Please join us for a poetry reading and editorial roundtable with some of the most exciting new voices in contemporary American poetry.

Poetry Reading and Book Launch: April 29, 5–6:30 pm

The inaugural cohort of Advisory Poetry Editors for the “New Directions in Contemporary Literary Publishing” Arts Lab project—Kai Ihns, Imani Elizabeth Jackson, Aditi Machado, and Margaret Ross—will read from their new books of poetry, followed by a Q&A and book-signing reception.

Editorial Roundtable: April 30, 2–3:30 pm

English department faculty member Srikanth Reddy (Series Editor of the Phoenix Poets book series at the University of Chicago Press, and Poetry Editor of The Paris Review) will join the Advisory Poetry Editors for a roundtable conversation on new directions in contemporary literary publishing.

*Cosponsored by the Department of English

About the Poets

Aditi Machado is the author of three books of poetry--Material Witness (2024), Emporium (2020), and Some Beheadings (2017)--and several chapbooks.

Imani Elizabeth Jackson is the author of the chapbooks Context for arboreal exchanges (Belladonna*, 2023) and saltsitting (g l o s s, 2020), and, under the moniker mouthfeel, coauthor of Consider the tongue (Paper Machine, 2019) with S*an D. Henry-Smith. Flag (Futurepoem, 2024) is her first full-length collection.

Kai Ihns is a poet and filmmaker based in Chicago. She edits The Year, a chapbook press, and works as an Advisory Poetry Editor at The Paris Review, among other things. She's the author of several pamphlets, a dissertation called Aspect Choreography, and two books of poems, most recently Of (The Elephants, 2024).

Margaret Ross is the author of two books of poetry, A Timeshare and Saturday.