Poetry in the Bowl: An Afternoon with Crystal AC Salas & Catherine Abbey Hodges

At the Museum | Coggeshall Bowl

This event is supported by the Santa Barbara Poetry Series and Gunpowder Poetry.

Join us under the oaks at the historic Coggeshall Bowl for a powerful afternoon of poetry. Santa Barbara Poet Laureate George Yatchisin will introduce two celebrated poets published by Gunpowder Press: Crystal AC Salas, and Catherine Abbey Hodges (accompanied by Rob Hodges on cello).

Crystal AC Salas is the author of the bilingual poetry chapbook, Grief Logic, which is the co-winner of the inaugural Alta California Prize from Gunpowder Press (2022). She has work in The Kenyon Review, Alta Journal, Northwest Review, and others. She holds an M.F.A. from University of California, Riverside and is the recipient of a 2021–2022 California Arts Council Established Individual Artist Fellowship.

Catherine Abbey Hodges is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Empty Me Full (Gunpowder Press, 2024), and two chapbooks. Her first full-length collection, Instead of Sadness, won the 2015 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. Recent poems appear in Birmingham Poetry Review, Plume, SALT, Plant-Human Quarterly, RockPaperPoem, Tar River Poetry, and CALYX among other venues. English professor emeritus at Porterville College, Catherine writes, teaches privately, and collaborates with musician Rob Hodges on ancestral Yokuts land.

Rob Hodges is a cellist and singer with extensive performance experience in the United States and abroad. Following several years of living and teaching in Indonesia, he earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCSB, where his research focused on lament singing in North Sumatra. 

Coggeshall Bowl’s amphitheater-style seating is stone. For optimal comfort, bring a cushion.

Included with Museum admission (free for Members), no additional RSVP or registration required.

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