Featuring Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea contributors Deborah Kennedy and Julian Mithra

Presented by Poetry Center San José, Live Lit is a weekly open mic for words. Bring your stories and poetry. Sign up begins at 7:00 pm, open mic begins at 7:30. Hosted by Mighty Mike McGee.

Deborah Kennedy is an author and artist whose recent book, Nature Speaks: Art and Poetry for the Earth, combines illustrations and poetry focusing on the ecological themes of our time. The book’s honors include the 2016 Eric Hoffer Poetry Book Award and a 2017 Silver Nautilus Poetry Book Award. Deborah lives in San Jose, California, where she teaches college classes and poetry workshops. She often hikes in an urban riparian corridor where she spots osprey, hawks, and herons. In the evening she watches for moonbows, earthshine, and other modern miracles.

Julian née Sara Mithra’s first book If the Color Is Fugitive (Nomadic Press, 2018) traces queer desire on the frontier of the American West and was a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Poetry. They eke out a living in Oakland encouraging young people to write.