New Times / Art

A quarter century of poetry

Christy Heron

Award-winning and well-published James Cushing, a literature and creative writing professor at Cal Poly, is SLO County’s 2009 Poet Laureate, which basically means he will be writing more poems in the year to come.

The organization that is behind SLO County’s Poet Laureate, Language of the Soul, has a mission: to foster relationships with literature to raise the quality of literary arts in the county of San Luis Obispo by providing award-winning poets, writers, and local authors a venue in the community to read and conduct workshops and to work within the educational community by providing creative writing workshops and poetry-focused workshops, with a concentration on K-12 education.

Mission accomplished!

Don’t miss the tail end of the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival happening at venues all over SLO County.

Language of the Soul 25th Annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival takes place Nov. 14, 15, and 16 in conjunction with Corners of the Mouth and Cal Poly University’s WriterSpeak. Nov. 14: Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, Phillips Recital Hall presents WriterSpeak Night with Denise Duhamel. Nov. 15: Steynberg Gallery, located at 1531 Monterey St. in SLO, presents selected readers, Michaelann Dimitrijevich, Jarret Keene, past poet laureate Glenna Luschei, and Distinguished Poet& Award recipient Viola Weinberg .

Nov. 16: Linnaea’s Cafe,located at 1110 Garden St. in SLO, presents selected reader Ivan Brown Otter, past poet laureate Kevin Patrick Sullivan, and past poet laureate Anne Candelaria.

Open reading and closure party are also scheduled.

All events start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for general admission and $3 for students and seniors. Info: 547-1318, kpsslopoet@charter.net or www.languageofthesoul.org.