Anis Mojgani's verses create the yearning for rebirth, thriving love—a love of self and tenderness in a sorrowful world. Charif Shanahan articulates the need we all share for real intimacy and connection, and proves, time and again, that the true cost of our separateness is the love that our survival requires. Moderated by Mindy Nettifee.
Stephanie Adams-Santos's incantatory long poem draws the reader into a dreamworld where the barrier between life and death grows porous, populated by ancestors and spirits. Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's debut story collection is a blazing, bodily, raucous journey through contemporary Hawaiian identity and womanhood. Moderated by Kayla Kumari Upadhyahya.
Elisa Gonzalez dramatizes the mind in motion as it grapples with something more than an event: she writes of a whole life, to transcendent effect. Jae Nichelle taps into her experiences of growing up in the South as a queer Black woman to courageously confront the effects of a forced religion and the inherent dangers of living life in a female body. Marisa Siegel moderates.
Join 2023 National Book Award–honored authors Paul Harding and Paisley Rekdal in a cross-genre conversation on how to bring historical voices to life, and how to translate US history for a contemporary literary landscape. Moderated by Anis Mojgani, Oregon’s current Poet Laureate. Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation.
Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a black British poet making her thrilling American debut explores the importance of “quiet” in producing forms of community, resistance, and love. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism in his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Moderated by John Freeman.
Oliver de la Paz eloquently invokes the perseverance and myth of the Filipino diaspora in America. Paisley Rekdal draws a powerful, necessary connection between the completion of the transcontinental railroad and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Moderated by Eric Tran.
Jane Hirshfield, the author of “some of the most important poetry in the world today”, and Major Jackson, an acclaimed poet and preeminent voice in contemporary literature. Moderated by Matthew Zapruder.
Celebrate the tenth and final installment of the boundary-pushing literary journal, which explores all the ways of coming to an end. Featuring editor John Freeman and contributors Omar El Akkad, Debra Gwartney, and Sasha LaPointe.
Facilitator: Amy Minato Grades 9-12 In this workshop, we’ll discover parallels between visual and written art drawing inspiration from pieces in the museum collection. We’ll practice imagery, form, metaphor, and […]
Essay collections on making your way in worlds not made for you, from poet and journalist Shayla Lawson and award-winning poet Morgan Parker. Moderated by Akasha Lawrence Spence.
Award-winning poets Diannely Antigua and Danez Smith are joined by OPB's Jenn Chávez to discuss the role resilience plays in their latest collections.
Let's play at the intersection of language and visual art! With Paige Thomas.
New poetry collections that excavate pop culture -- from visual art to pop culture and mythology -- to explore the personal. Featuring Kenzie Allen and Victoria Chang with moderator Charity E. Yoro.
National Book Foundation Executive Director Ruth Dickey joins nominees Robert Samuels and m.s. RedCherries to discuss their latest works.
Facilitator: Nicky Nicholson-Klingerman (Grades 9–12) This workshop will explore the healing and performative aspects of spoken word poetry. Students will engage with spoken word poets from Gwendolyn Brooks to Brandon […]
Two powerful collections of poetry that grapple with the present-day impact of histories of state-sanctioned violence and colonialism—and at the same time, celebrate the small and big joy found even […]
Patricia Smith and Pádraig Ó Tuama, join Alicia Jo Rabins in conversation about their poetry collections... testaments to the expansive ability of poetry to enfold the reader into the wild rush of life as an esoteric and universal experience.
Taylor Byas and m. mick powell join slam poetry winner Jae Nichelle on stage for an excavation of poetry at the crossroads of pop culture.
Reginald Dwayne Betts and Mai Der Vang join OPB's Jenn Chávez to discuss poetry collections and the experience of shifting shape in search of literal and figurative sanctuary in war torn and otherwise politically fraught spaces. Animals, the dog for Betts and the saola for Vang, walk a through-line through each collection and fill roles as witnesses, mirrors, and beacons of survival.
