Poets and friends gather to honor the life and work of Pedro Pietri (1944–2004), a seminal Nuyorican poet and playwright, whose subversive, irreverent writings include Puerto Rican Obituary, Invisible Poetry, Traffic Violations and The Masses Are Asses.

Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most revered and influential poets of the Arabic-speaking world. In honor of his 80th birthday, Adonis reads from and discusses the newly published translation into English (by Khaled Mattawa) of his Selected Poems

In this panel and reading, Smokestack publisher and U.K. poet Andy Croft addresses the intersection of poetry and politics with poets Thomas Sayers Ellis and Minnie Bruce Pratt.

Esteemed Housman scholar Archie Burnett and renowned poetry critic Christopher Ricks take stock of the life and work of British classicist and poet A. E. Housman (1859–1936), who released only two poetry volumes during his lifetime, the popular A Shropshire
Lad and Last Poems, but remains a “poet about whom poets write poems” (Ricks).

Kathleen Norris, an acclaimed poet and author of the best-selling classic Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, leads a round-table discussion on poetry and spirituality that includes close readings and in-class writing. Norris offers interpretations of poems in the context of Judeo-Christian and Buddhist beliefs as well as other spiritual traditions that are grounded in nature.

A celebrated poet and writer of spiritual nonfiction, Kathleen Norris considers the significance of Biblical themes in the work of contemporary poets, from Richard Wilbur and James Wright to Denise Levertov and Mary Oliver.

Two young Swedish poets read their work and exchange views on poetry and poetics with preeminent poet and essayist Charles Bernstein.

This evening marks the publication of new English translations of two books by experimental Greek poet and visual artist Demosthenes Agrafiotis: Chinese Notebook and Maribor. Michail Palaiologou, a composer who has collaborated with Agrafiotis, and John Sakkis, one of Agrafiotis’s English-language translators, join the poet for a performance and discussion of his work.

From reckoning and regret to recovery and redemption, these poets read and comment on poems from The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing, edited by Kevin Young.

Legendary New York School poet Eileen Myles joins novelist and poet Douglas A. Martin for conversation and a reading from her new book, The Inferno (a poet’s novel), a coming-of-age chronicle set in New York City’s poetry world and downtown queer
scene of the 1970s and beyond.