We miss you, our patrons, and welcoming you into our physical space through events, classes & workshops, and our library. We're hopeful that soon we'll be able to meet again, but in the interest of public health, we have chosen to continue hosting virtual programs for the Spring 2021 season. We encourage you to bring the Poetry Center into your home and hope that these offerings can bring you joy in the days ahead.

Keeping track of virtual events can be tricky, so be on the lookout for your Spring print calendar in early January, which includes all of the information below. We send out a weekly newsletter that highlights the week's events and blog posts, so be sure to sign up at the bottom of any page on our website (including this one!) to stay in touch. And of course, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get all the latest from us. 

We are working hard to help you connect with all that poetry offers through digital tools, and we're excited to announce our upcoming season:

• Our podcast, Poetry Centered, is growing. We are now halfway through our second season, and we're pleased to announce a third season, coming in March. In case you aren't familiar with Poetry Centered yet: each episode features a contemporary poet who curates three poems from the Poetry Center’s leading audiovisual archive, Voca, and closes with the poet sharing a poem of their own. It’s a great way to be introduced to poetry and to learn about 20th century voices influencing leading contemporary practitioners.  Learn more about Poetry Centered here.
• This fall, we launched the Institute for Inquiry and Poetics and hosted our first two events on the theme Beyond the Obvious. This spring, we're connecting the Institute with our Art for Justice initiative for two more readings & conversations. On February 18, we will present An Evening with Raquel Salas Rivera, Frank Johnson, and Vanessa Angélica Villarreal and on April 22, join us for An Evening with Nicole Sealey, Dwayne Betts, John Murillo and Hanif Abdurraqib, both hosted by Literary Director Diana Delgado. This incredible lineup of writers will read and speak about mass incarceration in the United States, and we will host community organizations addressing these issues on our blog. Learn more about Art for Justice here. 
• We’re thrilled to continue Director’s Choice, a program that features historical readings from the Poetry Center’s extensive audiovisual archive Voca, curated by past and present leadership of the Poetry Center.  Using a listening party format, we’ll represent these seminal, historical readings in their entirety. The spring events will feature readings from Ross Gay, Louise Glück, James Wright, and Leslie Marmon Silko. See these events on our full calendar here.
• While the Poetry Center Library will remain closed to the public for the spring, we’re excited to continue offering extensive virtual reference services.  Resuming Wednesday, January 6 is Ask a Librarian. You can expect to speak with our library staff by phone for your reference needs on Wednesdays from 1-4pm by calling the Poetry Center mainline at 520-626-3765.  Reference queries by email are always welcome, and we endeavor to respond to all queries within one business day; write us at poetry@email.arizona.edu with your library requests.
• We are thrilled to continue a partnership in our Classes and Workshops program with the Shipman Agency, featuring courses taught by writers represented by the agency, designed from writers at all levels—this semester we're featuring one and two-session courses.  Look for offerings from Sheila Heti, Sunil Yapa, Patricia Smith, Tess Taylor, DaMaris Hill, and Lillian-Yvonne Bertram. Check out all of our current offerings here.
• Our K-12 Education programs will move forward in digital and virtual formats; Writing the Community will continue to place teaching artists in virtual residencies. Our Kids Create programs will continue totake place monthly in a virtual format, and due to their self-paced nature, you can revisit past events any time. K-12 Education programs also host at least one blog post per week on the topic of teaching (in all its forms), offering lesson plans for parents and educators of all types, and featuring children's poems. See Education blogs here.
• Our exhibits program will remain virtual, hosting Poems of Love and Compassion from January 12 through March 27 and Book Objects from April 6 through June 26. View our current online exhibitions here. 
• 1508, the Poetry Center's blog, continues to host new content at least four days per week, including K-12 Education posts and narratives, essays and interviews from working poets, writing prompts and information about our collections from our library staff, and so much more. Visit our blog here.

We are so grateful for our supporters and our community! We truly miss you and we eagerly look forward to the time when we can safely welcome you back to the Poetry Center in person again. Until then, we send all best from our rectangles to yours—

The Poetry Center Team