anaphora

In this performance, Michael Burkard reads from his first three books, particularly from the 1981 collection Ruby for Grief. He also reads some uncollected work.

Sherman Alexie reads widely from his work and engages the audience with stories characterized by his signature humor.

Samuel Ace reads poems from Stealth (2011) as well as new and uncollected work. This reading was originally given with Polly Rosenwaike and Dexter L. Booth.

Luis Alberto Urrea reads from Vatos (2000) and Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), along with a poem that would later be collected in The Tijuana Book of the Dead (2015).

Ariana Reines reads new and uncollected poems, including one written for this reading.

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.

Author and illustrator Faye Kicknosway reads poems from her book The Cat Approaches (1978); she also reads from a manuscript that would eventually become the Pulitzer Prize–nominated Who Shall Know Them? (1985), a series of ekphrastic poems engaging with Walker Evans's famed photographs of life during the Great Depression. This reading was originally given alongside readings by Alan Feldman and Linda Gregg.

francine j. harris reads poems from her collection allegiance (2012) and from her upcoming manuscript play dead (Alice James Books, 2016). This reading was originally given with Tarfia Faizullah as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Mark Wunderlich opens by reading from his fourth collection, God of Nothingness (2021), before turning to recently written poems. He shares work that centers on the body, animals, violence, and the complex inheritances arising from lineage and place.