elegy

Thom Gunn reads primarily from Moly (1971), along with many then-new poems that would be collected in Jack Straw's Castle (1976). He also reads several poems that would remain uncollected until his Collected Poems (1994).

Thom Gunn reads poems appearing in The Man with Night Sweats (1992) and The Passages of Joy (1982).

Donald Hall reads from The Alligator Bride: Poems New and Selected (1969) and The Yellow Room (1971). He also reads poems that would be collected in The Town of Hill (1975) along with several that remain uncollected, including a series of surrealistic limericks.

Sharon Olds reads poems from her large body of work. This reading includes early versions of several poems that would go on to be collected in The Wellspring (1996). 

Richard Wilbur reads poems that will be collected in The Mind Reader (1976) as well as poems from Walking to Sleep (1969). He also reads several translations from both volumes, of poems from the French by Voltaire and François Villon, and from the Russian by Andrei Voznesensky and Nikolai Moishen. 

Marvin Bell reads primarily from A Probable Volume of Dreams (1969) and The Escape Into You (1971), along with work that would be collected in Residue of Song (1974), a book of poems published two years after this reading.

Michael S. Harper reads from across his first four books, all published in the years shortly before this reading: Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970), History Is Your Own Heartbeat (1971), Song: I Want a Witness (1972), and Debridement (1973). Harper shares poems that delve into the loss of children, racial inequality, and the Vietnam War, mixing them with poems that express his love for his wife and family.

In this performance, Jon Anderson reads poems from his collections The Milky Way (1982) and In Sepia (1974). The reading concludes with Jon Anderson performing a poem written by his son and a performance of Wallace Stevens's "Esthétique du Mal."

Norman Dubie reads poems from his 1975 book In the Dead of the Night, his 1977 book The Illustrations, and a collection published two years after this reading, The City of the Olesha Fruit. This reading was originally given alongside a reading by Pamela Stewart.

Carolyn Forché reads from The Country Between Us (1981), the Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets for 1982. In the middle of the performance, she reads excerpts from and discusses El Salvador: Work of Thirty Photographers (1981), which influenced the poems in this reading.

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.

David Wojahn reads primarily from his then-manuscript Late Empire (1994), which would be published two years later. He also reads four sections of his sonnet sequence on rock and roll from Mystery Train (1990).

In her Next Word reading with Brandon Shimoda and Philip Jenks, Akilah Oliver reads from The Putterer's Notebook and A Toast in the House of Friends. Her reading includes a standout performance of the long poem "An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet," an elegy for her son Oluchi McDonald.

Geraldine Connolly reads poems informed by sense of place, particularly Montana, in a performance for the Tucson Festival of Books.

This reading begins with Olga Broumas reading her translations of the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis. Sometimes performing poems in Greek and sometimes performing in English, Broumas experiments with the delivery of each translation and reads one poem by moving between Greek and English as she reads. Broumas also reads from five of her own books: Beginning With O, Pastoral Jazz, Soie Sauvage, Caritas, and Perpetua.

Dean Young reads poems appearing in Elegy on Toy Piano (2005).

Howard Altmann reads from his books In This House and Who Collects the Days. This reading marks the first public performance of his poem Dandelions.

For her Next Word appearance with Fred Moten, Rusty Morrison reads from The True Keeps Calm Biding Its Story (2008) and the manuscript of After Urgency (2012). She closes her reading with a new series of poems titled "Necessities" and "Inventions."

Philip Schultz reads poems from several books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection The God of Loneliness (2010). He closes the reading with his first public performance of several new poems.

C. D. Wright reads from One With Others (2010).

Cathy Park Hong reads from Engine Empire (2012) and Dance Dance Revolution (2007); she also reads an unpublished poem.

X.J. Kennedy reads from Nude Descending a Staircase (1961) and Cross Ties: Selected Poems (1985), commenting humorously on many of the poems and performing several as songs.

G.C. Waldrep reads from the collection Your Father on the Train of Ghosts (2011); he also reads some uncollected poems.

Stella Pope Duarte performs The Day I Was Born and There is a Place for You in a powerful reading given as part of a Noche de Cultura held at Tucson's El Casino Ballroom.

Rebecca Seiferle reads poems from The Ripped-Out Seam (1993), The Music We Dance To (1999), and Bitters (2001).

Gerald Stern reads from This Time: New and Selected Poems (1998), Last Blue (2000), and American Sonnets (2002).

Timothy Liu reads new poems that would go on to be published in Don't Go Back to Sleep (2014), as well as poems from Polytheogamy (2009) and Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse (2009).

Dean Young reads from Embryoyo (2007) and Primitive Mentor (2008). This reading was originally given with Matt Hart.

George Reavey reads from The Colours of Memory (1955), Quixotic Perquisitions (1932) and The New Russian Poets, 1953-1966 (1966), as well as uncollected work.

Seamus Heaney reads from Death of a Naturalist (1966), Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), North (1975), Field Work (1979), and Station Island (1984). This recording is incomplete due to a malfunction on the original reel-to-reel tape, and the final three tracks display some sound distortion. 

Patricia Hampl opens with two poems, "The Moment" and "Last Letter." Then she reads the essay "Pilgrimage" from her book Spillville (1986), as well as two excerpts from her memoir A Romantic Education (1981). At this event, Hampl also read from Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life (1992), but this portion of her reading was not recorded.

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.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and novelist Maxine Kumin reads from her then-recent collection Nurture (1989), together with poems written throughout her career, as well as two poems that would go on to be collected in her next book, Looking for Luck (1992). Many of the poems consider connections between animals and humans. Kumin also reads a series of three elegies to her longtime friend Anne Sexton.

Steve Orlen reads from his collections Permission to Speak (1978) and A Place at the Table (1982), as well as from newer material.

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.

Juan Felipe Herrera warmly engages the audience with work that would be collected in books such as Mayan Drifter: Chicano Poet in the Lowlands of America (1997), Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler (2002), and Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), as well as uncollected pieces. Standout performances include "Notes on Other Chicana and Chicano Inventions" and "Suicide in Hollywood / Lupe Velez (Circ. 1923) Serigrafía de una actriz Mexicana," read in Spanish and English. Opening his reading with an invocation to sky, earth, wind, and fire, Herrera encourages audience laughter and participation throughout the evening.

Jos Charles reads poems from their collections Safe Space (2016) and feeld (forthcoming in 2018), along with new work. This reading was originally given with Noah Baldino.

Reginald Dwayne Betts reads from his poetry collection Bastards of the Reagan Era (2015), along with one uncollected poem.

Jorie Graham reads from her poetry collection Fast (2017).