Our own Nicole Cooley will be taking part in this amazing panel, “Resurrection Not Erasure: When Poets Talk Back to History,” at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (more popularly known as AWP) this year in Kansas City.

“Poets whose work complicates or writes against dominant narratives will discuss how the persona poem challenges historical erasure and revises both the past and present. Panelists will discuss the ethical implications of the personal poem, their decisions to use persona in their work, and their underlying methodologies and research in voicing the past.”

Nicole will be talking alongside poets Alyse Bensel, Shane McCrae, Blas Falconer, and Cherene Sherrard. For those of you who are going to AWP, definitely go check that out! And if you’re not going to AWP, you can always contact us to ask Nicole about it!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 7:00PM
Poetry Society of America
119 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tickets $10/ Free for Members
REGISTER

The Poetry Society of America is kicking off the new year right, with a reading from Natalie Diaz & Ishion Hutchinson on January 18th. It’s a great chance to check out PSA’s new headquarters in Brooklyn (if you haven’t already) and hear two stellar poets!

Please join us virtually for a Graduate Information Session to explore the MFA in Creative Writing program at Queens College.

Located in the most culturally and linguistically diverse county in the nation, the Queens College MFA in Creative Writing program attracts students dedicated to crossing boundaries in genre, craft, and language. Classes are small, mostly in the evening, and students work closely with faculty mentors. Gain creative experience with affordable public university tuition in an urban environment with a verdant 80-acre campus.

The program offers tracks in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literary translation–and students are encouraged to experiment with multiple genres. Queens College hosts a lively events series and has partnerships with the Louis Armstrong House Museum, The Poetry Society of America, Ghostbird Press, and Pete’s Candy Store. Teaching opportunities, internships, and scholarships are available. See how far you can take your writing.

Monday, January 29, 2024, 5:00 pm

RSVP

Saturday, December 2nd at 5PM
The World’s Borough Bookshop
3406 73rd Street, Queens, NY 11372

MFA alum Rebecca Suzuki’s award-winning chapbook, When My Mother Is Most Beautiful, officially hits shelves on December 1st, and is debuting with style the next day at The World’s Bookshop in Jackson Heights, whose mission is to uplift BIPOC voices. Rebecca will be joined by multilingual Queens poet and fellow alum Hannah Lee, for an evening that is sure to be as beautiful as this book is!

When My Mother Is Most Beautiful is at once a powerful love letter to a mother and to language itself, delving into complex questions of family, communication, culture, and connection. These poems chronicle the difficult art of navigating multiple cultural identities, examining how languages twist and morph across cultures through the imperfect act of translation, how they bind people together and keep them apart, and even how they could be reimagined to make a better world.

You can pick up this book at the book party, of course, or order a copy today from Small Press Distribution!

Sunday, December 3rd at 2PM
The Bryant Library
2 Papermill Road, Roslyn, NY
Register here

MFA alum Tejas Desai will be discussing his literary career, including his two series, the novel trilogy The Brotherhood Chronicle and the literary series The Human Tragedy, plus the literary/arts movement The New Wei and its related projects.

Join us for an end-of-semester celebration on Wednesday December 6 in Klapper 710! We’ll kick things off with a Brainstorm reading at 5pm, followed by general merriment and a book exchange. 

Bring writing, snacks, or books to share, or just yourself!
Reading starts at 5 but we’ve reserved the room for the whole evening. Come when you can, leave when you must!

Come along to celebrate the launch of The Queens Review. Contact Julie Goodale if you’d like to read.

November 6, 2023
5-6:30PM
Rosenthal Library, Tanenbaum Room 300i
Event Link 
Light refreshments will be served. 

On Black Solidarity Day, meet BlackMass Publishing and celebrate the Library’s acquisition of the BlackMass Collection. 

BlackMass Publishing is an independent press promoting and publishing material by Black Artists founded by Yusuf Hassan in 2019. Combining archival photographs and found print material with poetry and jazz music, BlackMass grapples with the blurred lines and idiosyncrasies which make up the collective improvisation of African diasporic culture. 

Schedule

• 5:00-5:30pm: Open House / Browse the Collection 
• 5:30-6:30pm: Talk and Q/A with Yusuf Hassan and Kwamé Sorrell of BlackMass Publishing 

Queens College Special Collections and Archives recently acquired a curated box of over 60 zines from BlackMass Publishing that explore politics, jazz, religion, architecture and other themes. 

Sponsored by: Queens College Library Special Collections and Archives, the Queens College MFA Program, and Queens College Africana Studies, with the generous support of the Pine Tree Foundation of New York. 

For more info or to make an appointment to view the BlackMass collection, please contact [email protected]. 

You are invited to CREATIVE NONFICTION NOW, sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation–October 18, 2023. The event will include reading and conversation with  Bridgett Davis, Carina del Valle Schorske, and Cutter Wood, moderated by alum and colleague Francesca Hyatt. Zoom registration here.

Think growing up in Detroit 1970s Detroit with a mother who was a numbers runner; Puerto Rican backup dancers, graffiti artists, indigenous cave painters, state-funded photographers, tenement dwellers, and out-of-print poets; and investigative reporting on the vicissitudes of human waste (including a vomit cult).

These are great writers. They’ll discuss their publication experience, what “Creative Nonfiction” means—if it means anything—as well as the first-hand research they do for their projects—spending time in places, interviewing strangers, friends, and family. There will be plenty of time for spontaneous discussion.