desire

Jane Miller reads from her collection Midnights (2008).

Beckian Fritz Goldberg reads primarily from then-new poems that would largely appear in her third book, Never Be the Horse (1999). She intersperses poems from her second book, In the Badlands of Desire (1993). Time and the changing self recur as themes throughout the reading.

Edward Abbey reads a selection of his poems, many of which would later be collected in Earth Apples: The Poetry of Edward Abbey (1994). He also reads excerpts from The Journey Home (1977) and a selection of correspondence.

Denise Chávez reads from her novel Loving Pedro Infante (2001). This reading was originally given with Loida Maritza Pérez.

Brenda Shaughnessy reads from Interior with Sudden Joy (1999) and Human Dark with Sugar (2008). This reading was originally given with Gary Copeland Lilley and David Dominguez.

Richard Siken reads poems that would later be published in Crush (2005). This reading was originally given with Brian Blanchfield.

Jane Hirshfield reads poems from Of Gravity & Angels (1988), The October Palace (1994), and The Lives of the Heart (1997).

Richard Siken reads poems from Crush (2005). This reading was originally given with Camille T. Dungy and Heriberto Yépez for the Next Word in Poetry Series.

Poetry Center Summer Resident Noah Baldino reads new and uncollected poems. This reading was originally given with Jos Charles.

James Allen Hall reads the title essay from I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well (2017).

torrin a. greathouse reads poems from two manuscripts in progress: DEED, focused on the intersections of desire, desirability, and violence, and a newer manuscript that turns to California's Central Valley and climate change. Discussions of poetic form recur throughout. greathouse was selected as the Poetry Center's 2020 Summer Resident; due to the Covid-19 pandemic, her residency was deferred, and this reading was presented online.

Sandra Cisneros and translator Liliana Valenzuela read from Cisneros' Woman Without Shame (2022) and Valenzuela's Spanish-language translation, Mujer sin vergüenza (2022), selecting poems that consider womanhood, aging, and freedom as a woman. Valenzuela also reads poems of her own from Codex of Journeys: Bendito camino (2012) and Codex of Love: Bendita ternura (2020), which also consider womanhood, desire, and the act of looking.