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

Ellen Bass: The Myra Berman Kurtz '66 Seminar
2025-04-09 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Kraushaar Auditorium, 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd, Towson, MD, 21204, United States
From the organizer:
The Kurtz Seminar series was endowed by the late Myra Berman Kurtz ’66 and her husband, Dr. Stuart Kurtz, to present speakers at Goucher College who will inspire under- graduate students to pursue careers in a variety of fields. This year’s seminar features Goucher alumna and author Ellen Bass ’68.

Ellen Bass: The Myra Berman Kurtz '66 Seminar
2025-04-09 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Kraushaar Auditorium, 1021 Dulaney Valley Rd, Towson, MD, 21204, United States
The Kurtz Seminar series was endowed by the late Myra Berman Kurtz ’66 and her husband, Dr. Stuart Kurtz, to present speakers at Goucher College who will inspire under- graduate students to pursue careers in a variety of fields. This year’s seminar features Goucher alumna and author Ellen Bass ’68.
See more at event site: https://events.goucher.edu/event/ellen-bass-the-myra-berman-kurtz-66-seminar

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

Sarah Lawrence Poetry Festival 2025
2025-04-25 - 2025-04-27 | Sarah Lawrence College, 1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY, United States
From the organizer:
The Sarah Lawrence College Poetry Festival takes place in April each year and is the largest, open, student-run Poetry Festival in New York. Since 2003, we have been dedicated to the celebration of contemporary poetry and the creation of community around the art form. Previously, we have welcomed poets such as Tracy K. Smith, Anne Carson, Nicole Sealy, Jos Charles, Eduardo C. Corral, and many others. Our festival includes readings, panel discussions, generative sessions, craft talks, and more! We hope to see you there.
Free and open to the public, this year our festival will run from April 25 – 27th here on campus! For more information, please contact us at slcpoetryfest@gmail.com or follow our social media pages (@slcpoetryfest).

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)
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.

The Unifying Power of Translation: A Virtual Reading and Conversation with U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, Patty Crane, Shangyang Fang, and Robin Myers
2025-11-11 17:15 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Join Copper Canyon Press and host Michael Wiegers for a free, livestreamed event to celebrate the unifying power of translation. Michael will be joined by honored guests Arthur Sze, 25th Poet Laureate of the United States, Patty Crane, Shangyang Fang, and Robin Myers for an evening of poetry and conversation where you will be given the opportunity to make your gift in support of Copper Canyon Press.
Reserve your spot here.

Kwame Dawes and the African Poetry Book Distribution Project: Poetry Reading and Research
2025-11-15 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL, 60654, United States
Kwame Dawes and the African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) team will present research findings from the African Poetry Book Distribution Project. Funded by a Poetry Foundation grant, the Project studied poetry book distribution in African countries to improve accessibility and foster sustainable partnerships with publishing and literary stakeholders throughout Africa. The event also features readings from Midwest poets connected to the project, including Chris Abani, Rabha Ashry, and Cheswayo Mphanza.
The event will take place virtually, November 15, 2025 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. This event is free and open to the public, but you have to register in advance.

Words Like Blades: A Virtual Reading with SHANGYANG FANG, JANE MILLER, and LISA OLSTEIN
2025-11-23 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Join Shangyang Fang, Jane Miller, and Lisa Olstein for the “Words Like Blades” reading series hosted by Jennifer Franklin, Jane Huffman, Nathan McClain, and Ren Wilding. This event will be held on Sunday, November 23, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. eastern time (ET). The poets will read on Zoom, followed by a virtual Q&A.
Admission is free, but registration is required. Registered guests will receive a Zoom link and password prior to the start of the event. Registered guests will have the opportunity to send donations directly to the readers (to be split three ways) before, during, and after the event via Venmo or PayPal.

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.

Words Bridging Worlds: On Poetry and Translation – A Public Reading with U.S. Poet Laureate ARTHUR SZE
2026-01-07 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Phoenix) | Queen’s College, 5-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY, 11367, United States
Join U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze for “Words Bridging Worlds: On Poetry and Translation,” a public reading at Queen’s College in the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library with Kimiko Hahn, the New York State Poet Laureate on January 7 at 5:00 pm MT. Register for tickets here.

The event will be livestreamed at this link.

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.
