Browse Reading by Year

Ofelia Zepeda welcomes the audience to the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference. She reads poems from Ocean Power (1995) and Where Clouds Are Formed (2008), along with several more recent poems.

Roberto Tejada gives a talk titled "Diagonal and Self-Possessed Group Portrait with Liminal Figures" as part of the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference.

James Thomas Stevens reads from a manuscript version of The Golden Book (2021) at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference.

Trish Salah reads from Wanting in Arabic (2002), If a child is a land you may not own (2013), and Lyric Sexology Vol. 1 (2017, Canadian edition) at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference.

Urayoán Noel presents a talk titled "Is Queer Afro-Latin@ Poetics a Thing?" as part of the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference. He also performs an improvised poem with smartphone accompaniment.

Poet Douglas Kearney and percussionist/electronic musican Val Jeanty present a collaborative performance titled "Fodder," which combines poetry and music at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference. The poems primarily come from Kearney's Buck Studies (2016).

At the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference, several members of the Thinking Its Presence Board—Vidhu Aggarwal, Ching-In Chen, Lisa Jarrett, and Lehua Taitano—read from or discuss their creative work. Board member Farid Matuk reads work from a selection of Tucson-based writers: Samuel Ace, Susan Briante, Wendy Burk, Hannah Ensor, Teré Fowler-Chapman, Sarah Gonzales, Logan Phillips, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Brandon Shimoda, TC Tolbert, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, and Ofelia Zepeda. 

Patricia Spears Jones reads poems from across her career as published in A Lucent Fire: New & Selected Poems (2015), along with uncollected work at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference. She also reads one poem from Stardust, landmines, and cartoons: Poems from 2006 to 2014 (2015).

At the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference, members of the MT+NYC Collaborative (Ciara Rose Griffin, William F. Hubbard, Kendra Mylnechuk, Aja M. Sherrard, and Brooke Swaney) perform an early draft of The Buffalo Play, a play written by Ciara Rose Griffin and Kendra Mylnechuk. 

Layli Long Soldier reads poems from Whereas (2017). This reading was originally given with Timothy Yu as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Timothy Yu reads poems from 100 Chinese Silences (2016), along with new poems that rework John Berryman's The Dream Songs. This reading was originally given with Layli Long Soldier as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Rubén Martínez discusses being at an impasse in writing, what he describes as surgimiento in Spanish, or emergence. His talk touches on his personal experience and writing, as well as work by other writers and artists.

Rita Dove reads from her Collected Poems, 1974-2004 (2016) as well as from uncollected poems at the Phoenix Art Museum. This reading was originally given with Sandra Cisneros and Joy Harjo in partnership with ArchiTEXTS: A Conversation Across Languages with Natalie Diaz.

Joy Harjo reads from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015) and from uncollected work at the Phoenix Art Museum. She also reads one poem from The Woman Who Fell from the Sky (1994). This reading was originally given with Sandra Cisneros and Rita Dove in partnership with ArchiTEXTS: A Conversation Across Languages with Natalie Diaz.

Sandra Cisneros reads uncollected poems at the Phoenix Art Museum. This reading was originally given with Rita Dove and Joy Harjo in partnership with ArchiTEXTS: A Conversation Across Languages with Natalie Diaz.

Eleanor Wilner reads poems from Reversing the Spell: New & Selected Poems (1998), The Girl with Bees in Her Hair (2004), and Tourist in Hell (2010), along with poems that would go on to be collected in Before Our Eyes: New and Selected Poems, 1975-2017 (2019). 

Charles Yu reads "Origin Story," a draft of a chapter from his novel Interior Chinatown (2020). This reading was originally given with Kristen Radtke.

Kristen Radtke reads from Imagine Wanting Only This (2017). This reading was originally given with Charles Yu.

Khaled Mattawa reads poems from a manuscript in progress, including a poetic sequence on human trafficking and global migration. Some poems would go on to appear in Fugitive Atlas (2020). 

Khaled Mattawa presents a lecture on the long poem, in which he considers different types of long poems, their inspiration and subject matter, and their effect. The lecture incorporates portions of a published essay, "Epic Temptations: On an Unwritten Poem." Mattawa also reads from a sequence of poems in progress that would later appear in Fugitive Atlas (2020).

Norman Fischer reads poems from I Was Blown Back (2005) and Questions/Places/Voices/Seasons (2009), along with one uncollected poem and a poem by Rodney Koeneke. He also answers questions from the audience.

Joshua Beckman presents a lecture on poems as "an exposure of unknowing" and reading aloud as a way of immersing the body and mind in a poem. This lecture was originally given with Terrance Hayes and Dorothea Lasky as part of the 2018 Bagley Wright Lecture Series conference "You Are Who I Am Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience."

Terrance Hayes gives a lecture on his work in relationship to Etheridge Knight's "The Idea of Ancestry." This lecture was originally given with Joshua Beckman and Dorothea Lasky as part of the 2018 Bagley Wright Lecture Series conference "You Are Who I Am Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience."

Dorothea Lasky gives a lecture on material imagination, poetry, and ghosts. She also reads two poems from Milk (2018). This lecture was originally given with Joshua Beckman and Terrance Hayes as part of the 2018 Bagley Wright Lecture Series conference "You Are Who I Am Talking To: Poetry, Attention, & Audience."

Timothy Donnelly gives a lecture on catachresis, the uncanny, and Emily Dickinson. He also reads three poems that would later appear in The Problem of Many (2019). This lecture was originally given with Srikanth Reddy and Rachel Zucker as part of the 2018 Bagley Wright Lecture Series conference "You Are Who I Am Talking To: Poetry, Attention, and Audience."

Rachel Zucker reads from an early draft of The Poetics of Wrongness (2023), her collection of essay-lectures which consider confessional poetry, the ethics of writing about one's life and relationships, and the primacy of motherhood. This lecture was originally given with Timothy Donnelly and Srikanth Reddy as part of the 2018 Bagley Wright Lecture Series conference "You Are Who I Am Talking To: Poetry, Attention, and Audience."

Srikanth Reddy presents a lecture on wonder, approaching the concept in Western thought via Homer's shield of Achilles. He also reads a section of his poetry manuscript in progress, Underworld Lit (2020). This lecture was originally given with Timothy Donnelly and Rachel Zucker as part of the 2018 Bagley Wright Lecture Series conference "You Are Who I Am Talking To: Poetry, Attention, and Audience."

Alec Finlay reads selections from two long poems: Global Oracle: a Work of Prophetic Science (2014) and The Road North: a journey through Scotland guided by Bashō's oku-no-hosomichi (2014).

Sawako Nakayasu mixes her poetry and her translations, crafting a reading that she describes as a translation of the innovative form of her book Mouth: Eats Color (2011). She reads her own poems from The Ants (2014) and Some Girls Walk Into the Country They Are From (2020), a manuscript in progress that would be published two years after this reading. She also reads translations of poems by Japanese modernist Chika Sagawa from Mouth: Eats Color and Korean modernist Yi Sang, later published in Yi Sang: Selected Works (2020). 

Ada Limón reads poems from Bright Dead Things (2015) and The Carrying (2018).

Sylvia Chan reads poems from her collection We Remain Traditional (2018). This reading was originally given with Francisco Cantú and Thomas Mira y Lopez.

Thomas Mira y Lopez reads from his essay collection The Book of Resting Places: A Personal History of Where We Lay the Dead (2018). This reading was originally given with Francisco Cantú and Sylvia Chan. 

Francisco Cantú reads from his essay collection The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border (2018). This reading was originally given with Sylvia Chan and Thomas Mira y Lopez. 

Vaunda Micheaux Nelson reads from and discusses No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller (2012). A conversation with Stephanie Troutman concludes the reading.

Felicia Zamora reads poetry from her collections Of Form & Gather (2017) and Instrument of Gaps (2018). She also reads two poems that would go on to be collected in Body of Render (2020). This reading was originally given with July Westhale.

Poetry Center Summer Resident July Westhale reads from her first full-length collection, Trailer Trash (2018), as well as from Via Negativa (2020), which would be published two years after her residency. This reading was originally given with Felicia Zamora.

Tommy Pico reads from his book-length poems Junk (2018), published the year of this reading, and Feed (2019), published the year after this reading. He also reads one poem from Morgan Parker's There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (2017). This reading was originally given with Morgan Parker as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Morgan Parker reads from her third poetry collection, Magical Negro (2019), which would be published the year after this reading. She also reads an excerpt from Tommy Pico's Nature Poem (2017). This reading was originally given with Tommy Pico as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series. 

Venita Blackburn reads from Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (2017) as well as one story, "Fam," that would later appear in her collection How to Wrestle a Girl (2021).

Farid Matuk reads poems from The Real Horse (2018), along with one poem, "Scale Up," that would later appear in the award-winning artist book, Redolent (2022), a collaboration between Matuk and visual artist Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez. This reading was originally given with Jane Miller.

Jane Miller reads poems from Who Is Trixie the Trasher? and Other Questions (2018). This reading was originally given with Farid Matuk.

Charles Simic reads from New and Selected Poems, 1962-2012 (2013) and The Lunatic (2015).

Carl Phillips reads poems from Wild Is the Wind (2018) along with other poems that would later appear in the chapbook Star Map with Action Figures (2019) and the collection Pale Colors in a Tall Field (2020). 

James Allen Hall reads the title essay from I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well (2017).

Randall Horton gives the inaugural reading in the Poetry Center’s Art for Justice series. Horton reads new work commissioned by the Poetry Center from a manuscript in progress titled #219128, as well as excerpts from Hook: A Memoir (2015). Ojalá Systems gives an introductory performance.

Maggie Smith reads poems from Good Bones (2017) as well as other uncollected poems.

Maggie Smith presents a lecture on the ways that poems can enact wonder, questioning, sincerity, and rediscovery. She reads and discusses poems by Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Oliver De La Paz, Ross Gay, and Matthew Olzmann to illustrate her argument.

Daniel Borzutzky reads from his translations of Raúl Zurita's Song for His Disappeared Love (2010) and Country of Planks (2015), as well as Galo Ghigliotto's Valdivia (2016). He also reads from his own poetry collection Lake Michigan (2018) and a manuscript titled Written After a Massacre in the Year 2018.

Nicole Walker reads from her essay collection Sustainability: A Love Story (2018).

Kiki Petrosino reads poems from Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013), Witch Wife (2017), and Black Genealogy (2017).