Jan 25, 2024: Book Launch Celebration Reading

Jan 25, 2024 | Thu | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
ARTogether Center
1200 Harrison St. Oakland, CA 94612

*** Free Admission, Open to Public ***
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Join us for an evening of poetry and stories as we celebrate the book launch of local authors Nicola Andrews & Elsa Valmidiano.

Connect with fellow book lovers as we immerse ourselves in the literary landscapes of these authors, whose evocative narratives and stirring poetry will undoubtedly inspire meaningful conversations and reflections on our own connections to the concept of "home,” lineage, and legacy.

Nicola Andrews is an Indigenous Māori writer and librarian, currently living on Ramaytush Ohlone territory. They have been supported by writing communities including VONA, Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop, Kearny Street Workshop, Rooted & Written, and Tin House. In 2023, they won the AAALS Indigenous Writers Prize for Poetry, and published their micro-chap Sentimental Value, which is free to download from Ghost City Press. Their debut poetry chapbook Māori Maid Difficult by Tram Editions is available now. 

Philippine-born and LA-raised, Elsa Valmidiano is an Ilocana-American essayist and poet who currently resides in Oakland. Widely published in journals and anthologies, Elsa is the author of two essay collections, We Are No Longer Babaylan from New Rivers Press, and The Beginning of Leaving from Querencia Press. Her essay collections have been featured and reviewed in RHINO, Rain Taxi, Pacific Daily News, Women Who Submit, Anti-Heroin Chic, Marías at Sampaguitas, and The Halo-Halo Review. Her third book, which will be her debut poetry collection, Giving Birth in a Time of War, is forthcoming from Jaded Ibis Press in Spring 2025.

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