Woodbury University (Burbank, CA)
You are all welcome to our on-campus reading event on Monday, April 22, which will take place from 4 pm - 6 pm (PDT) in the Ahmanson Main Space. We are hosting two poets, Susan Rich and Brynn Saito. Susan Rich has been published in the New England Review, Harvard Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and many more. Including her chapbook to be published in April this year, she is the author of six poetry books. Brynn Saito is now the author of three poetry books with her most recent published last year. She has been a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. Both authors have an extensive list of publications and awards, all well-deserved, and we are excited to be host such renowned poets. There will be an open mic, as well as refreshments served during the reading.
Kansas State Visiting Writer Series (Manhattan, KS & Online)
On Friday March 22 at 3:30pm CT (1:30pm PT), our Spring Visiting Writers Series gets underway with a reading by poet Brynn Saito. Join us on campus in Union Wildcat Chamber or online at https://tinyurl.com/saitokstate.
Hudson Valley Writers Center: Leaning toward Light (online event)
A Zoom Reading with David Baker, Ellen Bass, Sophie Cabot Black, Haleh Liza Gafori, Ashley M. Jones, Danusha Laméris, Brynn Saito, & Tess Taylor for the Anthology Leaning toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them (via Zoom). Tickets and RSVP here.
Traveling Mollys Reading Series (online event)
Traveling Mollys Reading Series, featuring Rebecca Morgan Frank and Brynn Saito. Details available here and live stream the event here.
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (Sonoma, CA)
Leaning Toward Light
Poetry, Art, Food & Wine Pairing
SVMA’s annual poetry pairing features the light-filled landscapes of Richard Mayhew and poetry from the stunning and newly released book, Leaning Toward Light—Poems for Gardens and the Hands that Tend Them. Join us at golden hour as we hear from four of the poets in the book: Tess Taylor (editor) Forrest Gander, Katie Peterson, Genine Lentine, and Brynn Saito.
Food pairings by Chef Kyle Kuklewski of Sonoma and wines from Coplan Vineyards, Dysfunctional Family Winery, and Sonocaia Estate Vineyards.
$15 SVMA members | $25 General Public
Pre-registration is required for this event.
Museum admission is included.
Meet the Authors: Downtown Artists Gallery (Fresno, CA)
Join the Downtown Artists Gallery at Fresno’s ArtHop for an evening of bookselling and conversation with artists Patricia Wakida, Carol Tikijian, Kristen Murakoshi, Caleb Henderson, Vicken Massoyan, and Julia Tinker plus writers Brenna Womer, David Mas Masumoto, Lee Herrick, Brynn Saito, and Felipe Mercado
Leaning Toward Light, SF Zen Center (Online Event)
Hosted by Norman Fischer, the San Francisco Zen Center invites you to an evocative evening, interweaving poetry and nature's embrace. Leaning Toward Light is not just a poetry anthology; it's a testament to the deep, unspoken bond we share with the natural world. This collection melds together the talents of luminous poets, each with a unique voice and perspective, offering solace and illumination, much like the nurturing act of gardening. With readings by Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shahib Nye, Tess Taylor, Brynn Saito, Mark Doty, Genine Lentine.
Writing What Haunts Us: Densho Reading (Online)
Join Densho online as we launch new books by Yonsei authors Brynn Saito, Brandon Shimoda, and Jami Nakamura Lin. Their work spans multiple genres but all orbits around intersecting themes of hauntings, inheritance, dreamworlds, collective pasts, and imagined futures. Each author will read from their new works, then come together for a conversation moderated by poet Troy Osaki. This program is supported, in part, by the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and presented in partnership with Tadaima and The Elliott Bay Book Company. Register here to receive the Zoom link.
Lit Hop (Fresno, CA)
A Lit Hop Reading: Writing Our Way Towards Home: on Place/Displacement with Steven Church, Brynn Saito, Alison Mandaville, and Brenna Womer. What does "home" mean? How does place and displacement shape the world? Four writers from a variety of places consider these questions and others.
Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center (Online)
Second Tuesday Reading Series with Brynn Saito and Cristina Sandoval, on Zoom.
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkdOupqTkvH9bNir_T5d69J9taVP3SkR4P#/registration
Ancestral Poetics (Online Writing Workshop)
The Kripalu Fall Online Writing Program presents: Ancestral Poetics: Exploring Poetry’s Portal to Wisdom. Poetry can be a portal to the past and the future. Explore how poems—with their mystery, metaphors, images, and rhythms—invite us to access our inner and outer worlds. Book online.
Fresno Poets' Association Reading (Fresno State)
A reading hosted by the Fresno Poets’ Association featuring Venita Blackburn, Steven Church, Ra Jarrar, Brynn Saito, Tim Skeen, Mai Der Vang, and Brenna Womer. Details here.
Mitsuye Yamada's 100th Birthday (Online Event)
The Poetry Center is deeply honored to present a poets' reading and tribute to acclaimed poet, essayist, educator, feminist, and human rights activist, Mitsuye Yamada, to help mark her 100th birthday and the extending influence of her remarkable life and work. This online event is hosted by poets Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda and organized with the kind assistance of Hedi Yamada Mouchard. Registration link coming.
This online event is free and open to the public.
Participants to be announced.
Book Launch Event (Fresno, CA)
Join us for a special evening celebrating poetry at the United Japanese Christian Church in Clovis, CA. Poets Brynn Saito, Lee Herrick, Amber Flame, and Jason Bayani will engage in a conversation on poetry, community, spirituality, and art-making, then share their work. The event will culminate in a special reading from Under a Future Sky, Brynn's newest collection of poems.
Doors will open at 6pm; event will start at 6:30pm. Poets will sell and sign books after the event. All are welcome!
For accommodations or questions, please email brynnsaito@gmail.com
UC Botanical Garden (Berkeley, CA)
Join us for a night of poetry cultivating our collective urge to grow, tend, and help launch the new poetry anthology Leaning toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them. Alongside notable contemporary poets Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Forrest Gander, Jane Hirshfield, Genine Lentine, Brynn Saito, Maw Shein Win, Alan Chazaro, Katie Peterson, and others, editor Tess Taylor invites gardeners, plant lovers, and readers alike to a magical night of poetry and music in the Redwood Grove. Poems will be paired with live music by Steven Emerson & Son to celebrate this beautiful collaboration of some of most imaginative contemporary poets of our time. Tickets available here.
Book Passage (Corte Madera, CA)
Join us for a special reading with poets Francesca Bell, Brynn Saito, and Douglas Manuel of Red Hen Press. This event will be hosted in-person at Book Passage's Corte Madera Store. Please contact webmaster@bookpassage.com with questions regarding events.
Writing and Meditation at the Spiritual Life Foundation (Los Altos, CA)
The Spiritual Life Foundation hosts an afternoon of reconnection through friendship, food, meditation, tarot, reiki, and astrology demonstrations. I’ll be co-leading a morning writing and meditation workshop. Please RSVP via the SLF website.
Writers in the Woods (Incline Village, NV)
University of Nevada, Reno Lake Tahoe’s Writers in the Woods literary reading and workshop series featuring Brian Turner and Brynn Saito reading new work.
Write—Learn—Lead: Revitalizing Teachers and Teaching (Online)
A webinar geared toward K-12 educators sponsored by the WRITE Center and the National Writing Project. Based on the National Writing Project motto "Write-Learn-Lead," we invite you to write together, learn together, and prepare to lead together as you explore self-care, revitalize yourself and your teaching, and advocate for others with three leading scholars and experts in the field: Brynn Saito, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Cathy Fleischer. Register here.
Densho hosts an evening with Japanese American poets and writers
Five award-winning authors share poetry, stories, memories, and letters in this special event hosted by Densho, a grassroots organization devoted to preserving Japanese American stories of the past for the generations of tomorrow. Featuring David Mura, traci kato-kiriyama, Karen Tei Yamashita, Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Kiku Hughes, and hosted by Brynn Saito, the event will include a light reception and will take place in Densho's community room located at 1416 S. Jackson St. in Seattle. RSVP here.
YMP's Day of Remembrance Artist Showcase
Yonsei Memory Project’s 2023 Day of Remembrance Artist Showcase (Register Here!)
An evening of radical remembrance, visionary storytelling, and community healing featuring presentations by:
TRACI KATO-KIRIYAMA, award-winning multidisciplinary artist, organizer, cultural producer, and author of Navigating With(out) Instruments whose work is grounded in collaborative process, collective self-determination, and art+community.
TT TAKEMOTO, artist, scholar and experimental filmmaker whose work honors queer Asian Americans who lived, loved, and labored together during the prewar era and beyond.
KELLEE MATSUSHITA-TSENG, co-founder of Bitter Cotyledons, a group dedicated to bringing the queer AAPI community together through land stewardship, growing Asian vegetables, and sharing ancestral culinary and cultural traditions.
Curated and hosted by Patricia Wakida, Nikiko Masumoto, Brynn Saito, and Miya Sommers. Generously funded by the California Wellness Foundation, the Milton Chen W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trustee Fund, and community members – thank you!
Celebrating CA's Poet Laureate, Lee Herrick
Please join us on Thursday, February 9 for a celebration of poetry and to celebrate Lee Herrick’s appointment as California Poet Laureate. Readers include Marisol Baca, Kenneth Chacón, Juan Luis Guzmán, Brynn Saito, Joseph Rios, I Adeficha, plus student poets, emceed by David Campos.
Online Writing Workshop with Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
This fall, join me, along with Julia Cameron, Victoria Erikson, Tanya Markul, and more for a fall writing program to awaken your senses, deepen your authenticity, and inspire your creativity. From morning pages to flow state writing to nourishing and sustaining practices that support your writing practice, these live online workshops bring together some of the brightest lights in the writing world to empower your relationship to writing and yourself.
Workshops run from Sept 29 - Oct 29; I’ll be teaching a poetry workshop on Tuesday, October 18. Full schedule and registration here.
Lit Hop in Fresno, CA
Crossing Fields: Coming to Creative Nonfiction from Different Directions
Reading Venue: The Revue (Backroom)
Steven Church (he/him), Brynn Saito (she/her), Alison Mandaville (she/her), Charles Radke (he/him) Four Fresno writers with personal, professional, or academic backgrounds in another field or discipline share their creative nonfiction work on family, history, and the sublime or wondrous moments of everyday lives.
More events at: https://www.lithopfresno.org/schedule
Fresno Poets Rise Up
The Fresno Arts Council and Fresno's Poet Laureate, Megan Bohigian, will host an evening of Poetry Activism focused on social justice issues. This event will feature poets Ceci Hernandez, Lee Herrick, Bryan Medina, Brynn Saito, Steven Sanchez, Kirk Stone, and James Tyner with music by Evo Blustein. Light refreshments will also be provided.
traci kato-kiriyama and Sara Borjas
The Fresno Poets Association kicks off our season with a special in-person event on campus on Fri, Sept 9th. We hope you can join us for a reading and conversation featuring award-winning poets traci kato-kiriyama and Sara Borjas hosted by Brynn Saito.
A multi-disciplinary storyteller and Artivist, kato-kiriyama is grounded in collaboration and community, in service of connection and healing. Borjas, a Xicanx poet with roots in Fresno, won a 2020 American Book Award for her debut collection Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff.
The event will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 9, inside the Alice Peters Auditorium (PB 191) on the Fresno State campus. Masks and social distancing will be required.
More details here: https://fb.me/e/1Il6q20zQ
"On Collaboration" with Diode Editions (online reading)
On Saturday, April 23 at 10am PT/1 pm ET, join collaborative poets Traci Brimhall, Brynn Saito, Kendra DeColo, Tyler Mills, Amorak Huey, and W. Todd Kaneko virtually for a poetry reading and discussion of their collaborative writing and practices. Come celebrate poetry with us!
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6MIpd3wGS9q_sbjoht7qmQ
JANM Event: Art, Identity, and Legacy with Brian Komei Dempster and Brynn Saito
Join poets Brian Komei Dempster and Brynn Saito in a dynamic virtual conversation and reading about the legacy of Japanese American wartime imprisonment and how it informs the present. Hosted by the Japanese American National Museum.
Their dialogue will explore these vital, timely themes: What does it mean to inherit the saga of incarceration? How do we process trauma and respond to racism, anti-Asian sentiment, and violence? In what ways can we—as artists, activists, and community members—carry forth our vision to enact social change? Throughout the presentation, Dempster and Saito will share poems that resonate with their responses and encourage interaction with audience members.
Day of Remembrance: Japanese American Incarceration, 80 Years Later
A online memorial/conversation hosted by Colorado College and Brandon Shimoda on the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans during WWII, and its legacy and ongoing afterlife.
Register: https://coloradocollege.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V2yOdSFiQMmDvbp6pzv8Vw
Featuring descendants/grandchildren of the camps: writer Jami Nakamura Lin, poet Brynn Saito, musician/composer Patrick Shiroishi, and artist/performer Kimiko Tanabe, hosted by Brandon Shimoda, poet/writer and professor of creative writing at Colorado College.
This event is taking place on the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 (February 19, 1942), formalizing removal/incarceration.
Yonsei Memory Project's Day of Remembrance Artist Showcase
Join us for an evening of remembrance, storytelling, and imagination highlighting the work of three Yonsei artists: photographer Kristen Murakoshi, comic artist Sam Nakahira, and author Maggie Tokuda-Hall. Hosted by Yonsei Memory Project's Nikiko Masumoto, Patricia Wakida, and Brynn Saito, this virtual event for all ages explores how creativity brings alive our shared community history.
Register: https://fresnostate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwucuGsqTgjH90Io5JuVga5s_jQ9oQzO08G
This year's Day of Remembrance marks the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and imprisonment of the Japanese American community during World War II.
Butte College Diversity Speaker Series - Online
Butte College is set to host poet Brynn Saito who will share her work via Zoom on November 10 from 1-2 p.m. PT.
Saito is a Kundiman Asian American poetry fellow and a two-time recipient of the California State Library’s Civil Liberties Public Education grant for her work with Yonsei Memory Project (YMP). She will share her experiences collaborating and documenting the stories of survivors of the WWII-era incarceration of the Japanese American community. Saito will also read new poetry inspired by her family's story of incarceration and discuss how poetry has served as a practice for healing and freedom.
To catch Saito’s reading and discussion please be sure to register in advance here.