sisters

Lucille Clifton reads poems on many subjects, including family and illness, as well as a series of Rastafarian-inspired poems about the life of the Biblical figure Mary. In addition to poems, Clifton reads excerpts from Generations: A Memoir and her children's book Sonora Beautiful.

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

Timothy Schaffert reads from The Coffins of Little Hope, published in 2011, and The Swan Gondola, which would be published in 2014.

A celebration of the fairy tale, featuring readings from authors included in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010), an anthology of new fairy tales edited by Kate Bernheimer.

Aurelie Sheehan reads a story from the collection Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant (1994), as well as two unpublished works.

Poetry Center Summer Resident Polly Rosenwaike reads an excerpt from the short story Grow Your Eyelashes. This reading was originally given with Samuel Ace and Dexter L. Booth.

Just after joining the University of Arizona faculty, Elizabeth Evans reads the first chapter of an unpublished manuscript titled Ancient History, parts of which went on to be included in her novel Rowing in Eden (2000).

Erin McGraw performs a Southern dialect to read the story Until It Comes Closer from her collection Bodies at Sea (1989).

Roberta J. Hill opens with two poems from her first collection, Star Quilt (1984), before reading more recent work that would later be collected in Philadelphia Flowers (1996). Both collections were published under the name Roberta Hill Whiteman.

Tarfia Faizullah reads poems from her collection Seam (2014) and from an early version of Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf Press, 2018). This reading was originally given with francine j. harris as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Venita Blackburn reads from Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (2017) as well as one story, "Fam," that would later appear in her collection How to Wrestle a Girl (2021).

Natalie Diaz reads new work commissioned as part of the Art for Justice series. Representatives of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project give an opening presentation.