In conjunction with the exhibition opening for Harriet Monroe & the Open Door, the Poetry Foundation will host a conversation with Poetry magazine’s four women guest editors from 2021-22: Esther G. Belin, Su Cho, Suzi F. Garcia, and Ashley M. Jones.
Moderated by Carmen Giménez, this conversation shifts the frame of the Open Door reading series to spotlight the creative labor of editors to open up poetry as a porous category. The name of the series honors the legacy of Poetry’s founding editor Harriet Monroe, who declared in 1912, "The Open Door will be the policy of this magazine—may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, or half-shut.”
This is a hybrid event, which will be offered in-person and via livestream.
Exhibition opening hours: 5-7
Panel: 7-8:30
Esther G. Belin is an urban Indian, born at an Indian Health Service hospital in Gallup, New Mexico and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. She has two poetry collections, From the Belly of My Beauty, and Of Cartography, and is one of the editors of the anthology of Navajo literature, The Diné Reader. She is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and lives on the Colorado side of the Four Corners region.
Su Cho is a poet, essayist, and the author of The Symmetry of Fish (Penguin Books, 2022) which won the 2021 National Poetry Series. She lives in South Carolina where she is an assistant professor of English at Clemson University.
Suzi F. Garcia is the author of the chapbook A Home Grown Fairytale (Bone Bouquet, 2020). She is the co-publisher of the award-winning independent press, Noemi, and along with José Olivarez, is a poetry editor for Haymarket Books. In addition, Suzi is the review manager for the Lambda Literary Review, which has been serving the queer literary community for over 30 years. Suzi is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Macondista, a Lambda Literary Fellow, and participated in the first ever Poetry Incubator at the Poetry Foundation. She has served as a CantoMundo steering committee member, CantoMundo regional director, and a board member for the Latinx Caucus.
Ashley M. Jones is the poet laureate of Alabama. She is the first person of color and the youngest person to hold this position in its 93 year existence. Jones is the author of three award-winning poetry collections, most recently Reparations Now! She is the co-editor of WHAT THINGS COST: An Anthology for the People. Her work has been featured by CNN, the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC News, and the New York Times. Jones is the associate director of the University Honors Program at UAB and she teaches in the Low Residency MFA Program at Converse University.
Carmen Giménez (moderator) is publisher and director of Graywolf Press and the author of several books, including Be Recorder, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award.