fathers and sons

Robert Pack reads from Home From the Cemetery (1969), Nothing But Light (1972), Guarded by Women (1963), and Keeping Watch (1976).

Jon Anderson's performance from the Poetry Center's April 1980 tribute to James Wright includes work from three collections by Wright: To a Blossoming Pear Tree, Shall We Gather at the River, and Two Citizens.

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.

Robert Pack reads widely from his work and comments on the stories behind many of his poems.

Zachary Schomburg reads from Fjords (2012) and Scary, No Scary (2009). This reading was originally given with Joyelle McSweeney.

Alan Heathcock reads from the collection Volt: Stories (2011).

Thomas Mira y Lopez reads from his essay collection The Book of Resting Places: A Personal History of Where We Lay the Dead (2018). This reading was originally given with Francisco Cantú and Sylvia Chan. 

Jericho Brown reads from across his published body of work: Please (2008), The New Testament (2014), and The Tradition (2019), his Pulitzer Prize-winning collection. He reads poems that touch on childhood and family, southern Black culture, racial injustice, and violence— from the home to the nation. He answers audience questions on musicality, his approach to writing and teaching poetry, and his invented form, the duplex.

Los Angeles poet Sesshu Foster reads from City Terrace Field Manual (1996), World Ball Notebook (2008), and City of the Future (2018). He reads poems that engage with East LA, the influences of his father, and his own life as a father, mixing candor and humor throughout.