Browse Reading by Year

Jim Simmerman reads from a manuscript that would become his collection Kingdom Come (1999), a series of persona poems written in the voices of various Biblical characters. Jewell Parker Rhodes reads from her first novel, Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau (1993), inspired by the life of the famed 19th century Voodoo Queen. She reads two scenes from the novel, the first set just before Marie Laveau's tenth birthday, and the second during the performance of one of Laveau's greatest miracles.

1995 Summer Resident Kymberly Taylor reads poems including "Where the Wild Things Went" and "Bird by Bird, Into This and This," which incorporates notations of birdsong from the book Born to Sing: An Interpretation and World Survey of Bird Song (1992) by Charles Hartshorne.

Poetry Center Interim Director Mark Wunderlich and Events Coordinator Karen Falkenstrom talk about the history of the Poetry Center from 1960 to 1995 on The Topic of Tucson, hosted by Vicki Doyle. They discuss the art of poetry and read a few favorite poems from writers in the Poetry Center's 1995-1996 reading series.

Erkin Vohidov

Pattiann Rogers reads poems from her collection Firekeeper: New and Selected Poems (1994).

Michael Collier reads primarily from The Folded Heart (1989), The Neighbor (1995), and The Ledge (2000). He also reads his translations of the work of Mexican poet José Emilio Pacheco.

Jeffrey Eugenides reads from his first full-length novel, The Virgin Suicides(1993).

Poet and Poetry Center Interim Director Mark Wunderlich reads a series of poems in response to trauma, loss, and HIV/AIDS. The poems in this reading are from a manuscript-in-progress that at the time was titled The Grooves of This. Most would go on to be collected in Wunderlich's debut, The Anchorage (1999). 

David Lee reads from his work, including poems from My Town (1995) and a piece that would later be collected in A Legacy of Shadows (1999).

Jane Hirshfield reads poems from Of Gravity & Angels (1988), The October Palace (1994), and The Lives of the Heart (1997).

Richard and Nora Marks Dauenhauer read from their English translations of Tlingit poems and stories, providing fascinating explanations of the traditions behind the literature. They read first the original Tlingit and then the English translations. They conclude by reading from their own original poems.

Gustaf Sobin reads from Voyaging Portraits (1988) and Breaths' Burials (1995), the latter of which was published the year before this reading.

Alison Moore begins her reading with a poem titled "The Extras at the Gates of Eden." She then reads her short story "Snake Woman," which would go on to be published in The Middle of Elsewhere: A Novella and Stories (2006).

Robert Boswell reads from the second chapter of his novel Mystery Ride (1993). Antonya Nelson reads her short story "Irony, Irony, Irony," which would later be collected in Female Trouble (2003).

Cyrus Cassells reads from The Mud Actor, Soul Make a Path Through Shouting, and Beautiful Signor. He also reads an early version of an uncollected poem, "The Ruins in Total Eclipse," that would be published ten years after this reading.

Terry Tempest Williams reads primarily from Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape (1995); she opens this reading with a performance of a poem by May Swenson.

Homero Aridjis reads from his novel El señor de los últimos días: Visiones del año mil (The Lord of the Last Days: Visions of the Year 1000), first published in 1994 and translated into English in 1996. The reading is entirely in Spanish.

Pat Mora reads from Agua Santa / Holy Water (1995), Borders (1986), and Chants (1984). She also reads an excerpt from a manuscript that would later be published as House of Houses (1997).

Rodney Jones reads from Apocalyptic Narrative and Other Poems (1993), Things That Happen Once (1996), and Elegy for the Southern Drawl (1999).

Ofelia Zepeda reads from her poetry collections When It Rains, Papago and Pima Poetry = Mat hekid o ju, 'O'odham Na-cegitodag (1982), Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), and Jewed 'I-hoi, Earth Movements (1997). She reads the poems first in O'odham, and then in English.

Luis Alberto Urrea reads from Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border (1993), The Fever of Being (1994), Wandering Time: Western Notebooks (1999), and also from The Best American Poetry (1996).

Marilyn Chin reads primarily from her 1994 collection The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty.

David Rivard reads primarily from Wise Poison (1996). He also reads unpublished work and poems that would go on to appear in his collection Bewitched Playground (2000).

James Tate reads poems from throughout his career. His world-famous sense of humor is on display in both his verse and his presence before the audience.

Bob Perelman reads from his books Virtual Reality (1993) and The Future of Memory (1998).

Marie Howe reads poems appearing in What the Living Do (1998).

Richard Nelson reads from Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America (1997), including excerpts from the chapters "Heart of The Hunter" and "In Search of Eden." These chapters cover topics such as hunting and predation, and they are written through the lens of the author's experiences as an anthropologist in Alaska.

C. K. Williams reads poems from throughout his career, highlighting the musicality of the long lines that have become his signature.

Al Young reads from Drowning in the Sea of Love: Musical Memoirs (1995), Heaven: Collected Poems 1956-1990 (1992), and The Sound of Dreams Remembered: Poems 1990-2000 (2001).

Caroline Langston reads her story "The Haitian Necklace," dedicated to one of her former students.

Leslie Scalapino reads selections from her work, collected in The Front Matter, Dead Souls (1996), New Time (1999), and Zither & Autobiography (2003).

Linda Hogan reads early drafts of poems that would later be collected in Rounding the Human Corners (2008), along with poems from The Book of Medicines (1993) and excerpts from her novel Solar Storms (1995). The reading concludes with questions from the audience.

Claribel Alegría reads poems and prose from Luisa in Realityland (1987), Woman of the River (1989), Fugues (1993), and Thresholds / Umbrales (1996).

Brenda Hillman reads widely from her body of work.

Jack Gilbert reads primarily from The Great Fires: Poems 1982-1992 (1995) and Refusing Heaven (2005).

Steve Orlen reads poems from the just-published collection Kisses (1997), as well as new poems.

Thomas Centolella reads a wide selection of his poetry, including several new poems that would be published in his 2002 collection Views from Along the Middle Way.

Rick Bass reads his short story, "Fiber," and discusses activism, Montana's Yaak Valley, and wilderness protection.

Rosario Ferré reads from her poetry and fiction, frequently alternating between English and Spanish.

W.S. Merwin reads from The Vixen (1996), Flower and Hand (1996), The River Sound (1999), and The Pupil (2001), as well as selections from his novel in verse The Folding Cliffs (1998). Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Tomaž  Šalamun reads from poems written throughout his career, some of them translated into English by poets such as Bob Perelman and Charles Simic, others read in his native Slovenian.

In this performance, Alison Hawthorne Deming reads both poetry and prose, including excerpts from a book published the year of this reading, The Edges of the Civilized World, and poems from a collection that would be published seven years later, Genius Loci.

Roland Flint, Poet Laureate of Maryland at the time of this reading, opens with early poems from Say It (1979) and Resuming Green (1983). Flint reads from his National Poetry Series volume Stubborn (1990), interspersing work from Stubborn with recently written poems, some of which would go on to be published in Easy (1999). Flint also discusses his work as a translator of Bulgarian and reads several of his translations.

Lucille Clifton reads poems spanning two decades of work.

August Kleinzahler reads selected poems from Green Sees Things in Waves, Earthquake Weather, The Strange Hours Travelers Keep and Red Sauce, Whiskey and Snow.

Jorie Graham reads poems appearing in The Errancy (1997) and Swarm (2000).

Junot Díaz reads excerpts of his short story "The Sun, the Moon, the Stars," later collected in This Is How You Lose Her (2012).

Annick Smith reads the title essay from her first collection, Homestead (1995), as well as essays from her collection Big Bluestem: A Journey into the Tallgrass (1996), an exploration of the history of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma. She also reads "Sink or Swim," her contribution to a multi-author collection, Headwaters (1996), assembled in protest of industrial mining along the Blackfoot River. She concludes with "Writing Down the River," an essay on the Grand Canyon.