Fighting Fire with Poetry

Local poets have responded to the Tea Fire by organizing a reading in honor of Paul Willis, a Westmont English professor and poet who lost his home and library in the blaze. Proceeds from the reading will benefit the Westmont Wildfire Relief Fund. The event will be Saturday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. in the Fé Bland Forum at Santa Barbara City College.

Local poets including Perie Longo, Barry Spacks, Lois Klein, David Starkey, Diana Raab, Nancy Lee, Enid Osborn, Chella Courington, Carol DeCanio and Glenna Luschei, and Willis will read from their work. The event is organized by Osborn and Klein, and hosted by Starkey, professor of English and director of the creative writing program at City College.

Along with tax-deductible donations to the Wildfire Relief Fund, audience members may contribute books by contemporary and local poets to rebuild Willis’s lost library.

For information about the Wildfire Relief Fund, please visit www.westmont.edu/giving. For information about this event, please contact Enid Osborne at greenpoetproject@yahoo.com or 805-687-6426.