Copper Canyon Press

Stanford Creative Writing Program Presents Arthur Sze, the Mohr Visiting Poet
2024-05-08 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Humanities Center at Stanford, 424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
Stanford Creative Writing Program Presents Arthur Sze, the Mohr Visiting Poet on Wednesday May 8th, 2024 at 8pm PT
From the organizers:
“Sze is this year’s Mohr Visiting Poet. Each year, the Creative Writing Program welcomes distinguished writers to teach a Stanford writing seminar to undergraduates. These seminars are made possible with the generous support of Lawrence and Nancy Mohr.”
For more information go to: https://events.stanford.edu/event/reading_with_arthur_sze_mohr_visiting_poet

Stanford Creative Writing Program Presents a Colloquium with Arthur Sze, the Mohr Visiting Poet
2024-05-22 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Margaret Jacks Hall, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Building 460, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
Stanford Creative Writing Program Presents a Colloquium with Arthur Sze, the Mohr Visiting Poet on Wednesday May 22nd at 11am PT
From the organizers:
“Sze is this year’s Mohr Visiting Poet. Each year, the Creative Writing Program welcomes distinguished writers to teach a Stanford writing seminar to undergraduates. These seminars are made possible with the generous support of Lawrence and Nancy Mohr.
The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce the next event with the Mohr Visiting Poet: A Colloquium with Arthur Sze.”
For more information and to register go to: https://creativewriting.stanford.edu/events/colloquium-arthur-sze-mohr-visiting-poet

The Keeler Tavern Museum presents Poetry in the Garden with Sophie Cabot Black and Patricia Spears Jones
2024-07-01 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, 152 Main St, Ridgefield, CT, 06877, United States
From the organizers:
“Poetry in the Garden (formerly “A Garden of Verse”) is back for another summer season! The series, produced by Ridgefield Poet Laureate Emerita Barb Jennes, will feature some of the nation’s leading poets. Join us in KTM&HC’s beautiful historic walled garden for weekly readings throughout the month of July. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and readings begin at 7 p.m.
The first event of the season will feature Sophie Cabot Black and Patricia Spears Jones.”
View event here: https://keelertavernmuseum.org/events/483/poetry-in-the-garden/

The 13th Annual New York City Poetry Festival presents Diannely Antigua, Deborah Landau, and Sophie Cabot Black
2024-07-13 11:00 - 2024-07-14 18:00 (America/New_York) | Nolan Park, Governors Island, New York, NY, 10004
The 13th Annual New York City Poetry Festival presents Diannely Antigua, Deborah Landau, and Sophie Cabot Black
From the organizers:
“A literary institution in its thirteenth year, funded by NYSCA, DCLA, and more, The New York City Poetry Festival is a progressive and transformative event that draws over 15,000 attendees. NYC PoFest is one of the most accessible large-scale events New York has to offer. It is free to attend, and its programming is designed to cater to audiences of all ages, regardless of their poetry background. The festival’s core comprises five mainstages: The Brinkley, The Algonquin, The White Horse, The Blackbird, and The Beckett. Over two days, more than a hundred literary organizations will share these stages, from established presses to community writing groups. Attendees of NYC PoFest can also expect an open-air artisan market, top-notch Smorgasburg-worthy food trucks, interactive installations, a visual arts gallery, a Youth Poetry Festival, an open mic, and more. At NYC PoFest, there’s truly a little something for everyone.”
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-13th-annual-new-york-city-poetry-festival-tickets-863989073577?_gl=1*12cdfol*_gcl_au*NzIxOTU4NjEzLjE3MTk0MzA4NTY.

DIESEL, A Bookstore presents Noah Warren, Christian Gullette, and Dan O'Brien
2024-07-30 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Diesel, A Bookstore, 225 26th St, Santa monica, CA, 90402
From the organizers:
“Join us on Tuesday July 30th at 6:30 pm as we welcome Christian Gullette, Dan O’Brien and Noah Warren to the store to discuss and sign Coachella Elegy, Survivors’s Notebook and The Complete Stories.
This event is free to attend and will be held in the courtyard at DIESEL, A Bookstore in Brentwood.
Free seating is limited. To reserve a seat, please purchase one copy of a book for one seat.”
View here: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Christian-Gullette-Dan-O-Brien-Noah-Warren-Author-signing

Flyleaf Books presents their Second Sunday Poetry Series with John Balaban and Anna Lewis
2024-09-08 14:30 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Flyleaf Books, 752 M.L.K. Jr Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Flyleaf Second Sunday Poetry Series presents readings with John Balaban and Anna Lewis
From the organizers:
“Join us for our Monthly Poetry series, an afternoon of poetic readings. Featured poets will each read for 20 minutes, followed by a short break to sign books, then an open mic. Please sign up by 2:30 pm, and limit your reading to one poem, one page. Hope to see you there!”
View here: https://chapelboro.com/events/flyleaf-second-sunday-poetry-series-anna-lewis-and-john-balaban

Ted Kooser Book Release - Raft
2024-09-09 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Chapters Books & Gifts, 548 Seward St, Seward, NE, 68434, United States
From the organizers:
“Delightfully universal, Raft by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ted Kooser travels the Midwest landscape, attuned to life’s shared experiences and emotions–illness, aging, beauty, and love.
Raft is our fourth collection of poetry from Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser. Open in his desire to write for the everyday reader, these poems maintain the open-handed and accessible style that thousands have come to love. Yet, deeply imagistic and metaphorically rich, Raft shows us that even the simplest of objects, the simplest of actions, can become a portal.”
View here: https://sewardchapters.com/event/2024-09-09/ted-kooser-release-raft

CCP at Brooklyn Book Festival, Sunday, September 29
2024-09-29 10:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
From the organizers:
“The Brooklyn Book Festival is New York City’s largest free literary festival and connects readers with local, national and international authors and publishers during the course of a celebratory literary week.
The Festival presents original programming and enthusiastically welcomes New York City’s cross cultural book readers as well as national and international attendees. The Festival is known for fostering creative dialogue among the authors, presenting new literary voices as well as established authors, and for serving the literary community by providing a highly visible platform for the work of authors and publishers.
The Brooklyn Book Festival was launched in 2006 as a one-day event to address the need for a free, major literary event that embraced the diverse constituencies of New York City. It has since grown to include 8 days of city-wide Bookend events, its flagship Festival Day with 300 authors and a Literary Marketplace with 250 independent and major publishers, and the BKBF Children’s Day that celebrates childhood reading. The Festival’s credo is ‘hip, smart and diverse’.”
View here: https://brooklynbookfestival.org/

Copper Canyon Press at AWP 2025
2025-03-26 - 2025-03-29 | AWP, Los Angeles Convention Center
Copper Canyon Press looks forward to attending the in-person 2025 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference March 26-29. Here’s how to find the Press, our booth at #AWP25, and your favorite poets.
Copper Canyon Press Events at AWP 2025 Conference
Thursday (March 27)

Jericho Brown, Camille Rankine
9:00am–10:15pm. Room 408A, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Predictable Unpredictability: Celebrating the Poetry of Reginald Shepherd.

Paisley Rekdal
10:35am–11:50pm. Room 406AB, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two.
Breaking Walls: Heirs of Angel Island Write Against the Anti-Chinese West.

Michael Wasson
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 404AB, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Celebrating Seventy-Five Years of the Beloit Poetry Journal.

Traci Brimhall
12:10pm–1:25pm. Concourse Hall 150 ABC, Level One, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Not Cue Cards or Assignments: The Magic of Prompts in Poetry Workshops.

Geoffrey Brock
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 501ABC, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Twenty Years of Reimagining Place: An Ecotone Anniversary Reading.

Victoria Chang
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 411, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
When Words Are Not Enough: Graphic Literature & Diasporic Histories.

Patricia Spears Jones
12:10pm–1:25pm. Concourse Hall 153 ABC, Level One, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Crowned with Laurels: The Role of the Poet Laureate in a Contemporary Age.

Geoff Bouvier
7:00pm–10:00pm. The Los Angeles Makery, 260 S Los Angeles St.
Black Lawrence Reading.

Friday (March 28)

Victoria Chang, Tyree Daye, Dean Rader
9:00am–10:15am. Room 503, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Eyes Wide: Exploring the Extended Ekphrastic.

Maurya Simon
10:00am–11:00am. Red Hen Press Booth.
Book Signing.

Camille Rankine
10:35am–11:50am. Room 408A, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Failing Again, Failing Better: The Joys of Revision.

Paisley Rekdal
10:35am–11:50pm. Room 503, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two.
Can I Write That? At the Crossroads of Social Change & Conscious Language.

Kerry James Evans
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 518, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Perspective & Perseverance in Writing Sobriety: Hemingway Is Not the Only Way.

Patricia Spears Jones
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 406AB, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
The Sisterhood: Friendship, Feminism, Lineage & Perseverance.

Paisley Rekdal
12:30–1:30pm. W.W. Norton Booth.
Signing for Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens.

Diannely Antigua
1:45pm–3:00pm. Room 518, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
How Do You Know When You’re Done? Poets on Revision.

Michael Wasson
3:20pm–4:35pm. Room 518, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Excuse My Beauty: Queer Indigenous Poetics, Story & Time.

Christopher Soto
3:20pm–4:35pm. Room 515A, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Literary Production During Authoritarian Governments.

Tishani Doshi, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Michael Wiegers, and Shangyang Fang
3:20pm–4:35pm. Petree Hall C, Level One, Los Angeles Convention Center.
The Vacancies We Name: Poetry of Global Perspectives, Sponsored by Copper Canyon Press.

Terry Ehret
5:00pm–7:oopm. Catcher in the Rye 10550 Riverside Drive Toluca Lake, CA 91602.
Celebrate 2025 Poetry Books from Sixteen Rivers Press.

Randall Mann
5:00pm–7:30pm. Precinct, 357 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013.
Unbound @ Precinct – a Queer Offsite Reading.

Diannely Antigua
6:00pm–7:30pm. Heavy Manners Library.
Luz y Carbón: an AWP Offsite Reading.

Pádraig Ó Tuama
7:00pm–8:30pm. The Crawford, 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena.
The Slowdown Live.

Amanda Gunn
8:00pm–10:00pm. Sybilline Records, Pasadena.
Off-site reading with Dialogist.

Saturday (March 29)

Amanda Gunn
9:00am–10:15am. Concourse Hall 153 ABC, Level One, Los Angeles Convention Center.
Forms of Grief: The Craft of Writing Elegiac Poetry.

Dean Rader
10:ooam–11:00am. Only Poems Table.
Book Signing of Beyond the Borderless.

Philip Metres and Pádraig Ó Tuama
10:35am–11:50am. Room 408A, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two.
Spirit Work: Talking (with) Sacred Texts Through Poetry.

Forrest Gander, Shangyang Fang
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 407, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two.
“Traduttore, Traditore!”: Poets on Translation.

Jennifer Chang
12:10pm–1:25pm. Room 408A, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center.
No Excerpts: On the Long Poem.

Pádraig Ó Tuama
12:30pm–1:30pm. Norton Booth 646.
Book Signing.

Maria Hummel
1:45pm–3:00pm. Concourse Hall 152, Level One, Los Angeles Convention Center.
The Middle March: Novel Writing’s Toughest Mile.

Sophie Cabot Black
3:20pm–4:35pm. Room 408A, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two.
Resistance, Refusal, Silence & Life: When We Don’t Write.

Natalie Shapero, Jennifer Chang, Tyree Daye, Christopher Kondrich
5:00pm–6:00pm. R Bar in K Town.
Off-site Reading with Southern Indiana Review.

Sunday (March 30)

Tishani Doshi
4:00pm–5:00pm. Wonzimer Gallery.
Windswept Artist Talk with Susan Ossman.

You can view the full conference schedule here.
Bookfair Booth
Copper Canyon Press’s booth will be located at Booth 418.

Yuki Tanaka Book Signing at AWP
2025-03-28 13:30 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | CCP Booth #418
Stop by booth #418 at AWP for a book signing with Yuki Tanaka, author of Chronicle of Drifting!

The Vacancies We Name: Poetry of Global Perspectives with Michael Wiegers, Tishani Doshi, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and Shangyang Fang
2025-03-28 15:20 - 16:35 (America/Los_Angeles) | Petree Hall C, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level 1
From the Organizers:
When we leave home and move through the world, what vacancies get created inside us? What does it mean to be severed from belonging—and to find it again? And how does poetry give us a mouth with which to tune our empty spaces? In this reading, three celebrated, international poets explore the intersections between distance, home, and spirit, offering a window into the energies we use to make a place in which we can live, whether here, there, or both at once.

8th Annual Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry and Poetics With Pádraig Ó Tuama
2025-04-02 15:30 - 16:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Husky Union Building, Room 334, University of Washington, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
From the organizers:
Poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó Tuama’s work centers around themes of language, power, conflict and religion. Working fluently on the page and in public, he is a compelling poet and skilled speaker, teacher and group worker. He presents Poetry Unbound with On Being Studios. From 2014-2019 he was the leader of the Corrymeela Community, Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation community. With undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in theology, multiple professional qualifications in conflict mediation (specialising in groups), he also holds a PhD (Poetry & Theology) from the University of Glasgow. For the Autumn terms of 2024-28, he is a visiting scholar at the centre for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.
When BBC journalist William Crawley introduced Pádraig on the stage to deliver a TEDx talk on Story, Crawley said, “He’s probably the best public speaker I know.” Profiling Ó Tuama in The New Yorker, journalist and poet Eliza Grizwold wrote “Poetry, for him, is the language the heart speaks not when it reaches for some externalized divinity but when it seeks to understand itself.”

The Elliott Bay Book Company presents a Reading with Tishani Doshi and Kelli Russell Agodon
2025-04-02 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave., Seattle, WA, 98122, United States
From the organizers:

“Award-winning poet, writer, and dancer Tishani Doshi and award-winning poet and editor Kelli Russell Agodon visit the store to discuss their poetry collections, A God at the Door and Dialogues with the Rising Tides.
Please help us prepare for audience size by RSVPing here.”
A God at the Door
“We are homesick everywhere,” writes Tishani Doshi, “even when we’re home.” With aching empathy, righteous anger, and rebellious humor, A God at the Door calls on the extraordinary minutiae of nature and humanity to redefine belonging and unveil injustice. In an era of pandemic lockdown and brutal politics, these poems make vital space for what must come next-the return of wonder and free movement, and a profound sense of connection to what matters most. From a microscopic cell to flightless birds, to a sumo wrestler and the tree of life, Doshi interrupts the news cycle to pause in grief or delight, to restore power to language. A God at the Door invites the reader on a pilgrimage-one that leads us back to the sacred temple of ourselves. This is an exquisite, generous collection from a poet at the peak of her powers.
Dialogues with Rising Tides
In Kelli Russell Agodon’s fourth collection, each poem facilitates a humane and honest conversation with the forces that threaten to take us under. The anxieties and heartbreaks of life—including environmental collapse, cruel politics, and the persistent specter of suicide—are met with emotional vulnerability and darkly sparkling humor. Dialogues with Rising Tides does not answer, This or that? It passionately exclaims, And also! Even in the midst of great difficulty, radiant wonders are illuminated at every turn.
Tishani Doshi is an award-winning poet, writer, and dancer. She has published six books of poetry and fiction. Her work has appeared in newspapers and journals such as the Guardian, the National, and the Hindu, and her essays, poems and short stories have been widely anthologized. Doshi lives in Tamil Nadu, India, and is currently Visiting Professor of Practice, Literature and Creative Writing at New York University, Abu Dhabi.
Kelli Russell Agodon (she/her) is a bi/queer poet and editor whose newest poetry book is Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press) was named a Finalist in the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize in Poetry. She is also the author of Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays & Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems. She is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press where she works as an editor and book cover designer. She teaches at Pacific Lutheran University’s low-res MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop. Kelli is currently part of a project between local land trusts and artists to help raise awareness for the preservation of land, ecosystems, and biodiversity called Writing the Land. She also co-hosts the poetry series”Poems You Need” with Melissa Studdard. Her latest collection, Accidental Devotions, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2026.

Pádraig Ó Tuama: The Better Angels of Our Nature
2025-04-03 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Cathedral Nave, University of Washington, 1410 NE Campus Pkwy, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
From the Organizer:
A Thursday evening Wisdom School event with acclaimed poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama
THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2025, 7–8:30 P.M., in person in the cathedral nave and livestreamed; registration required
Due to the number of registrations, this event will be offered in the cathedral nave rather than Bloedel Hall. A livestream will be available to registrants as announced previously.
We live in fraught times when violence seems to be the common denominator in a calculus based in mistrust and misanthropic othering. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind… Drawing on inspiration from his work with language and religion, conflict and peacemaking, this truth-teller of our time will draw us into an orbit of soulful wisdom and poetic grace.
Fee: $15 (for in-person and livestream participation).
Register below or using this link.

O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Finale with Ellen Bass
2025-04-08 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Folger Theatre, 201 E Capitol St SE, Washington, 20003, United States
From the organizer:
The 2024-25 Poetry season concludes with a finale reading by Ellen Bass. Bass’s most recent poetry books include Indigo, Like a Beggar, and The Human Line. She co-edited the first major anthology of women’s poetry, No More Masks!, and her nonfiction works include The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth. Bass, chosen by a group of Folger Poetry supporters, will read from the work of other poets cited as a literary influence, as well as from her own work. A moderated conversation, bookselling, and signing will follow the reading.
Virtual access to a live streaming of the reading available upon purchase.
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxf359t

Sierra Poetry Festival (With Randall Mann)
2025-04-12 08:30 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Center for the Arts, 314 W Main St., Grass Valley, CA, 95945, United States
From the organizers:
Sierra Poetry Festival is a project of Nevada County Arts Council. We will host our 9th Annual SIERRA POETRY FESTIVAL on April 12, 2025 at The Center for the Arts, in Grass Valley, CA, attended by some of our most exciting local, national, and international poets and performers, in the midst of a month-long FRINGE POETRY FESTIVAL, taking place in venues across Nevada County and beyond.
Sierra Poetry Festival marks National Poetry Month from the rolling foothills of California’s Gold Country to the rugged High Sierra, bringing a rich literary community together to celebrate the spoken word and reach out to new audiences in fresh ways. Through Sierra Poetry Festival we also celebrate California Arts, Culture & Creativity Month and we draw attention to our two coveted California Cultural Districts.
Get tickets here

Sophie Cabot Black and Elise Paschen at Grolier Poetry Book Shop
2025-04-30 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plympton St., Cambridge, MA, United States
Sophie Cabot Black, author of Geometry of the Restless Herd, will be reading at Grolier Poetry Book Shop with Elise Paschen on April 30th at 7PM.
Register in person here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/5pyq967/lp/33cf158d-15e4-461f-86b6-544a6b219cd0
Register virtually here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/rm8bs8p/lp/97d283fd-19b6-4b6e-a9e1-39414f37b887

Literary Speakeasy: A Toast to Foglifter
2025-05-29 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Martuni’s, 4 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
From the organizer:
This month Literary Speakeasy is celebrating Foglifter Journal with six fantastic Foglifter authors and writers! This month’s featured readers are:
* Cianga
* Syr Becker
* Lily Kaylor Honoré
* Randall Mann
* Eden Nobile
* D’mani Thomas
Your host and curator every month is James J. Siegel
Literary Speakeasy happens on the last Thursday of every month at Martuni’s piano bar. Show is FREE with no drink minimum. Arrive early and get a FREE raffle ticket for your chance to win some awesome Speakeasy prizes. We can’t wait to see you and raise a glass to Foglifter.
Foglifter—created by and for LGBTQ+ writers and readers—continues the San Francisco Bay Area’s tradition of groundbreaking queer and trans writing, often publishing those who are multi-marginalized (BIPOC, youth, elders, and people with disabilities). Foglifter’s biannual journal features the widest range of forms, with an emphasis on transgressive, risky, challenging subject matter, innovative formal choices, and work that pushes the boundaries of what writing can do.

Bennington Writers Reading Series: Summer 2025
2025-06-05 08:00 - 2025-06-13 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | NY
From the organizers: Critically acclaimed, award-winning authors and faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars will offer an evening reading series during the MFA program’s summer residency.
This series is open to the public and will be available to stream virtually. The complete schedule of readings can be found at the link below, along with streaming links.
https://www.bennington.edu/events/event-series/writers-reading-series-summer-2025

Jennifer Chang, Rachel Cohen, and Rebecca Makkai
Thursday, Jun 5
Tishman Lecture Hall

Peter Cameron, Bianca Stone, and De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Friday, Jun 6
Tishman Lecture Hall

Monica Ferrell, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Moriel Rothman-Zecher MFA ’23
Saturday, Jun 7
Tishman Lecture Hall

Jai Chakrabarti, Stacey D’Erasmo, and Craig Morgan Teicher
Sunday, Jun 8
Tishman Lecture Hall

Alumni Fellows Reading: Davin Malasarn MFA ’20 and Nina Peláez MFA ’24
Monday, Jun 9
Tishman Lecture Hall

‘Pemi Aguda and Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Monday, Jun 9
Tishman Lecture Hall

Brian Dillon, Hugh Ryan MFA ’09, and Taymour Soomro
Wednesday, Jun 11
Tishman Lecture Hall

Garrard Conley, Thomas Grattan, and Lance Richardson
Thursday, Jun 12
Tishman Lecture Hall

Randall Mann and Dinaw Mengestu
Friday, Jun 13
Tishman Lecture Hall

Poetry & Sex in Public Places: A Celebration of Mutsuo Takahashi’s “Ode”
2025-08-10 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Kerouac Alley, Kerouac Alley, San Francisco, CA, United States
From the organizer:
This event will be held in Kerouac Alley, between City Lights and Vesuvio Cafe. Admision is Free. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-serve basis.

A tribute to Mutsuo Takahashi, one of Japan’s most prominent living poets. With Randall Mann and D. A. Powell – This event will be held in Kerouac Alley, between City Lights and Vesuvio Cafe. Admision is Free. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-serve basis.

San Francisco poets Randall Mann and D. A. Powell will be reading selections from contemporary Japanese poet Mutsuo Takahashi, whose one-thousand line “Ode” is an erotic and devotional masterpiece of queer literature that has been furtively shared among gay poets for decades. The poem takes as its central occasion felatio in liminal spaces where the possibility of discovery quickens the heart. Powell and Mann will read selections from the long poem in Jack Kerouac Alley (and invite guest readers to participate in the divine verses.)
D.A. Powell’s books include Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys and Repast, both from Graywolf Press. He teaches at University of San Francisco.
Randall Mann is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Deal: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon, 2023). He lives in San Francisco.
Mutsuo Takahashi is one of Japan’s most prominent living poets, having won almost every major poetry prize in the nation. Takahashi has published forty-eight books of poetry and countless volumes of poetry, essays, and literary criticism. Five collections of his poetry are available in English translation: Poem of a Penisist (Chicago Review Press, 1975, reprinted University of Minnesota Press, 2012), A Bunch of Keys (The Crossing Press, 1984), Sleeping, Sinning, Falling (City Lights, 1992), Two Shores (Dedalus, 2006), and We of Zipangu (Arc Publication, 2007). His memoir Twelve Views from the Distance (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), translated by Jeffrey Angles, was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award. Takahashi presently lives in the seaside city of Zushi, ten kilometers to the south of Yokohama.
Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation

A Poetry Reading with Gabrielle Calvocoressi at Smith College
2025-09-30 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall (Smith College)
In honor of her new book, The New Economy, Gabrielle Calvocoressi will be reading poetry on the Smith College campus Tuesday, September 30th from 7pm-8:30pm in Weinstein Auditorium. This event us free and open to the public. A livestream also available on the BDPC YouTube page.

The 2025 Pegasus Awards Reading
2025-10-24 17:30 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL, 60654, United States
The Poetry Foundation hosts this special reading as an opportunity to hear from the recipients of the 2025 Pegasus Awards, a set of prizes established by the Poetry Foundation. The reading, and winners of this years prizes, feature Rigoberto González (Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize), Amy Stolls (Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry), and Kazim Ali (Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism for the book Black Buffalo Woman: An Introduction to the Poetry & Poetics of Lucille Clifton).

The event will be held in person, October 24, 2025 from 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM at Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60654.
The venue is ADA accessible with ASL interpreters.

U.S. Poet Laureate ARTHUR SZE'S Inaugural Reading at the Library of Congress
2025-12-11 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, 10 First Street, SE Washington, DC, 20540, United States
RESCHEDULED: U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze will open his tenure on December 11, 2025 at 7:00 pm ET with an inaugural reading at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.
To register for your FREE tickets, click here.

Words Bridging Worlds: Community Workshop on Translating Poetry with U.S. Poet Laureate ARTHUR SZE and Collected Works Bookstore
2026-01-07 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Phoenix) | Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo St, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, United Kingdom
Join us for a workshop on translation hosted by U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze and Collected Works Bookstore!
This event will take place at Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Event capacity is 15 registrants, so please reserve your FREE spot today! Click here to register.

Michael Bazzett in Conversation With Maggie Smith
2026-03-24 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Queermunity, 3036 Hennepin Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN, 55408, United States
Join Stern Prize winner Michael Bazzett and Maggie Smith for an evening conversation and celebration of Smith’s brand new poetry collection, A Suit or a Suitcase!
Tickets are selling quickly! To reserve your spot, click here.
