Celebrating the Visiting Teaching Artists of Forms & Features

Adele Williams in an oversized white cowgirl hat, backlit by the Texas sunset. Michael Frazier, an African American man wearing burgundy polo with hair pulled back into a bun, in front of a hydrangea bush. Krishan Mistry, a brown man with a mustache, contemplates an off-screen object while wearing an animal print jacket. Crista Siglin, a white woman with curly brown hair and brown eyes, with winged eye-liner and an eyebrow piercing. Cindy Juyoung Ok in profile against white brick. Jake Sorgen, a white man with a shaved head and glasses, is seated in a recording studio holding a guitar and laughing as he looks up towards his left.

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As we mark the launch of a new essay series, Poetry & Practice, together, we will celebrate the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of six extraordinary poet-educators: Adele Elise Williams, Michael Frazier, Raj-Krishan Mistry, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Crista Siglin, and Jake Sorgen.

Adele Elise Williams is a writer, editor, and educator pursuing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston. She is the recipient of a Nina and Michael Zilkha fellowship, as well as support from Hindman Settlement School, Inprint of Houston, and Muse Writing Center. Her work has appeared in The Florida Review, Cream City Review, Split Lip, Guernica, Beloit Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Find more at adeleelisewilliams.com.

Michael Frazier is a poet & educator living in central Japan. His poems appear in Poetry Daily, The Offing, Cream City Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Visible Poetry Project, & elsewhere. His poetry has been honored with Tinderbox’s 2020 Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize, honorable mentions for both RHINO’s Editor’s Prize & COUNTERCLOCK’s Emerging Writer Award, & Pushcart Prize / Best New Poets nominations. His writing has been graciously supported by Cave Canem / EcoTheo Collective, Bread Loaf, Callaloo, The Watering Hole, The Seventh Wave, & Brooklyn Poets. Currently, he’s facilitating a biweekly zoom poetry book club open to the public. Message @fraziermichael to join!

Krishan Mistry is a poet and electronic musician living in Brooklyn, NY. His work uses found text/sound to explore notions of culture hybridity. He makes smoked salmon and sometimes teaches a class at NYU Tandon.

Crista Siglin is a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist and poet. She grew up in the Midwestern United States, was awarded a BFA in Painting and Creative Writing from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2015, is currently a poetry editor for SAND Journal Berlin, and runs Poetry As__A Workshop. Her second book of poetry, Unpleasable Nature, was released in 2020 by Vegetarian Alcoholic Press.

Cindy Juyoung Ok is a writer, translator of Korean poetry, and educator of college and nonprofit creative writing. With poems in or forthcoming from jubilat, Colorado Review, The Yale Review, Denver Quarterly, and Black Warrior Review, Cindy has also been supported by fellowships from the Banff Centre, the Hambidge Center, and Vermont Studio Center.

Jake Sorgen is a music-maker and poet based in Chicago. His writing and compositions blur borders between poetry and music, composition and improvisation. His recent works of music-poetry include “Empty Gestures” with the Invoke String Quartet, “i’ve heard you had loved me” with Ashley Bathgate on cello and electronics, the solo work “The Forgotten Suite,” and the multidisciplinary ensemble Small Giants. From 2014-2019 he served as Composer in Residence and Artistic Associate for The Rogue Theatre, was named the Maverick Prodigy Composer at the Maverick Concert Hall in 2018, and received a 2020 Composer’s Fellowship and a 2022 Sound Producer Fellowship from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Poetry Foundation's events are completely free of charge and open to the public. This reading will include live captioning. If you require any other accessibility measures, please contact us by emailing [email protected]. To find out more about Zoom’s own built-in accessibility features, please visithttps://zoom.us/accessibility.