On the 10/24/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Arturo Mantećon is the first guest of the program. He discusses his move to Alabama to join his grandchildren, and his translations of Leopoldo María Panero. Mantećon highlights Panero’s logical approach to poetry and his psychiatry, while emphasizing that Panero’s institutionalized status does not reflect work that is chaotic. He reads a Panero poem, “Palabora de lectura,” before sharing two of his own poems that aimed to be in conversation with Panero's, titled “Parable of the Dictionary,” and “The four folds of nothingness.” Mantećon credits Bill Lavender for taking a chance to reissue his translations of Panero and his own original, experimental works. He concludes the episode by sharing another poem about Marinda Melendez.

Arturo Mantecón is a poet and literary translator whose poems have appeared in various reviews and anthologies. His books of translation include three volumes of the collected works of Leopoldo María Panero and selected works by Francisco Ferrer Lerín (for which he won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles award in 2017) and Mario Santiago Papasquiaro.

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 10/16/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Chris Erikson is the first guest of the hour. He joins the program to discuss his recently released novella Henrytown, which operates not only as a piece of literature, but one of performance art. Erickson states the book's vernacular is drawn from Central Illinois, where he grew up. He talks about his book tour before reading a sample from Henrytown. Greg Miller is the second guest on the program. Miller joins in conversation with Erickson and Dr. Andy early in the episode, where he shares insights from his time as a book reviewer and an ice-cream scooper. Miller describes his mostly-short form fiction that he will read at the upcoming poetry in Davis series. He also reads a story, “Something Else.”

Chris Erickson is the author of Henrytown, a debut novella recently published by Dzanc Books. Joe Wenderoth has said, “Henrytown is the funniest serious prose (and the most serious funny prose) I have encountered in contemporary American literature.” Erickson’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The American Reader, Gigantic, Action Spectacle, The Capilano Review, Seneca Review, PANK, benmarcus.com, The Hobo-Tramp Voice, Byline, and The Glacier. A graduate of the Creative Writing Program at UC Davis, Erickson is also the former host of “Boxcar Whitey’s Old-Time Music & Lore Progr’m,” which aired on KRCL FM Salt Lake City from 2003-05 and then on KDRT FM in Davis from 2006-08. He works as an educator in the City of Davis.

Greg Miller has taught writing, journalism, and literature at UC Davis for more than 20 years. He previously worked as an ice cream scooper, a door-to-door salesman of fine knives, and an author of personalized detective novels. A former Fulbright Fellow and Editor in Chief of the journal Prized Writing, he has published more than 100 articles and reviews in places such as The Los Angeles Review of Books, The San Francisco Chronicle, Film News (Canada), Modern Drama, and The Michigan Quarterly Review. His degrees include an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College and a Ph.D. from UC Davis.

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 10/8/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Peter Coyote joins the show to discuss Buddhism, Northern California, environmental activism, and his upcoming appearance at the Davis Jazz Beat festival. Coyote is the keynote speaker at the festival, which will take place on October 11th in Davis. It will be a multidisciplinary event, the first of its kind since the post-pandemic-era, that will have performers, art installations, and collaborations from the high school and college. The next guest on the program is Natalie Shapero. Her most recent release, Stay Dead, was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry. Shapero states that she feels her collections execute their own project, but her poetry arc as a whole is on a continuum of a larger inquiry. She shares two poems, “Larger Papers,” and “Black on Dark Sienna on Purple,” discusses housing markets, and credits her students for helping her immerse in inspiring writing communities. The last guest of the hour is the former host of Dr Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour Katerina Hanks. She details her upcoming art showcase at Delta of Venus in Davis, and plays a game where Dr.Andy guesses the name of her pieces!

Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films, such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Cross Creek (1983), Jagged Edge (1985), Bitter Moon (1992), Kika (1993), Patch Adams (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), A Walk to Remember (2002), and Femme Fatale (2002). His voice work includes his narration for the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. He narrated the PBS series The Pacific Century (1992), winning an Emmy. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator in 2015 for his work on Ken Burns's documentary miniseries The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

Natalie Shapero’s latest book is Stay Dead (2025). Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, The Nation, and elsewhere. She is the author of the previous poetry collections Popular Longing (2021), Hard Child (2017), and No Object (2013), and she has performed at The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches writing at UC Irvine.

Katerina Hanks is a local Davis artist and an alumna of UC Davis.

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 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.