Robin Ekiss, Keith Ekiss, and Santi Elijah Holley

On the 8/6/25 edition of Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour:

Partners Robin Ekiss and Keith Ekiss are the first guests on the program. A former colleague of Dr.Andy’s, Robin reflects on her time at UC Davis, mentored by poets such as Sandra McPherson and Sandra Gilbert. Keith discusses his recent book, Burial Fragments, which co-won the Barry Sparks Poetry Prize for 2024 from Gunpowder Press. He describes the collection as his “San Francisco book report,” documenting change in the city since the dot-com bubble. They then both share poems, with Robin reading “The bird of God.” and Keith reading a piece titled “Explaining Shockley.” The next guest on the show is Santi Elijah Holley, who describes his recent publication in the New York Times column Letters of Recommendations, “I don’t believe in God I believe in Gospel music.” He describes his journey with gospel music, and how he came upon the genre later in life. Holley credits listening to music from a critical lens as a reason why he was able to become a successful writer, writing an award winning book about the Shakur family. He recommends the gospel songs “Previous Lord Take my Hand,” “How I Got Over” and “Sit down Servant." 

Robin Ekiss earned her MA in creative writing from UC Davis so many years ago that Dr. Andy was actually one of her graduate student colleagues. A former Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, she’s the author of The Mansion of Happiness, winner of the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize and a finalist for the Northern California Book Awards. Her poems and prose have appeared inThe Atlantic, POETRY, APR, and elsewhere. She’s a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for emerging women writers, and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Headlands Center for the Arts. 

Keith Ekiss is the author of two collections of poetry — Burial Fragments, co-winner of the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize for 2024 from Gunpowder Press — and Pima Road Notebook (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2010), a book about growing up on the edge of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona. As a translator, his works include The Fire’s Journey (Tavern Books, 2019), an epic poem by the Costa Rican writer Eunice Odio in four volumes and Territory of Dawn: The Selected Poems of Eunice Odio, published in 2016 by The Bitter Oleander Press. He has been a lecturer in the Creative Writing program at Stanford since 2007.

Santi Elijah Holley is an award-winning journalist and a recipient of the 2019 Robert B. Silvers grant for Work in Progress, and a 2017 Oregon Literary Fellowship for nonfiction. His 2023 nonfiction book, An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created, was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice, an NPR selection for “Books We Love,” "Best Book of the Year" by Kirkus Reviews, and longlisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His book on Black American independent cinema is forthcoming by Mariner Books. He lives in Los Angeles.

The Poetry Night Reading Series takes place on first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, by John Natsoulas, Robby Nykodym, and by members of the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis. Robin and Keith Ekiss will read at the 8/7/25 iteration of Poetry in Davis.

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.