history

Seamus Heaney reads from Death of a Naturalist (1966), Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), North (1975), Field Work (1979), and Sweeney Astray (1983). The reading also features Heaney's lively banter.

Adam Zagajewski reads from Tremor (1985) and Solidarity, Solitude (1990). He also reads early drafts of translations of poems that would go on to be collected in Canvas (1991); most differ from those that appear in the published version of the book (translated by Renata Gorczynski, Benjamin Ivry, and C.K. Williams).

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.

In his first appearance at the Poetry Center, Tomas Tranströmer reads widely from his work as translated by May Swenson, Robert Bly, and Samuel Charters. Given primarily in English, the reading opens with a bilingual performance of "Spår" <"Tracks"> in Swedish and English.

A.K. Ramanujan reads poems from The Striders (1966) and Relations (1971).

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.

Bei Dao reads from Old Snow (1991), Forms of Distance (1993), Landscape Over Zero (1996) and Unlock (2000). Dennis Evans reads the English translations.

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

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.

Pat Mora reads from her first two books of poems, Chants (1984) and Borders (1986), as well as poems that would later be published, sometimes in different versions, in Communion (1991) and Agua Santa (1997). Mora, who hails from El Paso, includes several poems about the desert in honor of what she describes as "probably the first time I have done a reading in another desert area."

In this reading, originally given with Joni Wallace, Mary Jo Bang reads poems that would go on to be collected in The Last Two Seconds (2015) as well as a segment from her translation of "Canto III" of Dante's Inferno (2012).

Katherine Larson reads pieces from Radial Symmetry (2011) as well as "Of the Unsolved Problem of the Origin of the Angiosperms," a new poem.

Tomas Tranströmer reads translations of poems that first appeared in For the Living and the Dead (För levande och döda, 1989). Some poems are performed in Swedish and English. In the question and answer session that follows the reading, Tranströmer discusses the collaborative nature of the translation process.

Nikki Giovanni reads from her extensive body of work and speaks about social justice and the civil rights movement.

Peter Wild reads uncollected poems on a diverse range of subjects, from famous Western frontiersmen to radio therapy to optometrists. Along the way he shares with the audience experiences and preoccupations that have shaped his work.

In this reading, originally given with Beth Alvarado, Aurelie Sheehan shares excerpts from the novel History Lessons for Girls (2006), as well as a work in progress called One Hundred Histories.

In this reading, originally given with Jane Miller, Alison Hawthorne Deming reads primarily from her collection Genius Loci (2005).

George Keithley reads from Song in a Strange Land (1974) and The Donner Party (1972).

Thomas Kinsella reads poems from Downstream (1962), Wormwood (1966), and Nightwalker and Other Poems (1968), as well as poems that would later appear in Collected Poems 1956-1994 (1996) and Selected Poems (2007).

Jane Miller reads primarily from Thunderbird (2013). This reading was originally given with Joshua Marie Wilkinson.

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).

Monica Youn reads poems from Ignatz (2010).

Semezdin Mehmedinović reads poems from Sarajevo Blues (1998) and Nine Alexandrias (2003).

Farid Matuk reads poems from My Daughter La Chola (2013). This reading was originally given with Aurelie Sheehan.

W.S. Merwin reads poems from collections spanning four decades of work, including poems that would be collected three years later in Travels (1993). Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Spoken word artist Teré Fowler-Chapman performs selections from their work. This reading was originally given with Clark Coolidge.

Martín Espada reads from Trumpets from the Islands of their Eviction (1987), Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands (1990), and City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (1993).

On the eve of his 75th birthday, Robert Penn Warren reads from Promises: Poems 1954-1956 (1957), Incarnations: Poems 1966-1968 (1968), Or Else: Poem/Poems 1968-1974 (1974), Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978 (1978), and Being Here: Poetry 1977-1980 (1980).

Camille T. Dungy reads primarily from What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (2006). This reading was originally given with Richard Siken and Heriberto Yépez as part of the Next Word Series.

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. 

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.

In this Poetry Craft Talk titled "Conspiracy Simile: The Assassination of JFK/The Assassination of Poetry, or How I Discovered I Was Writing Cover-Story Poetics," Thomas Sayers Ellis explores the role of truth and evidence in poetry, and critically examines his own 1992 poem "Zapruder."

Kate Bernheimer reads two fairy tales, one from the Brothers Grimm and one of her own from How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales (2014).

Carolyn Forché reads from her first three collections of poetry, Gathering the Tribes (1976), The Country Between Us (1981), and The Angel of History, which would be published three years after this reading. She also speaks about French Surrealist poet Robert Desnos and reads her translator's note to The Selected Poems of Robert Desnos (1991).

Lawson Fusao Inada performs poems that speak to the Asian American experience, particularly around Japanese American internment during World War II and life in mid-century Fresno, California. He reads a selection of poems from Before the War: Poems as They Happened (1971), along with with other poems from the 1970s, including "I Told You So."

Harriet Doerr discusses old age, living in Mexico, and the need to combine experience, imagination, and observation when writing. She reads the first chapter of a story published in 1986 called "Picnic at Amapolas," and she also reads a short excerpt from a chapter called "Immense Distances, Extraordinary Events" in her novel Stones for Ibarra (1984), which covers a woman's experience sorting through her deceased husband's belongings.

William H. Gass reads a section called Mad Meg from his novel The Tunnel (1995) and provides background on the narrator's role in the book.

Sarah Kortemeier performs a series of short love poems in light of Valentine's Day at the 2015 Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals Competition.

Simon J. Ortiz reads prose and poetry, including an excerpt from an in-progress manuscript of an epic poem and selections from Woven Stone (1992), from Sand Creek (2000), and Out There Somewhere (2002).

Simon J. Ortiz reads poems following the theme that poetry is the voice that we all speak.

In this artists' talk, photographer Seamus Murphy and journalist/poet Eliza Griswold discuss their experiences in Afghanistan and the poems and photographs featured in the exhibition Shame Every Rose: Images from Afghanistan. This exhibition, which traveled to the Poetry Center courtesy of the Poetry Foundation of Chicago, featured photographs presented in pairs to echo the couplet form of the landay, an oral folk poetry created by and for the Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The landays featured in this exhibit also appear in the June 2013 issue of Poetry magazine, as well as in the anthology I Am The Beggar of The World (2014).

Richard Marius reads an excerpt from an early draft of his novel After the War (1992).

Greg Sarris reads a story titled "Waiting for the Green Frog" from his collection Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories (1994).

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.

Judith Barrington reads from History and Geography (1989) along with poems that would go on to be collected in Horses and the Human Soul (2004) and several that remain uncollected. The poems she selects for this reading center on place, landscape, memory, and Lesbian identity; horses recur throughout.

Rosemary Catacalos reads poems on themes such as identity, quirks of memory, borders and border towns, the effects of speaking three languages (Greek, Spanish, and English) as a child, and the Day of the Dead.

Jane Miller opens her reading with "Miami Heart" and "The Poet," both from Memory at These Speeds: New and Selected Poems (1996). She continues with work from Wherever You Lay Your Head, published in 1999. This reading was originally given with Eleni Sikelianos.

Adrian Matejka intersperses thoughts on spectacular poetics with readings of poems from Mixology (2009) and The Big Smoke (2013); he also reads new and uncollected work. This reading was given as part of the Spectacular Poetics Series. 

Renee Angle reads from her book-length poetry project WoO (2016). This reading was originally given with Wendy Burk.

Claudia Rankine reads from and discusses Citizen (2014). This reading incorporates artwork included in Citizen as well as other visual materials, including additional works by artists featured in Citizen and the video essay "Situation 8" by Claudia Rankine and John Lucas. 

Rita Dove reads from Collected Poems, 1974-2004 (2016) and Sonata Mulattica (2009). She also reads uncollected work.

Camille Dungy discusses climate change and reads from What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (2006), Smith Blue (2011), and a forthcoming manuscript titled Trophic Cascade. This reading was given as part of the Climate Change & Poetry Series.

Camille Rankine reads poems from Incorrect Merciful Impulses (2016), as well as uncollected poems. This reading was originally given with Ocean Vuong.

Ocean Vuong reads poems from Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016). This reading was originally given with Camille Rankine.

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. 

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.

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). 

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

LeAnne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and Joy Harjo discuss and read poetry from the anthology When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020). Diana Marie Delgado leads a conversation to conclude the event. This reading was given online as the first event from the Institute for Inquiry and Poetics, a thought center founded at the University of Arizona Poetry Center and designed to create space and time for poets to respond to pressing questions that reside at the intersection of social concern and poetry. 

Mai Der Vang reads from her second book, Yellow Rain (2021), a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize. In this collection, Vang reinvestigates the "yellow rain" incident, in which a chemical biological weapon was unleashed upon Hmong refugees as they fled Laos near the end of the Vietnam War. Grounded in a documentary approach to poetry, Vang's poems center the testimonies of the Hmong, whose voices were erased in the subsequent geopolitical fervor around the investigation. This reading was originally given alongside Anthony Cody.

Michael Wasson reads poems primarily from his first full-length collection, Swallowed Light (2022), which inhabits both the fragmented self and the tensions of language and history experienced by Wasson's Nimíipuu community. Part of the Distinguished Visitors in Creative Writing Series, this reading was originally given with Jennifer Elise Foerster.

Summer resident Angel Dominguez reads poems rooted in ancestors and community as they protest colonialism, fascism, and gentrification. Dominguez first reads from across their published works: Black Lavender Milk (2015), RoseSunWater (2021), and Desgraciado (the collected letters) (2022). They close the reading with recent poems, including one written the night before the reading and others from a manuscript in progress titled Don't Tell My Mother If They Kill Me.

Paisley Rekdal presents from West: A Translation (2023), a documentary hybrid work centered on the Transcontinental Railroad, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and racism in America. Rekdal shares video poems from the book's companion website and reads the essays corresponding to those poems. She shapes her reading around topics selected by the audience: labor, Mormons, Chinese death rituals, Robert Smithson (creator of Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake), the biracial experience, prostitution, and Hollywood's portrayal of women and the railroad.