Sierra Poetry Festival is a project of Nevada County Arts Council. We will host our 8th Annual SIERRA POETRY FESTIVAL on April 13, 2024 at The Center for the Arts, in Grass Valley, CA, attended by some of our most exciting local, national and international poets and performers, and preceded by a month-long POP-UP POETRY FESTIVAL, taking place in venues across Nevada County and beyond.

Sierra Poetry Festival is a live international festival marking National Poetry Month from the rolling foothills of California’s Gold Country to the rugged High Sierra, bringing a rich literary community together to celebrate the spoken word and reach out to new audiences in fresh ways. Through Sierra Poetry Festival we also celebrate California Arts, Culture & Creativity Month and we draw attention to our two coveted California Cultural Districts.

Schedule:

9:00-9:15: Welcome
On Homeland Return with Shelly Covert, Executive Director, Nevada City Rancheria, and 
Eliza Tudor, Executive Director, Nevada County Arts Council

9:20-10:00: Keynote

Jane Hirshfield-  Saying Yes to the Difficult

10:00-10:45: Morning Readiings

Molly Fisk

Jason Bayani

Georgina Marie Guardado

10:45-10:55: Break
On the way to workshops….

10:55-11:55: Morning Workshops
Jane Hirshfield - Storm and Sanctuary Q&A

Charlotte Scott -  “Had I the motive and the cue for action”: Exploring the Poetics of Selfhood in Hamlet

Jason Bayani -  From Page to Body: How to Read Your Work for Audiences

11:55-12:45 Lunch
Featuring Chelo’s Street Tacos

12:45-1:10: Community Voices
Celebrating our Open Mic Winners, presented by Michael Clarity

Poetry Out Loud student finalists perform

1:10-2:00: In Conversation
Poetry for Storm and Sanctuary -  Poets Pádraig Ó Tuama and Sam Willetts on where we find sanctuary as writers and readers of poetry. In a world filled with wrath and clamor, pain and prejudice, what paths of deep reflection can deliver refuge and repose, courage and release, and where do we find in poetry the potential for change. Moderated by Sands Hall.

2:00-2:10: Break

2:10-3:05: Afternoon Readings

Farnaz Fatemi

Maxima Kahn

The Poetry Crashers

3:05-3:40:  Performance in Poetry, Poetry in Performance
California Poets In The Schools featured student poets

Poetry in Song: A musical setting of “A Funeral in My Brain” 
Text by Nevada County Poet Laureate Kirsten Casey
. Music composed by Mark Vance, Beth Kelley Gillogly, soprano, and Lynn Schugren, piano

3:40-3:50: Break

on the way to workshops….

3:50-4:50: Afternoon Workshops

Farnaz Fatemi -  Freedom Inside Form(s)

CharRon Smith -  Hip-Hop Has Poetry!

Georgina Marie Guardado - Writing the Private Poem

4:00: Doors open for Ross Gay in Conversation

4:50-5:30: Happy Hour - & Book Signings!

5:30: Nevada County Reads Presents

Ross Gay in conversation with Tricia Caspers-Ross on his book, A Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.