new orleans

Cynthia Hogue reads poems from Or Consequence (2010), When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina (2010), and The Incognito Body (2006). She also reads excerpts from Virginie LaLucq and Jean-Luc Nancy's Fortino Sámano: The Overflowing of the Poem (2012), which she translated with Silvain Gallais. This reading was originally given with Kate Bernheimer.

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.

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.