GERALDINE CONNOLLY & LAUREL BENJAMIN at Books Inc. Alameda

The Book of Light Poetry Series presents Geraldine Connolly and Laurel Benjamin!

Geraldine will read from her new collection, Instructions at Sunset , and Laurel Benjamin will read from her new book, Flowers on a Train.

"Geraldine Connolly's Instructions at Sunset instructs us about why we love poetry—the sensuality evoked throughout by the warmth of the sun, the scent of underbrush, and the simmer of dinner on the stove—images gifted us so we also live these rare moments. And surprises, too, when Connolly's noticing transforms suddenly into meaning, and we draw a breath. Many poets rely on "the pain-of-the-past" for deep feelings, but this is a book about the present, the startling brilliant present, caught exactly as it happens, for the reader to know the splendor of living in the best possible air." --Grace Cavalieri, Maryland's tenth Poet Laureate

Geraldine Connolly is the author of five books: Food for the Winter, Province of Fire, Hand of the Wind, Aileron. Her work has appeared in a variety of literary journals, including Poetry, Shenandoah, the Georgia Review, and the Gettysburg Review. She is the recipient of two NEA fellowships, She was executive editor of Poet Lore from 1994 to 2000 and has taught workshops for the University of Arizona Poetry Center, Chautauqua Institution, The Writers Center in Bethesda, and the Graduate Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. She recently moved to Alameda, California.

Flowers on a Train traverses a natural world both real and imagined, where we hunger for something beyond the boundaries of loss. Rich in crisp, lush imagery and filled with family, food, art, and music, the poems take us to local and far away places. Walking the neighborhood before surgery, we encounter a talking tree, hiking in a Sierra storm, the skies appear as a white bird, and listening to a New York jazz combo, we time-travel to Paris in the 20s. In the end, Benjamin shows us that through memory, forgiveness, and reconciliation, we can navigate what's broken.

Laurel Benjamin's book, Flowers on a Train is a finalist for the Cider Press Book Award and received an Honorable Mention for the Small Harbor Publishing Laureate Prize. A San Francisco Bay Area poet, she is active with the Women’s Poetry Salon and is a reader for Common Ground Review. She founded and leads Ekphrastic Writers, a group dedicated to writing and community. . Her work has also been anthologized in Women in a Golden State (Gunpowder Press, 2025), The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America's Land, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders (2025), among others. Laurel holds an MFA from Mills College.

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