Category: Reading

Genny Lim was born in San Francisco, and she earned a BA and an MA from San Francisco State University. Lim earned a certificate in broadcast journalism from Columbia University and later worked as a reporter, producer, and commentator for CBS News. Lim is the author of the poetry collections Winter Place (1989), Child of War (2003), and Paper Gods and Rebels (2013). Her work appears in the Oxford Book of Women’s Writing in the United States (1995), and Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island (1980). Lim is the winner of the 1981 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. In 1982, she founded a theater company, Paper Angels Productions, now known as Theatre XX, a company that performs experimental theater. Lim has taught at the New College of California, and her papers are held at UC Santa Barbara. She was named Poet Laureate of San Francisco’s in August 2024.

David Gorin is the author of To a Distant Country, selected by Jennifer Chang for the Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship and forthcoming in 2024. His writing received the 2023 Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA, MA, and MPhil in English Literature from Yale University. He has taught creative writing and literature at Deep Springs College, Stanford Continuing Studies, the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution (via the Yale Prison Education Initiative), Eastern Correctional Facility (via the Bard Prison Initiative), and Yale.

Kim Shuck is a poet, visual artist, and educator. She is solo author of eleven books, part of editing another eleven. Shuck served as the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco.

Deborah Bachels Schmidt has published five chapbooks, including Stumbling into Grace, published by Orchard Street Press. She is co-author of Love’s Meditation from Random Lane Press). Her work has appeared in journals including Blue Unicorn, California Quarterly, The Exacting Clam, and The MacGuffin, as well as in numerous anthologies. She has earned awards from the Coolbrith Circle, the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, and Orchard Street Press. This year her poems won grand prizes in the Poets’ Dinner and the Dancing Poetry Festival. 

NSAA (Lawrence Dinkins, Jr.) was born in Detroit and moved to California in the 1990s. He studied writing at Sacramento City College and has been writing and performing his poetry for over twenty years. Lawrence served on the board of the Sacramento Poetry Center, and he has hosted dozens of Sacramento poetry events at both Mahogany Urban Poetry and Luna’s Café. Lawrence published Open Mic Sketchbook and And It Is Beautiful with little m press, and his selected poems, Warrior Poet, was published by Random Lane Press in 2019.

Giovanna Lomanto is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and dog costume contest judge (ask her about it), who has published 3 poetry collections, 2 chapbooks, and an art book with various small presses. A recent MFA graduate from NYU, she currently serves as the co-publisher of the indie press Game Over Books and the lead curator of LitQuake’s QTBIPOC event series. Her work can be found in the SFMOMA, KQED, and the bookshelves of her friend’s homes.

Rebecca Lee Whiting has published her poetry in many independent literary magazines and presses including Prometheus Dreaming, Colossus: Freedom, and Colossus:Body.. She has served as an editor for Colossus Press, an Oakland-based literary nonprofit press that funds good works with good art. Rebecca studied creative writing at Bennington College and has a BA from Yale, an MA from the Courtauld Institute, and a JD from UC Berkeley. A Los Angeles native, these days she splits her time between Sea Ranch and San Francisco with her partner and their goldendoodle, Justice.

Bob Stanley has published two books from CW Press, Miracle Shine (2012), and Language Barrier (2024). He has organized poetry events in Northern California for over 40 years, and he served as Sacramento’s fifth Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2012. With his wife Joyce Hsiao, Bob leads online poetry classes and manages Random Lane Press, a small publisher, from their home in Sacramento.

Mike Shea, bass, has played in numerous jazz groups over the years, including a duo with vocalist Michelle Abby, and both a trio and a quintet featuring vocalist Mike Biber. Mr. Shea has performed with poets Lawrence Dinkins and Bob Stanley at the Sacramento Poetry Center, and he played bass in the group that provided accompaniment for a 12-hour performance of Homer’s Iliad at Grace Cathedral in 2023.