pulitzer prize winner

In Louise Glück's first performance at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, she opens with some poems from her third book, The Garden, and then reads from the manuscript of her book Descending Figure, which would be published two years later.

Richard Howard gives performative readings of long poems appearing in Untitled Subjects (1969) and Findings (1971), as well as one poem that would be published the following year in Two-Part Inventions (1974).

Philip Levine reads widely from his early body of work, primarily from Not This Pig (1968) and They Feed They Lion (1972). He reads two poems that would be later published in his collection titled 1933 (1974).

Charles Simic reads widely from his body of work.

Charles Wright reads from several of his books, along with three poems that would later be published, in slightly different versions, in his 1988 collection Zone Journals.

C. K. Williams reads poetry primarily from I Am the Bitter Name (1972). He also reads several ribald pieces (that remain uncollected), showcasing his humor and imagination.

John Ashbery reads widely from his body of work, including poems from both Shadow Train and A Wave, which were published in the four years that followed this reading.

Rae Armantrout reads from the collection Next Life and the manuscript of Versed. Versed was published two years after this performance.

Philip Levine reads from five of his books, including the manuscript for 1933, which was published four years after this reading.

W.D. Snodgrass primarily reads poems from After Experience (1968), providing extensive introductions to each poem that place them in the context of his life and thinking. He closes with three comic poems by Christian Morgenstern, translated from the German with Lore Groszmann Segal in Gallows Songs (1967).

Charles Wright reads widely from his work.

Louise Glück reads from her 2001 collection of poems The Seven Ages.

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.

Wallace Stegner reads an excerpt from a manuscript that was in progress at the time of the reading; it would later be published as Recapitulation (1979).

On the eve of his 75th birthday, Robert Penn Warren reads from Promises: Poems 1954-1956 (1957), Incarnations: Poems 1966-1968 (1968), Or Else: Poem/Poems 1968-1974 (1974), Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978 (1978), and Being Here: Poetry 1977-1980 (1980).

John Ashbery reads poems that would later be collected in Hotel Lautréamont (1992), as well as an excerpt from Flow Chart (1991).

Carolyn Kizer reads from her poems, many of which are dedicated to historical heroes or to figures who played an important role in her personal life.

Maxine Kumin reads from several collections including her first book, Halfway (1961), as well as Upcountry (1972) and House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1975). She reads poems on themes such as animals, dreams, water, and the body, as well as two elegies to her close friend Anne Sexton, and a series of seven riddles.

N. Scott Momaday reads both poetry and fiction for the Writers at Work series. He begins with a series of short epitaphs, followed by a series of charms inspired by the Native American oral tradition. He reads a few more poems, including selections from his collection The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969). He concludes the reading with a selection from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel House Made of Dawn (1968).

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.

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.

Charles Simic reads from New and Selected Poems, 1962-2012 (2013) and The Lunatic (2015).

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.

Former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove reads poems from her book Playlist for the Apocalypse (2021). This reading was presented as part of the 2022 Tucson Humanities Festival. 

Tyehimba Jess reads historical persona poems from leadbelly (2005) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Olio (2016), including the full sonnet sequence about the McKoy twins from Olio. He also discusses the research behind Olio and the complex forms he uses throughout the collection, particularly his syncopated sonnets.