jazz

Michael S. Harper reads from across his first four books, all published in the years shortly before this reading: Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970), History Is Your Own Heartbeat (1971), Song: I Want a Witness (1972), and Debridement (1973). Harper shares poems that delve into the loss of children, racial inequality, and the Vietnam War, mixing them with poems that express his love for his wife and family.

Billy Collins reads widely from his body of work.

María Elena Wakamatsu reads from her work as the recipient of the inaugural Mary Ann Campau Memorial Fellowship for Southern Arizona Writers.

Al Young reads poems from The Blues Don't Change (1982) and Heaven: Collected Poems 1956-1990 (1992), along with several prose selections.

In a notably measured style, Jorie Graham reads poems that would be published the following year in her fourth book, Region of Unlikeness (1991). She also reads an early draft of a long poem, "Manifest Destiny," which would later be collected in Materialism (1993).

Cornelius Eady reads poems from Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (1986) and The Gathering of My Name (1991), many of which focus on dancing, jazz musicians, and the pervasive racial injustice experienced by Black Americans.

Billy Collins discusses the poetic process. He begins by reading a poem he composed the morning of the colloquium, "Lying in Bed in the Dark I Silently Address the Birds of Arizona," which would later be published in Nine Horses.

This event, part poetry reading and part jazz concert, pairs the work of poet Nathaniel Mackey with the music of jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell, featuring solo performances by each artist as well as two collaborative performances.

Rita Dove reads from her collection American Smooth: Poems (2004).

A conversation between Clark Coolidge and John Melillo, followed by a question and answer session.

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.

This event, part poetry reading and part jazz concert, pairs the work of poet Ron Silliman with the music of jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell, featuring solo performances by each artist as well as a collaborative performance.

Lawson Fusao Inada performs poems that speak to the Asian American experience, particularly around Japanese American internment during World War II and life in mid-century Fresno, California. He reads a selection of poems from Before the War: Poems as They Happened (1971), along with with other poems from the 1970s, including "I Told You So."

Leslie Ullman discusses process and reads poems from her collection Natural Histories (1979), including "Bravado," "Fur," "Last Night They Heard the Woman Upstairs," and "Midwife"; she also reads poems that would go on to be collected in Dreams by No One's Daughter (1987).

Paul Zimmer reads poems inspired by his troubled youth during the Eisenhower years, as well as several persona poems.

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.

In this performance for the Writers at Work Series, Katherine Toy Miller and Vance Bourjaily read from their fiction. Katherine Toy Miller reads six short stories from a collection titled Eleanor, along with a short story titled "The Critical Session." Vance Bourjaily reads segments from a novel-in-progress called The Great Fake Book. Bourjaily ends his reading by performing a short solo on the cornet.