S127.
Opening the Gate: Poetry Reviewing as an Agent of Inclusivity
Saturday, March 26, 2022
9:00 am to 10:00 am
What is the role of the book reviewer? Are current critics engaging with new poetry in ways that are illuminating and rewarding for readers and writers of different genders, races, and ethnicities? As readers demand that institutions support poets who write into the many traditions outside the historical center, what’s the responsibility of the critic? This diverse group of poet/critics considers these questions and others within the context of the changing landscape of writing and publishing.
Participants
Victoria Chang's books are Obit and Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief. Her children's books are Love, Love and Is Mommy?.
Ruben Quesada is a gay, first-generation Costa Rican American poet and critic who was raised by immigrant parents. He is the author of the poetry collections Revelations and Next Extinct Mammal. He is currently producing a documentary about Latinx poetry.
Emily Pérez is the author of House of Sugar, House of Stone; Made and Unmade; and Backyard Migration Route. With Nancy Reddy she coedited The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. A CantoMundo fellow, she has received funding from Bread Loaf, Community of Writers, and Jack Straw.
Emilia Phillips (she/her/hers) is the author of four books, including Embouchure (2021). Her poetry appears in AGNI, Boston Review, Kenyon Review, and Ploughshares. She is an associate professor of poetry in the MFA writing program at UNC-Greensboro.
Mandana Chaffa is founder and editor in chief of Nowruz Journal, a periodical of Persian arts and letters, and a writer and editor at Chicago Review of Books. She serves on the board of the Flow Chart Foundation and was named a 2021–2022 Emerging Critics Fellow by the National Book Critics Circle.
