Reading, 6:00 pm. Reception to follow. Luchsinger Fireplace Lounge, Alston

Author of the poetry collections Teeth (2007), Kingdom Animalia: poems (2011), and the black maria (2016), and the author and illustrator of the collage picture book Changing, changing (2005), Aracelis Girmay’s poems center on African diasporic history and consider exile, refugee status, and statelessness. Girmay won the Isabella Poetry Award, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and has garnered grants and fellowships from institutions like Cave Canem and the NEA, and is a Whiting Award recipient (2015).

Girmay teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, both in the undergraduate program and for their MFA in Creative Writing. She has also taught community writing workshops and is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund.