at Marin School of the Arts, she fell in love with poetry through the school’s Creative Writing program. Her poems have been recognized with multiple awards. She likes to run, spend time with family and friends, and play music. One of her goals is to bring awareness to cultural and mental health issues and demonstrate the healing power of poetry with her work. She also hopes to inspire kids to fall in love with the literary arts.
Reading at Keller Street CoWork
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Lorrie Chang
Lorrie Chang is a truth seeker, spoken word artist, filmmaker, urban planner, and spiritual wanderer. She is a first-generation American-born Chinese and a daughter of San Francisco. She is featured in Forum, 16th & Mission: 20 Years, and Poolside Poets. Her art explores ancestral wisdom as medicine for world-building, timelessness, and the play between personal and collective liberation. lorriechang.weebly.com
Reading at the Phoenix Theater
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Mahrs Emerson Schoppman
Mahrs Schoppman, a somatic psychotherapist and writer, lives among the oaks and poppies in Sebastopol, CA, with his beloved partner, child, and dog. With a deep captivation for what it means to be a body and a fierce love of language, he spends his days practicing how to embody language in motion.
Reading at the Phoenix Theater
Photo courtesy of the poet.
mOody bLaCk
MOody bLaCk is an award-Winning Spoken-Word, Hip-Hop, Visual, and Teaching Artist. Published author of a collection of poems and thoughts entitled, The Other Side of Tomorrow. Resides in Spartanburg, South Carolina. iammoodyblack.com
Reading at the Phoenix Theater
Photo by Ian Curcio..
Farnaz Fatemi
Farnaz Fatemi, an Iranian American poet from Santa Cruz, CA, is the author of Sister Tongue زبان خواهر, (Kent State University Press) recipient of a Publisher’s Weekly starred review. Farnaz was the recent Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate and is a founding member of The Hive Poetry Collective, producing podcasts and bi-monthly poetry readings since 2019. She has received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship and a fellowship from the California Arts Council. farnazfatemi.com
Reading at Copperfield’s Books
Photo by Paul Skenazy
Ellen Kombiyil
Ellen Kombiyil (she/her) is a visual artist, poet, and educator from the Bronx. She’s the author of 3 books and 2 chapbooks, most recently My Prayer a Slit Throat (winner of the New Constructions Hybrid Book Prize, forthcoming Wet Cement Press 2026), Diagnostic on the Plumbing and Wiring of Females (Visual Poetry Series Award, forthcoming Anhinga Press 2026), and Love as Invasive Species (Cornerstone 2024). She’s a 2025 winner of the Geri Digiorno Multi-Genre Prize, and 2025 winner of the Tupelo Quarterly Prize for Cross-Disciplinary Writing. She’s an adjunct assistant professor at Hunter College in New York City. ellenkombiyil.com
Reading at Copperfield’s Books
Photo by Nandu Kombiyil..
Claire Drucker
Claire Drucker is the 2026-2028 Sonoma County Poet Laureate. She’s a Jewish lesbian mom, poet, dancer and identical twin. Her books are The Life You Gave Me (Kelsay Books 2023) and a chapbook, The Fluid Body(Finishing Line Press 2014 ). Her poems have been published in CA Quarterly, Jewish Literary Journal, Rust & Moth, Epiphany, Puerto del Sol, The Freedom of New Beginnings, and Women Artists Datebook, among others. She was an English teacher at Santa Rosa Junior College, a poet-teacher with CA Poets in the Schools, and currently serves as the poetry curator for The Sitting Room, a community library dedicated to women’s literature and art. She lives in Sebastopol.
Reading at Copperfield’s Books
Photo courtesy of the poet..
Pat Nolan
Pat Nolan is the author of over a dozen books of poetry and four novels. His poetry, prose, and translations have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including The Paris Review, Rolling Stone, and Poems For The Millennium. His most recent book, Ode To Sunset, a fiction, was published in 2025. He lives in Monte Rio.
Reading at The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum
Photo by Brian Howlett
Adrián Arias
Adrián Arias is a poet and visual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has published five poetry books in Peru and co-created the tarot deck Tarot en Pandemia y Revolución. His practice spans murals, installations, performance, rooted in Moche heritage and social justice. He is currently translating Mar de palabras para amar. adrianarias.com
Reading at The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum
Photo by Joma
Francesca Bell
Francesca Bell is the author of Bright Stain and What Small Sound. She translated Whoever Drowned Here: New and Selected Poems by Max Sessner and co-translated Palestinian poet Shatha Abu Hnaish’s A Love That Hovers Like a Bedeviling Mosquito. Her poems have been translated into Italian, Hungarian, and Czech. She teaches poetry and embroidery at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. francescabellpoet.com
Reading at The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum
Photo by Emily Petrie
Donna Emerson
Donna Emerson divides her time between her Petaluma and her family homestead in western New York. Recent publications include La Presa, Tiferet, Chicago Quarterly, among many others. Nominated for two Pushcarts, Best of the Net, the California Book Award, she’s published four chapbooks, three full length collections. Her third book, Daphne Lifts Up, was released in September, 2025. She is completing a book tour during 2026 in the Bay Area as well as on the east coast. donnaemerson.com
Reading at Usher Gallery
Photo by Dennis Davis.
Dr. Jeanne Powell
Dr. Jeanne Powell is a college instructor and writing consultant in San Francisco. She has four books in print from Taurean Horn Press. Her poems appear in several anthologies. She facilitates a weekly writers group for Mechanics Institute Library. jeanne-powell.com
Reading at Usher Gallery
Photo by Carol Bettencourt.
Jack Crimmins
Jack Crimmins is the author of seven books. His poems focus on people, landscape and spirit. Jack’s first book, Kit Fox Blues, was published by Beat poet Diane di Prima. Taurean Horn Press just published a trilogy, The Light in California, comprised of three of Jack’s books. Jack has worked as a licensed psychotherapist and lives in Santa Rosa.
Reading at Usher Gallery
Photo by Hilary Smith.
Luisa Giulianetti
Luisa Giulianetti lives in Kensington. Her debut collection is Agrodolce (Bordighera Press 2023). Her work has appeared in various journals including Italian Americana, Rattle, and River Heron Review. A retired educator, Luisa enjoys cooking, hiking, and exploring the expansive beauty of the place she calls home. Her poetry group keeps her energized and hopeful.
luisagiulianetti.com
Reading at Jess Brown Design
Photo by Luis Ramirez Martinez.
Lourdes Figueroa
Lourdes Figueroa is a queer chicanx oral poet & poetry filmmaker based in the Bay Area. They are a recipient of Nomadic Press Bay Area Literature Award for Poetry, and a 2025 ReGen Artist Grantee with Galeria De La Raza. Lourdes’s offerings are the chapbooks yolotl, Ruidos = To Learn Speak, Vuelta, the poetry film Las Marimacha Fragments, (Beyond Baroque International Poetry Film Festival Award 2024, Best Narrative); and the long-verse poem “I will kiss your mouth b/w the overgrown Milpa” (UANL, México). Recent poems appear in Huizache 12. lourdesfigueroa.net
Reading at Jess Brown Design
Photo by Peggy Peralta.
Maw Shein Win
Maw Shein Win‘s full-length poetry collection is Percussing the Thinking Jar (Omnidawn) which was shortlisted for the 2025 Northern California Book Award in Poetry. She is the recipient of the 2025 Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. She teaches poetry in the MFA Programs at the University of San Francisco and Saint Mary’s College of California.
Reading at Jess Brown Design
Photo by Annabelle Port.
Cintia Santana
Cintia Santana’s debut poetry collection, The Disordered Alphabet (Four Way Books, 2023) received the 43rd Annual Northern California Book Award in Poetry, the 2024 IPPY Bronze Medal, the 2023 North American Book Awards Silver Medal, and was short-listed for the 2023 California Independent Booksellers Alliance “Golden Poppy” Award. Santana teaches literary translation, poetry, and fiction workshops in English and Spanish at Stanford University.
Reading at The Big Easy
Photo by Rewa Bush.
Wendy M. Thompson
Wendy M. Thompson is from Oakland, California. Her debut poetry collection Black California Gold (Bucknell University Press, 2025) maps out life in the Bay Area in the 1980s and 1990s. Her forthcoming scholarly book is Chasing the Sun: Staging Black Life and Belonging in California’s Bay Area (University of Washington Press) She’s been published in Hoxie Gorge Review and others, and is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at San José State University.
Reading at The Big Easy
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Deyci Carrillo López
Deyci Carrillo López, as she says it herself, is a proud daughter of Guanajuato, México and Deep East Oakland, California. She is an author, abolitionist, and immigrant rights advocate. Words helped her define who she is and who she wants to become in this world that is constantly screaming to define her worth and her power. She hopes to inspire little and big humans to discover and own their magic through poetry and art. IG @puravida510
Reading at The Big Easy
Photo courtesy of the poet.
Event Presenters
Terry Ehret
Terry Ehret, a founder of Sixteen Rivers Press, is the author of four poetry collections, including Night Sky Journey (Kelly’s Cove Press). Her honors include the National Poetry Series, Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, NEA Translation Fellowship, a Northern California Book Award for California Poetry in Translation, and eight Pushcart nominations. She served as Sonoma County Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006.
Event presenter at Hotel Petaluma.
Event Presenter at Keller Street CoWork.
Photo courtesy of the presenter.
Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş
Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş is a Turkish-American poet, choreographer, filmmaker, and is the director of Marin County’s first Youth Poet Laureate Program. She has served as resident artist at Djerassi (CA), Surel’s Place (ID), Tofte Lake Center (MN), and Center at Eagle Hill (MA), and has been commissioned by World Stage Design (Canada), 92NY’s Future Dance Festival (New York), and FACT/SF Summer Dance Festival (San Francisco).
Event Presenter at Keller Street CoWork.
Photo courtesy of the presenter.
Original Giotis
Original Giotis is a poet-journalist in northern California who writes on food, music, kink, and underground culture. He is the founding poet of Petaluma’s Found Poets poetry showcase. With an education in critical theory and sustainable enterprise, he looks to connect his readers with solutions-oriented voices they haven’t heard before. IG:@foundpoets
Event Presenter at The Phoenix Theater.
Photo by Erin Wrightsman.
Kary Hess
Kary Hess is the Director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk. She’s the author of 1912, Poems of Time Place and Memory (FMRL 2022) the forthcoming Trees Are for Outlaws (FMRL 2026) and is the author and artist of the SparkTarot® Deck + Guidebook. She’s also the editor of two magazines: Made Local Magazine Sonoma Co., and The Walk, and writes for The North Bay Bohemian, Marin Pacific Sun and North Bay magazine. karyhess.com
Event Presenter at Copperfield’s Books.
Photo by Daedalus Howell.
Jennifer Barone
Jennifer Barone is an Italian-American poet and author of three books of poetry. Her latest book is Saporoso, Poems of Italian Food & Love (Feather Press). She is a winner of the 2007 and 2012 San Francisco Public Library’s Poets Eleven contest for North Beach, where she resides. Jennifer Barone
Event Presenter at Petaluma Historical Museum and Library.
Photo courtesy of the presenter.
Bill Vartnaw
Bill Vartnaw, Sonoma County Poet Laureate Emeritus, was born and raised in Petaluma and has been the publisher of Taurean Horn Press for 50 years. He’s the former director of the Petaluma Poetry Walk, working with our event’s founder Geri Digiorno, for 25 years. He’s the author of two books and four poetry chapbooks. His latest work is The Nile & The Milky Way.
Event Presenter at Usher Gallery.
Photo courtesy of the presenter.
Ingrid Keir
Ingrid Keir runs Feather Press, an indie women’s literary press that most recently published the anthology Tender Hearts Club (of which our above poets are a part!). She’s co-founder of the WordParty, a San Francisco poetry and jazz series and has written several chapbooks. She was shortlisted for the Litquake poetry contest and won the International Turas d’Anam Samhain Poetry Contest.
Event Presenter at Jess Brown Design.
Photo courtesy of the presenter.
Daedalus Howell
Renowned for his postmodern narratives in film and literature, Daedalus Howell’s written works include Quantum Deadline and I Heart Sonoma, and two feature films Pill Head and Werewolf Serenade. Howell’s work offers insights into interconnected storytelling and the exploration of identity in a changing world. He is the editor of the North Bay Bohemian and the publisher of Made Local Magazine, Sonoma Co. dhowell.com
Event Presenter at The Big Easy.
Photo by Kary Hess.