Chaucer's Books hosts Poetry Night featuring Stephanie Barbé Hammer, Rich Ferguson, Kathleen Florence, and Melinda Palacio.
Stephanie Barbé Hammer is an award winning poet, novelist, and essayist with published work in Hayden's Ferry Review, The Chiron Review, SALT, Spillway, and The RavensPerch. Her new chapbook of lyric, magical realist flash fiction, The Warbler School Chronicles is out with Bamboo Dart Press. A professor emerita of Comparative Literature at UC Riverside, Stephanie lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, political organizer Larry Behrendt. Learn more about her creative writing classes, and other events at http://stephaniebarbehammer.com.
Pushcart-nominated poet Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, and other esteemed artists. He is the author of the poetry collections 8th& Agony, Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates, Somewhere, a Playground, and the novel New Jersey Me. Ferguson is the lead editor of an anthology of CA poets entitled Beat Not Beat.
Kathleen Florence is a Canadian-born poet, performer, and visual artist whose work moves between page, stage, and screen. Her debut collection Prayers With a Side of Cash was born from a 2024 road trip across America, an odyssey of landscapes, music, and shifting stories. Before moving to Los Angeles, she performed widely in New York, Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa, and her work has been supported by the Canada Arts Council and an artist residency in Spain. Her live readings are energetic and theatrical, sometimes with musical accompaniment and sometimes featuring surprise guest puppets. More about her at: www.kathleenflorencepoet.com.
Melinda Palacio is Santa Barbara’s 10th Poet Laureate. Author of Ocotillo Dreams, her poetry collection, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, won first prize at the 2013 International Latino Book Awards. In 2015, her work was featured by the Academy of American Poets. Her latest book is Bird Forgiveness.