The New Social Environment#196

Radical Poetry Reading with Rosa Alcalá

Featuring Susan Briante, giovanni singleton, Carmen Giménez Smith, and Anna Maria Hong.

 

1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

Poet Rosa Alcalá curates the 17th installment in a weekly series of Radical Poetry Readings, featuring political poetry read by Susan Briante, giovanni singleton, Carmen Giménez Smith, and Anna Maria Hong.

In this talk

Rosa Alcalá

A photo of poet Rosa Alcalá in a red shirt, smiling between sheets of paper hung on a clothesline.
Margarita Mejía
Rosa Alcalá is the author of three books of poetry, most recently MyOTHER TONGUE (Futurepoem, 2017). Her poems appear in numerous anthologies and journals, including Best American Poetry 2019, American Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics of Social Engagement, The Nation, and American Poetry Review. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, and runner-up for a PEN Translation Award, she is the editor and co-translator of New & Selected Poems of Cecilia Vicuña: (Kelsey Street Press, 2018). She is professor of creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she teaches in its Bilingual MFA Program.

Susan Briante

Susan Briante is the author most recently of Defacing the Monument, a series of essays on immigration, archives, aesthetics and the state. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly calls the collection “a superb examination of the ethical issues facing artists who tell others’ stories” and a “dazzlingly inventive and searching text.” Briante is also the author of three books of poetry: Pioneers in the Study of Motion, Utopia Minus, and The Market Wonders all from Ahsahta Press. She is a professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona.

giovanni singleton

A photo of poet giovanni singleton in front of green foliage.
Amarnath Ravva
giovanni singleton is the author of the poetry book Ascension, winner of the California Book Award Gold Medal and the poetry/visual art collection AMERICAN LETTERS: works on paper (Canarium Books). She is founding editor of nocturnes (re)view of the literary arts. Her honors and awards include fellowships from the c3:initiative, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Cave Canem, and the Napa Valley Writers Conference. She is a recipient of the African American Literature and Culture Society’s Stephen E. Henderson Award and her dreamography is forthcoming in 2021 from Noemi Press.

Carmen Giménez Smith

A photo of poet Carmen Giménez Smith sitting in a chair next to a dog.
Courtesy Carmen Giménez Smith.
Carmen Giménez Smith is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Be Recorder (Graywolf Press, 2019), which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry, the PEN Open Book Award, the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Goodbye, Flicker (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. Her memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds (University of Arizona, 2010) was a finalist for the American Book Award. Giménez Smith received a Howard Foundation grant for creative nonfiction in 2011 and was a 2019 Guggenheim fellow. In 2020, she received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, which recognizes distinguished poetic achievement.

Anna Maria Hong

A photo of poet Anna Maria Hong in front of some blurred, bright foliage.
Cheryl McGraw
Anna Maria Hong is the author of three recent books: Age of Glass, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, the novella H & G, and Fablesque, winner of Tupelo Press’s Berkshire Prize. A former Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, she has poetry and fiction published and forthcoming in numerous publications including The Nation, The Iowa Review, Colorado Review, Shenandoah, Plume, Ecotone, jubilat, Pleiades, Poetry Daily, Best New Poets, and The Best American Poetry. She is an Assistant Professor at Mount Holyoke College.

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