2025 Program Schedule
8:30: Doors Open
Registration
Festival Café opens
Poets & Presenters check in
Poetry Place begins!
9:00—9:15: Welcome
Welcome with Eliza Tudor, Executive Director, Nevada County Arts Council
9:20—10:00: Keynote
Kim Addonizio || Hope, Uncertainty, and Creativity: Notes on Living and Writing
In this keynote talk, acclaimed poet Kim Addonizio explores the intersections of hope, uncertainty, and creativity through poetry, reflection, and existential questions. Alongside her own, she will share work by poets and thinkers, offering insights into the challenges and revelations of the creative life. The session will conclude with a word/music performance featuring guitarist Danny Caron.
10:00—10:45: Morning Readings
10:45—10:55: Break
On the way to workshops….
10:55—11:55: Morning Workshops
The Archival Self || with Anthony Cody
Ancestral Poetics || with Brynn Saito
The Sound of Sound || with Sands Hall
11:55—12:45: Lunch
Enjoy fresh, local, organic, authentic Columbian bites from Comedor! Lunch and Refreshments
12:45—1:30: Community Voices
A reading of The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney, with Catherine Lambert
Celebrating our Open Mic Winners, presented by zsa’lai
Poetry Out Loud student recitation, with County Champion Dino Parks, and Finalists Rein Chaney, Joselyn Zarate, Amara Berry and Nicholas Wetherbee
Putting the Punk back in Poetry: Joey Henry, Nevada County Youth Poet Laureate
1:30—2:20: In Conversation | Annie Finch, Randall Mann, and Christopher Childers
In a world shadowed by crisis, this year’s Conversation is a compelling inquiry into poetry’s role in shaping memory, resilience, and renewal. Celebrated poet Randall Mann, acclaimed translator and classicist Christopher Childers, and visionary poet and scholar Annie Finch join us to explore Sierra Poetry Festival’s theme, Hope and History. Drawing from ancient and contemporary verse we will consider how poetry bears witness to history, reconciles past and present, and shapes what lies ahead. With Childers illuminating the lyric legacies of antiquity, Mann offering incisive meditations on contemporary life, and Finch bringing her deep knowledge of form, incantation, and poetic lineage, this conversation will offer critical new ways of thinking about poetry’s enduring power to hold time, transformation, and truth. Moderated by Maxima Kahn.
2:20—2:30: Break
2:30—2:45: Blessing on the Poets with Annie Finch
2:45—3:45: Afternoon Readings
3:45—3:50: Break
On the way to afternoon workshops…
3:55—4:55: Workshops
Joining Poetry’s Dances: Explorations in the Magic of Meter || with Annie Finch
Responding to Current Events with Poems of History and Hope || with Karen Terrey
Writing Gestalt || with Diane Pendola
5:00: Post-Poetry Unwind
Happy Hour—the Center’s no-host bar and refreshments
Book Signing by our featured poets