Back by popular demand, the reading series “Spirits in the Air: Potent Potable Poetry” will offer its second annual Halloween-themed event on Tuesday, October 13 at The Good Lion, 1212 State Street, Santa Barbara. There will be a poetic happy hour from 4:30 – 5:30 pm followed by the poetry reading itself from 5:30 – 6:30 pm. The evening, which has free admission (and a no-host bar), is open to the public. The series—which began in 2015—has become so popular, filling The Good Lion with lovers of poetry and cocktails, that it has spun off a second edition for each year. 

“Brando Ristaino and Misty Orman, owners of the Good Lion, kindly offered us the opportunity to hold a second event in October again this year,” says George Yatchisin, reading ringleader. “How marvelously macabre it should be, getting to write about not just alcoholic spirits but also spooky ones for the Halloween season.”

A group of invited poets will read their work, and the work of others, about libations of all sorts. The reading will be hosted by Santa Barbara Poet Laureate George Yatchisin, food writer for the Santa Barbara Independent, former “Drinkable Landscape” columnist for Edible Santa Barbara, and editor of the anthology A Feast for Santa Barbara: Poets Celebrating Food & Drink (Gunpowder Press 2026). 

Featured readers will include Mary Brown, Stephanie Barbé Hammer, Rebecca Horrigan, Robert Krut, Michaela McGinnis, Joshua Minjarez, Elizabeth Pérez, David Starkey, Emma Trelles, and Chryss Yost. 

“From Bacchus to Berryman, from Li Po to Dorothy Parker, drink and lyric flights have danced a long, sometimes loving, sometimes leery waltz,” Yatchisin says. “This event will attest to the multi-faceted ways poets have found inspiration, solace, and yes, sometimes sickness in the bottle. In a time when an attention to words matters more than ever, this reading makes clear just how fun bringing the truth of poetry can be. This strong slate of readers looks forward to packing our fantastic partner The Good Lion once again.”