Tag: Stephanie Pressman

April Fool’s Day Reading

4 Comments

It was my great pleasure to read with Stephanie Pressman and Amanda Williamsen last night at the first of this year’s “Unsung Holiday” poetry readings. Stephanie took the theme of foolin’ around very seriously with her jester-ly costume and thought provoking philosophically tricky poems. Amanda made us all laugh with memories of our unfortunate teenage years and bad kitchen smells. There were four open-mic readers, which was pretty good considering the miserably rainy night. Thanks again to Peet’s for their generosity and warm space, and to my poetry “posse” (Roz, Kathy and Adrian) from the Cupertino Library Foundation, the Friends of the Cupertino Library, and the Cupertino Library Commission. Special thanks to Dave Denny — without whom I’m sure I would still be standing there fussing with the audio equipment — for the photos.

Image

Image

 

 

Poetry Contest Winners

2 Comments

Poetry Contest Winners

Read here about the winners of the poetry (and essay) contest sponsored by the Cupertino Library Foundation as part of 2014’s Silicon Valley Reads project. You can click on the names of the winners to read their work. We write some fine poems in Cupertino! Special thanks to Stephanie Pressman and Amanda Williamsen for helping me judge.

Adult Category

First Prize Winner: Kim Johnson

essay-winner-first-place

Teen Category

First Prize Winner: Annabelle Tseng

Second Place: Angela Wang

Middle School Category

First Prize Winner: Hope Nguyen

Second Place: Jacqueline He

Here’s Amanda chatting with a couple of the winners after the event.

amanda chatting wtih winners

And this is Amanda and I with Robin Sloan, the author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, one of the books featured during Silicon Valley Reads this year.

jsb robin and amanda

Unsung Holidays : Poetry Reading Series in Cupertino

1 Comment

This coming Tuesday, April 1, will be the first of a series of poetry readings I’m hosting in Cupertino. Join the event on Facebook. Or just show up and have a cuppa with us at Peet’s. Guest poets will be Stephanie Pressman and Amanda Williamsen.

You may remember Stephanie and Amanda, as they were the first and second place winners in last year’s Cupertino Poetry Contest, sponsored by Dave Denny, the first CupPL. Read about that event and remember here.

ShowImage.aspx

Stephanie is third from the left. Amanda is third from the right. I’m the tall one in the green scarf. We had fun that evening. That’s Dave in the middle with the glasses and handsome beard.