On Tuesday, December 3, at 5:30pm, in the Bitó Conservatory Building Performance Space, poet Will Alexander will read from his work. Introduced by David and Ruth Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature Ann Lauterbach, this reading is free and open to the public.

Before this reading, Will Alexander will visit Erica Kaufman‘s class The Act(s) of Poetry to lead a microworkshop.

Born in 1948, Will Alexander is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, visual artist and pianist. He was the recipient of a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry in 2001 and a California Arts Council Fellowship in 2002. He was also the subject of a colloquium published in the prestigious African American cultural journal Callaloo in 1999. Author of 20 books (including Mirach Speaks To His Grammatical Transparents, Inside The Earthquake Palace: 4 Plays, Above The Human Nerve Domain, and Exobiology As Goddess), Alexander has taught at various colleges including University of California, San Diego, New College (San Francisco, CA), Hofstra University, and Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, in addition to being associated with the nonprofit organization Theatre of Hearts/Youth First, serving at-risk youth. Alexander’s 2021 book, Refractive Africa, was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and won the California Book Award in Poetry. He is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles. 

Ann Lauterbach is a poet and essayist. Her eleventh poetry collection, Door, was published in March 2023; previous volumes include Spell (2018), Under the Sign (2013), and Or to Begin Again (2009), which was nominated for a National Book Award. Her prose was collected in The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience (2008) and The Given & The Chosen (2011). Among her awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She was cochair of writing in Bard’s MFA Program from 1992 to 2020 and is Ruth and David Schwab Professor of Languages and Literature.