On the 10/1/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Sacramento poet Lawrence Dinkins (NSAA) joins the program to discuss his upcoming reading in Davis, aging, and the Sacramento poetry scene. Dinkins states that poetry readings are a democratic space where voices can be heard, and highlights how they foster special connections decoupled from traditional media. The Warrior Poet then reads, “Inner-City Love Poem,” before Indigo Moor joins the program. Moor updates listeners on his upcoming collection, Reconstruction of Eden, and shares his excitement about the upcoming 2027 Association of Writers & Writing programs 2027 conference. The last guest on the program is Dr. Karma Waltonen, the former president of the Margaret Atwood society. She details California Free Thought Day, which occurred Sunday, October 12th, at the state capital building. Waltonen encourages resistance to the current attacks on the first amendment.

Lawrence Dinkins (NSAA) is a Detroit transplant to Sacramento, and began writing poetry here a few decades ago. A dynamic performance poet (who describes his style as neo-folk spoken word), he has recorded two CDs: NSAA Live (The Mario Ellis Hill Recordings) and ElectroPoeticCoffee, with guitarist Ross Hammond. He organized and hosted poetry and 3 spoken word events for over twenty years, notably at Luna’s Café and at the Mahogany Urban Poets series. His Open Mic Sketchbook chronicles his hosting events in photographs, art and poetry. His selected poems, Warrior Poet, was published by Random Lane Press in 2019.

Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento, Indigo Moor’s fourth book of poetry, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, took second place in the University of Nebraska Press’ Backwater Prize. Jonesin’—a multi-genre work consisting of poetry, short fiction, memoir pieces, and stage plays—was published in the spring of 2021. Through the Stonecutter’s Window, won Northwestern University Press’s Cave Canemprize. His first and third books, Tap-Root and In the Room of Thirsts & Hungers, were both parts of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Indigo is part of the visiting faculty for Dominican’s MFA program, teaching poetry and short fiction. His stageplay, Live! At the Excelsior, was a finalist for the Images Theatre Playwright Award. The subsequent screenplay was optioned as a full-length film.

Dr. Karma lives and teaches and writes in Northern California. She writes about her successes and failures (the failures are mostly in dating and in figuring out how to treat chronic medical stuff) here for her friends and is surprised that anyone else reads this. She has three cats and a son (aka The Boy), who lives at home and goes to college nearby. Most of her writing is academic, but it’s on awesomely geeky topics like Doctor Who, The X Files, and Star Trek. She is an expert on The Simpsons, stand-up comedy, and Margaret Atwood. Her work has been featured at ComicCons and on NPR.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. NSAA and Bob Stanley will be the featured poets on October 2nd.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/24/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Laura Rosenthal is the first guest of the program. Rosenthal states that her practice as a public attorney taught her how to better negotiate the tension between viscerality and beng understood as a poet. She then shares some exciting upcoming events that she is participating in and leading, including one by Calyx, the oldest feminist literary journal in the U.S. Calyx will be hosting “Reproductive Rites: Writing the Write to Choose," which will serve as a collaborative workshop environment for attending parties. Laura also led a daylong workshop on writing as spiritual practice on December 14 for the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group. She reads a poem titled, “Dove.” Dr.Andy reads “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock” before John Natsulouas joins the program to advertise the upcoming October 11th Jazz Beat Festival in Davis. It will be a multidisciplinary event, the first of its kind in the post-pandemic-era, that will have performers, art instillations, and collaborations from Davis highschool and university.

A public interest attorney before returning to her first love, writing, Laura Rosenthal has published, or has poems forthcoming, in Chicago Quarterly Review, Raleigh Review, Tampa Review, Calyx, Calul, and other journals. Laura leads workshops on writing and spiritual practice. She holds degrees from Cornell University and Stanford Law School as well as an MFA from Pacific University.

Fresh out of college, John Natsoulas began his work with Amnesty International in East and North Africa, where he campaigned against the imprisonment and torture of political prisoners. In 1986, Natsoulas organized Amnesty International’s first fundraising exhibition, Artists for Amnesty. The event precipitated the release of the Moroccan prisoner, Mohammed El Mousari. Natsoulas established a gallery in his hometown Davis, California where he could continue to pursue humanitarian causes through the arts.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/17/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas joins the episode to discuss her upcoming readings at the Poetry in Davis reading series, California Writer’s Club’s 100th anniversary reading, and her two most recent poetry publications, Handful of Stallions at Twilight and A Shared and Sacred Space. She states that writing as an isolated activity can be lonely, so the communities established at readings allow one to understand vulnerabilities and feel socially connected. Stevenson Grellas reads a poem titled “At Dinner Time,” which is fashioned after “On the Back Porch" by Dorianne Laux, and another titled “Deer in the Garden.” The next guest of the hour is John Bell. He speaks on his writing habits post-retirement, expressing gratitude for his newly acquired free time. Bell reads a poem from The Sacramento Poetry Center’s 2024 Tule Review titled, “The Hawks,” before outlining some ongoing events and collectives doing great work in the Sacramento poetry scene.

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a recent graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing. In 2012, her chapbook, Before I Go to Sleep, won the Red Ochre Press Chapbook contest. In 2018, her book In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for the CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, and her poem “A Mall in California” took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest. In 2019, her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Award. In 2020, her sonnet “Water Goddess” won first place in the Literary Nest poetry contest. In 2021, her collection Alice in Ruby Slippers was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize, receiving an honorable mention in the poetry category.

John Bell, a graduate of the Wichita State University MFA program, is a retired English professor at American River College. His poetry has appeared in Thorny Locust, Tule Review, Sacramento Voices, Burning the Little Candle, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. In an earlier life he earned a BA in Spanish from the University of New Mexico. He lives in Sacramento with a demanding tomcat and sings bass in a local choir.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The 9/17/25 iteration of the Poetry Night reading series will feature poets Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas and John Bell.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/10/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Dr.Andy is joined by two Ph.Ds who are speaking at the upcoming 2025 Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology. SITT 2025 features UC Davis faculty during two-half days of online presentations on the mornings of September 11th and 12th. The first guest on the program, Tricia Bertram Gallant, will be giving the lead-off talk at SITT 2025 on The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (2025), which is also the title of her recently released book. Gallant discusses the role of teachers to facilitate and certify learning, tasks that are growing in complexity within the new technology landscape. She states that offloading cognitive tasks to AI as a student is fundamentally different from non-student offloading, as to achieve successful learning outcomes students must often overcome friction and frustration within their processes that AI can jump over for them. Margeret Merrill is the next guest on the program. Dr. Merrill is one of the primary organizers of SITT, and reflects on how SITT started, shifted virtual in 2020, and has grown to an annual event with an attendance of over 100 faculty members. She states that the Institute offers rich Q&A sessions. Merrill feels that the collaboration of multiple academic disciplines fosters a great space for bridging silos between different departments at R1 universities.

Tricia Bertram Gallant, Ph.D. is the Director of Academic Integrity and Triton Testing at UC San Diego, President Emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity. Tricia has authored numerous pieces on academic integrity and artificial intelligence. Her latest book (co-authored with David Rettinger) is The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (2025) and her next book on Generative Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity - co-authored with Mary Davis (UK) & Zeenath Khan (UAE) - will be published by Cambridge Elements in 2026.

Margaret Merrill, PhD, is a Senior Instructional Design Consultant at the University of California, Davis. She works with faculty as they consider how to use technology in strategic and pedagogically sound ways in their face-to-face, hybrid, or online teaching. She creates and teaches workshops on technology and pedagogy, and researches, pilots, and supports technologies for teaching. Dr. Merrill is interested in how active learning, mobile learning, instructional use of video, and Universal Design for Learning can improve teaching and learning experiences. She has presented on mobile learning, accessibility, communities of practice, the design of faculty development programs, and communities among language instructors. Previously, Dr. Merrill has developed and implemented faculty support programs, created technology-supported foreign language learning materials for higher education and government projects, taught junior high French, and held the boom mic for the filming of a movie in Romania.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The 9/17/25 iteration of the Poetry Night reading series will feature poets Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas and John Bell.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 9/3/2025 Edition of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Neil McRoberts joins the program to discuss being a plant epidemiologist, educator, poet, and lifelong learner. He shares a poem called “San Lucas,” which spawned from his long work-related drives across California. McRoberts recalls his move to the United States in 2010, and expresses excitement about his upcoming reading with Catriona McPherson at this week's Poetry Night in Davis reading night series. Dr. Andy finished the episode by reading an essay from his Substack titled, “Serendipity and Friendship."

Neil McRoberts has written poetry since a high school English teacher encouraged her class of 12 year olds to give it a go. In a notable early “triumph,” Neil won the high school annual speech contest four years later with a nihilistic tirade about the pointlessness of atomic bomb response drills, written in a mixture of prose and rhyming couplets. Since 2020, Neil has collaborated regularly with English ambient music composer and producer Harry Towell to write poetry for various releases on the WhitelabRecs label. His first professionally published poem will soon appear in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. The featured readers for the September 4th, 2025 iteration of poetry night will be mystery novelist Catriona McPherson and Poet Neil McRoberts

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

Kindra McDonald joins the program to discuss THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS, an anthology at the intersection of poetry and climate change. McDonald states that the anthology serves as an outlet for poets to talk about their regions. She reads a poem “Lost and Found Fairtail,” before the next guest Luisa A, Igloria joins the program. Igloria outlines how central climate, and climate politics are to her poetics, and outlines the importance and inspirations behind theTHE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS anthology. The anthology has 210 contributors from researchers, poets, and conventional artists. She then reads two poems, one from Camille T. Dungy “Nematode”, and her own “Bats French Kiss With Mouthfuls of Blood.” The last guest of the hour is Mariam Ahmed, who speaks on the release of her first full-length collection, Hidden Parts. She discusses how University poetics and those communities are very special to her, and shares a poem titled “Laughter,” and an ode “Sleep/Keep.”

Kindra McDonald is the author of the books Teaching a Wild Thing, In the Meat years, and Fossils. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is a teaching artist, educator, and conservationist, who leads a nonprofit organization in Norfolk, Virginia.

Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Caulbearer (Immigrant Writing Series Prize, Black Lawrence Press; 2024), Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (Co-Winner, 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize, Southern Illinois University Press, 2020),The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2018), 12 other books, and 4 chapbooks. She was the inaugural recipient of the 2015 Resurgence Poetry Prize, UK—the world’s first major award for ecopoetry (now known as the Ginkgo Prize), selected by a panel headed by former UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. She is lead editor, along with co-editors Aileen Cassinetto and Jeremy S. Hoffman, of Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States (Paloma Press, September 2023). She is also co-editor, along with Aileen Cassinetto and David Hassler, of a new ecopoetry anthology to be released from Paloma Press on September 18, 2025 - THE NATURE OF OUR TIMES: POEMS

California poet Mariam Ahmed grew up in the Bay Area and Folsom. Ahmed has an MFA in Poetry from San Diego State University and a BA in English Literature with a minor in Sociology from the University of California, Davis, where she was a student of Dr. Andy. Her work has appeared in Poetry International, The Los Angeles Review, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place & Nature, and many other literary journals. Her debut full-length collection, Hidden Parts, was published in January 2025. A certified Poet-Teacher with California Poets in the Schools, Ahmed spends her days guiding young writers in the classroom. She also mentors youth through local nonprofits and teaches English to newly arrived Afghan women and children. Ahmed lives in San Diego, where she enjoys teaching yoga and finding inspiration by the ocean.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

On the 8/20/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Dyson Kona Smith joins the program to talk about his post-graduate life, poetry, and his next steps. He outlines a desire to publish his manuscript, Tomboy Ballet, and reads an untitled poem and “Lai about Home Followed By Analysis.” Smith also shares that he is now a Data Analyst for Turning Point Community Programs, helping evaluate programs tailored to help Northern Californians on their recovery journeys. The next guest on the hour is Roman Spinale. Roman discusses leveraging social media as a tool to propel his comedy career, before sharing about an upcoming Fair Oaks event on Friday, August 22nd “Comedy Under the Stars,” which will start at 8:00 P.M. and feature great comedians far and wide.

Dyson Kona Smith is a recent Statistics, English, and Sociology Graduate from the University of California, Davis. He was awarded the Herbert A. Young Award as the College of Letters and Science’s Medalist, given to the graduating senior they determine the most outstanding. His honors thesis in Poetry, Tomboy Ballet recently won the Lois Ann Lattin prize for UC Davis’s Best Honors Creative Writing Project. Poems from the collection have been published in journals such as but not limited to Open Ceilings, Poet News, GTFO Poetry’s 2024 Anthology of Sacramento Poets, Euphemism and The Madison Review. Beyond poetry, Dyson is a social statistician who wrote his research thesis on the association between social proximity to gun violence and chronic health conditions in California. He has worked on other projects pertaining to housing insecurity in Davis and deaths of despair among formerly incarcerated persons. Dyson was previously a Community-Coordinator and DJ at the campus and community radio station KDVS, a Researcher at the UC Davis Innovations and Research Lab, and the producer of Dr. Andy’s poetry and technology hour.

For over a decade Roman has been entertaining audiences with his signature brand of clean and introspective comedy. Today Roman can be seen regularly opening for Jay Leno, as well as touring dates across comedy clubs, corporate events, and private gatherings.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.

Atim Udoffia is the first guest on the program, detailing her storied career in theatre. She speaks on her upcoming event, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like it which will show the weekends of August 22nd and August 30th at the CLARA auditorium in Sacramento. Brad Buchanon is the second guest of the hour. Buchanon discusses chess, his medical memoir, and excitingly his upcoming novel Spy's Gate. He shares his writing process, some of the thematic inspirations for the novel, including The Queen's Gambit, and the self-titled poem for his next poetry collection.

Atim Udoffia is a theatre artist and a mother of two working in theatre and film/video in the Sacramento and Bay Area. While continuing to expand her body of work as an actor and director, Udoffia aims to build a creative pipeline enabling trained, experienced theatre artists to initiate projects and generate their own creative opportunities. Favorite stage roles include Emilie in EMILIE LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT (The Stage @ Burke Junction), Lady Macbeth (STC), and Rosalind in AS YOU LIKE IT, which she also adapted and produced. Udoffia’s film credits include the feature films No Address, Fairyland, and Where Sleeping Dogs Lie. As a director, her work includes the solo show MINE FOR THE TRIBE, DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, OTHELLO, and the one-act CHARLIE AND NELL, for which she received a Best Director Award. Udoffia earned a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University before pursuing acting training in London and Los Angeles.

Brad Buchanon’s poetry, short fiction, and scholarly articles have appeared in more than 200 literary journals. He has published four book-length collections of poetry, most recently Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Buchanan has also published three academic books, most recently ’Indict the Author of Affection’: Affectation and Catachresis in Hamlet (McGill-Queens University Press, 2023). His medical memoir, Living with Graft-Versus-Host-Disease, was published by Armin Lear Press in 2021. Spy's Mate, his historical chess-espionage thriller set in the late Cold War Soviet Union, will be published this fall.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.