Five Nevada County Women Poets Read, 10th Edition on March 27

As one of many pop-up events in celebration of National Poetry Month, the Five Nevada County Women Poets will, for the tenth year, read poems about hope and history, love and life, the joys and tribulations of our time and place…and more. The fringe events lead up to the all-day Sierra Poetry Festival on Saturday, April 18, at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.

Collectively, the poets—Kirsten Casey, Judy Crowe, Molly Fisk, Ingrid Keriotis, and Judie Rae—have published hundreds of poems in books, magazines, anthologies, newspapers, and literary journals.

Kirsten Casey, Nevada County poet laureate emerita, is the author of Ex Vivo: Out of the Living Body. Her latest poetry manuscript Grieving Birds, which explores historical and literary characters struggling with social media, was a finalist for the Gunpowder Press Dryden-Vreeland Poetry Prize. Kirsten facilitates the popular Nevada City Poetry Happy Hour, and is a member of Sierra Poetry Festival Committee.

Judy Crowe has been active in Nevada County’s literary community for many years, including as a board member of Literature Alive!, and is currently a member of Sierra Poetry Festival Committee. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Flat Water: Nebraska Poems. Her poetry collection The Watching Sky recently received the 2025 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry.

Molly Fisk, Nevada County’s first poet laureate, is the author of The More Difficult Beauty and Everything But the Kitchen Skunk, among other titles. She edited California Fire & Water:A Climate Crisis Anthology with an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. Her newest book Walking Wheel, a novel-in-verse what just been published by Red Hen Press.

Ingrid Keriotis’s poetry collection It Started with the Wild Horses explores how our experiences and relationships become memory, how encountering the wilderness shapes us, and how a sense of place tells us who we are. Ingrid is the Coordinator of the Tutor Center at Sierra College’s Nevada County Campus.

Judie Rae’s poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and in her poetry chapbooks, The Weight of Roses and Howling Down the Moon, and Family Matters, her latest poetry collection. She co-edited the recent anthology Old Age & Young Hearts. Judie teaches memoir and poetry classes for OLLI at Sierra College.

The poets’ books will be available for purchase and signing. The Foundry bar will be open, so come early, purchase a beverage, find a good seat in the Stone Hall, and enjoy the fine works of these five local poets.

The Festival fringe events are free events, but donations to the SPF are appreciated.

Check out the details of all of the fringe events and Sierra Poetry Festival: sierrapoetryfestival.org