narrative

James Tate reads from his first collection, The Lost Pilot (1967), along with poems that would be collected in The Oblivion Ha-Ha (1970).

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. 

Peter Wild reads poems primarily from Terms & Renewals (1970). He also reads from other recent collections, including The Afternoon in Dismay (1968), Mica Mountain Poems (1968), Love Poems (1969), and Fat Man Poems (1970).

Sandra McPherson reads from her first two collections of poetry, Elegies for the Hot Season (1970) and Radiation (1973). She reads one love poem that remains uncollected.

Peter Wild reads poems appearing in Getting Ready for a Date(1984), The Peaceable Kingdom(1983), and Barn Fires(1978) as well as uncollected works.

Marina Rivera reads from Mestiza (1977) and Sobra (1977); she also reads several uncollected poems. This reading was originally given with Carolyn Kizer. 

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.

Poet, playwright, and novelist Owen Dodson reads a range of poems from his distinguished career. As he introduces his poems, Dodson reflects on his consciousness as a writer, from his undergraduate days at Bates College to his engagement with spirituality, Civil Rights, and social justice.

Paul Zimmer reads from The Republic of Many Voices (1969), along with poems that would be published in The Zimmer Poems (1976) or remain uncollected. Making use of persona, narrative, and humor, he addresses topics such as childhood, identity, and mortality.

As part of the Tucson Festival of Books, Jimmy Santiago Baca performs excerpts from his collection of poems Healing Earthquakes.

Stephanie Balzer performs prose poems from her chapbooks Revenant and faster, faster. She ends the reading with a discussion about her relationship with prose poem form.

Elizabeth Evans reads excerpts from her third novel, Rowing in Eden.

Ofelia Zepeda reads from Where Clouds Are Formed (2008). This reading was originally given with Christopher Burawa.

At this performance given with Abraham Smith during the Tucson Festival of Books, Kim Addonizio reads from her books Lucifer at the Starlite and What Is This Thing Called Love. Before a question-and-answer session with both poets, Kim Addonizio performs a short song on her harmonica.

Pamela Uschuck reads poems from Scattered Risks (2005), Greatest Hits (2009), and Crazy Love (2009).

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."

Ray Gonzalez reads from Consideration of the Guitar (2005). Reading truncated due to a damaged original recording.

Marie Howe reads poems from What the Living Do (1998) and The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008), as well as a poem published in the American Poetry Review. The majority of poems are accompanied by remarks from the poet.

Carl Phillips reads primarily from Double Shadow (2011) and Speak Low (2009). He also reads uncollected and new poems, including poems forthcoming in Silverchest (2013).

Steve Orlen reads poems that would go on to appear in his collection The Elephant's Child: New & Selected Poems, 1978-2005 (2006), as well as earlier and unpublished poems.

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).

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

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.

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).

Jenny Boully reads excerpts from of the mismatched teacups, of the single-serving spoon (2012) and not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them (2011), as well as new and uncollected work. This reading was given as part of the Hybrid Writing Series, co-sponsored by the UA Prose Series.

Jack Gilbert reads primarily from The Great Fires: Poems 1982-1992 (1995) and Refusing Heaven (2005).

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.

Gary Soto reads poetry and prose from Who Will Know Us (1990) and A Summer Life (1990), along with poems that would later be collected in Home Course in Religion (1991).

W.S. Merwin reads from The Vixen (1996), Flower and Hand (1996), The River Sound (1999), and The Pupil (2001), as well as selections from his novel in verse The Folding Cliffs (1998). Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Australian poets Vincent Buckley, Les Murray, and David Malouf visit Tucson to read their work, also providing background and commentary. Les Murray reads a selection of poems in chronological order, including his oldest poem "The Burning Crook." Vincent Buckley reads from Golden Builders (1976), Late Winter Child (1979), and The Pattern (1979), as well as some unpublished poems. David Malouf reads both poetry and passages from his novel An Imaginary Life (1978).

Stephen Dunn and Dave Smith read from their poems.

Just after joining the University of Arizona faculty, Elizabeth Evans reads the first chapter of an unpublished manuscript titled Ancient History, parts of which went on to be included in her novel Rowing in Eden (2000).

Simon J. Ortiz reads poems following the theme that poetry is the voice that we all speak.

Richard Marius reads an excerpt from an early draft of his novel After the War (1992).

James Tate reads poems from throughout his career. His world-famous sense of humor is on display in both his verse and his presence before the audience.

C. K. Williams reads poems from throughout his career, highlighting the musicality of the long lines that have become his signature.

William Stafford reads poems from throughout his career, on themes such as aging, memory, nature, war, and human violence. He also reads what he claims is his "weakest" poem, "The Little Girl by the Fence at School."

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.

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

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.

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.

John Logan reads from his collections The Spring of the Thief: Poems 1960-1962 (1963), The House That Jack Built: or, A Portrait of the Artist as a Sad Sensualist (1974), and from the long poem A Trip to Four or Five Towns. He concludes by reading all eight sections of the book-length poem Poem In Progress (1975). Many of the poems read here would go on to appear in his Collected Poems (BOA Editions, 1989) and are used with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

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.

Juan Felipe Herrera warmly engages the audience with work that would be collected in books such as Mayan Drifter: Chicano Poet in the Lowlands of America (1997), Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler (2002), and Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), as well as uncollected pieces. Standout performances include "Notes on Other Chicana and Chicano Inventions" and "Suicide in Hollywood / Lupe Velez (Circ. 1923) Serigrafía de una actriz Mexicana," read in Spanish and English. Opening his reading with an invocation to sky, earth, wind, and fire, Herrera encourages audience laughter and participation throughout the evening.

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."

Richard Shelton reads from his memoir Nobody Rich or Famous (2016). He also reads a related poem from Selected Poems, 1969-1981 (1982).