All events are FREE and open to the public. Capacity is limited. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

High Line Amphitheater
The High Line Amphitheater is located closet to the West 16th Street staircase / elevator entrance, just east of 10th Avenue.

New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street,
2nd Floor, Room 227
New York, NY 10018

Matthea Harvey is the author of three books of poetry, including her latest, Modern Life (Graywolf, 2007), which earned her the 2009 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book. Matthea is a contributing editor for jubilat, Meatpaper, and BOMB. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College.

Jennifer Militello is the author of three collections of poetry, including Body Thesaurus (Tupelo Press, 2013), named by Marilyn Hacker as a finalist for the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and Flinch of Song (2009), winner of the Tupelo Press First Book Award. She has received grants and fellowships from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Militello is the founding director of the creative writing program at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

Stephen Burt is a poet, literary critic, professor and author of eight books, including two poetry collections and two books of poetry criticism. His essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense (Graywolf Press, 2009) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His latest collection of poems, Belmont, was published this summer. Burt is a Professor of English at Harvard University.

Michael Cirelli is the author of several books of poetry, including his latest, The Grind (Hanging Loose Press, 2013). As a performer, he has been a National Poetry Slam finalist and was featured on the HBO series Def Poetry Jam and Brave New Voices. He is currently the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC.

Amy Lawless is the author of two collections of poetry: My Dead (Octopus Books, 2013) and Noctis Licentia (Black Maze Books, 2008). She was a 2011 New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow.

Yusef Komunyakaa is the author of many books of poetry, as well as non-fiction and dramatic works. His latest poetry book is The Chameleon Couch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). Komunyakaa is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. He is a former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and he currently serves as Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s graduate creative writing program.

Matt Rasmussen’s poetry collection, Black Aperture, was selected by Jane Hirshfield as the winner of the 2012 Walt Whitman Award and was published by Louisiana State University Press in May 2013. He is the co-founder of the independent poetry press Birds, LLC, and he teaches literature and creative writing at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota.

Evie Shockley is the author of several books of poetry, including her latest book, the new black (Wesleyan University Press, 2011). She is a Cave Canem fellow and was co-editor of the poetry journal jubilat from 2004-2007. She currently teaches African American Literature and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.