spirituality

In this performance, Allen Ginsberg reads from Howl (1956), Kaddish (1961), and Reality Sandwiches (1963). He also discusses his writing process and reads some unpublished excerpts.

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.

Brenda Hillman reads widely from her body of work.

Marilynne Robinson reads from her novel Home (2008), a companion to the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Gilead.

Spoken word artist Teré Fowler-Chapman performs selections from their work. This reading was originally given with Clark Coolidge.

Fenton Johnson reads from his novel The Man Who Loved Birds (2016). This reading was originally given with Brian Blanchfield. 

Rubén Martínez discusses being at an impasse in writing, what he describes as surgimiento in Spanish, or emergence. His talk touches on his personal experience and writing, as well as work by other writers and artists.

Li-Young Lee reads new and uncollected work as well as two poems from his collection The Undressing (2018). This reading was given as part of the Tom Sanders Memorial Reading Series. 

As part of the Terrain.org 25th Anniversary reading, Julie Swarstad Johnson reads poems that consider the night sky, astronomy, and place. She primarily reads from a sequence of epistolary poems titled "Night Letters," and she opens with one poem from Pennsylvania Furnace (2019). This reading was originally given alongside Derek Sheffield and Allison Adelle Hedge Coke.

Alicia Ostriker reads from her seventeenth book of poems, The Holy & Broken Bliss: Poems in Plague Time (2024). Written during the Covid-19 pandemic, these poems move through domesticity, political division, police brutality, and Ostriker's ongoing spiritual quest. Ostriker was delayed in reaching Tucson and appeared via Zoom for an in-person audience. This reading was originally given with Eleanor Wilner.