Writers Read happens on the last Thursday of most every month and has been happening in Ukiah since 1999. Events focus on poetry, spoken word, and stories, combining a reading by a featured author then an hour of open mic. This month’s featured reader is Joe Smith, whose poems, stories, essays and translations have appeared in dozens of journals, including Manhattan Poetry Review, Mendonesian, Bluff City, Birmingham Poetry Review and The Prospect Review. He believes that poetry hails from some Dodge City of the heart—before the Marshal arrives, when it’s still a wild frontier town. Over the past thirty years he claims to have been steaming open letters posted by the plants, animals and minerals of the Mendocino coast to read the vital messages hidden inside. Smith’s reading will begin at 7:00 and with an open mic at 8:00.

Writers Read is sponsored in part by Poets & Writers through grants from the James Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundation. Additional support provided by an anonymous local writer, Colored Horse Studios, the Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah, The Grace Hudson Museum, and donations.

The program is free but donations are welcome and accepted. For additional information about Writers Read, contact Michael Riedell at innisfree@pacific.net.