Close Readings 2022
Zoe Tuck leads a close reading of Alejandra Piznarik
On Thursday, November 10th, 2022, 3–4PM (EST)—Zoe Tuck led a thinking-through/reading-through of "[All night I head the noise of water sobbing.]" by Alejandra Pizarnak, followed by a short reading of her own work.
Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, became a person in California, and now lives in Massachusetts, where she teaches through the Threshold Academy and hosts “The But Also Reading Series" with Britt Billmeyer-Finn. She co-curates Belladonna* Collaborative's "Close Distances Reading Series" and co-edits Hot Pink Magazine. Zoe is the author of Soft Investigations (Daisy Mayhem Books 2019) and Terror Matrix (Timeless, Infinite Light 2014). An excerpt of her epic poem, The Book of Bella, is forthcoming in 2022 from DoubleCross Press. Find out more at zoetuck.com.
Laura Moriarty leads a close reading of Bhanu Khapil
On Thursday, October 27th, 2022, 3–4PM (EST)—Laura Moriarty led a thinking-through/reading-through of "Preface to Reverse the Book" by Bhanu Kapil, followed by a short reading of her own work.
Laura Moriarty was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Northern California where she has lived since 1964. She attended UC Berkeley. She was the Director of the American Poetry Archives at the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University for many years. She has taught at Naropa University and Mills College. She was Deputy Director of Small Press Distribution for two decades. Her recent books include Personal Volcano, Who That Divines, A Tonalist, and A Semblance: Selected and New Poems, 1975-2007. Last February she had her first show of visual art, rapt glass, at the Right Window in San Francisco.
Wendy Xu leads a close reading of Bei Dao
On Thursday, October 13th, 2022, 3–4PM (EST)—Wendy Xu led a thinking-through/reading-through of “Black Map” by Bei Dao, followed by a short reading of her own work.
Wendy Xu is most recently the author of The Past (Wesleyan, 2021) and Phrasis, named one of the 10 Best Poetry Books of 2017 by The New York Times Book Review. Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Granta, Poetry, Tin House, Conjunctions, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, and widely elsewhere. She is assistant professor of writing at The New School, where she teaches poetry.
Eleni Sikelianos leads a close reading of Alice Notley
On Thursday, September 29, 2022, 3-4PM (EST) — Eleni Sikelianos led a thinking-through/reading-through of an Alice Notley picture poem, followed by a short reading of her own work.
Eleni Sikelianos was born and grew up in California, and has lived in New York, Paris, Athens, Colorado, and now, Providence, where she lives around the corner from the Waldrops. She is the author of ten books of poetry, including the forthcoming Your Kingdom (winter 2023), and two hybrid multi-memoirs (The Book of Jon, from City Lights, and You Animal Machine, from Coffee House Press). Her writings, frequently drawing on ecopoetics, biology and a broad sense of possible lineages, have been widely anthologized and translated. As a translator, she has worked on texts by Jacques Roubaud, Sabine Macher, and Mohamed Leftah, among others.
Henri Cole leads a close reading of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Oh Thursday, September 15, 2022, 3–4PM (ET—Henri Cole led a thinking-through/reading-through of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ "Spelt from Sybil's Leaves,” followed by a short reading of his own work.
Photo: star black
Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan to a French mother and an American father. He has published ten collections of poetry and received many awards, including the Medal in Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also published Orphic Paris, a memoir. He teaches at Claremont McKenna College.
E. Ethelbert Miller leads a close reading of June Jordan
On Thursday, September 1, 2022, 3–4PM (ET)—E. Ethelbert Miller led a thinking-through/reading-through of June Jordan’s "Poem Against the State (of Things): 1975" (click to read poem), following by a short reading of his own work.
E. Ethelbert Miller is a writer and literary activist. He is the author of two memoirs and several books of poetry. Miller hosts the WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and hosts and produces The Scholars on UDC-TV, which received a 2020 Telly Award. Most recently, he received a grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and a congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin in recognition of his literary activism. Miller’s latest book is How I Found Love Behind the Catcher's Mask, published by City Point Press.
Jena Osman leads a close reading of Don Mee Choi
On Friday, July 8th, 2022, 3–3pm (EDT)—Jena Osman led a reading-through/thinking-through of Don Mee Choi’s "Woe Are You?," followed by a short reading of her own work.
Jena Osman’s books of poems include Motion Studies (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019), Corporate Relations (Burning Deck, 2014), Public Figures (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), The Network (Fence Books 2010, selected for the National Poetry Series in 2009), An Essay in Asterisks (Roof Books, 2004) and The Character (Beacon Press, winner of the 1998 Barnard New Women Poets Prize). She was a 2006 Pew Fellow in the Arts and has received grants for her poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Howard Foundation, and the Fund for Poetry. She co-founded and edited the literary magazine Chain with Juliana Spahr for twelve years. She teaches in the MFA Creative Writing program in the English Department at Temple University.
Aditi Machado leads a close reading of Nathaniel Mackey
On Friday, June 10, 2022, 3–4pm (EDT)—Aditi Machado led a reading-through/thinking-through of Nathaniel Mackey's "Said to Have Been Heard to Say Hush," followed by a short reading of her own work.
Aditi Machado is a poet, translator, and essayist. Her second book of poems, Emporium (Nightboat, 2020), received the James Laughlin Award. Her other works include the poetry collection Some Beheadings (Nightboat, 2017), an essay pamphlet titledThe End (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2020), a translation from the French of Farid Tali’s novella Prosopopoeia (Action, 2016), and several poetry chapbooks. Her writing appears in journals like The Chicago Review, Lana Turner, The Rumpus, Volt, and Western Humanities Review, among others. She works as an Assistant Professor of Poetry at the University of Cincinnati.
Tonya Foster leads a close reading of Gwendolyn Brooks
On Friday, June 3, 2022, 3–4pm (EDT)—Tonya Foster led a reading-through/thinking-through of Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Life of Lincoln West" and "The Ballad of Pearl May Lee," followed by a short discussion of her own work.
Tonya M. Foster is a poet, essayist, and Black feminist scholar. She is the author of A Swarm of Bees in High Court, the bilingual chapbook La Grammaire des Os; and co-editor of Third Mind: Teaching Creative Writing through Visual Art. Her writing and research focus on poetry, poetics, ideas of place and emplacement, and on intersections between the visual and the written. She is a poetry editor at Fence Magazine and a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto. A recipient of awards from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, the Creative Capital Foundation, Macdowell, Headlands Center for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora, and the Ford and Mellon Foundations, among others, Dr. Foster serves as the George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in Poetry at San Francisco State University.
Norma Cole leads a close reading of Wordsworth & Ashbery
On Friday, May 20th, 2022—3PM (EDT)—Norma Cole led a group reading-through/thinking-through of William Wordsworth’s “Two-Part Prelude” along with John Ashbery’s “Streakiness,” followed by a short reading of her own work.
Norma Cole is a poet, visual artist and translator. Her most recent book of poetry is Fate News. Other books include Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside, Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988—2008, Spinoza in Her Youth, To Be at Music: Essays & Talks and Actualities, her collaboration with Marina Adams. Her translations from French include Danielle Collobert’s It Then, Crosscut Universe: Writing on Writing from France (edited & translated by Cole), and Jean Daive’s White Decimal. Her visual work has been shown at the Miami University Art Museum, [2nd floor projects] in San Francisco, Berkeley Art Museum, and most recently her film “By the Turning Bridge” at Arion Press and NIAD. A book of her drawings called Drawings just appeared from Further Other Book Works.
Charles Bernstein leads a close reading of Larry Eigner
On Friday, May 13th, 2022—3PM (EDT)—Charles Bernstein led a group reading-through/thinking-through of Larry Eigner’s "Again Dawn," followed by a short reading of his own work.
Charles Bernstein is the winner of the 2019 Bollingen Prize for Near/Miss (University of Chicago Press, 2018) and for lifetime achievement in American Poetry. He is the author of Topsy-Turvy (Chicago, April 2021) and Pitch of Poetry (Chicago, 2016). In 2020, Roof Books published The Course, a collaboration with Ted Greenwald. He lives in Brooklyn. More info @ http://writing.upenn.edu/epc
Kimberly Alidio leads a Close Reading of Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
On Friday, May 6th, 2022—3PM (EDT)—Kimberly Alidio led a group reading-through/thinking-through of Mei-mei Berssenbrugge’s "Texas” followed by a short reading of her own work.
PHOTO BY STACY SZYMASZEK
Kimberly Alidio (she/they) is an educator, historian, and author of four books of poetry, including why letter ellipses (selva oscura); : once teeth bones coral : (Belladonna*), a Lambda Literary Award Finalist; and after projects the resound (Black Radish). Their most recent book, Teeter, won the Nightboat Poetry Prize, and will be published in Fall 2023. She teaches in Bard’s Language and Thinking Program, Prison Initiative, Early College, and Milton Avery School of the Arts. With their partner, the poet Stacy Szymaszek, they live on unceded Munsee and Muhheaconneok/ Mohican lands, otherwise known as New York’s Upper Hudson Valley.
Rodrigo Toscano leads a Close Reading of Bertolt Brecht
On Friday, March 18th, 2022—3PM (EDT)—Rodrigo Toscano led a group reading-through/thinking through of a Bertolt Brecht’s “The Doubter” followed by a short reading of his own work.
Rodrigo Toscano is a poet and essayist based in New Orleans. He is the author of ten books of poetry. His latest book is The Charm & The Dread (Fence Books, 2021). His previous books include In Range, Explosion Rocks Springfield, Deck of Deeds, Collapsible Poetics Theater (a National Poetry Series selection), To Leveling Swerve, Platform, Partisans, and The Disparities. His poetry has appeared in over 20 anthologies, including Best American Poetry and Best American Experimental Poetry (BAX). Toscano has received a New York State Fellowship in Poetry. He won the Edwin Markham 2019 prize for poetry. He works for the Labor Institute in conjunction with the United Steelworkers, the National Institute for Environmental Health Science, National Day Laborers Organizing Network educational / training projects that involve environmental and labor justice culture transformation. rodrigotoscano.com
Rae Armantrout leads a Close Reading of “Two Language Poets Later”
On Friday, March 11th, 2022—3PM (EST)—Rae Armantrout led a group reading-through/thinking through of two “Language Poets Later”: “You, Part I” by Ron Silliman and “Ponderable” by Lyn Hejinian, followed by a short reading of her own work.
Rae Armantrout is the author of fifteen books of poems, including Conjure, a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker award, (Wesleyan, 2020), Wobble (2018), a finalist for the National Book Award, and Versed (2009) which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2010. She is the current judge of the Yale Younger Poet award. Her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies including The London Review of Books, The New Yorker, Conjunctions, The Paris Review, Bomb, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Review of Books, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology, and several editions of The Best American Poetry. Her latest book, Finalists, from Wesleyan, appears March of 2022. Armantrout is professor emerita at UC San Diego. She currently lives in Everett, WA.
Tyrone Williams leads a Close Reading of Duriel E. Harris
On Friday, February 11th, 2022, Tyrone Williams led a group reading-through of Duriel E. Harris’ “What he thought belly down, when I was 8 years old” followed by a short reading of his own work.
Tyrone Williams is the author of several chapbooks and books of poetry. He teaches on the English and RIGS (Race, Intersectionality, Gender) departments and Philosophy, Politics and the Public honor program at Xavier University in Cincinnati Ohio.
Stephanie Burt leads a Close Reading of Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt
On Friday, January 28th, 2022 Stephanie Burt led a group reading-through of Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt’s “The Palace-Burner” followed by a short reading of here own work.
Photo credit: Jessica Bennett
Stephanie (also Steph; formerly Stephen) Burt is a poet, literary critic, and professor. She has published four collections of poems: Advice from the Lights (2017), Belmont (2013), Parallel Play (2006), and Popular Music (1999). Burt's works of criticism include The Poem is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (2016); Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry (2009), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Art of the Sonnet, written with David Mikics (2010); The Forms of Youth: 20th-Century Poetry and Adolescence (2007); Randall Jarrell on W.H. Auden (2005), with Hannah Brooks-Motl; and Randall Jarrell and His Age (2002). Burt has taught at Macalester College and is now Professor of English at Harvard University.
Dorothea Lasky leads a Close Reading of Bhanu Kapil
On Friday, January 15th, 2022 Dorothea Lasky led a group reading-through of Bhanu Kapil’s “What are the consequences of silence?” followed by a short reading of her own work
Dorothea Lasky has published several collections of poetry, Milk (2018), ROME (2014), Thunderbird (2012), Black Life (2010), and AWE (2007), as well as several chapbooks, including Snakes (2017) and Poetry Is Not a Project (2010). She is the editor of Essays (2021) and co-editor of Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (2013). In 2019, she published Animal, a book of prose. Lasky’s poems have appeared in a number of prominent publications, including The New Yorker, Paris Review, and American Poetry Review. Lasky was awarded a Bagley Wright Fellowship in 2013, and currently, she is an associate professor of poetry at Columbia University, where she directs the poetry program.
Asiya Wadud leads a Close Reading of Dionne Brand
On Friday, January 15th, 2022 Dorothea Lasky led a group reading-through of Dionne Brand’s “Verso 3.1” followed by a short reading of her own work.
Asiya Wadud is the author of Crosslight for Youngbird, day pulls down the sky/ a filament in gold leaf (written with Okwui Okpokwasili), Syncope and No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body. Her recent writing appears in e-flux journal, BOMB Magazine, Poem-a-Day, Chicago Review, Social Text, FENCE, and elsewhere. Asiya’s work has been supported by the Foundation Jan Michalski, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (River to River: Four Voices 2020; Governors Island Arts Center residency 2019-2020; Process Space 2017), Danspace Project, Brooklyn Poets, Dickinson House, Mount Tremper Arts, and the New York Public Library, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York where she teaches poetry at Saint Ann’s School, Columbia University, and Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Major Jackson leads a Close Reading of Derek Walcott
On Friday, January 10th, 2022 Major Jackson led a group reading-through/thinking-through of Derek Walcott’s “At the end of the line there is an opening door” followed by a short reading of is own work.
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Major Jackson is the author of A Beat Beyond: The Selected Prose of Major Jackson edited by Amor Kohli (Michigan: 2022) and five volumes of poetry, most recently, The Absurd Man (Norton: 2020). His edited volumes include Best American Poetry 2019 and Library of America’s Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Major Jackson has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review.