sonnet

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.

Maxine Kumin reads primarily from House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1976), along with selections from her earlier work.

Bill Knott reads widely from his work. This reading includes poems from Becos (1983), Outremer (1989), and Poems 1963-1988 (1989), as well as work collected later. 

Billy Collins reads widely from his body of work.

Boyer Rickel reads primarily from his collections Remanence (2008) and reliquary (2009).

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).

At this performance given with Abraham Smith during the Tucson Festival of Books, Kim Addonizio reads from her books Lucifer at the Starlite and What Is This Thing Called Love. Before a question-and-answer session with both poets, Kim Addonizio performs a short song on her harmonica.

In a performance given alongside the Poetry Center's 2011 summer poet in residence, Harmony Holiday, poet Matthew Rotando reads poems from The Comeback's Exoskeleton and newer work.

Julie Paegle reads from her collection Torch Song Tango Choir, accompanied by dancers John Dahlstrand and Melissa Fitch.

Robert Pack reads widely from his work and comments on the stories behind many of his poems.

John Crowe Ransom reads widely from his extensive body of work.

In this reading, originally given with Christopher Nelson, Poetry Center Summer Resident Genine Lentine reads primarily new poems as well as work from the collection Poses: An Essay Drawn from the Model (2012).

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

Ellen Bryant Voigt reads from The Lotus Flowers (1987), Two Trees (1992), Kyrie (1995), and Shadow of Heaven (2002).

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).

In the inaugural reading of the Hannelore Quander-Rattee Translation Series, Geoffrey Brock presents translations of the work of Giovanni Pascoli, Patrizia Cavalli, and César Vallejo, along with original poems.

Robin Robertson reads poems from his books Sailing the Forest: Selected Poems (2014), A Painted Field (1997), and Hill of Doors (2013).

Laynie Browne reads poetry from her collections Lost Parkour Ps(alms) (2014), Practice (2015), and Scorpyn Odes (2015), as well as uncollected work. 

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. 

Evie Shockley reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice series. This reading was originally given with Patrick Rosal for the Art for Justice series. Representatives of Tucson's Sex Workers Outreach Project give an opening presentation. 

Kim Addonizio reads poems from her collection Mortal Trash (2016) as well as new work that would go on to be collected in Now We're Getting Somewhere (2021). This reading was originally given alongside Joseph O. Legaspi and Javier Zamora at the Center for Creative Photography. 

Angel Nafis reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice Series. This reading was originally given alongside Patricia Smith. Leilani Clark represents BIPOC United Tucson in an opening presentation.

Laurie Ann Guerrero reads from across her body of work as collected in I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake: New and Selected Poems (2020). This includes portions of her heroic sonnet crown, A Crown for Gumecindo, written for her grandfather, alongside other poems rooted in family experience. Guerrero also reads from Redwork, her manuscript in progress. This reading was originally given alongside Carl Marcum.

Tyehimba Jess reads historical persona poems from leadbelly (2005) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Olio (2016), including the full sonnet sequence about the McKoy twins from Olio. He also discusses the research behind Olio and the complex forms he uses throughout the collection, particularly his syncopated sonnets.

Marilyn Chin reads from her sixth collection, Sage (2023), sharing poems that employ humor, puns, rhyme, allusions to Chinese and English literature, and a wide array of traditional and modified verse forms. Chin opens the reading by performing from memory two poems from A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems (2018).