Turbulent Events in Oakland Spark Emotion in Alumna Hollie Hardy's Poetry

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS -- Former student Hollie Hardy’s return to her alma mater brought a blend of personal expression and political commentary as she read to listeners her first published poetry collection. Hardy visited the University September 15 to read selected poems from her collection, “How To Take a Bullet: And Other Survival Poems.” Hardy, who is originally from Michigan, has lived in Oakland for 23 years and is strongly connected with the community. She is the core producer of the Beast Crawl Literary Festival, an annual event in downtown Oakland. She has also produced an open mic event called Saturday Night Special, was curator of Litquake’s Flight of Poets and a former editor-in-chief of Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review. “(Hardy) puts tremendous energy into whatever local community she is in,” said Robert Glück, a Creative Writing professor at SF State and the host of Monday’s reading.