Join us in the library Oct. 7 for an afternoon of poetry

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, Oct. 7 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their original work:

poets kevin oberlin, matt farley and leila chatti
  • Kevin Oberlin is the author of two chapbooks: Steamboat Alley (2022) and Spotlit Girl (2008). His poems have appeared in neat journals like Pilgrimage, Thimble and Dunes Review, as well as in the anthologies Tributaria: Poetry, Prose, and Art Inspired by Tributaries of the Ohio Watershed and Wayfinding: Poetry Celebrating America’s Parks and Public Lands. He is Professor of English at UC Blue Ash College and lives in Moscow, Ohio.
  • Matt Farley is a poet, educator and warehouse worker living in Southwest Ohio. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University and teaches composition there. His recent work explores labor, class, place and the strange systems and intimacies of working life. He is active in Greater Cincinnati’s literary and community arts scene through readings, workshops, storytelling, and community-based projects. His current poetry project documents life on the warehouse floor.
  • Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet and author of Wildness Before Something Sublime (Copper Canyon Press, 2025)and Deluge (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 Levis Reading Prize, the 2021 Luschei Prize for African Poetry and longlisted for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award, as well as four chapbooks. Her honors include multiple Pushcart Prizes, grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and Cleveland State University, where she was the inaugural Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Publishing and Writing. Her poems appear in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Atlantic, POETRY and elsewhere.
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UC Libraries Fall Events – poetry, exhibits, dogs and games!

fall events

Poetry readings, exhibit openings, lunch & learns, dogs and game night! There’s something for everyone. UC Libraries Fall Events provide an opportunity for people to engage with and learn about library collections and resources. Grab a friend or colleague and come to an event or two or three. All events are free and open to all to attend.

  • Sept. 29, 5:30-7PM, DAAP 5000 Level & Ella Lipnik on 3000 Level: Reception for Fotofocus exhibit in the DAAP Library. Dare to Stare: 19th-Century Circus and Sideshow Portraits. Exhibit curated by Theresa Leininger Miller
  • Oct. 7, 4:30pm, Walter C. Langsam Library 6th floor east stacks: Poetry Stacked
poetry stacked logo
  • Oct. 15, 6-7:30PM, Walter C. Langsam Library Digital Scholarship Area: Great Library Guess Off. The Guesspionage™ -style challenge will highlight UC Libraries-specific statistics, such as percentage of students who utilize library resources, as well as available statistics on student wellness that contribute to belonging and academic success (i.e., reported sleep, stress levels, and study habits).
  • Oct. 19, 2PM-3PM: Open Access Week Panel. Details coming soon.
  • Oct. 20, NOON-1:30PM, Stanley J. Lucas, MD, Board Room, Health Sciences Library: Winkler Center Lunch & Learn. Medical Illustration: The American Civil War and Now, and the opening of the Daniel S. Young Exhibit. Speakers: Kris Ramprasad, MD, MA (history), retired associate professor at UC; Sydney Seeto, second-year medical student at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and Sophie Laye, second-year medical student at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
daniel young medical illustration
  • Oct. 22, 2PM-3PM: Open Access Week Workshop. Details coming soon.
  • Oct. 23, NOON-2pm, Science Library‘s Intersect Space: Celebrating Dr. Kenneth Caster: Legacy, Archive & Library Collection. Reception follow. Co-hosted by A&S Geology Department.
  • Oct. 28, 3PM, Science Library‘s Intersect Space: Oesper Research Talk – “Rudy W. Thomas: The Hands Behind the Oesper Collections.” This talk will present the life and career of Rudy W. Thomas, longtime demonstrator and restoration specialist for the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Chemistry.
  • Nov. 18, 4:30PM, John Miller Burnam Classics Library: Poetry Stacked
  • Nov. 19: 4:30PM, Max Kade German Cultural Center (CCH 5105): Archives and Rare Books Library & German Studies Present: The Printer and the Courtier: The Circulation of “Pennsylvania German” Books in Enlightenment Germany, a talk by Jennifer A. Merriman, Ph.D. Candidate, College of William & Mary.
  • Dec. 1, 3PM, Water C. Langsam Library: Fuzz Therapy for Finals (Dog Therapy). Unwind before finals with UC’s own Sammy the therapy dog and other registered therapy animals from Pet Partners.
service dog

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UC Libraries closed July 3rd

In celebration of Independence Day on Saturday, July 4, UC Libraries will be closed on Friday, July 3. Normal hours for all library locations will resume on Monday, July 6. 

We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend. 

Independence Day, July 4

Read Source to learn about the news, events, people and happenings of UC Libraries

source header image

Read Source, the online newsletter, to learn about the news, events, people and happenings in UC Libraries.

In this issue of Source, Liz Kiscaden, dean and university librarian, looks back at the accomplishments of the most recent academic year while also looking head to the fall semester. We celebrate the many accomplishments of the UC Libraries faculty and staff, the 2026 UC Open Research Day and announce the 2026 Zero Textbook Cost Grant cohort. Two collections are highlighted in this issue: The Werner H. Von Rosentiel papers and the Oesper History of Chemistry collection while the Winkler Center display illuminates Covington, Kentucky as the “X-Ray City.” This issue of Source concludes with a year in photos.

Read these articles, as well as past issues, on the website. To receive Source via e-mail, contact melissa.norris@uc.edu to be added to the mailing list.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with a poetry reading April 8, 4:30pm in Langsam Library

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, April 8 at 4:30pm, Amy Lemmon, UC alumna along with five undergraduate student poets: Madison Crock, Grace Harsh, Nate Murphy, Iris Rokvić and Madeline Schrand.

Amy Lemmon is the author of the poetry collections Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press) and The Miracles (C&R Press) and coauthor, with Denise Duhamel, of the chapbooks ABBA: The Poems (Coconut Books) and Enjoy Hot or Iced: Poems in Conversation and a Conversation (Slapering Hol Press, 2011). Her poems and essays have appeared in The Best American Poetry, Rolling Stone, Prairie Schooner, The Hopkins Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Journal, Marginalia, and many other magazines and anthologies. Recipient of fellowships from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Sewanee Writers’ Workshop, and Antioch Writers’ Workshop, Amy is Professor of English at the Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY, where she teaches writing, literature, and creativity studies. She has performed her poetry widely including the KGB Bar-Lit series, the Montevallo Literary Festival, and the New York Public Library. She lives in Astoria, Queens.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with a poetry reading April 8, 4:30pm in Langsam Library
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Panel to discuss “This is Not a Slush Pile: Surfacing the Submissions Queue”

On Thursday March 26th, in the Elliston Poetry Room, 646 Walter C. Langsam Library, the team behind UC’s Poetry Stacked reading series welcomes three writer/editors in various spaces of the literary publishing business to discuss the state of submissions and journals/presses in 2026.  

poetry stacked This is not a Slush Pile

  

The panelists include:  

  • Lisa Ampleman of Cincinnati Review 
  • Matt Hart of Solid State 
  • Sara Moore Wagner of Driftwood Press and Anthology 

The panel will be moderated by Ben Kline of UC Libraries, with students, faculty and staff granted time to ask questions after the panel discussion. 

The panelists will address such questions as: 

  • What are you seeing in your submissions and what would you like to see more or less of?
  • How much research is necessary when choosing where to submit? 
  • How does the volume of submission queues drive response and publishing schedules?
  • And other related topics. 

The workshop is free and open to all. Refreshments will be served.

Join us March 11 for Poetry Stacked + music

The University of Cincinnati Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room announce the poets and composers for the next Poetry Stacked, a semi-regular poetry reading series. This session is a musical collaboration, and will be held in the Albino Gorno Memorial (CCM) Library, 600 Blegen Library.

At the next event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 11 at 4pm, three poets will read their original work:

poets Taylor Byas, Jim Palmarini and Luca Campagnoli
  • Dr. Taylor Byas, Ph.D. is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her debut full-length, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times from Soft Skull Press, won the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award, the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry and the 2024 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. Her second full-length, Resting Bitch Face (2025), was a September pick for Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club. She is represented by Noah Grey Rosenzweig at Triangle House Literary.
  • Jim Palmarini has been facilitating and participating in public poetry readings for more than 40 years. He currently hosts the Word of Mouth Cincinnati series, now in its 12th year, at Over the Rhine’s MOTR Pub. His work has appeared in numerous journals, online and in print, including Shellys, ClayDrum, Jawbone and For a Better World. His narrative poem, “Welcome to the Reading”, was included in the Fall, 2023 edition of The Cincinnati Review.  
  • Luca Campagnoli is a fourth-year fiction writer and poet majoring in creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. His work is forthcoming or has appeared in Solid State, Mr. Bull and Short Vine Journal. He serves as president of the university’s Writer’s Circle and Poetry Collective. He also works at Household Books, an independent bookstore in Cincinnati. 
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Join us Feb. 18 for an afternoon of poetry at the next Poetry Stacked event

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
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Join us Nov. 19 for an afternoon of poetry at the next Poetry Stacked event

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, Nov. 19 at 4:30pm, three poets will read their original work:

Join us Nov. 19 for an afternoon of poetry at the next Poetry Stacked event



Kim Jacobs-Beck is the author of Luminaries and a chapbook, Torch. Her poems can be seen in Museum of Americana, Great Lakes Review, West Trestle Review, Nixes Mate, Gyroscope, SWWIM, and Apple Valley Review, among other journals. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Milk & Cake Press. Kim is professor of English at UC Clermont College.

Matt Hart is the author of 12 books of poetry, including most recently FALLING FINE: Selected & New Poems. His poems, reviews and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous print and online journals, including American Poetry Review, Big Bell, The Kenyon Review and Poetry, among others. From 1993-2019, he was a co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety. Currently, he lives in Cincinnati where he plays in the post-punk/indie rock band NEVERNEW and edits, solders, and publishes the poetry journal SOLID STATE.

Bella Gordo is a creative writing student at UC, where she is an intern for Short Vine Literary Journal and the vice president of Cincinnati Poetry Collective. She edits the zine Cincinnati Girlfriend with her roommate in hopes to spread awareness of the revolutionary potential of bug life in the Queen City. 

In addition to reading their poetry, each poet will speak briefly on their experience as an editor.

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Poetry Stacked presents the workshop: Masques & Personas, Thursday, Oct. 30

Join Poetry Stacked for the fall workshop: Masques & Personas, led by Kristyn Garza, Poetry Stacked alumna and PhD student in poetry at the University of Cincinnati. 

Thursday, Oct. 30, 6:30pm ~ Elliston Poetry Room, 646 Langsam Library

Learn about persona poetry over spooky snacks. Come in a costume and compete to win fun prizes!

poetry stacked workshop flyer

A semi-regular poetry reading series held in the 6th floor east stacks of the Walter C. Langsam Library, the mission of Poetry Stacked is to celebrate poetry and raise awareness of the collections of both UC Libraries and the Elliston Poetry Room.