Celebrate National Poetry Month with Litquake

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Litquake, the largest independent literary festival on the West Coast. Join us in this gloriously Gothic space to enjoy poetry in the pews from a distinguished roster of poets. Curated and hosted by D.A. Powell and Preeti Vangani, this special evening of exalted verse features four celebrated poets who will share their newly published work: Thea Matthews, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Preeti Vangani, and Devon Walker-Figueroa. A book sale and signing will follow the readings. Book sales provided by Green Apple Books. $5 – $10 suggested donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. About the Poets Thea Matthews is the author of GRIME (City Lights Books, 2025) and Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press, 2020), which was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Poetry Books of 2020. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, The Cortland Review, Colorado Review, The Common, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Massachusetts Review, The New Republic, Alta Journal, On the Seawall, among others. Thea attained her MFA from New York University in 2022, and currently teaches at Columbia University. Originally from San Francisco, Thea lives in Brooklyn, New York. Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times bestselling author of two illustrated collections of essays: Bite by Bite and World of Wonders, chosen as Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year and as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She has published four award-winning poetry collections and spent a decade serving as the poetry editor for environmental magazines, first for Orion and then Sierra. A professor of English and creative writing for more than twenty-five years, she gives firefly tours for Mississippi State Parks and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her family. Preeti Vangani is a poet and writer from Bombay based in San Francisco. She is the author of the poetry collections Mother Tongue Apologize (2019) and Fifty Mothers(River River Books,…