What kind of party IS this?

It’s a pride pre-party. It’s a literary reading after-party. It’s a west coast book launch party. It’s a faraway-friends-visit party. It’s just a party!

After a super-queer reading at Green Apple Books downstairs, join us upstairs at The Backstory Above to celebrate Christian Bancroft’s new collection of poems, A Ghost Has No Fantasies.

The book is queer and sad, but we’re queer and joyous. Come celebrate with us! RSVP here

Join us on Tuesday, June 23 when we welcome Christian Bancroft for the release of his book, A Ghost Has No Fantasies, at 9th Ave!
Featuring Caroline Mar and Mukethe Kawinzi

Free to Attend, Please RSVP
Or Watch on YouTube Live

A Ghost Has No Fantasies
Through haunting poetry and prose, A Ghost Has No Fantasies illuminates the forgotten voices of LGBTQ+ individuals who suffered under Nazi persecution. Drawing from archival documents, survivor testimonies, and Gestapo files, Christian Bancroft weaves together the intimate stories of those imprisoned under Paragraph 175 and beyond — gay men, lesbians, and transgender individuals whose experiences have long remained in the shadows of Holocaust memory.

About Christian Bancroft
Christian Bancroft received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston and is the recipient of a Michener Fellowship. He is also the author of Queering Modernist Translation: The Poetics of Race, Gender, and Queerness (2020) and the co-editor of the 2018 Unsung Masters Series volume, Adelaide Crapsey: The Life & Work of an American Master. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Callaloo, The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, Petrichor, and Asymptote, among others.

Accessibility
The event is located on the ground level, and there are no stairs between the entrance and event space. 
We no longer require face masks in our store, but surgical masks are available for attendees. 

Visiting Writer, Caroline M. Mar will give a craft talk at Vermont Studio Center in the Red Mill Building on June 12, 2026 at 10:00 am ET. This event is free and open to the public.

Caroline M. Mar is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Water Guest, the Editors’ Selection for the 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series. She is also the author of Special Education (Texas Review Press), which won the 2019 X. J. Kennedy Prize, and the chapbook Dream of the Lake (Bull City Press). Carrie is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, a member of Rabble Collective, and serves on the board of Friends of Writers. She is a longtime ninth grade health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, and lives in Oakland, CA. She has been granted residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Hedgebrook, and Ragdale, among others. You can find her online at carolinemar.com.

The 2026 Visiting Writers Program is generously supported by The Rona Jaffe Foundation.

VSC is pleased to partner with independent bookseller, Phoenix Books.

Visiting Writer, Caroline M. Mar will give a featured reading at Vermont Studio Center in the Red Mill Building on June 11, 2026 at 8:00 pm ET. This event is free and open to the public.

Caroline M. Mar is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Water Guest, the Editors’ Selection for the 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series. She is also the author of Special Education (Texas Review Press), which won the 2019 X. J. Kennedy Prize, and the chapbook Dream of the Lake (Bull City Press). Carrie is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, a member of Rabble Collective, and serves on the board of Friends of Writers. She is a longtime ninth grade health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, and lives in Oakland, CA. She has been granted residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Hedgebrook, and Ragdale, among others. You can find her online at carolinemar.com.

The 2026 Visiting Writers Program is generously supported by The Rona Jaffe Foundation.

VSC is pleased to partner with independent bookseller, Phoenix Books.

An AWP Offsite Reading

Bring a piece (a poem, a song, a paragraph, a page) that moves you, or choose one from the volumes we’ll have on hand. You can say a little bit about what you love about it, or just dive right in to let the words wash over us.

Since it’s at teatime, and we love both a tea-party and a tea dance, there will be snackies and, of course, tea (to drink, but you can bring some to spill at the mic should you so choose).

An Evening with Three Bay Area Poets!

Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Caroline M. Mar, Camille Roy

Bird & Beckett Books, San Francisco

Co-presented with The Gardens of Golden Gate Park, Amoeba Music, and Nature in the City
A part of Litquake Secret Garden series
Musical interludes by Rosie Cima and Natasha Jong (Jenny Haniver)
 
Forest bath? Sure. Or come yell at a beautiful plant. Whatever suits you. Part poetic performance, part storytelling, part study of place, join our guide Myriam Gurba and a gaggle of poets and musicians as they traverse themes of language, power, ancestry, and California’s ecology, in the structure of a labyrinthine secret garden. Close out our afternoon series in the gardens with poets Caroline M. Mar, Wendy M. Thompson, and Mukethe Kawinzi. Limited seating. BYO chair or blanket, encouraged. FREE with SFBG admission, no RSVP required

Book sales for this event coordinated by Green Apple Books

Join Carrie & poets Chris Arvidson, Paul Jones, & Andy Young at Malaprop’s in Asheville. This beloved local institution was where I went to buy at least one (usually many more) book(s) every six months, each time I was in town for my MFA residency at Warren Wilson. So sweet to finally read there as a grown-up(?) poet!

4:30pm ET

The event is FREE, but registration is required to reserve your seat. Register here.

https://www.malaprops.com/event/store-poet-quartet-chris-arvidson-andy-young-caroline-m-mar-paul-jones

Five Smithie alum poets reading, 4-5pm ET

Michele Evans ‘94, Caroline M. Mar ‘05, Chloe Yelena Miller ‘98, Amanda Shaw ‘97J, Dara-Lyn Shrager ‘89

Register here for this Zoom event, hosted by the Smith College Boutelle-Day Poetry Center

Join poets Caroline M. Mar, Elizabeth T. Gray, and Bridget Bell for readings (with sound recordings!) and conversation at Second Take Sound in New York City.

Light refreshments will be provided.

PLEASE NOTE UPDATED TIME - 6PM

Join poets Caroline M. Mar & Leigh Lucas, who will read their poems and discuss love, loss, the physical and metaphysical properties of water, and more — all over a glass of wine!

Join poets Caroline M. Mar and Ross White for a reading and conversation at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, North Carolina

In a love letter to two ancestors, Caroline M. Mar reckons with the shapes our bodies take in water and the shapes our bodies take in memory. By the icy waters where drowned Chinese railroad workers lay to rest, Dream of the Lake questions how our family stories slip away from us with each passing generation. Will our memories be preserved, or will we become characters in our children’s children’s retelling of history? These deeply resonant poems are songs of survival, navigating inheritance, identity, and language as they recover voices lost to time and lost to the lake.

Charm Offensive, Ross White's debut poetry collection, explores the space between Dickinson's directive to tell the truth slant and the universal reality of seeing the truth slant without knowing it. Charting the ways that tenderness can resolve into dissonance and uncertainty can resolve into transcendence, Charm Offensive crackles with the dangers of being alive and the joys of remaining defiant. At turns playful and surreal, exuberant and somber, these poems urge readers to find something new to trust in the world.

I’ll be joining the Bull City Press House Party Reading Series on May 10, 2025, in Durham, NC!

Lineup: Jennine Capo Crucet, Destiny Hemphill, Derek Palacio, & Caroline M. Mar

RSVP required!

Join us at the Museum for an exciting evening of music and spoken word inspired by the Asian American Experience, featuring the poetry of Caroline Mei-Lin Mar and the music of renowned jazz players Francis Wong and Scott Oshiro. This event is hosted by Lina Lin Hoshino and presented in partnership with the Petaluma Old Chinatown Ad Hoc Committee.

Plus, a tasting will be available with Buena Vista Winery, one of Sonoma County’s first employers of Chinese people.

Ticket Required! Purchase here.

Francis Wong has had an artistic career full of accomplishment and positive notice, including being considered one of "the great saxophonists of his generation" by the late jazz critic Phil Elwood. His work is well-documented on recordings, as he is featured on over forty titles as a leader and sideman. A critical vehicle for his work is Asian Improv aRts, the organization he co-founded in 1987 with pianist Jon Jang, which has been widely recognized for its role in creating a distinctive Asian American/West Coast sound in creative music.

Scott Oshiro is a Bay Area-based flutist and music technology researcher. As an African and Okinawan American, Scott’s creative and academic work incorporates influences from his heritage and combines them with Jazz, Hip Hop, and Electronic music. He recently received his Ph.D. at the Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, where he researched the intersection between quantum computing, music, and culture. Scott is an Asian Improv aRts fellow, developing quantum computer music improvisation systems for an album featuring BIPOC artists, showcasing the connection between music and quantum physics.

Caroline Mei-Lin Mar is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Water Guest, the Editors’ Selection for the 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series. She is the author of Special Education (Texas Review Press), which won the 2019 X. J. Kennedy Prize, and the chapbook Dream of the Lake (Bull City Press). Carrie is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, a member of Rabble Collective, and serves on the board of Friends of Writers. She is a longtime ninth grade health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, and lives in Oakland, CA. She has been granted residencies at Hedgebrook, Ragdale, and Storyknife, among others. You can find her online at carolinemar.com

A charming bookstore. A bar with excellent cocktails. Snacks. Seems like the right place! I’ll be reading and chatting with Perry Janes, author of the recent debut Find Me When You’re Ready, and I’m so excited to see all my Bay Area folks out for this event! Do I have to teach the next day? Yes. Will I go to bed early? Hell no! Come as an early bday gift to me!

Join Eleanor Wilner, Somayeh Shams, Adrienne Perry, & Carrie Mar for a reading and conversation to celebrate the launch of Carrie’s new collection, Water Guest, at Big Blue Marble in Philadelphia, PA.

A Rabble-ful event (we’ll miss Francine, currently based in Sweden!) with our Rabble elder, the iconic Eleanor Wilner. This is my east coast *launch,* the first real event of my book tour, and with this incredible group of thinkers it is sure to be a fabulous evening of conversation and love.

This event will also be streamed live online. Zoom registration link here

Courtney Bambrick teaches writing at Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls campus in Philadelphia. She was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories until 2024.  Her own poems appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Mom Egg Review, Landlocked, Pinhole, Thimble, SWWIM Everyday, New York Quarterly, Invisible City, and more. Her chapbook World Without is available from Bottlecap Press.
 
Caroline M. Mar is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Water Guest, the Editors’ Selection for the 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series. She is also the author of Special Education (Texas Review Press), which won the 2019 X. J. Kennedy Prize, and the chapbook Dream of the Lake (Bull City Press). Carrie is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, a member of Rabble Collective, and serves on the board of Friends of Writers. She is a longtime ninth grade health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, and lives in Oakland, CA. She has been granted residencies at Hedgebrook, Ragdale, and Storyknife, among others. You can find her online at carolinemar.com

Robert Zaller is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Drexel University.  Poet, critic, and historian, his books of verse include Speaking to Power and The Dresden Zoo, both published by Moonstone Press.

Rabble Collective will present a creative reading followed by a panel discussion exploring the theme of presence. Presence can mean many things — the now, the way a person carries herself, a tense for writing. To our collective, presence means radical hope, honesty, resistance, and the practice of a love ethic. Presence also means responding to the urgent challenges of our times, whether the climate crisis, technological developments with Al, threats to democracy, or the epidemic of loneliness.
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C.D. Wright was certainly a poet of presence - being present in a moment, with language, with an idea - or, as she once phrased it, "Uncommitted people don't hold my interest period." As we consider presence, we ask, "What is important to commit our attention to as writers? How might we pay attention to it in our art?" Through this reading and panel we seek to examine and engage with our audience about the meaning of presence in poetry and prose, including the literal, metaphorical, abstract, and associative.

Join us for a reading and conversation with our board member Natalie Baszile on October 13th 2022 at 7 pm EDT via Zoom, hosted by board member Caroline M. Mar. Natalie’s new non-fiction book, We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land & Legacy, brings together essays, poems, conversations, portraits, and first-person narratives to tell the story of Black people’s connection to the land from Emancipation to the present. Her previous novel, Queen Sugar, was named one of the San Francisco Chronicles’ Best Books of 2014, was long-listed for the Crooks Corner Southern Book Prize, and nominated for an NAACP Image Award. It is currently being adapted for a seventh television season by writer/director Ava DuVernay, and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey. Click here to register for Natalie’s reading! 

To celebrate 45 years of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and 30 years of Friends of Writers (FOW) scholarship support, we are hosting a series of (virtual) literary events across the country. Each is hosted and presented by regional writers but available nationally. Our goal is to raise funds with these regional events to support our ongoing mission to cultivate new and vital literary voices, and to celebrate the community and mutual support of writers. Specifically, your participation will contribute to scholarships and to Grants for Change to benefit BIPOC writers.

California reading: May 29, 4:00pm PT / 7:00pm ET
Register here

Hosts: Angela Narciso Torres, Chloe Martinez, Karen Llagas, and Peg Alford Pursell; music by Alicia Jo Rabins + raffle of signed books donated by the authors

Learn more about the whole lineup of events to support FOW here!