L.A. Book Launch: Left at the Ruin by Jacqueline Berger

Author Jackie Berger launches her fifth book of poetry, Left at the Ruin, published by Terrapin Books. The author will be reading from her collection in the Wanda Coleman Theater. Book signings and reception to follow after the readings.

These poems, these words, they are quiet fires every one. Palpable feeling comes out of these lines, rendering an intimacy melancholy but celebratory too in their constant acts of self-discovery. These poems are in immediate conversation with the reader, speaking—never shouting—their startling news of the everyday uncovered, or recovered, in stunning moments of feeling: “the sheer joy of being a body, / keeping it up all night.” The poems live true to their insights, traversing some imaginary line: “Give desire a boundary / and it sails across.” Those words speak for the book, but they come with a quiet kind of sadness as well: “All of my ages swarm / against the mismatch of time.” We may know that sensibility ourselves intellectually, but in these poems we are made to truly feel it.

—Alberto Rios, Not Go Away Is My Name

Doors Open: 1:30 PM | Readings: 2:00 PM

Livestream: If you can’t join us in-person the event will be livestreamed on at the scheduled time of the event. A link will be sent to you 24 hours prior to the event after registering.

Jacqueline Berger’s fifth book of poetry, Left at the Ruin, was just published by Terrapin Books. Her previous books include The Day You Miss Your Exit, Broadstone Books; The Gift That Arrives Broken, winner of the 2010 Autumn House Poetry Prize; Things That Burn, winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize; and The Mythologies of Danger, winner of the 1998 Bluestem Award and the Bay Area Book Awards Poetry Prize. Her poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac as well as in numerous anthologies and journals. She is a professor emerita at Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, California, and has recently relocated to the Central Coast with her husband.

This event is Free & In-Person at Beyond Baroque. Masks are encouraged while inside our center.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, fellow attendees, or performers.

Host or Publisher Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center