Join City Lights in continuing its 70th anniversary celebrations by spending an evening with some of the authors it has published!

With Sesshu Foster, Brandon Shimoda, and mimi tempestt

Moderated by Stacey Lewis

With a history dating back to 1955 and a catalog of well over 200 titles in print, our publishing mission remains what it has always been: to find and promote the powerful, non-mainstream voices in fiction, poetry, memoir, and literary translations, and to publish books on vital social and political issues. Join us to hear from some of the talented writers we’ve been working with: past, present and future!

Sesshu Foster taught composition and literature in East L.A. for over 20 years, and at the University of Iowa, the California Institute for the Arts, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work is published in The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, Language for a New Century: Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, and State of the Union: 50 Political Poems. His most recent novel is Eladatl: A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines with Arturo Ernesto Romo, published by City Lights.  His previous books include the novel Atomik Aztex and the poetry collection World Ball Notebook, both with City Lights, as well as City of the Future and City Terrace Field Manual. A celebrated writer, his literary awards are numerous: Sesshu was awarded the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award in Poetry for World Ball Notebook; the Believer Book Award for Atomik Aztex; an American Book Award for Invocation LA: Urban Multicultural Poetry; and finalist for the PEN Center West Poetry Prize, as well as the Paterson Poetry Prize, for City Terrace Field Manual. Sesshu is based in Alhambra, CA.

Brandon Shimoda is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Hydra Medusa (Nightboat 2023), also The Desert (Song Cave, 2018) and Evening Oracle (Letter Machine Editions, 2016), which received the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. His memoir and book of mourning, The Grave on the Wall (City Lights, 2019) received the 2020 PEN Open Book Award. His writings on Japanese-American incarceration have appeared in/on The Asian American Literary Review, Densho, Hyperallergic, The Margins, and The New Inquiry, and he has given talks on the subject at the University of Arizona, Columbia University, Fairhaven College, and the International Center of Photography. He is also the co-editor, with Thom Donovan, of To look at the sea is to become what one is: An Etel Adnan Reader (Nightboat Books, 2014). Born in the San Fernando Valley, California, he lives, for now, in Tucson, AZ

mimi tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and daughter of California. She has a M.A. in Literature from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Creative/Critical Ph.D. in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Her first book, the monumental misrememberings, was published with Co-Conspirator Press//The Feminist Center for Creative Work in 2020. In 2021, she was selected for participation in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices & Writers, and was a Creative Fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco. Her works can be found in Foglifter, Interim Poetics, and at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A native of Los Angeles, she currently resides in Berkeley, CA.

Stacey Lewis is Vice President and Director of Publicity, Marketing, and Sales at City Lights where she has worked for over 25 years.

To learn more about the books City Lights publishes visit this link: https://citylights.com/publishing/

This event is made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/