Poetry Center San Jose presents the Well-Red Poetry Reading Series at Works/San Jose! Tonight we'll be hearing readings by Laura Isabella Sylvan, Kirk Glaser, Sabrina Barreto, and Johm Olivares Espinoza. Admission is a suggested donation of $2, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Laura Isabella Sylvan was born in Winona, Minnesota and grew up in rural Bluff Siding, Wisconsin, barely a stop sign on a valley road tucked behind the bluffs of the Mississippi River. She first attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota, later transferring to Santa Clara University, where she is completing a BA in English Literature and German Studies. Laura Isabella’s love of Scandinavian lore and literature weaves gently through many of her pieces. She also draws upon other aspects inspired from her mid-western upbringing, from the lakes and pine forests of northern Minnesota to her grandparents’ farms spread across the former prairies.

Kirk Glaser’s poetry has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Cerise Press, Sou’wester, Alsop Review, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. Awards for his work include an American Academy of Poets prize, C. H. Jones National Poetry Prize, University of California Poet Laureate Award, and Richard Eberhart Poetry Prize. Mr. Glaser earned his Ph.D. in American poetry at the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from Dartmouth College. He teaches writing and literature at Santa Clara University, where he serves as faculty advisor to the Santa Clara Review, and is co-editor of the 2013 anthology, New California Writing.

Sabrina Barreto is a native Bay Area wordsmith who attends Santa Clara University, where she is a junior English major and Creative Writing minor. She is currently the Poetry Editor of the university's literary magazine, the Santa Clara Review. In 2012 she received the Shipsey Poetry Prize and an honorable mention for the Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Poetry Prize, and in 2013 she received the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize.

John Olivares Espinoza’s poetry collections include The Date Fruit Elegies (2008), a 2009 finalist for The Northern California Book Award, and Aluminum Times (2002), the 2001 first place winner for the Swan Scythe Press Chapbook Contest. John studied creative writing at UC Riverside (BA) and Arizona State University (MFA) at which time he received a grant from The Elizabeth George Foundation and a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. He has also been a poet-in-residence for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, New Letters, Poetry International, Quarterly West, Rattle, Red Wheelbarrow, and ZYZZYVA. John teaches for the English Department at Santa Clara University and lives in San Jose with his wife.