rhyme

Richard Eberhart reads from Fields of Grace (1972), along with a wide range of selections from his earlier work.

Seamus Heaney reads from Death of a Naturalist (1966), Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), North (1975), Field Work (1979), and Sweeney Astray (1983). The reading also features Heaney's lively banter.

Maxine Kumin reads primarily from House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1976), along with selections from her earlier work.

Ishmael Reed performs poems from his extensive body of work, including several unpublished poems. He remarks that his reading will "start out with a song and end with a song"--that is, with his poems "Betty's Ball Blues" and "I'm Running for the Office of Love" as set to music by Taj Mahal and Allen Toussaint.

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

Marguerite Young reads selections of her poetry and excerpts from her novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling (1965), offering commentary on the process and context for each piece. 

John Frederick Nims reads from Knowledge of the Evening (1960) and Of Flesh and Bone (1967); he also reads translations of poems by St. John of the Cross and Catullus. 

Sherman Alexie reads widely from his work and engages the audience with stories characterized by his signature humor.

Ruth Stone reads extensively from In an Iridescent Time (1959) and Topoography and Other Poems (1971); she also reads some unpublished poems.

Poetry Center Summer Resident Cody Walker reads poems from Shuffle and Breakdown (2008), along with new and uncollected works and a poem by Gavin Ewart.

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

Clark Coolidge reads from an unpublished work in progress. This reading was originally given with Teré Fowler-Chapman.

Al Young reads from Drowning in the Sea of Love: Musical Memoirs (1995), Heaven: Collected Poems 1956-1990 (1992), and The Sound of Dreams Remembered: Poems 1990-2000 (2001).

Olena Kalytiak Davis reads from And Her Soul Out Of Nothing (1997) and Shattered Sonnets Love Cards and Other Off and Back Handed Importunities (2003). This reading was originally given with Matthea Harvey and James Thomas Stevens for the Next Word in Poetry Series.

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.

Poet and translator Marilyn Hacker reads from her collections Names (2010) and A Stranger's Mirror (2015). She also reads from her translations from the French of works by poets Vénus Khoury-Ghata and Claire Malroux.

Marilyn Chin reads from her sixth collection, Sage (2023), sharing poems that employ humor, puns, rhyme, allusions to Chinese and English literature, and a wide array of traditional and modified verse forms. Chin opens the reading by performing from memory two poems from A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems (2018).