HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the March edition of the Wilde Reading Series, proudly continuing its ongoing tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Jean Burgess and Kris Faatz, hosted by Linda Joy Burke. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, March 10th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family, and students!

Our warm and welcoming open mic follows the featured authors and we hope you will let us hear from your stories, poems, or other piece. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time (about two poems) and sign up when you arrive. Books by the featured authors will be available for purchase.

Below, get to know Jean and Kris!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Jean: Me— I guess I’m still at the “write what you know” stage of fiction writing.

Kris: I’m not sure if there’s just one person! For my fictional protagonists, I often draw on people I’ve worked with, sometimes colleagues in the music world, sometimes people I’ve briefly met in my day job at a local garden shop (retail work offers excellent people-watching). I often write about family relationships, particularly between parents and children, and find myself creating parent figures like the ones I wish I’d had. I do sometimes put myself into my work too, particularly if I’ve had an experience I’d like to process. “Giving” that experience to a fictional character lets me create space from it and gain some insight.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Jean: My office because I use a lot of visual stimuli.

Kris: My desk in my office. The window looks out over the back yard and a narrow strip of woods. It’s restful to have greenery to look at. There’s usually at least one cat in my office too, offering encouragement/advice.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Jean: Coffee, review yesterday’s writing— sorry, nothing very exciting.

Kris: I often need a little bit of physical activity to get myself in the right frame of mind. Sometimes that means doing some quick housework or going up and down the stairs a couple of times, or even just walking around a room. Sometimes I like to go for a short walk outside. The activity helps clear the “noise” out of my mind and let me focus on the writing project.

Who always gets a first read?

Jean: My sister— she is fabulous at providing stimulating questions.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Jean: Christina Baker Kline’s The Exiles and Jamie Ford’s Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

Kris: Pretty much anything by Terry Pratchett. I’ve read all of his “Discworld” books many times, and I revisit them regularly. NIGHT WATCH is a particular favorite: for my money, it’s the best of his books, though they’re all brilliant.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Jean: Too many to limit to a single one. Sorry, is that a cop out?

Kris: When I was in high school, Maya Angelou came to a local university, and I was lucky enough to attend her presentation and reading. It was spellbinding. I remember how inspired I felt, discovering that words could have such power and create such depth of feeling. I could have listened to her for hours.

• Jean Burgess is an author, editor, playwright, and former theatre educator. She writes both nonfiction and fiction, enjoys presenting writing workshops and presentations, and volunteers as a facilitator with a local Teen Writing Club. Her next Retro novel, Navigating Her Next Chapter, will be released in April 2026 by Apprentice House Press. Jean holds a Masters in Theatre from Northwestern University and Ph.D. in Educational Theatre from New York University.

You can find Jean online at jeanburgessauthor.com.

• Kris Faatz (rhymes with skates) is a pianist and award-winning writer. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including Atticus Review, Rappahannock Review, and South 85. Her third novel, Line Magic, was shortlisted for the Santa Fe Writers Project’s 2023 literary awards and released in 2025 by Highlander Press. Kris and her husband serve as staff to three cats and enjoy hiking and outdoor exploration.

Visit her online at krisfaatz.com, or check in on Facebook, @kristinfaatz, or Instagram, @krisfaatz.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the February edition of the Wilde Reading Series, proudly continuing its ongoing tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Alan Britt and G. H. Mosson, hosted by Laura Shovan. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, February 10th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family, and students!

Our warm and welcoming open mic follows the featured authors and we hope you will let us hear from your stories, poems, or other piece. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time (about two poems) and sign up when you arrive. Books by the featured authors will be available for purchase.

Below, get to know Alan and Mosson!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Alan: William Blake.

Mosson: My poetry generally is imagistic more than narrative, not just in voice but in lyric expression. In my most recent book of poems, Singing the Forge (2025), there are six poems based on Whistler prints, and two based on sculptures by Henry Moore, so these artists win the hat of showing up the most. My children make two brief appearances at the end.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Alan: Outside in nature.

Mosson: From 2022 through 2026, my favorite place to write has been the chair beside my bed, with the sunrise peaking through the window, or that preface hue of blackish-green-bruise.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Alan: No.

Mosson: If I write, it most often early in the morning. It’s true, I’ve likely had coffee first.

Who always gets a first read?

Alan: Myself.

Mosson: Hmm, I read my own work first, indeed.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Alan: The First Decade by Duane Locke.

Mosson: My favorite version of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is his first, 1855, which is available from Penguin Classics; while I have read it ten or more times; I surely will read it again. Well, I have just finished my second tour through the Collected Poems of C. P. Cavafy, the Greek Alexandrian poet, this time translated and arranged by Daniel Mendelsohn. This particular curation is wonderful, and I plan to read it again soon, so it’s about to qualify. I could go on.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Alan: Tough! Perhaps Robert Bly’s reading with HoCoPoLitSo at Howard Community College. (In a writing workshop at Smith Theatre in 1997, co-sponsored with Columbia Festival of the Arts. —Ed.)

Mosson: I saw Gary Snyder talk as well as read at The Guggenheim Museum in NYC in conjunction with an Asian art exhibit, and the evening was an intellectual and aesthetic highlight combining art, lived ideas, and poetry. It is hard to forget hearing Allen Ginsberg along with several others read Whitman’s entire “Song of Myself” at St. John’s Church in NYC some decades ago. These two readings immediately come to mind, for sure. Further, I saw Stanley Kunitz read at the Library of Congress, which moved me, as has Li Young-Lee, twice.

• Alan Britt has been nominated for the 2021 International Janus Pannonius Prize awarded by the Hungarian Centre of PEN International for excellence in poetry from any part of the world. Previous nominated recipients include Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bernstein and Yves Bonnefoy. Alan has published 25 books of poetry and was interviewed at The Library of Congress for The Poet and the Poem. A graduate of the Writing Seminars at John Hopkins University, he currently teaches English/Creative Writing at Towson University.

• G. H. Mosson is the author of three books and three chapbooks of poetry, including Singing the Forge (David Robert Books, 2025), Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time (Finishing Line Press, 2019), and Questions of Fire (Plain View Press, 2009). His poetry has appeared widely in periodicals, and been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. He practices law, raises two wonderful kids, and enjoys day hikes.

His website, ghmosson.com, is a good place to start connecting, but right now he is very proud of his Baker Artist page.

Happy New Year! As we enter 2026, HoCoPoLitSo invites all to the January edition of the Wilde Reading Series, proudly continuing its ongoing tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Steven Leyva and Julia Tagliere, hosted by Ann Bracken. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, January 13th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family, and students! Light refreshments will be served and books by the readers available for purchase.

Our warm and welcoming open mic follows the featured authors and we hope you will let us hear from your stories, poems, or other piece. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time (about two poems) and sign up when you arrive.

Below, get to know Steven and Julia!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Steven: Probably my brother or father.

Julia: My late mother.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Steven: My office at the University of Baltimore, through coffee shops used to be where I wrote most often.

Julia: Anywhere I can scrape together a few sustained hours to focus.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Steven: Hmm … not really. At least not in the way folks imagine a causal link from ritual to practice. Certainly watching animation is a part of it but I’d do that anyway. Reading poetry is part of it but again, I’d do that even if I wasn’t going to write. Perhaps the only pre-writing ritual is remembering presently that one is alive.

Julia: I always leave notes to myself when I stop a given day’s work (“Start with this scene next” or “Flesh out this interaction” or even just “This sucks—why?”). Music also helps me sort of cross over that bridge, can put me in the mood of whatever piece or section I’m working on that day.

Who always gets a first read?

Steven: Often it’s a colleague at work, Marion Winik, or my close friend Zakia Henderson-Brown.

Julia: I have a few trusted friends blessed with marvelous literary instincts I count on to provide for thoughtful, candid feedback.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Steven: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Julia: East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Steven: A reading with Derek Walcott at 92Y in NYC.

Julia: The first I ever attended, hosted by The Inner Loop in D.C. Hearing the passion, courage, wit, and grace of those writers sharing their works, exactly as they themselves had conceived, completely electrified me. I was hooked.

• Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook, which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, was published by Blair Publishing in Spring 2025. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor, and co-director of the Klein Family Center of Communications Design.

Steven can be found online on Instagram as @sdleyva and at stevenleyva.wordpress.com.

• Julia Tagliere‘s work has appeared in Gargoyle Magazine, The Writer Magazine, and elsewhere. An alumna of the Johns Hopkins University M.A. in Writing program, Julia founded and hosts the bi-monthly MoCo Underground Writers Showcase, serves as an editor with Baltimore Review, is a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist and a 2025 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow, and just returned from her first Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Julia’s website is justscribbling.com; she dumped all her other social media accounts last year and is now just on Bluesky: @mocounderground.bsky.social.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the December edition of the Wilde Reading Series, which this year proudly opens its tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman and Emily Mitchell, hosted by Laura Shovan. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, December 9th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family and students! Light refreshments will be served and books by the readers available for sale.

An open mic follows the featured authors and we encourage you to participate. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time, about two poems, and sign up when you arrive.

Below, get to know Khadijah and Emily!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Khadijah: I would say, as of late, my mother tends to be featured the most in my writing. My book that I published in 2024, For the Girls Who Do Too Much, was literally a poetic memoir of sorts exploring the many ways I responded to the death of my mother in 2014 over the years while contending with the many feels associated with growing into middle-age. The second person would be my daughter. I wrote poetry to and about her even before she was born.

Emily: I suppose that in different ways my immediate family, my sister, mom, dad and husband, appear in my work a lot but not as themselves. My stories are not directly autobiographical so they are always heavily altered or composite, mixed together with other people, including people I don’t know well at all, like someone I went to middle school with, my piano teacher from when I was six or a coworker from my first job. There are situations that I’m interested in consistently, maybe, instead: people who leave their homes and travel long distances; loneliness and the search for home and community; the pain of being left out, forgotten or excluded. Those themes come back again and again whether I want them to or not.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Khadijah: I don’t have a favorite place to write. But, I do like to write when I am alone and when I feel like I am not being rushed or expected to be somewhere soon. So, the weekends, after hours and early mornings are favorite times usually.

Emily: I have a big, lovely desk that is really a mid-century dining table in my home office which is where I do my creative work. There’s a print of the Chagall painting Les Amoureux hanging over it. More than any other artist, Chagall seems to me to show in his figures how human beings are always trying to overcome our separateness from each other and I like to be reminded of that while I work. But, really, I can write anywhere as long as I don’t have distractions.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Khadijah: I have so much structure and organization in my day-to-day work as a professor, and when leading the organizations I’ve founded that I purposefully ask the universe for grace to share messages with me to give insight on how to move towards a new creative project. I often feel like my poems, songs, and plays are outputs from this channeling, particularly when writing about times in history where I wasn’t born. I listen for the messages by being observant of what is around me and catching my attention. I think about the themes that have been predominant during the week. I reflect on the feelings I have that I just can’t shake. These are the things that want to explore and find ways for them to become part of the story I will write.

Emily: I usually sit and meditate for about 15 minutes before I begin. Especially when I’m working on a longer project, this helps with managing all the uncertainty that is an unavoidable part of writing fiction, not knowing where the story is going, or who the characters are or whether I can make it work in the end. I started doing this in order to finish my second novel and it has become a necessary part of my routine since then.

Who always gets a first read?

Khadijah: My daughter and her dad, who has been my artistic partner for over 20 years, are usually the ones to read something first if it is for a book, song, or solo performance. The women in my artist collective, Liberated Muse, see things first if it is a script or song they will perform. My daughter’s notes are second to none. She has given the best feedback I’ve ever received until recently when I received feedback from Howard County Poet Laureate Truth Thomas. The two of them are really thorough writers and editors when it comes to poetry.

Emily: I have a wonderful writing group that I’ve been meeting with for more than a decade now and they are usually the first ones to see my work.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Khadijah: I have read so many books repeatedly. I didn’t realize how much a creature of habit I was until I started getting those Spotify end-of-the-year recaps that show you who you’ve listened to all year. They tell me every year that I listen to the same 5–10 people.

With books, I fear it may be the same, at least when I think about it based on my age. Anne of Green Gables was probably that book when I was a child. Kindred by Octavia Butler in my 20’s. The Alchemist. The Four Agreements. Read books like that on repeat late 20’s and 30’s. From 20s to now in my 50’s, I have some staples. Many books by Toni Morrison— Sula, Beloved and Song of Solomon. May be time to revisit them again for the tenth time.

Emily: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Khadijah: I am not sure if it was a reading, but I enjoyed the only time I saw Nikki Giovanni in person at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC 10 or 11 years ago. She was sharing so many amazing stories of her life and her relationships with people like Maya Angelou and James Baldwin.

Emily: This is tough because I’ve been to so many good ones over the years! I’m going to go with a reading by the poet Bridgit Pegeen Kelly from her book Song some years before she passed away. She was very shy and didn’t love being up at the podium but as soon as she started reading the whole room went absolutely silent, riveted by her words. I’m going to cheat and make a second pick: LaToya Watkins reading from Holler, Child, last year at University of Maryland was also just amazing, a reading that will stay with me for a long time.

• Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is author of the published and forthcoming poetry collections Halos for Heroes, Friends and a Few People I Don’t Like (2026),  A Park Stands on All of Our Graves (2025), For the Girls Who Do Too Much (2024), The Summoning of Black Joy (2023), the children’s book Mariah’s Maracas (2018) and co-editor of the book Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture (2022). She served as the second Poet Laureate of Prince George’s County, MD from 2023–2025. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Khadijah Ali-Coleman is a multi-genre writer and founding director of Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and the multidisciplinary arts group Liberated Muse. She is an associate professor in the Humanities Department at Coppin State University.

Visitors are welcome to her personal website, khadijahali-coleman.com, and to her Substack. You can also connect with her on Instagram and Facebook as @KhadijahOnline.

• Emily Mitchell is the author of The Last Summer of the World (W. W. Norton, 2007), a novel, and two short story collections, Viral (W. W. Norton, 2015), and The Church of Divine Electricity (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025). Her short fiction has appeared in Harpers’, Ploughshares, The Sun, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review and elsewhere. She serves as fiction editor of New England Review and teaches at the University of Maryland. As well as writing, she likes reading, running, biking, cooking, traveling, studying Spanish, universal healthcare, stopping climate change and, in case that all wasn’t nerdy enough, she’s recently been getting into bird-watching.

Emily invites you to read a recent interview about her new collection with the writer Allison Wyss for Adroit Journal. Her regular home on the web is emilymitchellwriter.com, and she is on Instagram as @elbmitchell.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the November edition of the Wilde Reading Series, which this year proudly celebrates its tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Geoffrey Himes and Linda Rabben, hosted by Linda Joy Burke. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, November 11th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family and students! Light refreshments will be served and books by the readers available for sale.

An open mic follows the featured authors and we encourage you to participate. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time, about two poems, and sign up when you arrive.

Below, get to know Geoffrey and Linda!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Geoffrey: My wife.

Linda: Too many people to name here.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Geoffrey: Anywhere—as long as the words come.

Linda: Anywhere.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Geoffrey: I always carry a notebook in my pocket, just in case.

Linda: No.

Who always gets a first read?

Geoffrey: My poetry writing group on Zoom.

Linda: Nobody always gets a first read. Sometimes my husband, sometimes a friend.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Geoffrey: The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Linda: Middlemarch.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Geoffrey: Allen Ginsberg at HoCoPoLitSo.

Linda: Jan Karski, Polish diplomat who denounced German genocide during WWII, spoke at the University of Iowa about 40 years ago.

• Geoffrey Himes’ poetry has been published by Best American Poetry, December, Gianthology, Innisfree, Salt Lick and other publications. He has written about popular music and theater for the Washington Post, New York Times, Rolling Stone and many more since 1977. His book, In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, was published in 2024, followed by his book, Willie Nelson: The Stories Behind the Music, in 2025. His two books of collaborative poems with Grace Cavalieri, Fables from Italy and Beyond and The Third Voice, were published in 2025. His first book of solo poems, Today I Am an Orphan: The Shorter Poems of Geoffrey Himes, is due in 2026.

Geoffrey’s podcast and most recent writing can be found at the Hard Rain & Pink Cadillacs on SubStack.

• Author, anthropologist and human rights activist Linda Rabben did research in and on Brazil for more than 30 years, worked as a researcher for Amnesty International, and coordinated a project for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Linda’s 12 published books include Book of Changes, a collection of her poems, and Through a Glass Darkly: The Social History of Stained Glass in Baltimore. She is an associate research professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland.

Linda’s home on the web is found at wordworker.net.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the October edition of the Wilde Reading Series, which this year proudly opens its tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Hannah V. Sawyerr and Ronald L. Smith, hosted by Laura Shovan. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, September 9th at 7 p.m., at 6955 Oakland Mills Rd, Suite E, Columbia MD, 21045. Please spread the word— bring your friends, family and students! Light refreshments will be served and books by the readers available for sale.

An open mic follows the featured authors and we encourage you to participate. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time, about two poems, and sign up when you arrive.

Below, get to know Hannah and Ronald!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Hannah: Maya Angelou and James Baldwin show up most in my writing. The epigraph of my first novel is a James Baldwin quote and I attended a James Baldwin conference before my second novel that influenced the writing. Both my first and second novels also feature nods to Maya Angelou.

Ronald: Me.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Hannah: I love writing in coffee shops. I love people watching and it helps me become “unstuck” the way I can when I am writing alone.

Ronald: In my office, looking out at the city and the great view.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Hannah: I have particular clothing items that I love wearing while writing! Some of these items include my Morgan State University Sweatshirt, my favorite pair of sweatpants, and my DewMore Baltimore shirt.

Ronald: I have to go through all my emails first, and then look at a few news sites, and then I get to work.

Who always gets a first read?

Hannah: The person who gets the first read is often the person I think about the most while writing. My last novel was largely inspired by my days as a youth slam poet, so the first person to read the manuscript was my former slam coach, Kenneth Something.

Ronald: My editor.

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Hannah: House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

Ronald: The Lord of the Rings.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Hannah: This differs slightly from a traditional reading but I recently attended Charm City Slam in Baltimore and absolutely loved it!

Ronald: Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials books.

• Hannah V. Sawyerr was recognized as the Youth Poet Laureate of Baltimore in 2016. Her debut novel in verse All the Fighting Parts was recognized as a Morris Debut Award finalist, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, a Rise Feminist Book Project Top Ten Title, and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. Truth Is is her sophomore novel.

You can find out more about Hannah at hannahsawyerr.com, and on Instagram @hannsawyerr.

• Ronald L. Smith is an award-winning author of middle-grade novels including Black Panther: The Young Prince Trilogy, Hoodoo, Gloomtown, Where the Black Flowers Bloom, Project Mercury and more. He has also contributed to the anthologies The Hero Next Door, Hope Wins, and RECOGNIZE: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life. A former advertising writer, he lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.

Ronald’s home page is strangeblackflowers.com and he can be found on Instagram @ronsmithwriter.

UPDATE: 11/4/2025 — With deepest gratitude for the enthusiasm of our audience, the event is now SOLD OUT. If you were unable to purchase tickets to this event, we hope you will consider joining us at another upcoming program, such as the annual Irish Evening on February 7, 2026.

In November of 1974, Lucille Clifton joined Carolyn Kizer to headline HoCoPoLitSo’s first-ever event, reading from their work and discussing their lives as writers to adult and student audiences in Wilde Lake. For the past year, HoCoPoLitSo has celebrated the full half-century since that day, an incredible 50 years of hosting several dozen more Nobel-, Pulitzer-, and National Book Award-winners here in Howard County, from beloved staple events like HoCoPoLitSo’s Irish Evening, to more recent initiatives like our partnership in the Howard County Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate programs.

On behalf of HoCoPoLitSo’s current Board and staff, as well as all those dear friends, past and present, without whom we could never have achieved this milestone, we are deeply honored for the continuing opportunity to broaden the audience for contemporary poetry and literature, here at home and worldwide, and we hope you will join us for a special presentation of this year’s Lucille Clifton Reading Series, offered as a grand finale to HoCoPoLitSo’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at a Happiness Hour with Ross Gay on November 7, 2025.

📅 Friday, November 7
🕜 5:30 p.m. doors open, stage show at 6:30 (in-person)
📍 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, MD 21044
Howard Community College’s Kahlert Foundation Complex, room 101

Join us in-person in the Large Meeting Room (KC 101) of Howard Community College’s newly-opened Kahlert Foundation Complex; free and ample parking directly adjoins the venue. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for an hour of light refreshments and music; a cash bar is offered for patrons aged 21 and older. Stage presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. with an introduction from the poet and former HoCoPoLitSo writer-in-residence Steven Leyva, whose filmed conversation with Ross will be available free through HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life at a later date. After the show, book sales and signing is offered.

General admission is available while seating lasts for $25 per person, with discounted rates available for professional educators and currently-enrolled students. For questions or issues purchasing tickets, to request accommodations, or to discuss attendance by a larger group, please contact HoCoPoLitSo via e-mail to info@hocopolitso.org, or by phone call to (443) 518-4568.

All proceeds from the event support the live and recorded literary programs offered by HoCoPoLitSo for student and general audiences.

Ross Gay is interested in joy.
Ross Gay wants to understand joy.
Ross Gay is curious about joy.
Ross Gay studies joy.
Something like that.

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, was published by Blair Publishing in Spring 2025. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor, and co-director of the Klein Family Center of Communications Design.

Earlier that day, Steven will join Ross in the recording studio of Howard Community College’s Dragon Media to record an edition of The Writing Life: the acclaimed half-hour, writer-to-writer talk show produced by HoCoPoLitSo. Their conversation joins the more than 130 pairings of great literary minds, available free, world-wide through HoCoPoLitSo’s YouTube channel.

Unranked is a four-piece American roots rock band made up of musical ruffians blending layered guitars, mandolin and violin aiming to please the human soul. Unranked blends a mix of Irish and Americana sound with beautiful harmonies creating a unique brand of music. Core members include Aaron Lubliner-Walters (mandolin/vocals), Skyle Malcom (violin/vocals), Neal Barthleme (electric guitar/vocals), and Will Hill (accoustic guitar/vocals).

HoCoPoLitSo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN 52-1146948) registered in the state of Maryland, donations to which are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. A copy of our current financial statement is available upon request. Documents and information submitted to the State of Maryland under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act are available from the Office of the Secretary of State for the cost of fees and postage.

HoCoPoLitSo is or has in the past fiscal year been supported by funds gratefully received from the Maryland State and Howard County Arts Councils; Howard County Government; Community Foundation of Howard County; Maryland Humanities; Dr. Lillian Bauder; and from other generous individual and corporate contributors. The artistic contents and opinions expressed at HoCoPoLitSo events do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of HoCoPoLitSo’s grantors, donors, or individual Board or staff members.