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Brilliant, heart-touching performances form this annual reading. Michelle Bitting returns from L.A. for her first reading at SPC since winning the 2011 SPC Book Prize. Also reading: Becky Foust, Andy Jones, Connie Post. Free event. Donation request. Biographies of poets reading:

Becky Foust -- Stanford educated attorney turned poet. Foust is published in many top-flight literary journals and has several beautiful books. Her books include: Dark Card, Mom's Canoe, and God, Seed. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College. Ms. Foust won the 2007 and 2008 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prizes, and another full length book, All That Gorgeous, Pitiless Song, won the 2008 Many Mountains Moving Poetry Book Award.

Connie Post -- Ms. Post served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California from 2005 – June 2009. Her work has appeared in Calyx, Kalliope, Cold Mountain Review, Chiron Review, Crab Creek Review, Comstock Review, The Great American Poetry Show, Karamu, The Pedestal Magazine, Tule Review, and The Toronto Quarterly. She was the winner of the Cover Prize for the Spring 2009 issue of The Dirty Napkin and the winner of the 2009 Caesura Poetry Awards from Poetry Center of San Jose. Her latest book "Trip Wires" is published by Finishing Line Press.

Michelle Bitting -- Ms. Bitting holds an MFA from Pacific University, Oregon. She attended UC Berkeley and has had her books published, titled, "Good Friday Kiss", and "Blue Laws". Ms. Bitting has been involved in hands-on outreach to the sick, hungry, and homeless for over a decade. Says poet/professor, Thomas Lux, "There is something about (Bitting's) poems that is so immediate, so unflinching, so focused and visceral in their understatement, that I was, on first reading, astonished. On second reading I was astonished and deeply moved. On third reading I was astonished, deeply moved, and filled with joy!"

Andy Jones -- Beloved by the Sacramento and Davis poetry community, Dr. Jones's "Split Stock" is his first book length collection of poems. Jones teaches writing and literature at UC Davis. This father of two organizes a weekly poetry night for featured and open mic poets at Bistro 33 in the college town of Davis, California. Jones may also be heard on KDVS radio where he hosts a program on poetry and technology.

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Past Autsim Benefit readers also included:

Julie Bruck -- Julie Bruck is the author of two collections from Brick Books, The End of Travel, and The Woman Downstairs. Her work has appeared in such magazines as The Malahat Review, Ms, Ploughshares and The New Yorker. She has taught at Concordia University and been a resident faculty member at The Frost Place. A former Montrealer, she now lives in San Francisco. She was twice awarded the National Magazine Gold Award in poetry. Ms. Bruck also won the QSPELL Book Awards, A.M. Klein Award for Poetry, as well as the Randall Jarrell Prize, Second Prize. She has also held a MacDowell Colony Cathrine Boettcher Fellowship.

Geoffrey Neill -- A host at the ever popular Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Café in Sacramento. He has lived in California his whole life. He has a daughter, Muriel, who is nearly three years old, and his own publishing house, Little M Press.