Peter Sherburn-Zimmer was raised in Southie, in Boston, a slum kid. No one famous came from there, he had to admit to Gordon Cairney, lounging on a couch in Cairney’s Grolier Book Shop. Traveled an arc through mathematics to literature, sociology, philosophy and more to no bachelor’s degree ’til much later, at his wife’s urging, then a peripatetic life of teaching gigs in the humanities at all levels, a master’s, a Ph.D. in poetry and criticism at SUNY Rochester; San Francisco in ’67 and later, from ’93 to present. Three kids: a detailer in architecture, a fierce activist, a bartender turned liquor distributor driver trying to make a living… a poet who doesn’t write about his experience but whose experience can’t help but inform his poetry. A treasure for sure, and a sweet human being we’re pleased to know.

Alexis Spencer-Byers is traveling into town for the reading. Raised in San Francisco, she completed a degree in English at Amherst College; spent several years doing community development work in Jackson, Mississippi; and now lives in Los Angeles, working in church administration and web software development, and volunteering time to organizations serving incarcerated and at-risk youth. She has published two collections of poetry,Urban Verses (2005) and Another’s Treasure (2014).

Jerry Ferraz hosts, and conducts one of the most satisfying little open mics in town!  He’s a treasure himself.  Bring your own and share it!  Next session, Monday, November 2nd.