Chaucer’s Books Poetry Month Celebration

Thursday, April 9 2026 6:00PM

Chaucer’s Books (3321 State Street) celebrates Poetry Month with a reading by three local poets, Rich Ferguson (Somewhere, a Playground) Kathleen Florence (Prayers With a Side of Cash) and Melinda Palacio (How Fire is a Story, Waiting).

Rich Ferguson (Somewhere, a Playground)

Somewhere, a Playground is a bold and lyrical meditation on grief and survival in modern America. In a landscape scarred by violence and broken promises, the collection turns wounds into song and uplifts voices of resilience, defiance, and hope. Filled with emotional urgency, it stands as a testament to the human spirit’s refusal to break

Pushcart-nominated poet Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, and other esteemed artists. He is the author of the poetry collections 8th& Agony, Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates, Somewhere, a Playground, and the novel New Jersey Me. Ferguson is the lead editor of an anthology of CA poets entitled Beat Not Beat.  Synopsis and biography courtesy of the author.

Kathleen Florence (Prayers With a Side of Cash)

 Prayers With a Side of Cash follows a filmmaker’s journey from New York to Los Angeles, reframing the classic American road trip with a series of poems that witness a country in flux. The collection asks what it means to travel not only through space but through the shifting stories that shape us. Part personal pilgrimage and part exploration of American identity, the poems are accompanied by a soundtrack that dares to believe there is hope to be found in the sweetness of life.

Kathleen Florence is a Canadian-born poet, performer, and visual artist whose work moves between page, stage, and screen. Her debut collection Prayers With a Side of Cash was born from a 2024 road trip across America, an odyssey of landscapes, music, and shifting stories. Before moving to Los Angeles, she performed widely in New York, Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa, and her work has been supported by the Canada Arts Council and an artist residency in Spain. Her live readings are energetic and theatrical, sometimes with musical accompaniment and sometimes featuring surprise guest puppets. More about her at: www.kathleenflorencepoet.com. Synopsis and biography courtesy of the author.

Melinda Palacio – How Fire is a Story, Waiting

Melinda Palacio’s poetry collection, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, creates images that are at once heartbreaking and humorous. She tackles elemental subjects of family and childhood with the same depth and grace as that of myth making and death. As the only child of a mother who died too young, she infuses her words with longing and life, and celebrates the women who came before her. Each poem offers up the truth in a fearless and unsentimental voice. Palacio’s lyrical language punctuates an unexpected pause to subjects such as domestic violence and her childhood in South Central Los Angeles. How Fire Is A Story, Waiting is divided into four sections: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. In each section Palacio tempers heartbreak, violence, and disappointment with the antidote of humor, beauty, and an appreciation for life.

Melinda Palacio is Santa Barbara’s 10th Poet Laureate. Author of Ocotillo Dreams, her poetry collection, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, won first prize at the 2013 International Latino Book Awards. In 2015, her work was featured by the Academy of American Poets. Her latest book is Bird Forgiveness. Synopsis and biography courtesy of the author.