family
Ríos, Alberto. The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2002.
Ríos, Alberto. Not Go Away Is My Name. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2020.
Herrera, Juan Felipe. Akrílica. Edited by Farid Matuk, Carmen Giménez, and Anthony Cody. Noemi Press, 2022.
Dominguez, Angel. RoseSunWater. Brooklyn: The Operating System, 2021.
Dominguez, Angel. RoseSunWater. Brooklyn: The Operating System, 2021.
Franco, Gina. The Accidental. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2019.
Franco, Gina. The Accidental. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2019.
Maldonado, Sheila. that's what you get. New York: Brooklyn Arts Press, 2021.
Maldonado, Sheila. The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, edited by Leticia Hernández Linares, Rubén Martínez, and Héctor Tobar. San Fernando: Tia Chucha Press, 2017, p. 72.
Toledo, Natalia. "Family." Translated by Clare Sullivan. Modern Poetry in Translation, no. 2, 2021. Citation available for English version only.
Toledo, Natalia. The Black Flower and Other Zapotec Poems. Translated by Clare Sullivan. Los Angeles: Phoneme Media, 2015.
Norris, Maddie. The Wet Wound. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2024, pp. 99-106.
Lozano, Brenda. Brujas. Madrid: Alfaguara, 2020. (Spanish edition)
Lozano, Brenda. Witches. Translated by Heather Cleary. New York: Catapult, 2022, pp. 17-23. (English edition)
CAConrad. Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return. Seattle: Wave Books, 2024.
Lucille Clifton reads poems published from 1969 to 1980. Her reading also includes exciting performances of drafts and unpublished poems.
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 this, Tess Gallagher's first reading for the Poetry Center, she performs poetry from three of her books and reads the work of Thomas Lux, Andre Breton, and Ciaran Carson.
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.
Thom Gunn reads primarily from Moly (1971), along with many then-new poems that would be collected in Jack Straw's Castle (1976). He also reads several poems that would remain uncollected until his Collected Poems (1994).
Li-Young Lee reads primarily from his second collection, The City in Which I Love You, which was published the same year as this reading. He also reads one poem from his first collection, Rose (1986).
Sharon Olds reads poems from her large body of work. This reading includes early versions of several poems that would go on to be collected in The Wellspring (1996).
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).
Ellen Bryant Voigt reads what she describes as future work: poems from a manuscript that would be published two years after her reading as The Lotus Flowers.
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.
In this performance, Lucille Clifton reads primarily from Next: New Poems and begins the performance with an excerpt from her children's book Sonora Beautiful. Clifton remarks that this is her first public reading of the poem series "Ten Oxherding Pictures."
Simon J. Ortiz reads from the manuscripts of Going for the Rain (1976) and A Good Journey (1977). Many of the poems, as read here, contain more words and phrases in the Acoma language than the published versions.
Li-Young Lee reads widely from his body of work and discusses forms, craft, and chance in poetry.
Marina Rivera reads from Mestiza (1977) and Sobra (1977); she also reads several uncollected poems. This reading was originally given with Carolyn Kizer.
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.
Steve Orlen reads largely uncollected early poems, some of which appeared in Poetry magazine or would later appear in his chapbooks Sleeping on Doors (1975) and Separate Creatures (1976).
Grace Paley reads prose appearing in her two collections Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) and Later the Same Day (1985).
Steve Orlen reads from Permission to Speak (1978) and A Place at the Table (1981). This reading was originally given with Criss E. Cannady and Greg Pape.
Juan Felipe Herrera performs his poetry and speaks movingly about song, language, and family in a reading given alongside Sherwin Bitsui for the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books. Herrera's Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems, published by the University of Arizona Press, was announced as the winner of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award just two days prior to this reading.
Louise Glück reads from her 2001 collection of poems The Seven Ages. This reading was originally given with Dana Levin.
Elizabeth Evans reads excerpts from her third novel, Rowing in Eden.
Leroy V. Quintana reads from The History of Home (1993), My Hair Turning Gray Among Strangers (1996), and The Great Whirl of Exile (1999).
Ofelia Zepeda reads from Where Clouds Are Formed (2008). This reading was originally given with Christopher Burawa.
Quincy Troupe reads poems appearing in Avalanche (1996) and Choruses (1999).
Lorna Dee Cervantes reads primarily from Emplumada (1981) and From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger (1991). She also reads several poems that would go on to be collected in Drive: The First Quartet (2006).
Pamela Uschuck reads poems from Scattered Risks (2005), Greatest Hits (2009), and Crazy Love (2009).
Mexican poet Tedi López Mills reads from her work in Spanish at the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, accompanied by her translator, Wendy Burk, who reads the poems in English. The reading includes work from an unpublished bilingual manuscript of López Mills's selected poems.
Eleni Sikelianos reads from Earliest Worlds (2001), The California Poem (2004), and Body Clock (2008). This reading was given as the final installment of the Poetry Center's "Oh Earth, Wait for Me: Conversations about Art and Ecology" series.
Alberto Ríos reads from his work in English and Spanish as part of a multilingual poetry reading also featuring Ofelia Zepeda (reading in English and O'odham) and Sherwin Bitsui (reading in English and Navajo). The reading includes selections from Water, an artist book created by Karla Elling to commemorate the Poetry Center's 50th anniversary. Water features a chainlink of poetry composed and translated by Bitsui, Ríos, Zepeda, and Zapotec poet Natalia Toledo.
Poet and sculptor Nora Naranjo Morse, of Santa Clara Pueblo, reads from Mud Woman: Poems from the Clay (1992), including an expanded sung and spoken version of "Gia's Song."
For her Next Word appearance with Fred Moten, Rusty Morrison reads from The True Keeps Calm Biding Its Story (2008) and the manuscript of After Urgency (2012). She closes her reading with a new series of poems titled "Necessities" and "Inventions."
Roger Bonair-Agard delivers a dynamic performance of poems from his second book, Gully (2010), as well as new work.
Mary Jones, the Poetry Center's 2011 Summer Resident in Prose, reads a short story, "Dear Wife of Richard." This reading was given together with Elizabeth Rollins.
Charles Alexander reads widely from his work as part of the Tucson Lit Press Fest event. He closes with a selection from the ongoing collection Pushing Water, published in 2011 by Cuneiform Press.
In this reading, originally given with Christopher Cokinos, Beth Alvarado shares pieces from her book Anthropologies (2011).
Philip Schultz reads poems from several books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection The God of Loneliness (2010). He closes the reading with his first public performance of several new poems.
Timothy Schaffert reads from The Coffins of Little Hope, published in 2011, and The Swan Gondola, which would be published in 2014.
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.
A group reading celebrating the release of New Poets of the American West (2010).
Ofelia Zepeda reads primarily from her collections Ocean Power (1995) and Where Clouds are Formed (2008). She also reads from an unpublished essay and from her chapbook Jewed 'I-Hoi/Earth Movements (1997).
Zachary Schomburg reads from Fjords (2012) and Scary, No Scary (2009). This reading was originally given with Joyelle McSweeney.
Donald Hall reads primarily from Kicking the Leaves (1978). He also shares several works in progress as well as some older poems.
Shannon Cain reads a story from her collection The Necessity of Certain Behaviors (2011) as part of the University of Arizona Prose Series. This reading was originally given with Lydia Millet.
Sandra Cisneros reads short stories from The House on Mango Street (1984) and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991) and poetry from My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987).
Nancy Mairs reads from a draft version of a manuscript that would later be published as Remembering the Bone House: An Erotics of Place and Space (1989).
Jonathan Penner reads two stories, "The Creative Fellow" and "Joseph's Feet," that would later appear in his short story collection This Is My Voice (2003).
In this reading, originally given with Aurelie Sheehan, Beth Alvarado shares an excerpt from the short story collection Not a Matter of Love (2006).
In this reading, originally given with Beth Alvarado, Aurelie Sheehan shares excerpts from the novel History Lessons for Girls (2006), as well as a work in progress called One Hundred Histories.
Jimmy Santiago Baca reads poems and prose from his body of work, including A Glass of Water (2009), A Place to Stand (2002), Healing Earthquakes (2001), Martín & Meditations on the South Valley (1987), and C-Train (Dream Boy's Story) and Thirteen Mexicans: Poems (2002).
Special guest Logan Phillips performs his poetry for the Southern Arizona Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals Competition.
In this reading, originally given with Karen Brennan, Jim Simmerman reads primarily from American Children (2005).
Patricia Hampl reads an excerpt from her memoir The Florist's Daughter (2007).
Aurelie Sheehan reads a story from the collection Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant (1994), as well as two unpublished works.
Thomas Kinsella reads poems from Downstream (1962), Wormwood (1966), and Nightwalker and Other Poems (1968), as well as poems that would later appear in Collected Poems 1956-1994 (1996) and Selected Poems (2007).
Luis Alberto Urrea reads from Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border (1993), The Fever of Being (1994), Wandering Time: Western Notebooks (1999), and also from The Best American Poetry (1996).
Melissa Buckheit reads from Noctilucent (2012), as well as new and uncollected work. This reading was originally given with Karen Rigby and Anne Shaw.
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.
Dexter L. Booth reads poems from Scratching the Ghost (2013) along with new and uncollected work. This reading was originally given with Samuel Ace and Polly Rosenwaike.
Carl Marcum reads poems from his first collection, Cue Lazarus (2001), as well as new and uncollected work.
Eduardo C. Corral reads poems from Slow Lightning (2012) as well as new work. This reading was originally given with Natalie Diaz to inaugurate the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.
Natalie Diaz reads poems from When My Brother Was an Aztec (2012) as well as new and uncollected work. This reading was originally given with Eduardo C. Corral to inaugurate the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.
Matt Méndez reads from Twitching Heart (2012). This reading was originally given with C.E. Poverman as part of the UA Prose Series.
C.E. Poverman reads from his novel Love by Drowning (2013). This reading was originally given with Matt Méndez as part of the UA Prose Series.
Timothy Liu reads new poems that would go on to be published in Don't Go Back to Sleep (2014), as well as poems from Polytheogamy (2009) and Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse (2009).
Frederic Tuten reads a short story, "The Ship at Anchor" (2005).
John Newlove reads poems from Moving In Alone (1965) and Black Night Window (1968). The sound on the original recording is somewhat distorted.
Gene Frumkin reads poems from The Rainbow-Walker (1968). This reading was originally given with Douglas Flaherty.
Aurelie Sheehan reads from Jewelry Box: A Collection of Histories (2013). This reading was originally given with Farid Matuk.
Wallace Stegner reads an excerpt from a manuscript that was in progress at the time of the reading; it would later be published as Recapitulation (1979).
Arizona's inaugural poet laureate Alberto Ríos reads at the 9th Annual Poetry Out Loud Arizona State Finals Competition.
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.
Rosario Ferré reads from her poetry and fiction, frequently alternating between English and Spanish.
Camille T. Dungy reads primarily from What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (2006). This reading was originally given with Richard Siken and Heriberto Yépez as part of the Next Word Series.
Karen Brennan reads from little dark (2014). This reading was originally given with Brian Blanchfield and Stephen Willey.
Yona Harvey performs poems from Hemming the Water (2013) as well as work unpublished at the time of the reading. This reading was originally given with Craig Santos Perez as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.
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).
Rolando Hinojosa reads widely from his work in English and Spanish.
Luis J. Rodriguez reads from The Concrete River (1991) and Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. (1993), along with poems that would later be collected in Trochemoche (1998). He also discusses his experiences with Los Angeles gang violence and the Chicano movement as well as his work with at-risk youth.
Garrett Hongo reads from and discusses a cycle of poems written from the point of view of Kubota, a figure based on his maternal grandfather. He also reads poems written by Japanese internees at a detention center in Santa Fe during the 1940s.
In this matinee performance at Tucson High School, Eduardo C. Corral reads from Slow Lightning (2012), provides commentary, and participates in a question and answer session with Natalie Diaz.
In this matinee performance at Tucson High School, Natalie Diaz reads poems, provides commentary, and participates in a question and answer session with Eduardo C. Corral.
Robert Boswell reads from the second chapter of his novel Mystery Ride (1993). Antonya Nelson reads her short story "Irony, Irony, Irony," which would later be collected in Female Trouble (2003).
Alan Feldman reads from his collection The Happy Genius (1978), as well as two new poems. This reading was originally given with Faye Kicknosway and Linda Gregg.
In her first reading as a member of the University of Arizona faculty, Tess Gallagher reads from her first three collections, Stepping Outside (1974), Instructions to the Double (1976), and Under Stars (1978). She also treats the audience by singing a traditional Irish folk song that has been an inspiration to her writing.
Elizabeth Evans reads from the first and fifth chapter of The Blue Hour (1995). She opens her performance by reading a poem by W. B. Yeats, "Adam's Curse."
Winners of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, Laura Kasischke and David Reynolds read from their winning manuscripts. Kasischke reads poems from Housekeeping in a Dream, and Reynolds reads the chapter "Hush, Noah" from In the Waiting World.
Nanci Kincaid reads from a manuscript written during her time teaching at the University of Arizona that would eventually become her novel Verbena (2002). This early draft is untitled, and was originally intended to be the second in a trilogy of novellas collectively titled Three Wives.
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.
Carolyn Kizer reads from her poems, many of which are dedicated to historical heroes or to figures who played an important role in her personal life.
Jean Rukkila, a graduate student in Creative Writing at the time, reads her story "Andi and Ann." Ron Hansen reads four sections from his novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (1983).
Erin McGraw performs a Southern dialect to read the story Until It Comes Closer from her collection Bodies at Sea (1989).
Daniel Lopez reads several of his poems and sings songs; this performance includes the poems "Preservation," "Village Progress," and "Naming," along with "Corn Planting Song."
Tillie Olsen reads excerpts from Tell Me a Riddle (1961), her collection of short stories; Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974), an unfinished novel; and the classic work of nonfiction, Silences (1978). Olsen's reading is interspersed with anecdotes and narrative summaries.
Steve Orlen reads poems from the just-published collection Kisses (1997), as well as new poems.
Boyer Rickel reads poetry from his first book, Arreboles (1991), touching on family and childhood memories, experiences living in Tucson, and musicians and writers of previous centuries. He also reads an essay that would go on to be published in Taboo (1999), which he introduces by discussing his approach to writing essays that follow the form of poems, not returning to a main idea but moving through it.
Marilynne Robinson reads from her novel Housekeeping (1981).
Greg Sarris reads a story titled "Waiting for the Green Frog," in the voice of an elderly medicine woman, from his collection Grand Avenue: A Novel in Stories (1994).
Gerald Stern reads poems from throughout his career, filled with witty quips about rural Pennsylvania, his Ukrainian heritage, historical essays on rhyme, and getting fired from a teaching position at Temple University.
Barbara Anderson reads from her second collection of poems, Junk City (1987), as well as poems that would go on to appear in 1-800-911 (1997).
Richard and Nora Marks Dauenhauer read from their English translations of Tlingit poems and stories, providing fascinating explanations of the traditions behind the literature. They read first the original Tlingit and then the English translations. They conclude by reading from their own original poems.
Roberta J. Hill opens with two poems from her first collection, Star Quilt (1984), before reading more recent work that would later be collected in Philadelphia Flowers (1996). Both collections were published under the name Roberta Hill Whiteman.
Natalie Diaz reads poems that would appear five years later in Postcolonial Love Poem (2020). She also reads briefly from her first book, When My Brother Was An Aztec (2012).
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.
Leroy V. Quintana reads poems including "Guadalupe," "Frida," and "Points North." Estela Portillo Trambley reads from her short story "If It Weren't For The Honeysuckle" (1975).
Houston Baker reads widely from his work, including poems from No Matter Where You Travel, You Still Be Black (1979), Spirit Run (1982), and Blues Journeys Home (1985).
John A. Williams reads poems from an early manuscript that would eventually come to form his collection Safari West (1998). He then reads from his novel !Click Song (1982), investigating issues of race, colonialism, and diaspora. Both books are winners of the American Book Award.
Monique Wittig and Sande Zeig read for the Writers At Work Series. Wittig and Zeig team to play the parts of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in a play written by Wittig and translated by Zeig, Le Voyage sans fin (The Constant Journey, 1985), based on Miguel de Cervantes's classic novel. Before performing the play, Wittig gives a brief talk explaining the role of transposition and gender roles in her adaption of Cervantes's work.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and novelist Maxine Kumin reads from her then-recent collection Nurture (1989), together with poems written throughout her career, as well as two poems that would go on to be collected in her next book, Looking for Luck (1992). Many of the poems consider connections between animals and humans. Kumin also reads a series of three elegies to her longtime friend Anne Sexton.
Steve Orlen reads from his collections Permission to Speak (1978) and A Place at the Table (1982), as well as from newer material.
Steve Orlen reads extensively from his collection The Bridge of Sighs (1992). His selections follow the book's four major themes, which he describes as poems of childhood, poems of love and marriage, poems of relationship, and poems of grace.
Steve Orlen reads from his books Permission to Speak (1978), Separate Creatures (1976), and Sleeping on Doors (1975).
Jim Simmerman reads from a manuscript that would become his collection Kingdom Come (1999), a series of persona poems written in the voices of various Biblical characters. Jewell Parker Rhodes reads from her first novel, Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau (1993), inspired by the life of the famed 19th century Voodoo Queen. She reads two scenes from the novel, the first set just before Marie Laveau's tenth birthday, and the second during the performance of one of Laveau's greatest miracles.
Luci Tapahonso reads from poems published throughout her career, many of them fueled by personal anecdotes.
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.
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.
Henry Carlile begins with his poem "The Fire"; this reading also includes "Grace," "Depression," "Keeper of the Towels," and "The Cloud and The Plough and The Meaning of Rhyme."
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.
Diane Glancy reads a range of works on the theme of story, including a number of poems that would subsequently appear in The West Pole (1997) and (Ado)ration (1999). She also reads excerpts from Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears (1996) and closes the reading with a brief extract from Firesticks (1993).
Nancy Eimers reads poems of quiet observation. This reading was originally given with William Olsen.
Rosemary Catacalos reads from her first collection, Again for the First Time (1984), before sharing more recent poems. Several of the more recent poems would appear in anthologies throughout the 1990s or would be collected in her chapbook Begin Here (2013). San Antonio, Texas, figures prominently, and key themes include multicultural identity and life in border communities.
Alan Cheuse reads from his novel The Light Possessed (1990), inspired by the life of Georgia O'Keefe and several other U.S. women painters. The novel's title comes from a poem by Walt Whitman, "A Prairie Sunset," which Cheuse reads as an introduction to his own work. Cheuse's novel has "two beginnings," and he reads both: the first is a chapter titled "River."
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Stephen Dunn opens with "Under the Black Oaks," the poem he had most recently written at the time of this reading. Dunn reads poems from throughout his career, often on the theme of family, including a poem about losing his mother, an atheist's parenting dilemmas as his daughter moves toward Christianity, and an ode to the sister he never had.
Mary Elsie Robertson reads a chapter from her novel What I Have to Tell You (1989). This University of Arizona Creative Writing faculty reading was originally given with Vivian Gornick.
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.
Richard Jackson reads long poems from his collection Worlds Apart (1987) and others that would be collected in Alive All Day (1992). He begins with a poem by Thomas Hardy, "I Looked Up from My Writing."
Vivian Gornick reads from Fierce Attachments (1987), a memoir of the author's past and present relationship with her mother. This University of Arizona Creative Writing faculty reading was originally given with Mary Elsie Robertson.
Essayist and poet Erik Reece reads poems from A Short History of the Present (2009) and essays from An American Gospel: On Family, History, and the Kingdom of God (2009) as well as Utopia Drive: A Road Trip Through America's Most Radical Idea (2016).
Rachel Zucker reads from an unpublished manuscript tentatively titled "Sound Machine."
James Hannaham reads the prologue and opening chapter of his novel Delicious Foods (2015).
Poet David Baker gives a collaborative performance alongside Lauren Baba, Andrew Rowan, Alina Roitstein, Harrison Kirk, and Gregory Uhlmann of the River Song Quintet, who perform musical settings of his poems. Included in this performance are uncollected and new poems, as well as poems from Baker's collections The Truth about Small Towns (1998) and Scavenger Loop (2015).
Renee Angle reads from her book-length poetry project WoO (2016). This reading was originally given with Wendy Burk.
Richard Shelton reads from his memoir Nobody Rich or Famous (2016). He also reads a related poem from Selected Poems, 1969-1981 (1982).
Rita Dove reads from Collected Poems, 1974-2004 (2016) and Sonata Mulattica (2009). She also reads uncollected work.
Joy Harjo reads from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015) and How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (2002). She also plays flute and soprano saxophone. This reading was given as part of the Climate Change & Poetry Series.
Lydia Millet reads from a forthcoming short story collection, Fight No More. This reading was originally given with Jenny Offill.
Ocean Vuong reads poems from Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016). This reading was originally given with Camille Rankine.
At the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference, several members of the Thinking Its Presence Board—Vidhu Aggarwal, Ching-In Chen, Lisa Jarrett, and Lehua Taitano—read from or discuss their creative work. Board member Farid Matuk reads work from a selection of Tucson-based writers: Samuel Ace, Susan Briante, Wendy Burk, Hannah Ensor, Teré Fowler-Chapman, Sarah Gonzales, Logan Phillips, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Brandon Shimoda, TC Tolbert, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, and Ofelia Zepeda.
At the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference, members of the MT+NYC Collaborative (Ciara Rose Griffin, William F. Hubbard, Kendra Mylnechuk, Aja M. Sherrard, and Brooke Swaney) perform an early draft of The Buffalo Play, a play written by Ciara Rose Griffin and Kendra Mylnechuk.
Sylvia Chan reads poems from her collection We Remain Traditional (2018). This reading was originally given with Francisco Cantú and Thomas Mira y Lopez.
Venita Blackburn reads from Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (2017) as well as one story, "Fam," that would later appear in her collection How to Wrestle a Girl (2021).
Natalie Diaz reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice series. Representatives of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project give an opening presentation.
Cherríe Moraga reads excerpts from her memoir Native Country of the Heart (2019).
Rigoberto González reads from his memoir What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of Brotherhood (2018) and his newest collection of poetry The Book of Ruin (2019).
Naomi Shihab Nye reads from her poetry collections Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018) and The Tiny Journalist (2019). She also reads from new work, including one poem that would appear in Cast Away: Poems for Our Time (2020).
Joseph O. Legaspi reads poems from his collections Imago (2007) and Threshold (2017) as well as two uncollected poems. This reading was originally given alongside Javier Zamora and Kim Addonizio 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.
Matthew Zapruder reads poems from his collection Father's Day (2019) and excerpts from his book of criticism Why Poetry (2017). This reading was given at the Center for Creative Photography.
Kimberly Johnson reads primarily from her fourth poetry collection, Fatal (2022), along with several poems from A Metaphorical God (2008) and Uncommon Prayer (2014). This reading was originally given with Jay Hopler, who appeared via Zoom.
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.
Alberto Ríos, poet laureate of Arizona and alumnus of the UA MFA in Creative Writing program, reads across his published body of work, specifically poems from his books Whispering to Fool the Wind (1982), The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (2002), The Dangerous Shirt (2009), and Not Go Away Is My Name (2020). Major themes in this reading include Ríos' grandmother, language, ancestry, and occasions around food. This reading was originally given alongside Cara Blue Adams and Aisha Sabatini Sloan to celebrate the MFA program's 50th anniversary.
As part of the Terrain.org 25th Anniversary reading, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke reads from her book-length poem Look at This Blue (2022), focusing on extinctions and climate change in California, as well as on poverty and violence. This reading was originally given alongside Julie Swarstad Johnson and Derek Sheffield.
Gina Franco reads from her second book, The Accidental (2019), selecting poems connected to her family's history as copper miners in eastern Arizona. She also reads an excerpt from "Throne," a long poem from a recently completed manuscript. This reading was given as part of the Letras Latinas 20th Anniversary Reading with Edgar Garcia and Sheila Maldonado.
Sheila Maldonado reads poems from her second book, that's what you get (2021), and a manuscript in progress titled bloodletters. Many of the poems incorporate visual components, and primary themes include New York City, Honduran heritage, and ancient Mayan culture. This reading was given as part of the Letras Latinas 20th Anniversary Reading with Gina Franco and Edgar Garcia.
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.
In this trilingual event, Zapotec-language poet Natalia Toledo and translator Clare Sullivan read from Toledo's The Black Flower and Other Zapotec Poems (2015) and a forthcoming collection titled Deche bitoope / El dorso del cangrejo / Carapace Dancer. All poems are read in Zapotec (Toledo's originals), Spanish (translated by Toledo) and English (translated from the Spanish by Sullivan). Toledo reads from Mexico City via Zoom.