Miami Dade College’s 36th Miami Book Fair, Nov. 17 – 24, will once again host some of the biggest names in poetry throughout its week-long programming.
This year’s headliners include:
Richard Blanco, the fifth poet to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration, will present at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24, with author Edwidge Danticat. In How to Love a Country, Blanco addresses the complexities and contradictions of nationhood and unresolved sociopolitical matter that affect us all.
Catch poet, essayist and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23 and again at 3:30 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 24. In his second collection, A Fortune for Your Disaster, he wrestles with histories, heartbreak and forgiveness.
Staceyann Chin has been featured on 60 Minutes and The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she shared her struggles growing up as an LGBT+ person in Jamaica. She will discuss her new book, Crossfire, at 4:30 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23.
Also at 4:30 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23, Franny Choi explores how to be tender and still survive a violent world filled with artificial intelligence and automation in Soft Science. She is a member of the Dark Noise Collective.
Jericho Brown’s The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and personal. He will present at 2:30 p.m., on Sunday, Nov. 24. Brown is a recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Also presenting is Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was incarcerated and wrote about it in Felon. Ilya Kaminsky will read from his book Deaf Republic.
Naomi Shihab Nye, author of The Tiny Journalist and the 2019 National Young People’s Poet Laureate, will read at 2:30 p.m., on Sunday, Nov. 24 and also for young audiences at 12 p.m., on Friday, Nov. 22.
2019 U.S. Poet Laureate (the first Indigenous person to hold the position) Joy Harjo will read from An American Sunrise at 2 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23.
Pulitzer Prize finalist and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Campbell McGrath will share the stage with Sharon Olds at 1 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23. His new book is titled Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected Poems. Olds, author of Arias, is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, among other awards and distinctions.
Tina Chang, named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn in 2010, will read at 12:30 p.m., on Sunday, Nov. 24. In Hybrida, she contemplates raising a mixed-race child during an era of political upheaval.
The 2019 National Book Award Nominees and Finalists in Poetry, in recognition of some of the most outstanding poetry collections published in the U.S. this year, will read from their work at 12 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23. Presenters include Dan Beachy-Quick, Jericho Brown, Toi Derricotte, Camonghne Felix, Ilya Kaminsky, Ariana Reines, and Brian Teare. Moderated by local award-winning poet Denise Duhamel.
Also presenting this year at 3 p.m., on Saturday, Nov. 23 are the winners of the 2018 National Poetry Series, which was established in 1978 to recognize and promote excellence in contemporary poetry by ensuring the publication of five books of poetry annually. The 2018 winners are Christopher Kondrich, Rosalie Moffett, Daniel Poppick, Jon Sands, Jake Skeets, and Paz Prizewinner Johanny Vazquéz Paz. Moderated by 1990 NPS winner John Balaban.