In this wacky and fabulous literary event full of quips, repartee, and wordplay, emcee Daniel Handler pitches prompts from the audience to two teams of poets who wield their poems to compete for the series title. Featuring "players" D.M. Spratley, Joe Kidney, Katie Peterson, Jason Bayani, Dora Prieto, Brandon Logans and umps Joseph Millar and Danusha Lumeris.

This program is for adults and high school students only. No one younger will be admitted. Doors open at 6:30 for a beer/pretzels reception. for pre-registered guests. Waitlisted patrons are let in at 6:45. Late arriving pre-registered  guests need to join the end of the line.

EMCEE

Daniel Handler’s seven novels include Why We Broke Up, All The Dirty Parts and Bottle Grove. As Lemony Snicket, he is the author of far too many books for children, including Poison for Breakfast, All The Wrong Questions and A Series of Unfortunate Events, adapted for screen and television. His latest book is a memoir, And Then? And Then What Else? 


 

PLAYERS / POETS

Jason Bayani is the author of Everyone I Love, Alive, Locus (Omnidawn Publishing) and Amulet (Write Bloody Publishing). An MFA graduate of Saint Mary's College, he is the co-executive director of Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multi-disciplinary AAPI arts organization in the country. He performs regularly across the United States.

Joseph Kidney's debut collection, Devotional Forensics, was published with icehouse poetry in spring of 2025. His poems have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry and are forthcoming in The Iowa Review and The Cincinnati Review. He works as a lecturer at Stanford University, where he completed his PhD in Renaissance drama.

Brandon Logans is a poet from Oakland, California. His debut collection published by Black Lawrence Press, Phosphene, was a finalist for the 94th California Book Award.  He might describe himself as a rectangular sheet of honey 30” x 62”, 6” above any surface. 

Katie Peterson is the author of six books of poetry, including Fog and Smoke (2024) and A Piece of Good News (2021). She was born in California and has lived in England, Massachusetts, Vermont, and the High Mojave desert. Now she lives in Berkeley. She teaches at UC Davis. 

Dora Prieto is a Mexican-Canadian poet and translator writing from Ohlone land in Oakland. She is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford and the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Blood Tejido (House of Anansi, 2027), as well as co-translator of JAWS [tiburón] (Cardboard House Press, May 2026). ★ Poem auntie ☆

D. M. Spratley is a Wallace Stegner Fellow, Cave Canem Fellow, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, and William C. Friday Fellow. Her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Best New Poets, and The Adroit Journal. She is at work on a poetry manuscript, a novel, and a collection of essays.

UMPIRES

Joe Millar is the author of 5 books of poetry, including Dark Harvest, New & Selected Poems in 2021, and his most recent, Shine, in October 2024. He has won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and he teaches in Pacific University's low-residency MFA Program.

Danusha Lameris is the author of three books of poetry, including her most recent, Blade by Blade in 2024 from Copper Canyon. She is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize and the 2020 Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, and she served as the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California. She teaches in Pacific University’s low-residency MFA program.