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.