Browse Reading by Year

Carolyn Kizer reads poems from Yin (1984), Mermaids In the Basement (1984), and Cool, Calm & Collected (2001). This reading was originally given with Marina Rivera.

Marina Rivera reads from Mestiza (1977) and Sobra (1977); she also reads several uncollected poems. This reading was originally given with Carolyn Kizer. 

Mona Van Duyn reads from her collections To See, To Take (1970), Selected Poems (2002), and Letters from a Father and Other Poems (1982). This reading was originally given with Maura Stanton.

Maura Stanton reads from Snow on Snow (1975) and Cries of Swimmers (1984). This reading was given with Mona Van Duyn.

Alan Dugan reads from his first four books of poems; he also reads unpublished poems and poems that would go on to appear in New and Collected Poems (1983).

Jonathan Penner reads from Going Blind (1977) as well as work published in periodicals.

Ira Sadoff reads from his collections Alcools (1964), Settling Down (1975), Palm Reading in Winter (1978), A Northern Calendar (1982), and Emotional Traffic (1989) in addition to one uncollected poem in translation. 

Stanley Elkin reads The State of the Art from his collection of short stories The Living End.

David Ignatow reads widely from his work. This reading includes poems collected in Facing the Tree (1975) and Tread the Dark (1978), as well as uncollected poems and early drafts of poems that would go on to appear in collections such as Whisper to the Earth (1981) and Leaving the Door Open (1984).

Brenda Hillman reads primarily from her collection Coffee, 3 a.m. (1981). She also reads poems from a then forthcoming collection, White Dress (1985).

Leonard Michaels reads from what would become his novel The Men's Club (1981). 

Diane Wakoski reads widely from her body of work.

Here, Hass reads from his collections Field Guide (1973) and Praise (1979). He also reads poems that would later be published, under different titles, in his 1989 collection Human Wishes.

In her first reading as a member of the University of Arizona faculty, Tess Gallagher reads from her first three collections, Stepping Outside (1974), Instructions to the Double (1976), and Under Stars (1978). She also treats the audience by singing a traditional Irish folk song that has been an inspiration to her writing.

Robert Pack reads widely from his work and comments on the stories behind many of his poems.

Jane Shore reads poems appearing in Eye Level (1977) and The Minute Hand (1987).

Donald Hall reads primarily from Kicking the Leaves (1978). He also shares several works in progress as well as some older poems.

Patricia Hampl reads poetry and prose from Woman Before an Aquarium (1978), Resort and Other Poems (1983), and A Romantic Education (1981); she also reads a short story from the anthology The North Country Reader: Classic Stories from Minnesota Writers (1979).

Thomas Lux opens this reading with a performance of Hart Crane's poem "Voyages." He reads primarily from Sunday, a book published during the year prior to this performance, and ends with a poem that would be collected in 1986 in Half Promised Land.

Richard Shelton reads at Flandrau Planetarium.

Jon Anderson's closes the Poetry Center's April 1980 tribute to James Wright with a poem from Wright's collection To a Blossoming Pear Tree.

Jon Anderson's performance from the Poetry Center's April 1980 tribute to James Wright includes work from three collections by Wright: To a Blossoming Pear Tree, Shall We Gather at the River, and Two Citizens.

Australian poets Vincent Buckley, Les Murray, and David Malouf visit Tucson to read their work, also providing background and commentary. Les Murray reads a selection of poems in chronological order, including his oldest poem "The Burning Crook." Vincent Buckley reads from Golden Builders (1976), Late Winter Child (1979), and The Pattern (1979), as well as some unpublished poems. David Malouf reads both poetry and passages from his novel An Imaginary Life (1978).

On the eve of his 75th birthday, Robert Penn Warren reads from Promises: Poems 1954-1956 (1957), Incarnations: Poems 1966-1968 (1968), Or Else: Poem/Poems 1968-1974 (1974), Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978 (1978), and Being Here: Poetry 1977-1980 (1980).

Leonard Michaels reads from short stories written throughout his career, and concludes the reading with an excerpt from his novel The Men's Club (1981). His uncompromising realist sketches catch characters at their darkest and most vulnerable moments, and are colored with absurdist humor. Stories include those published in his collections Going Places (1969) and I Would Have Saved Them If I Could (1975). 

Steve Orlen reads from his books Permission to Speak (1978), Separate Creatures (1976), and Sleeping on Doors (1975).

John Ashbery reads widely from his body of work, including poems from both Shadow Train and A Wave, which were published in the four years that followed this reading.

Yehuda Amichai reads widely from his extensive body of work, reading some poems in both English and Hebrew. Several translations (including translations of poem titles) performed here differ from the translations collected in his books.

Maxine Kumin reads from several collections including her first book, Halfway (1961), as well as Upcountry (1972) and House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1975). She reads poems on themes such as animals, dreams, water, and the body, as well as two elegies to her close friend Anne Sexton, and a series of seven riddles.

John Gardner reads from two of his stories, "Coyote and the Dead Man" and "Come on Back."

Author and illustrator Faye Kicknosway reads poems from her book The Cat Approaches (1978); she also reads from a manuscript that would eventually become the Pulitzer Prize–nominated Who Shall Know Them? (1985), a series of ekphrastic poems engaging with Walker Evans's famed photographs of life during the Great Depression. This reading was originally given alongside readings by Alan Feldman and Linda Gregg.

Linda Gregg reads primarily from Too Bright to See (1981).

Alan Feldman reads from his collection The Happy Genius (1978), as well as two new poems.

Donald Justice performs poems published between 1973 and 1987. The first two sections from his poetic sequence My South are read and introduced with titles that differ from those that appear in the 1987 collection The Sunset Maker.

Michael Ryan reads poems appearing in In Winter (1981) and God Hunger (2004).

William Matthews reads poems appearing in Flood (1982) and A Happy Childhood (1984).

Pamela Stewart reads just after joining the University of Arizona faculty. She reads from a series of poems titled "The One and the Other," exploring an attempt to escape obsession.

In this performance for the Writers at Work Series, Katherine Toy Miller and Vance Bourjaily read from their fiction. Katherine Toy Miller reads six short stories from a collection titled Eleanor, along with a short story titled "The Critical Session." Vance Bourjaily reads segments from a novel-in-progress called The Great Fake Book. Bourjaily ends his reading by performing a short solo on the cornet.

In this performance, Michael Burkard reads from his first three books, particularly from the 1981 collection Ruby for Grief. He also reads some uncollected work.

Lisel Mueller reads from The Private Life (1976), The Need to Hold Still (1980), and Second Language (1986).