Poetry Flash Reading: Dorianne Laux & Lynne Thompson

This event is part of Poetry Flash’s 50+ Anniversary celebration!DORIANNE LAUX’s new book of poems is _Life on Earth_. Kwame Dawes says, “A prodigious imagination that somehow manages to sift through the ordinary, quotidian, and squalid realities of our world, to produce moments of grace and shimmering beauty, and empathetic illumination. Dorianne Laux is a national treasure, a poet of immense insight and masterful craft.” Her previous collections include _Awake_; _What We Carry_, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; _Smoke_; _Facts About the Moon_; _The Book of Men_, which received The Paterson Poetry Prize; and _Only as the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems_, a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She’s co-author of the celebrated book _The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry_, and she’s authored a new book in that vein, _Finger Exercises for Poets._ LYNNE THOMPSON’s new book of poems is _Blue on a Blue Palette._ Ellen Bass says, “Singing the blues in this beautiful and devastating collection, Lynne Thompson calls on the tradition of poets such as Patricia Smith and Adrienne Rich to examine a culture of loss for women and for people of color.…Thompson employs a variety of forms—from abecedarian to cento and villanelle—in skillful, smart, and generous poems that include allusions to nursery rhymes, Bible verses, musicians, artists, and writers to explore the tensions between creation and violence.…This is an important collection, one to keep close.” Her previous books include _Beg No Pardon_, winner of Perugia Press Prize and Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award; _Start with a Small Guitar_; and _Fretwork_, winner of the 2019 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize selected by Jane Hirshfield. She lives in Los Angeles and graced that city as Poet Laureate 2021-22.