desert

Richard Shelton reads from The Tattooed Desert (1970), as well as several poems from Journal of Return (1969) and Of All the Dirty Words (1972).

This reading was given six years before the publication of Jaguar of Sweet Laughter and thirteen years before the publication of I Praise My Destroyer. It also took place during the same year the poet received the Peter I. B. Lavan Award.

Occurring the same year as the publication of Gerber's collection The Revenant (1971), this reading also includes a large number of poems published two years later in his book Departure (1973).

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.

Neil Claremon reads from East by Southwest (1970), along with uncollected poems and poems that would later appear in West of the American Dream: Visions of an Alien Landscape (1973).

Richard Shelton reads widely from his work.

Ken Lamberton reads from Wilderness and Razor Wire (2000) and Time of Grace (2007); both collections explore his views of nature from prison.

Pamela Uschuck reads poems from Scattered Risks (2005), Greatest Hits (2009), and Crazy Love (2009).

Ofelia Zepeda reads from her collection Where Clouds Are Formed (2008). This reading was originally given with Luci Tapahonso. 

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."

A group reading celebrating the release of Spiral Orb 5, a poetic inventory of saguaro national park.

Gloria E. Anzaldúa reads widely from her extensive body of work; this reading includes uncollected and unpublished poems.

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.

Cathy Park Hong reads from Engine Empire (2012) and Dance Dance Revolution (2007); she also reads an unpublished poem.

Carl Marcum reads poems from his first collection, Cue Lazarus (2001), as well as new and uncollected work.

Gene Frumkin reads poems from The Rainbow-Walker (1968). This reading was originally given with Douglas Flaherty.

Leslie Marmon Silko reads Sacred Water (1993), a book-length lyric essay. This reading was originally given with Joy Harjo.

Sawako Nakayasu reads from So We Have Been Given Time Or (2004) and Nothing Fictional but the Accuracy or Arrangement (She (2006), as well as poems which would later be collected in The Ants (2014). This reading was originally given with Catherine Wing and Deborah Bernhardt for the Next Word in Poetry Series.

Terry Tempest Williams reads primarily from Desert Quartet: An Erotic Landscape (1995); she opens this reading with a performance of a poem by May Swenson.

Hilito is a short film that captures a performance by Cecilia Vicuña in the Sonoran Desert. It was filmed over the span of a week across various locations in Tucson. Vicuña created this film for the Poetry Off the Page Symposium.

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).

Ofelia Zepeda reads from her poems in O'odham and in English. She also reads from an unfinished translation of a story originally told by an O'odham medicine man.

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.

Miguel M. Méndez reads from poems translated by Pulitzer Prize–nominated poet and translator Valerie Martínez during the time when Martínez was an MFA student at the University of Arizona. Méndez reads the poems in Spanish, then Martínez reads her English translations. Poems include "Moon," "Legend of the Breeze," "Saguaros," and "Workshop of Images."

In this question and answer session at Rincon High School, Byrd Baylor discusses her inspirations, writing process, and experience as a writer, in addition to her connection to nature, the land, and ceremonies. She also reads from I'm in Charge of Celebrations (1986). 

Brenda Hillman reads poems related to climate change from Cascadia (2001), Practical Water (2009), and Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (2013). She also reads a new sequence of poems titled "The Rosewood Clauses." This reading was originally given with Robert Hass as part of the Climate Change & Poetry Series.

Francisco Cantú reads from his essay collection The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border (2018). This reading was originally given with Sylvia Chan and Thomas Mira y Lopez. 

Poetry Center Summer Resident July Westhale reads from her first full-length collection, Trailer Trash (2018), as well as from Via Negativa (2020), which would be published two years after her residency. This reading was originally given with Felicia Zamora.

Javier Zamora reads uncollected work as well as two poems from his collection Unaccompanied (2017). This reading was originally given alongside Joseph O. Legaspi and Kim Addonizio at the Center for Creative Photography. 

Saretta Morgan reads extensively from Alt-Nature (2024), her first full-length collection. Rooted in southern Arizona, her poems consider the militarization of the US-Mexico border and the legacies of colonialism in American culture.

O'odham poets Ofelia Zepeda, Su:k Chu:vak Fulwilder, and Amber Lee Ortega read poems in English and O'odham from the exhibition The Place Where Clouds Are Formed (April 4-August 31, 2024). Their poems and commentary focus on O'odham identity, experiences including displacement and violence, the importance of honoring the desert, and the resilience of individuals and communities. Traditional religion and Catholicism are discussed throughout.