New York, NY (November 19, 2020)— The Academy of American Poets is honored to present Gather In Poems: A Virtual Reading on Tuesday, November 24, at 7:30 pm EST, which will reflect on how sharing poems can create a sense of community, especially at a time when so many must be apart. This reading will be free and open to the public, with presentations by award-winning poets, including U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, National Book Award-winner Arthur Sze, and Kingsley Tufts Poetry-winner Patricia Smith. 

RSVP for Gather in Poems: A Virtual Reading, featuring:

Francisco Aragón
Francisco Aragón is the author of After Rubén (Red Hen Press, 2020), Glow of Our Sweat (Scapegoat Press, 2010) and Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue, 2005). In 2003, Aragón joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies where he established Letras Latinas. 

Nickole Brown
Nickole Brown is the author of Fanny Says (BOA Editions, 2015) and Sister (Red Hen Press, 2007). She teaches at the Sewanee School of Letters MFA Program, the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNCA, and the Hindman Settlement School. Brown lives with her wife, poet Jessica Jacobs, in Asheville, NC. 

Rafael Campo
Dr. Rafael Campo is the author of Comfort Measures Only: New and Selected Poems, 1994–2016 (Duke University Press, 2018) and Diva (Duke University Press, 2000), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He teaches and practices medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA.

Geffrey Davis
Geffrey Davis is the author of Night Angler (BOA Editions, 2019), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Revising the Storm ​(BOA Editions, 2014), winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. Davis teaches at the University of Arkansas and Pacific Lutheran. 

Toi Derricotte
Toi Derricotte is the author of six collections of poetry, including I: New & Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), a 2019 National Book Awards Finalist. Derricotte served on the Academy of American Poets’ Board of Chancellors from 2012–2017 and is on the Board of Directors of Cave Canem, which she co-founded with poet Cornelius Eady.

Aracelis Girmay
Aracelis Girmay is the author of three books of poems, most recently the black maria (BOA Editions, 2016). She is the editor of How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (BOA Editions, 2020) and is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund.

Joy Harjo
Joy Har­jo is the author of nine books of poet­ry, includ­ing An Amer­i­can Sun­rise (W. W. Norton, 2019) and Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion for Holy Beings (W. W. Norton, 2015), which was short­list­ed for the Grif­fin Prize and named a Notable Book of the Year by the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion. She is the editor of When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (W. W. Norton, 2020). In addi­tion to serv­ing as the 23rd Poet Lau­re­ate of the United States, Har­jo is a chan­cel­lor of the Acad­e­my of Amer­i­can Poets, holds a Tul­sa Artist Fel­low­ship, and is a found­ing board mem­ber of the Native Arts and Cul­tures Foun­da­tion. She lives in Tulsa, OK. 

Robert Hass
Robert Hass is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Time and Materials: Poems 1997–2005 (Ecco, 2007), which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Hass served as U.S. Poet Laureate and is a Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets. He lives in California with his wife, poet Brenda Hillman, and is Distinguished Professor in Poetry and Poetics at U.C. Berkeley.

Jessica Jacobs
Jessica Jacobs is the author of Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019). She serves as Chapbook Editor for Beloit Poetry Journal and lives in Asheville, NC, with her wife, the poet Nickole Brown. 

Airea D. Matthews
Airea D. Matthews is the author of Simulacra (Yale University Press, 2017), which received the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. She is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College, where she directs the creative writing program.

Yesenia Montilla
Yesenia Montilla is the author of The Pink Box (Aquarius Press, 2015), which was longlisted for a PEN award in 2016. A 2014 CantoMundo Fellow, she lives in Harlem, NY.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the illustrated collection of nature essays and Kirkus Prize finalist, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions, 2020), and four poetry collections, most recently Oceanic (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.

Ladan Osman 
Ladan Osman is the author of Exiles of Eden (Coffee House Press, 2019), a work of poetry, photos, and experimental text, and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (University of Nebraska Press, 2015), winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Patricia Smith
Patricia Smith is the author of eight books of poetry, including Incendiary Art (Northwestern University Press, 2017), winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the 2018 NAACP Image Award, and a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize. Smith is a Distinguished Professor for the City University of New York and teaches in the MFA programs at Sierra Nevada University and Vermont College.

Arthur Sze
Arthur Sze is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently Sight Lines (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), which won the 2019 National Book Award. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Sze served as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2012–2017. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was the first Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, NM, where he currently lives.

Ethan Wang
Ethan Wang attends Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, TX where he is the founder of his school’s writing club and a member of the debate team. In 2020, Wang was selected by the National Student Poets Program and Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang to be one of five National Student Poets

Seema Yasmin
Dr. Seema Yasmin is an Emmy-award winning journalist, author, medical doctor, and professor. Yasmin is the author of the chapbook For Filthy Women Who Worry About Disappointing God (Diode Editions, 2017), which won the Diode Editions Chapbook Contest. She teaches science journalism and global health storytelling at Stanford University and is the founder of the Yasmin Scholarships.

About the Academy of American Poets

The Academy of American Poets is the nation’s leading champion of poets and poetry with supporters in all fifty states. Founded in 1934, the organization annually awards more funds to individual poets than any other organization through its prize program, giving a total of $1,250,000 to more than 200 poets at various stages of their careers. The Academy also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; originated and organizes National Poetry Month; publishes the popular Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides award-winning resources to K–12 educators, including the Teach This Poem series; hosts an annual series of poetry readings and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition working together to promote the value poets bring to the country’s culture. This year, in response to the global health crisis, the organization joined six other national organizations to launch Artist Relief, a multidisciplinary coalition of arts grantmakers and a consortium of foundations working to provide resources and funding to the country’s individual poets, writers, and artists who are impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.