persona poems

Lynn Emanuel reads from her third collection, The Dig (1992), which includes many persona poems focused on small town life in Nevada and the impacts of nuclear weapons testing. She opens with an early version of "The Politics of Narrative: Why I Am a Poet," which would later appear in Then, Suddenly— (1999).

Longtime University of Arizona faculty member Peter Wild reads poems from The Brides of Christ (1991), together with poems that would remain uncollected or appear in his final poetry collection, Easy Victory (1994). Throughout, he reads poems about individuals from American history, European art history, and the Bible.

Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove reads poems from her book Playlist for the Apocalypse (2021). This reading was presented as part of the 2022 Tucson Humanities Festival. 

Tyehimba Jess reads historical persona poems from leadbelly (2005) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Olio (2016), including the full sonnet sequence about the McKoy twins from Olio. He also discusses the research behind Olio and the complex forms he uses throughout the collection, particularly his syncopated sonnets.

Paisley Rekdal presents from West: A Translation (2023), a documentary hybrid work centered on the Transcontinental Railroad, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and racism in America. Rekdal shares video poems from the book's companion website and reads the essays corresponding to those poems. She shapes her reading around topics selected by the audience: labor, Mormons, Chinese death rituals, Robert Smithson (creator of Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake), the biracial experience, prostitution, and Hollywood's portrayal of women and the railroad.