The main event of Nevada County’s month-long celebration of poetry is on Saturday. The Sierra Poetry Festival is going on all day at the Center for the Arts. It takes place as National Poetry Month and Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month collide. The festival’s signature activities include an impressive lineup of local as well as national and international poets. County Poet Laureate Kirsten Casey says Lee Herrick, the tenth Poet Laureate of California has been dubbed the Un-Keynote presenter…

click to listen to Kirsten Casey

Also appearing is Dorianne Laux, a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, as well as Joseph Millar, winner of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Youth recitations are also included. And Casey, who teaches at local schools, indicates challenges in reaching a younger audience…

click to listen to Kirsten Casey

But Casey says she’s still optimistic about the future of poetry.There will also be workshops as well as so-called “un-workshops” and open mic recitations. The doors open at 8:30am on Saturday for the Sierra Poetry Festival at the Center for the Arts.