An American expatriate living in Prague for the past twenty-four years, he is the recipient of the 2022 Galway Kinnell fellowship at the Community of Writers, and in mid-May embarked on a coast-to-coast ramble across the country en route to the Olympic Valley in the High Sierras to make good on that honor.

His June 12 San Francisco reading is one stop on a six-city U.S. tour. 

Kim Shuck, San Francisco’s seventh poet laureate, is a Native American, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and a native San Franciscan. She is the author of four books of poetry, most recentlyDeer Trailsfrom City Lights Press, as well as a work of fiction: Rabbit Stories. In 2019 she publishedMurdered Missing, a book of poems about violence against indigenous women.

As Poet Laureate, Kim curated the Poem of the Day on the San Francisco Public Library website. She is a winner of the Northern California Book Reviewers Recognition Award. A member of California Poets in the Schools, she is also active in the movement to end violence against women.

Lee Rossi is a winner of the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize and the Steve Kowit Prize. His latest book isDarwin’s Garden, from Moon Tide Press. Recent poems appear in The Southwest Review, Rattle, Spillway, The Chiron Review and The Southern Review. He is a member of the Northern California Book Reviewers and a Contributing Editor to Poetry Flash.

Lee is the stealth weapon in the arsenal of American poetry, the writer you didn’t know you liked. Like chermoyas he is frightening in appearance, but delicious once tasted.

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Bird & Beckett wishes to thank our good friend and neighbor, the writer Katia Noyes for helping Lucien crash America, bringing him through Glen Park for this occasion! Writers egging on other writers… that’s the ticket!

Lucien shared the stage at the Duluth Dylan Fest Songwriting Contest in late May in a chance encounter with an old friend of ours, singer/songwriter/guitar slinger/poster artist Misisipi Mike Wolf. After the Fest, they hit the road together to Dinkytown, and the poster for today’s San Francisco reading is the product of their collaboration on the road.