Mercedes Ibáñez and Jean Biegun

On the 8/7/24 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Poet Mercedes Ibáñez shares her fondness for the Davis poetry community. She shares how her early life in Peru spawned her poetic aspirations, and how Poetry Nights In Davis have inspired her new work. Mercedes then shares two poems, “The Wolf” and “Celia and Sam,” both from her new book, Poems from the Roof. Jean Biegun then joins to discuss the publication of her new book Edge Effects. Jean describes what an Edge Effect is, the negative effects a plant or animal suffers when a human encroaches on their space. She then shares poems titled “Showdown” and “Limbo.”

Mercedes Ibáñez is a poet and retired psychologist who was born in Perú and who has lived in Davis, California since 1976. The author of five books of poetry, Ibáñez won the National Award in Literature (Perú) in 1971. Ibáñez’s translation of Ezra Pound’s Hugh Selwyn Mauberley was published in 1973. Her 1977 book Caterpillars/Collective was introduced by Kate Millett. 2024 saw the publication of her new book, Poems from the Roof. The mother of two daughters, and a grandmother of four, Ibáñez is a crowd-favorite at the Poetry Night Reading Series at the Natsoulas Gallery in Davis.

Jean Biegun’s poems have appeared in over 40 different journals, anthologies, and art exhibits, even in a state DNR annual calendar and a gumball machine at a poetry convention. Her chapbook Hitchhikers to Eden was published in 2022 and recently Edge Effects in 2024, both by Kelsay Books. The title poem “Edge Effects” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Gyroscope Review in 2022. Work this year has appeared in Ekstasis, Right Hand Pointing, Third Wednesday, Mad Swirl, Unbroken, Davis arts and culture newspaper The Dirt, and is forthcoming in Amethyst Review’s anthology Thin Places and Sacred Spaces.

The Poetry Night Reading Series is excited to feature an evening with poets Mercedes Ibáñez and Jean Biegun at 7 PM on Thursday, August 15th, 2024, on the first floor of the John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street in Davis. If the weather is nice, we may meet on the roof.

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, visit his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com and follow him on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@andyojones. 

Find out more about Dr. Andy's Poetry Night Reading Series in Davis, California by visiting http://www.poetryindavis.com. Invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list. To learn more about Dr. Andy’s tiny media fiefdom, subscribe to his weekly newsletter at https://andyjones.substack.com.