Poetry Programs

Talvikki Ansel, author of Jetty and Other Poems, has been featured in New Young American Poets, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and Shenandoah. James Dickey chose her first book of poems, My Shining Archipelago, for the 1996 Yale Younger Poets series. 3/25 2 p.m.

Peter Balakian is the author of Tigris Burning, a nonfiction work on the Armenian genocide, and the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize-winning memoir Black Dog of Fate. His books include June-tree: New and Selected Poems and Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story. He teaches at Colgate University. 3/26 10 a.m., 4 p.m.

Anne Bromley lives with her family in Crozet, Virginia. She received an M.F.A. in creative writing from UVa and works for UVa News Services. She has been published in Iris: A Journal About Women, Southern Poetry Review, and other journals. 3/24 4 p.m.

Fred Chappell, author of Family Gathering, has written numerous poetry collections, novels, and nonfiction works. Recipient of the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the T.S. Eliot Prize, and the Bollingen Prize, he is editor of the Fellowship of Southern Writers' anthology Locales. 3/25 7 p.m., 3/26 2 p.m.

Kelly Cherry is the author of Rising Venus and five other books of poetry, including Death and Transfiguration and God's Loud Hand, as well as novels, story collections, an autobiography, and a book of essays. She lives in Virginia. 3/25 4 p.m.

R.H.W. Dillard, author of Sallies, is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, and literary and film scholar. Chair, from 1971 to 2003, of one of the most distinguished creative writing programs in the country, he was named CASE Virginia Professor of the Year in 1987. 3/25 4 p.m.

Danielle Beazer Dubrasky, author of Persephone Awakened, has published poetry in Tar River Poetry, Weber Studies, Dialogue and other journals. She has collaborated with choreographers and composers in performance of her poetry, and she teaches at Southern Utah University. 3/25 6 p.m.

Claudia Emerson, author of Pharaoh, Pharaoh and Pinion, An Elegy, has published poems in Poetry, The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, and other journals. She is associate professor of English at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her third collection, Late Wife, is forthcoming. 3/25 4 p.m.

Éric L Farrell is a Def Poetry Jam winner and author of Seeking Solace: Finding Peace and Comfort in Times of Distress and Verbalizions of Enlightenment: The Secret to the Pain. He hosts WordStage Poetry Lounge & TOUR. 3/27 8 p.m.

George Garrett, Poet Laureate of Virginia, has published in almost every literary genre. His most recent nonfiction book is Southern Excursions: Views on Southern Letters in My Time, though he is best known for his trilogy of historical novels, Death of the Fox, The Succession and James and Entered from the Sun. 3/25 4 p.m., 7 p.m.; 3/27 10 a.m.; 3/28 1:30 p.m.

Laurie Stoll Grimshaw was the recipient of a poetry scholarship to the 2002 Indiana University Writers' Conference Poetry Workshop. She has been writing for four years. A former student of Gregory Orr at UVa, she participares in various informal groups/workshops, including those at the Charlottesville Writing Center. 3/24 4 p.m.

Joy Harjo, a Muscogee/Tallahassee Wakokaye Grounds poet, has published several collections including She Had Some Horses, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and her most recent, How We Became Human, New and Selected Poems. A full professor at UCLA, she has co-edited an anthology, Reinventing the Enemy’s Language, Native Women’s Writing of North America. She lives in Honolulu. 3/26 2 p.m., 8 p.m.

Susan Imhof has an M.F.A. in poetry from Warren Wilson College and has published poems in journals including the Virginia Quarterly Review, Willow Review, and Seneca Review. 3/25 6 p.m.

Paula White Jackson, of Arvonia, Virginia, has won emerging artist fellowships and is a member of Carolina African American Writer's Collective. She has published in Catch the Fire, BMa Sonja Sanchez Literary Review and Obsidian II. She is the author of Saturday Morning Pancakes. 3/27 10 a.m.

Karen Kevorkian, author of White Stucco Black Wing, has published recent work in Antioch Review, Fiction International, Third Coast, Rio Grande Review, Borderlands, Los Angeles Review, Hambone, River City Review, and Mississippi Review. She teaches poetry and fiction writing at UVa. 3/25 2 p.m.

Sharon Leiter teaches a poetry workshop at the Charlottesville Writing Center. Her books include The Lady and the Bailiff of Time and Akhmatova's Petersburg. Her poetry has appeared in Cimarron Review, The Georgia Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals. 3/24 4 p.m.

Jeffrey Levine's first book, Mortal, Everlasting, won the 2001 Transcontinental Poetry Award from Pavement Saw Press. Nominated nine times for a Pushcart Prize, he has won the Larry Levis Poetry Prize, the James Hearst Poetry Award, the Mississippi Review Prize and the Kestrel Prize. He is editor-in-chief of Tupelo Press. 3/27 10 a.m.

Rebecca Lilly is the author of You Want to Sell Me a Small Antique, which won the 2001 Peregrine Smith Poetry Competition. A native of Albemarle County, she received an M.F.A. from Cornell and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton. She also has a haiku collection, Shadwell Hills. 3/26 12 p.m.

Judy Longley has published three books of poetry: My Journey Toward You, Parallel Lives, and Rowing Past Eden. Her poems have appeared in Paris Review, Poetry, Western Humanities Review, The Southern Review, and in other journals. Her manuscript, "A Woman Divided," portrays Georgia O'Keeffe in a biography of poems. 3/25 6 p.m.

Debra Nystrom has published two books of poetry: A Quarter Turn and Torn Sky. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including American Poetry Review, Yale Review, and Ploughshares. She teaches creative writing at UVa. 3/26 8 p.m.; 3/27 10 a.m.

Jon Pineda's first collection of poems, Birthmark, won the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series Open Competition. He is a graduate of James Madison University and studied in Virginia Commonwealth University's M.F.A. program in creative writing. 3/26 12 p.m.

Susan Shafarzek holds the Doctor of Arts in Writing from the State University of New York at Albany. She has taught writing at the university and at Siena College (Loudonville, New York) and through the Hudson Valley Writers Guild (Albany). Her poetry and fiction have published in literary journals. 3/24 4 p.m.

Floyd Skloot is the author of The Fiddler's Trance and two other collections of poems; his fourth, The End of Dreams, is forthcoming. His memoir, In the Shadow of Memory, a Barnes & Noble Discover Award finalist, was named one of the best books of 2003 by The Chicago Tribune. 3/27 10 a.m.

Deborah Slicer won the 2003 Autumn House Poetry Prize for her first collection, The White Calf Kicks, judged by Naomi Nye. She received from UVa her Ph.D. in philosophy in 1989 and an M.F.A. in creative writing in 2000. She currently teaches philosophy at the University of Montana. 3/25 2 p.m.

Dave Smith, whose most recent book is The Wick of Memory: New and Selected Poems 1970-2000, is the Elliot Coleman Professor of Poetry at The Johns Hopkins University. He was from 1990-2002 the editor of the Southern Review at Louisiana State University. 3/25 7 p.m.; 3/26 4 p.m.

Eleanor Ross Taylor is the author of five poetry volumes, most recently Late Leisure. Recipient of the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the Library of Virginia's Poetry Prize, and the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, she is the subject of The Lighthouse Keeper, Essays on the Poetry of Eleanor Ross Taylor, edited by Jean Valentine. She lives in Charlottesville. 3/25 7 p.m.

Henry Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Literature at American University. His third collection of poems, The Flying Change, received the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. 3/25 7 p.m.; 3/26 2 p.m.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, author of Black Swan, teaches English at Girls Probation House in Fairfax. Her current projects include a second book of poems as well as a novel, Six Ways from Sunday, and a biography of librarian Bella de Costa Greene. 3/26 2 p.m.

Ellen Bryant Voigt, author of the 2003 Virginia Literary Award finalist Shadow of Heaven and five other poetry collections, grew up in Chatham, Virginia. A Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellow, she teaches in the Warren Wilson College M.F.A. Program. 3/25 7 p.m.; 3/26 4 p.m.

Hilda Ward, a retired health educator and RN, taught at UVa and has a collection of poetry, Pieces of H.E.R. African American Quilt. She has two CDs of spoken word and poetry backed with music, Images and Oh! How I Praise Thee! 3/27 10 a.m.

Laurance Wieder, author of Duke: The Poems, as Told to Laurance Wieder also wrote Words to God's Music: A New Book of Psalms; The Last Century; Chapters Into Verse: Poetry in English Inspired by the Bible (with Robert Atwan); and Man's Best Friend (with William Wegman). 3/24 4 p.m.

Karenne Wood, author of Markings on Earth, won the North American Native Authors First Book Award and was a finalist for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. She serves on the Monacan Indian Nation’s Tribal Council, works for the Association on American Indian Affairs and is now a gubernatorial appointment as Chair of the Virginia Council on Indians. 3/25 6 p.m.; 3/26 12 p.m.

Charles Wright, author of Buffalo Yoga, has published 14 other books of poetry, two translations of poetry from the Italian, and two books of “Improvisations and Interviews.” He has received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, among other honors, and teaches at UVa. 3/25 7 p.m.

Gerard Yun is conductor, composer and specialist in ancient musics. He appears across North America as soloist / composer on the Japanese shakahachi (vertical bamboo flute). He is currently professor of music at Southern Utah University. 3/25 6 p.m.

Join our email list to stay informed about developments and events

top of page