The wolf moon ushers in the new year. It’s envisioning time! Authors Maw Shein Win and MK Chavez offer a casual drop-in writing workshop (at 6:30 PM). Lovers, writers of all genres, visionaries, and dreamers are welcomed into a space to write experimental pieces that center on imagining the future, both short- and long-term. All levels of experience are welcome. After the workshop, hear local poets Cal Calamia, Keith Donnell, Nathalie Khankan, K.R. Morrison, and Shelley Wong. There will be a limited number of open mic slots available.

Cal Calamia is a bilingual queer trans educator, activist, and poet. Their performative work has been featured at many spoken word series across the Bay Area, and their book San Franshitshow was published in 2021. Cal is currently pursuing their MFA at the University of San Francisco.

MK Chavez is a mixed-race Afro-Latinx writer and educator. She is the author of Mothermorphosis Dear Animal and the lyric essay chapbook A Brief History of the Selfie. Chavez curates the reading series Lyrics and Dirges and is co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival. She is a recipient of the Alameda County Arts Leadership Award and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award.

Keith Donnell Jr., originally from Philadelphia, is a Bay Area poet and book editor. He received his MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. His work has appeared in journals and anthologies, including POETRY and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019. His first poetry collection The Move was released in 2021.

Nathalie Khankan is the author of Quiet Orient Riot, winner of the 2021 California Book Award in Poetry. Khankan holds a PhD in Arabic literature and is a continuing lecturer of Arabic in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at UC Berkeley.

Alexandra Mattraw is a Berkeley poet, curator, and educator whose Celtic great-grandparents made their home in Oakland and its vicinity in the early 1900s. Her full-length book of poems, small siren, was published in 2018.

K.R. Morrison is a moon witch poet who splits her time between San Francisco and a place she calls Mermaid Town in Southern California. She’s currently on a writing sabbatical from teaching English and creative writing to inner city high school students. Morrison’s first collection, Cauldrons, was published in July 2021, and she received a Pushcart nomination for her poem “Her Altar.”

Maw Shein Win’s recent poetry book, Storage Unit for the Spirit House, was nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Poetry, longlisted for the PEN America Open Book Award, and shortlisted for the CALIBA’s Golden Poppy Award for Poetry. She is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito.

Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears, winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize and longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award. She received a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from MacDowell, Kundiman, and Vermont Studio Center. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco.