Meeting the third Sunday of the month at 2pm, The Davis Arts Center Poetry Series typically features two readers.  Admission is free but donations are always appreciated and all proceeds benefit Davis Arts Center!  The Series is hosted by James Lee Jobe.  Audio archives of previous readings can be found here.

The August 19 reading will feature Mary Zeppa and Barbara West.

Mary Zeppa, a singer and lyricist as well as a poet and literary journalist, has been active in the Sacramento Poetry Center (SPC) since 1981 and currently serves as co-host of the Third Thursday in the Sacramento Room series and as Archivist Emerita. She is the author of two chapbooks, Little Ship of Blessing and The Battered Bride Overture and the full-length collection, My Body Tells Its Own Story.  In collaboration with the award-winning Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet, Zeppa has been featured at three Sacramento Poetry Center Jazz & Poetry Live events.  For 20 years, she was 1/5 of the a cappella quintet, Cherry Fizz.

Barbara West is the only parent of a 21-year-old son and works as a Wound/Ostomy/Continence Nurse, with prior work in hospice.  Previous publications include Full of Crow, Brevities, Medusa’s Kitchen, Sacramento Voices, and Davis Shambhala Center Newsletter.  Her first book ...and I felt the simple sweetness of me was published last year by Cold River Press.  She is currently working on a memoir Hunger to Help: Sorting an Extraordinary Legacy which explores the tension between Christian/Buddhist directives to “help others” and 12-step Recovery work which directs her to “focus on yourself.”  Thanks to a background in theater, and some time singing with a band, Barbara often recites from memory, usually without a mic, since her voice is plenty loud. She also enjoys windsurfing.