Browse Reading by Year

Lucille Clifton reads widely from her extensive body of work. This performance includes poems from her final collection, Voices (2008), as well as several uncollected and unpublished poems.

Rae Armantrout reads from the collection Next Life and the manuscript of Versed. Versed was published two years after this performance.

Steve Orlen reads poems that would go on to be collected in his chapbook A Thousand Threads (2009), as well as five unpublished poems. This reading was originally given with Jason Brown. 

Jason Brown reads "She" from his short-story collection Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work. This reading was originally given with Steve Orlen.

In this dual-language performance, Francisco X. Alarcón reads from Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (1992) and Of Dark Love (1992). He also reads work and shares illustrations from five of his books of poetry for children. The poems in many of these books are presented in both Spanish and English. The reading closes with a selection of poems from an unpublished manuscript titled Life Song.

Peter Turchi discusses some of the ideas presented in his book Maps of the Imagination (2004) and makes a case for the role of geometry and formal constraint in fiction.

Colleagues and friends of Jon Anderson (1940-2007) read and discuss his work in this tribute performance.

This panel discussion occurred the morning following a tribute held in appreciation of Jon Anderson and his work.

María Elena Wakamatsu reads from her work as the recipient of the inaugural Mary Ann Campau Memorial Fellowship for Southern Arizona Writers.

Junot Díaz reads from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007).

Taha Muhammad Ali reads primarily from his book So What (2006) in the original Arabic, with Peter Cole reading each poem's translation in English.

W.S. Merwin reads from Travels (1993), The Rain in the Trees (1988), and The Shadow of Sirius (2008). Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Charles Bernstein and Tracie Morris perform as part of the Poetry Center's Conceptual Poetry and Its Others Symposium.

Craig Dworkin and Kenneth Goldsmith read in the Poetry Center's Conceptual Poetry and Its Others symposium.

Featured poets Caroline Bergvall, Charles Bernstein, Christian Bök, Craig Dworkin, Kenneth Goldsmith, Tracie Morris, and Cole Swensen provide a wide range of responses to questions proposed by Tenney Nathanson. This panel was part of the Conceptual Poetry and Its Others Symposium.

Caroline Bergvall reads poems that would go on to be published in her collection Meddle English (2011). This reading was originally given alongside Cole Swensen and Christian Bök.

Christian Bök performs work from Eunoia (2001) and unpublished pieces in a reading for the Poetry Center's Conceptual Poetry and Its Others symposium. This reading was originally given alongside Caroline Bergvall and Cole Swensen.

Cole Swensen reads from Ours (2008) and a work in progress about ghosts that would go on to be published as Gravesend (2012). This reading was originally presented alongside Caroline Bergvall and Christian Bök.

In this second roundtable discussion for the Poetry Center's Conceptual Poetry and Its Others symposium, Marjorie Peloff moderates for Jesper Olsson, Marie Smart, Linda Reinfeld, Vanessa Place, Charles Alexander, and Brian Reed.

In this second roundtable discussion for the Poetry Center's Conceptual Poetry and Its Others Symposium, Laynie Browne, Barbara Cole, Wystan Curnow, Jonathan Stalling, Graca Capinha, and Stephen Fredman discuss different facets of conceptual poetics with moderator Marjorie Perloff.

Marilynne Robinson reads from her novel Home (2008), a companion to the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Gilead.

Jean Valentine reads poems appearing in Little Boat (2007) and Lucy (2009). This reading was originally given with Catherine Barnett.

In this reading with Jean Valentine, Catherine Barnett reads poems from her collection Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced (2004), as well as new work.

Lee Ann Brown reads poems that would go on to appear in In the Laurels, Caught (2013), Crowns of Charlotte (2013), and Other Archer (2015); she also performs poems from Polyverse (1999) and The Sleep That Changed Everything (2003).

Ofelia Zepeda reads from her collection Where Clouds Are Formed (2008). This reading was originally given with Luci Tapahonso. 

Luci Tapahonso reads works from her collection A Radiant Curve (2008), as well as unpublished works. This reading was originally given with Ofelia Zepeda.

Manuel Muñoz reads excerpts from "Señor X," a story from his 2007 collection The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue. This reading was originally given with Tenney Nathanson. 

Tenney Nathanson reads poems appearing in his collection Ghost Snow Falls Through the Void (2010). This reading was originally given with Manuel Muñoz.

Mónica de la Torre reads two pieces from Public Domain, including the long poem "The Crush." This reading was originally given with Bhanu Kapil and Ben Lerner as part of the Next Word in Poetry series. 

Bhanu Kapil reads selections from Humanimal: A Project for Future Children, released by Kelsey Street Press the year following Kapil's Next Word reading. This reading was originally given with Mónica de la Torre and Ben Lerner. 

Ben Lerner reads "Mean Free Path," the first and eponymous section from a manuscript that would go on to be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2010. This reading was originally given with Bhanu Kapil and Mónica de la Torre as part of the Next Word in Poetry Series. 

Boyer Rickel reads primarily from his collections Remanence (2008) and reliquary (2009).

Stephanie Balzer performs prose poems from her chapbooks Revenant and faster, faster. She ends the reading with a discussion about her relationship with the prose poem form.

Peter Gizzi reads primarily from Some Values of Landscape and Weather (2003), The Outernationale (2007), and Threshold Songs (2011).

In a performance for the first annual Tucson Festival of Books, Sherwin Bitsui reads from Shapeshift and the manuscript of Flood Song. This reading was originally given alongside a performance by Juan Felipe Herrera.

Juan Felipe Herrera performs his poetry and speaks movingly about song, language, and family in a reading given alongside Sherwin Bitsui for the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books. Herrera's Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems, published by the University of Arizona Press, was announced as the winner of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award just two days prior to this reading.

Alison Hawthorne Deming reads from her 2009 volume of poetry, Rope. This reading was originally given with Luci Tapahonso. 

C. K. Williams reads poems from Wait (2009) at the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books.

Rebecca Seiferle reads a long sequence, "On the Island of Bones," from her poetry collection Wild Tongue (2007). This reading for the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books was originally given alongside Demetria Martínez.

Demetria Martinez reads work from The Devil's Workshop (2002), Breathing Between the Lines (1997), and Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (2005). She also reads a short story from the manuscript of The Block Captain's Daughter, which would go on to be published by University of Oklahoma Press in 2012. This reading was originally given alongside Rebecca Seiferle. 

Peggy Shumaker reads from Gnawed Bones (2010).

Billy Collins reads for the inaugural Tucson Festival of Books, including new poems that would be published two years later in Horoscopes for the Dead.

Luci Tapahonso reads from A Radiant Curve (2008). This reading was originally given with Alison Hawthorne Deming.

As part of the Tucson Festival of Books, Jimmy Santiago Baca performs excerpts from his collection of poems Healing Earthquakes.

Christopher Burawa reads from The Small Mystery of Lapses (2006). He also reads uncollected and unpublished poems, including translations of poems by Icelandic poet Jóhann Hjálmarsson. This reading was originally given alongside Ofelia Zepeda for the inaugural Tucson Festival of Books.

Ken Lamberton reads from Wilderness and Razor Wire (2000) and Time of Grace (2007); both collections explore his views of nature from prison.

Ofelia Zepeda reads from Where Clouds Are Formed (2008). This reading was originally given with Christopher Burawa.

Jane Miller reads from her collection Midnights (2008).