Lines and lyrics from Litquake Nation! Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors.

Jay Deshpande is the author of the poetry collection Love the Stranger, named a top debut of 2015 by Poets & Writers, and of the chapbook The Rest of the Body, both published by YesYes Books. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Narrative, and elsewhere. He is at work on a collection of poems and a book of translations of Egyptian surrealist Georges Henein. Formerly on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, he will be a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University in the fall.

Monica Sok is a Cambodian American poet. She is the author of the chapbook Year Zero (Poetry Society of America, 2016) and has been awarded fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Kundiman, Montalvo Arts Center, and the NEA. Most recently, her work has been recognized with a “Discovery” / Boston Review Poetry Prize. She is a 2018-2020 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Kristin Chang lives in NY and reads for Winter Tangerine. Her work has been anthologized in Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3 and Ink Knows No Borders. She is the recipient of a 2019 Pushcart Prize and Resist/Recycle/Regenerate fellowship with the Wing On Wo Project in Manhattan Chinatown, where she helps teach paper-making workshops. Her debut chapbook Past Lives, Future Bodies is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press (October 2018).

sam sax is the author of Madness (Penguin, 2017) winner of The National Poetry Series and ‘Bury It’ (Wesleyan University Press, 2018) winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. He’s received fellowships from the NEA, Lambda Literary, & the MacDowell Colony. He’s the two-time Bay Area Grand Slam Champion with poems in BuzzFeed, The Nation, The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, + other journals. He’s the poetry editor at BOAAT Press + currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Gala (pronounced: GAH-LAH) is an acoustic indie folk-pop trio based in Oakland, CA with roots in Chile, Guam, and the Philippines. Their music deals with themes of migration, justice, heartache, and resilience. Gala’s sound is magnetic, transportive, and tender often inspired by a long tradition of Chilean and South American folkloric music. The group plays a mix of lively covers and original music with thoughtful lyrics and soulful harmonies. Gala takes its name from a beloved furry friend who takes her name from Salvador Dalí’s muse.