Diaspora and American Lyric: Four Poets on Family and Place

Four poets, Isabel Duarte-Gray, Jess Yuan, Tawanda Mulalu, and Darius Atefat-Peckham, will read from recently published collections. These writers reflect diverse perspectives on the poetics of place and identity, drawing upon personal and family history to interrogate conceptions of diaspora. Isabel-Duarte Gray will read from Even Shorn (Sarabande 2021), sharing poems on family history, folklore, and local orature in rural Kentucky, where she was raised. Jess Yuan will read from Slow Render (Airlie 2024), portraying landscapes and memories of her childhood as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Tawanda Mulalu will read from Please make me pretty, I don’t want to die (Princeton University Press 2022), including poems that explore interracial intimacy and Black diasporic experience in White America. Darius Atefat-Peckham will read from his upcoming collection Book of Kin (Autumn House Press 2024) as well as poems from Susan Atefat Peckham’s posthumous collection Deep Are These Distances Between Us (CavanKerry Press 2023). These four poets probe at themes of alienation, assimilation, lineage, and mourning with fresh imagery, original voice, and tender vulnerability.