landscape

In his first appearance at the Poetry Center, Tomas Tranströmer reads widely from his work as translated by May Swenson, Robert Bly, and Samuel Charters. Given primarily in English, the reading opens with a bilingual performance of "Spår" <"Tracks"> in Swedish and English.

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge reads poems from her collection Empathy (1989), together with a poem that would appear in Sphericity (1993). She also reads an uncollected long prose piece, "A Context of a Wave," which considers relationships between individuals and place, as well as between life and literature.

In this performance, Alison Hawthorne Deming reads both poetry and prose, including excerpts from a book published the year of this reading, The Edges of the Civilized World, and poems from a collection that would be published seven years later, Genius Loci.

Bei Dao reads from Old Snow (1991), Forms of Distance (1993), Landscape Over Zero (1996) and Unlock (2000). Dennis Evans reads the English translations.

Gloria E. Anzaldúa reads widely from her extensive body of work; this reading includes uncollected and unpublished poems.

David Wagoner reads primarily from Staying Alive (1966) and New and Selected Poems (1969).

In this reading, originally given with Eloise Klein Healy, Peggy Shumaker reads from the collection Toucan Nest: Poems of Costa Rica (2013) and presents photographs from a series of residencies in Costa Rica.

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.

Three celebrated British poets read poems from throughout their careers.

Medbh McGuckian reads poems from throughout her career, not long after the announcement of a historic ceasefire in her native Northern Ireland. The reading opens with several early poems that are uncollected to the best of our knowledge. 

William Olsen reads primarily poems that would go on to be collected in Trouble Lights (2002), including "A Cat," "The Human Heart," "To A Fly," "Ruin Outlasting Sorrow," and "Black Globe." This reading was originally given with Nancy Eimers.

Marcia Southwick reads poems from the second half of The Night Won't Save Anyone (1980), along with poems that would go on to be collected in Why the River Disappears (1990).

Annick Smith reads the title essay from her first collection, Homestead (1995), as well as essays from her collection Big Bluestem: A Journey into the Tallgrass (1996), an exploration of the history of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma. She also reads "Sink or Swim," her contribution to a multi-author collection, Headwaters (1996), assembled in protest of industrial mining along the Blackfoot River. She concludes with "Writing Down the River," an essay on the Grand Canyon.

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.

Nancy Eimers reads poems of quiet observation. This reading was originally given with William Olsen.

Richard Siken reads poems from his collection War of the Foxes (2015). This reading was orginally given with Annie Guthrie. 

Mark Doty reads from his collection of poetry Deep Lane (2015).

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).

Camille Dungy discusses climate change and reads from What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (2006), Smith Blue (2011), and a forthcoming manuscript titled Trophic Cascade. This reading was given as part of the Climate Change & Poetry Series.

In this classroom session at Rincon High School, Terry Tempest Williams leads students in writing exercises that explore students' knowledge of their home places and environments. Williams also answers student questions and reads from two stories published in Coyote's Canyon (1989).