December 29, 2008 : New York, NY
Taylor Mead. Bowery Poetry Club
Octogenarian Mead (A Simple Country Girl), a performer the Village Voice once called “the first underground movie star,” gives his weekly Friday night show.

January 1, 2009 : New York, NY
New Year’s Day Marathon Reading. The Poetry Project
The 35th anniversary of this reading kicks off at 2:00 p.m. and features Anselm Berrigan, Franklin Bruno, Mónica de la Torre, John Giorno, Eileen Myles, Patti Smith, Anne Waldman, and dozens of others.

January 3, 2009 : Chestnut Hill, MA
Meg Kearney and Laura Williams McCaffrey. Pine Manor College
Poet Kearney (The Secret of Me) reads with young adult novelist McCaffrey (Water Shaper) for this week-long series sponsored by the Solstice Low-Residency MFA program, which Kearney directs.

January 5, 2009 : New York, NY
CAConrad, Brenda Iijima, Tim Peterson, and others. The Poetry Project
Conrad (Deviant Propulsion), Iijima (Subsistence Equipment), Peterson (Since I Moved In), and others read for the launch of the poetics journal On: Contemporary Practice, featuring essays by twenty-one poets on their contemporaries.

January 7, 2009 : San Francisco, CA
C. D. Wright. City Arts & Lectures
Former Rhode Island poet laureate and MacArthur fellow Wright (Rising, Falling, Hovering) reads at the Herbst Theater.

January 7, 2009 : Chestnut Hill, MA
Terrance Hayes and Naomi Shihab Nye. Pine Manor College
Poet and painter Hayes (Wind in a Box) reads with poet and novelist Nye (Honeybee) as part of the Solstice MFA January Reading Series.

January 7, 2009 : Seattle, WA
Kristen Loree and Jack Ox. Subtext Reading Series
Loree performs Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate while segments of Ox’s eight-by-one-hundred-foot painting (also an interpretation of Ursonate) are projected on the wall.

January 8, 2009 : St. Louis, MO
Patrick Rosal and Quincy Troupe. Observable Reading Series
Black Renaissance Noire magazine editor Troupe (The Architecture of Language) reads with Rosal (My American Kundiman) at Schlafly Bottleworks.

January 9, 2009 : Minneapolis, MN
Dobby Gibson. Open Book
Rain Taxi and Graywolf Press host a launch party for Gibson’s second collection, Skirmish. Each book purchase includes a personalized fortune from Gibson, after the collection’s series of poems titled “Fortune.”

January 9, 2009 : Pittsburgh, PA
Paula Bohince and Horacio Castellanos Moya. Grub Street Reading Series
Pennsylvania residents Bohince (Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods) and Moya (Senselessness, his first book translated into English) read for this recently renewed series at a sculptor’s studio.

January 11, 2009 : Los Angeles, CA
Geoffrey G. O’Brien. Poetry at the Ruskin
UC-Berkeley professor O’Brien (Green and Gray) reads for this Red Hen Press series held at the home of L.A.’s oldest cultural association.

January 11, 2009 : Portland, OR
Endi Hartigan and Maryrose Larkin. Spare Room
Spectaculum editor Hartigan (One Sun Storm) reads with FLASH+CARD postcard press editor Larkin (The Book of Ocean) at Concordia Coffee House.

January 12, 2009 : Seattle, WA
Bruce Beasley and Deborah Poe. Richard Hugo House
Western Washington University professor Beasley (The Corpse Flower) and alumna Poe (Our Parenthetical Ontology) read for the Spontaneously Luminous Series, which provides venues for writers to perform their work from coast to coast.

January 13, 2009 : San Francisco, CA
Alan Kaufman and Clara Hsu. Books & Bookshelves
Kaufman, editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, reads with Clarion Music Center president and poet Hsu (Mystique).

January 13, 2009 : Seattle, WA
Jenny Browne and Matthew Dickman. Open Books
Browne (The Second Reason) and Dickman (All-American Poem) travel from Texas and Oregon, respectively, to read at this all-poetry bookstore.

January 14, 2009 : Cleveland Heights, OH
John “Jesus Crisis” Burroughs, Mike Goldstein, C. Allen Rearick, and Jason Williams. Mac’s Backs
Cleveland poetry blogger Burroughs (Bloggerel), poetic patterer Goldstein, Guerrilla Poetics Projects member Rearick (Through These Eyes), and Williams (Inheritance Tax) read at this used bookstore.

January 15, 2009 : Point Arena, CA
Maureen Eppstein. Point Arena Poetry Series
New Zealand native and Mendocino Coast Writers Conference organizer Eppstein (Quickening) reads at the Old City Art Building for this monthly series.

January 16, 2009 : Brooklyn, NY
Akilah Oliver, Sandra María Esteves, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, and others. Mama Africa: A Tribute to Miriam Makeba
Poets and musicians from the African diaspora—including Oliver (A Toast in the House of Friends), Esteves (Bluestown Mockingbird Mambo), and Diggs (Check the Rhyme)—read at BAM Café to memorialize South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba.

January 16-18, 2009 : Chicago, IL
Dolores Dorantes, Jen Hofer, Jennifer Karmin, and others. When Does It Or You Begin? (Memory as Innovation)
The second week of this month-long festival focuses on collaboration and features Dorantes with her translator Hofer (sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre: A Bilingual Edition), as well as Karmin with seven Chicago poets.

January 17, 2009 : San Francisco, CA
Erika Staiti, Suzanne Stein, and Dodie Bellamy. Canessa Reading Series
Erica Lewis hosts a reading on the theme of influence (to wit: “Do you blame your elementary English teacher or that old Beat you met at City Lights?”) featuring Staiti, Stein (Signs of Life), and Bellamy (Barf Manifesto).

January 18, 2009 : Pomona, CA
Michelle Bitting. dA Center for the Arts
Bitting reads from her first book, Good Friday Kiss, at this Pomona Arts Colony community center; an open mic follows.

January 19, 2009 : St. Louis, MO
Oliver de la Paz and Virginia Slachman. River Styx at Duff’s Reading Series
De la Paz (Furious Lullaby) and Slachman (Heidegger’s Temple) read at Duff’s Restaurant for this series hosted by River Styx, a multicultural journal of poetry, prose, and art.

January 20, 2009 : St. Petersburg, FL
Scott Ward and Tom Perrotta. Writers in Paradise
Poet Ward (Wayward Passages) and fiction writer Perrotta (The Abstinence Teacher) give a public reading for this fiction, poetry, and nonfiction conference at Eckerd College.

January 21, 2009 : Los Angeles, CA
EMBERS: a jazz opera in poems. ALOUD LA
Actors and a jazz quartet perform an opera featuring a woman boxer and a bad-mannered angel, based on a novel-in-verse by Terry Wolverton, at the L.A. Central Library.

January 22, 2009 : Berkeley, CA
Sharon Doubiago and Judith Roche. Poetry Flash at Moe’s Books
Poet and short story writer Doubiago (Love on the Streets: Selected and New Poems) reads with Roche (Wisdom of the Body), who won an American Book Award for her anthology of poems and folk tales about salmon.

January 23, 2009 : La Jolla, CA
Niloufar Talebi. National University
London-born, American-educated writer Talebi reads from her new anthology, Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World, and screens footage from her short films based on contemporary Iranian poetry.

January 24, 2008 : Palm Beach, CA
Denise Duhamel, Kimiko Hahn, Gerald Stern, and others. Palm Beach Poetry Festival
Duhamel, Hahn, and Stern participate in the afternoon panel “Beloved & Influential Poems” alongside Thomas Lux, Laura Kasischke, Martín Espada, and others. The same night, Hahn and Stern give a festival finale reading.

January 25, 2009 : New York, NY
Nancy Pearson. Bowery Poetry Club
Runner, cyclist, and poet Pearson reads from her first book, Two Minutes of Light, for a series sponsored by Four Way Books.

January 26, 2009 : New York, NY
Charles Bernstein, Shanxing Wang, and Christopher Stackhouse. Triptych Readings
Bernstein (Girly Man), Wang (Mad Science in Imperial City), and Stackhouse (Seismosis) are featured in the inaugural reading of the Triptych series at the 11th Street Bar.