Chaucer’s Books will host an evening of poetry with readings from the new release “Women in a Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond,” 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 24 at 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.

Co-hosted by the book’s editors Chryss Yost and Diana Raab, the event will feature poetry readings from the book by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, M.L. Brown, Jina Carvalho, Fran Davis, Stephanie Barbe Hammer, Christine Kravetz, Shirley Lim, Perie Longo, Kathee Miller, and Dale Griffiths Stamos.

“Women in a Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond,” published by Santa Barbara’s Gunpowder Press celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of women from across the state, highlighting the rich and varied lives and perspectives of older writers, proving that age is no barrier to achievement, creativity, or relevance.

The collection includes 175 poets honoring 2025 as California’s 175th anniversary of statehood. The collection invites readers to reconsider aging not as an end, but as an ongoing journey filled with beauty, strength, and boundless possibilities.

Raab is a poet, memoirist, workshop leader, award-winning author of 14 books including being editor of three anthologies. Her work has been widely published and anthologized and she’s been nominated for Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She been published  in SALT, Verse-Virtual, Rattle and others. 

Yost is the co-editor, with David Starkey, of Gunpowder Press. A life-long Californian, she served as Santa Barbara County Poet Laureate (2013-15) and earned her Ph.D. in education from UCSB.