5:15-6:15pm Docents available at the Marion Davies Guest House to discuss the site
6:30-8:00pm Reading

Join Red Hen Press in celebrating poetry at the Beach! In this second of four readings this summer, three poets will read from their acclaimed works. NEA fellow Camille T. Dungy is joined by Cave Canem Fellow Timothy Black and Managing Editor of the WSC Press, Cynthia Black.

Camille T. Dungy is the author of What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (Red Hen Press, 2006), Suck on the Marrow (Red Hen Press, 2010), and Smith Blue (Southern Illinois University Press, June 2011), winner of the 2010 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition, and the editor of Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (UGA, 2009). A two-time Northern California Book Award recipient, she has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, Cave Canem, the Dana Award, and Bread Loaf. Dungy is a two time NAACP Image Award nominee, has been shortlisted for the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Library of Virginia Literary Award. She is a professor in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University.

Timothy Black’s first book, Connecticut Shade, a fusion of poetry, prose and play, was published in 2008 and is currently in its second printing from WSC Press. His poetry has appeared in the journals The Platte Valley Review, The Logan House Anthology of 21st Century American Poetry, The Great American Roadshow and Words Like Rain. In 2009, Black won the Helen W. Kenefick prize from the Academy of American Poets for his poem, “Heavy Freight.” In 2009 he was awarded a grant to edit and publish Where We’ve Been and What We’ve Seen, an anthology of student essays dealing with the experiences of war veterans in northeast Nebraska. He is currently working with Nebraska State Poet, William Kloefkorn, on a book of interviews and portable poetry workshop. A Cave Canem Fellow, Black currently lives in Corvallis, Oregon with his wife, author Cynthia Black, and two sons, Jake and Titus.

An enthusiast for literary development in a rural area, Cynthia Black took over the WSC Press out of Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska when it only had one book and a small budget. She turned the press into an interactive learning program that educates future writers and editors in the fields of publishing and editing through the Plains Writers Series, poetry and fiction slams, service learning projects, outreach, grants, workshops, and publications such as the Kloefkorn Series. She writes fiction and poetry to reveal the inner battles of growing up with drunks and addicts, the female experience in the military, physical and sexual abuse, disability, obesity, single parenthood, and dealing with the discriminatory eye against race, age, gender, and class status. She currently resides in Corvallis, Oregon with her husband, Cave Canem poet Timothy Black, and two beautiful sons, Jake and Titus.

About Red Hen Press
Now a national presence in independent publishing, Red Hen Press was founded in 1994 by Mark E. Cull and Kate Gale. As a nonprofit literary press that publishes twenty works of poetry, literary fiction, and autobiography each year, they are dedicated to supporting quality writing that is being ignored or overlooked by large or commercial publishers. The Press also donates books to schools, libraries and other institutions, and presents seven reading series in New York and Los Angeles showcasing current and backlist authors. The Red Hen Press is a place for writers’ work to be published and celebrated; a literary family for a diversity of voices that articulate the variety of human experience.

Stop by early for information on the Beach House and Guest House tours by docents from the Santa Monica Conservancy before every Beach=Culture evening, from 11am-2pm and 5:15-6:15pm.

Tickets are free but seating is limited and reservations are required. If you would like to attend, please reserve online. Please plan to arrive by 6:15pm to retain your reservation. Late seating, even for reservation-holders, is not guaranteed. To adjust or cancel your reservation for this event, email beachhouse@smgov.net. We appreciate your keeping in touch!

Directions: The Beach House is located at 415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA 90402 on the west side of Pacific Coast Highway, a half mile north of the California Incline and a half mile south of Chautauqua Blvd. Plenty of public parking is available - enter off PCH at the Beach House Way traffic light. The facility is easily accessible by foot or bike from the beach bike path, although the Beach closes at sunset. There is ample bike parking at racks throughout the site - remember to bring your own lock.

Parking: There is an hourly/daily parking charge at the park and pay machines available in three areas of the ACBH parking lot. Weekday fees are $4/hr and 8/day; plan to pay for two hours and please check the website for details.

Other events: To view & make reservations for future free Beach=Culture events, check http://annenbergbeachhouse.com/beachculture.

General Info: For hours, events and more, visit http://www.annenbergbeachhouse.com, or call 310-458-4904. Back on the Beach Café is open until 8pm daily.