The University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room announce the next roster of poets for Poetry Stacked, a semi-regular poetry reading series held in the 6th floor east stacks of the Walter C. Langsam Library.
At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 4:30pm, three poets will read original works.
Simone Savannah, PhD is the author of Uses of My Body (Barrow Street 2020), the winner of the Barrow Street Poetry Book Prize chosen by Jericho Brown. She is also the author of Like Kansas (Big Lucks 2018). Her work has been published in Apogee, The Fem, Powder Keg, GlitterMob, Shade Journal, BreakBeat Poets, and several other journals and anthologies. She has received nominations for Best New Poets and Best of the Net. Simone is originally from Columbus, Ohio. She earned her MEd and BA from Ohio University. She holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Kansas. She is currently the 2021-23 Taft Research Center Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Cincinnati.
Yalie Saweda Kamara is a Sierra Leonean-American writer, educator and researcher from Oakland, California. Selected as the 2022-23 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate (2-year term), she is the editor of the anthology What You Need to Know About Me: Young Writers on Their Experience of Immigration (The Hawkins Project, 2022) and the author of A Brief Biography of My Name (African Poetry Book Fund/Akashic Books, 2018) and When the Living Sing (Ledge Mule Press, 2017). She has been a finalist for the National Poetry Series competition and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize and a semifinalist for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She earned a PhD in creative writing and English literature from the University of Cincinnati, an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University, Bloomington and an MA in French culture and civilization from Middlebury College. Yalie currently resides in Cincinnati where she works as the director of creative youth leadership at WordPlay Cincy and is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. For more, visit her website: www.yaylala.com
Casey Harloe is a 4th year creative writing student at the University of Cincinnati. Her work has appeared in DIALOGIST, BRENDA, and Poets.org. She is a recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize. She lives in Cincinnati.
The mission of Poetry Stacked is to celebrate poetry and raise awareness of the collections of both UC Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room. Each reading will engage audiences via exposure to contemporary poetry and increase appreciation for both the talents of UC and community poets, as well as for poetry itself. Poetry Stacked is free and open to all to attend. Following each reading, guests will be invited to tour the Elliston Poetry Room.
The intent of the series is to enrich and engage the UC campus and Cincinnati communities in accordance with the Libraries’ Strategic Framework and the Next Lives Here Strategic Directions in support of Academic Excellence and Community Engagement. It aligns with the Libraries’ vision as the globally engaged, intellectual commons of the university – positioning ourselves as the hub of collaboration, digital innovation, and scholarly endeavor on campus and beyond.
Can’t make it to Poetry Stacks in person? It will be live streamed via the Elliston Poetry Room’s Instagram.
Future Poetry Stacked readings are scheduled for March 8 and April 12.