children

Lucille Clifton reads poems on many subjects, including family and illness, as well as a series of Rastafarian-inspired poems about the life of the Biblical figure Mary. In addition to poems, Clifton reads excerpts from Generations: A Memoir and her children's book Sonora Beautiful.

In Louise Glück's first performance at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, she opens with some poems from her third book, The Garden, and then reads from the manuscript of her book Descending Figure, which would be published two years later.

Lisel Mueller reads from The Private Life (1976), The Need to Hold Still (1980), and Second Language (1986).

In this reading with Galway Kinnell, Coleman Barks performs poems from New Words and The Juice. The poems that begin this readings are likely from an unpublished manuscript titled To No End.

Carolyn Kizer reads poems from Yin (1984), Mermaids In the Basement (1984), and Cool, Calm & Collected (2001). This reading was originally given with Marina Rivera.

Steve Orlen reads poems appearing in The Bridge of Sighs (1992) as well as passages from the draft of a novel entitled Homesick For the Land of Pictures.

In this performance, Jimmy Santiago Baca reads from Black Mesa Poems, a collection published the year after this reading took place. He also performs poems from Martín & Meditations on the South Valley, a book that was awarded the Before Columbus American Book Award and earned Jimmy Santiago Baca an NEA grant for the year of this reading.

Mark Halperin reads work primarily from Backroads (1976). He also reads some unpublished poems at the time, which would go on to be collected in A Place Made Fast (1982).

In her Mary Ann Campau Fellowship reading, Liza Porter reads poems that would go on to be collected in Red Stain (2014), along with uncollected work.

In this reading given with Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Kate Bernheimer reads two stories from her collection Horse, Flower, Bird (2010).

A celebration of the fairy tale, featuring readings from authors included in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010), an anthology of new fairy tales edited by Kate Bernheimer.

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.

Poetry Center Summer Resident Polly Rosenwaike reads an excerpt from the short story Grow Your Eyelashes. This reading was originally given with Samuel Ace and Dexter L. Booth.

Toi Derricotte reads from her first three collections: The Empress of the Death House (1978), Natural Birth (1983), and Captivity (1989). She also reads poems and prose that would later be collected in Tender (1997) and The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey (1997), along with two unpublished poems, including one written in Tucson the night before this reading. She closes by singing an original song.

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).

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).

Alan Feldman reads from his collection The Happy Genius (1978), as well as two new poems.

David Kirby reads from his poetry. Kirby provides many anecdotes between poems, explaining the role of research in his creative process, and telling witty stories of the personal experiences that spark much of his work.

Richard Elman reads work unpublished at the time of this reading, including his short story "Almonds with the Children of Long Bay." He also reads "Post Time," the prologue of Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs (1998), along with a short story called "Loving Strangers" from his collection Disco Frito (1988).

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

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.

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.

Phillip Lopate reads essays from Getting Personal (2003) and Portrait Inside My Head (2013), as well as one uncollected essay. 

Rachel Zucker reads from an unpublished manuscript tentatively titled "Sound Machine."

Charles Yu reads "Origin Story," a draft of a chapter from his novel Interior Chinatown (2020). This reading was originally given with Kristen Radtke.

Maggie Smith reads poems from Good Bones (2017) as well as other uncollected poems.