food

Linda Pastan reads widely from her body of work.

Robert Pack reads from Home From the Cemetery (1969), Nothing But Light (1972), Guarded by Women (1963), and Keeping Watch (1976).

Poet, playwright, and novelist Owen Dodson reads a range of poems from his distinguished career. As he introduces his poems, Dodson reflects on his consciousness as a writer, from his undergraduate days at Bates College to his engagement with spirituality, Civil Rights, and social justice.

Diane Wakoski reads widely from her body of work.

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

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.

Sandra Cisneros reads short stories from The House on Mango Street (1984) and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991) and poetry from My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987).

Special guest Logan Phillips performs his poetry for the Southern Arizona Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals Competition.

Rita Dove reads from her collection American Smooth: Poems (2004).

Natalie Diaz reads poems from When My Brother Was an Aztec (2012) as well as new and uncollected work. This reading was originally given with Eduardo C. Corral to inaugurate the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

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

Karen Brennan reads from little dark (2014). This reading was originally given with Brian Blanchfield and Stephen Willey.

Craig Santos Perez engages the audience with several performance pieces incorporating poems from his book from unincorporated territory [guma']  (2014). This reading was originally given with Yona Harvey as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

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.

Leslie Marmon Silko reads from her novel Gardens in the Dunes (1999), as well as from a work in progress, Protect Yourself from Bad Spells While You Get Rich.

Luci Tapahonso reads from her collections Seasonal Woman (1982) and A Breeze Swept Through (1987), beginning with a piece that combines spoken poetry with song.

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). 

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.

Nanao Sakaki performs poems and songs in the courtyard of the Poetry Center on Cherry Avenue. Asking the audience, "Any questions? I'll answer by my poems," Sakaki addresses themes raised by audience members such as anger, feeling at home, time, walking, and love for the desert and all forms of life.

Ross Gay reads poems from Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (2015) and an essay from The Book of Delights (2019). This reading was given as part of the Climate Change & Poetry Series.

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.

Alberto Ríos, poet laureate of Arizona and alumnus of the UA MFA in Creative Writing program, reads across his published body of work, specifically poems from his books Whispering to Fool the Wind (1982), The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (2002), The Dangerous Shirt (2009), and Not Go Away Is My Name (2020). Major themes in this reading include Ríos' grandmother, language, ancestry, and occasions around food. This reading was originally given alongside Cara Blue Adams and Aisha Sabatini Sloan to celebrate the MFA program's 50th anniversary.