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. 18 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their original work:

• Richard Hague is author or editor of 23 volumes, including, with Sherry Cook Stanforth and Michael Thompson, Tributaria: Poetry, Prose, & Art Inspired by Tributaries of the Ohio River Watershed, the poetry collection Continued Cases, and the essay collection Earnest Occupations: Teaching, Writing, Gardening, & Other Local Work. He was named Co-Poet of the Year in 1984 by the Ohio Poetry Association, received the Appalachian Poetry Book of the Year in 2003, and the Weatherford Award in Poetry in 2013. He has been a Pushcart Prize nominee in both poetry and nonfiction and has received several Individual Artist Fellowships in poetry and creative nonfiction from the Ohio Arts Council, and a Katherine Bakeless Scholarship in Creative Nonfiction to Bread Loaf. He is 2025-2027 Poet Laureate of Cincinnati & The Mercantile Library and was 2021-2022 President of the Literary Club of Cincinnati. He has taught writing in Cincinnati and elsewhere for 56 years.
• Chelsea Whitton is the author of Bear Trap and Wonder Wheel, forthcoming in March of 2026. She holds a PhD from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her poetry and prose have appeared in many of print and online publications, including Beloit Poetry Journal, Copper Nickel, Cream City Review, Poetry Ireland, The Atlanta Review, and Forklift-Ohio. Her work has been a finalist for the Gearhart Prize and the Frost Place and Adrienne Richard awards for poetry. She is the recipient of the 2018 Sandy Crimmins National Poetry Prize. Since 2021 she has been a staff member for the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Raised in North Carolina, she spent her twenties in New York, and now lives in Cincinnati with her husband, Matthew, their twin sons, and their cat, Dolly. She teaches creative writing and literature at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. 
• Emma Johnson-Rivard is a doctoral student in creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Tales to Terrify, Red Flag Poetry, and others. She can be found @blackcattales on Bluesky and at emmajohnson-rivard.com. 

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 engages audiences via exposure to contemporary poetry and increases 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 Following each reading, guests are invited to tour the Elliston Poetry Room.

Can’t make it to Poetry Stacks in person? It will be live streamed via the Elliston Poetry Room’s Instagram.