Santa Barbara Poetry Series Reading

SBPL and Santa Barbara Poetry Series invite the community to an afternoon poetry reading by celebrated poets:  Poet, professor, translator, and lyric poet Mariano Zaro, Santa Barbara poet and former Poets in the Schools teacher, Christine Penko, and junior poet B.D. Salvas, from Ventura.

Mariano Zaro is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Decoding Sparrows (What Books Press, Los Angeles) and Padre Tierra (Olifante, Zaragoza, Spain). His poems and short stories have been published in anthologies and literary journals in Spain, Mexico, and the United States. His translations include Buda en llamas by Tony Barnstone and Cómo escribir una canción de amor by Sholeh Wolpé. He is a member of the Beyond Baroque Board of Trustees. He is a professor of Spanish at Río Hondo Community College (Whittier, CA).

Christine Penko is the author of Thunderbirds, a memoir in poetry, in which she examines the life of her family, a subject to which she returns in her many publications in national and local literary journals and anthologies. Her most recent work can be found in Prairie Schooner, Solo Voyage, SALT, and the International Poetry Anthology for Ukraine: And Blue Will Rise Over Yellow. Christine also writes poetry reviews and, for twenty years, taught poetry in Santa Barbara’s elementary schools through the statewide non-profit, California Poets in the Schools. Christine’s interests include world affairs, her husband of forty-three years, and learning to navigate the unexpectedly challenging terrain of life with adult children.

Bethlehem-Dimanche (BD) Salvas is a poet and fractal artist from Ventura County, California. With every piece of work BD hopes to represent her heritage while also creating her own path. Her poems can be best described as short and chaotic glimpses into her life.

The Host will be Laure-Anne Bosselaar. She is the author of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, Small Gods of Grief, winner of the Isabella Gardner Prize, and of A New Hunger, selected as a Notable Book by the ALA. Her fourth collection, These Many Rooms was published by Four Way Books.  She taught poetry at Emerson College, Sarah Lawrence College, and UCSB. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and of the James Dickey Poetry Prize, she edited five anthologies, and served as Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2021. Lately, her New & Selected, came out from Santa Barbara’s Sungold Press in January 2024.

Disclaimer(s):

Participants in this event may be photographed by Library staff. These photos may be used in promotional or educational publications, including in print, social media, and presentations. Please see staff if you do not consent to having your photo taken. Staff will obtain individual, signed photo releases of photographs that contain only an individual as opposed to a group.