This week, the office of County Executive Calvin Ball announced Truth Thomas’ reappointment for a second term as Howard County’s inaugural poet laureate. Thomas has been serving as the Howard County Poet Laureate since April 2024, on a two-year term previously due to expire in March 2026; Thomas will now serve another two-year term that will end in March 2028. In these past two years, coinciding with HoCoPoLitSo’s 50th anniversary celebrations, we have been deeply honored by the opportunity to come along as Thomas stepped into this new role, elevating and shaping it.

“We are thrilled to celebrate Truth Thomas’s reappointment as Howard County Poet Laureate, a testament to his extraordinary contributions to our literary community,” said Ryna May, EdD, Co-Chair, HoCoPoLitSo. “The Poet Laureate serves as a vital cultural ambassador, bringing the transformative power of poetry to diverse audiences, fostering creative expression, and giving voice to the experiences that unite us as a community. HoCoPoLitSo is honored to continue our partnership with the Howard County Executive and the Howard County Arts Council in championing the Poet Laureate program and ensuring that poetry remains a vibrant and essential part of the arts in Howard County.”

HoCoPoLitSo recently presented a short interview with current Howard County Youth Poet Laureate, Penelope Tofigh, in the latest issue of our quarterly newsletter, Rhyme & Reason. Penelope, a Junior at River Hill High School who was also the 2025 County and Maryland state winner of Poetry Out Loud, just can’t seem to get enough of poetry, and as we head into National Poetry Month, we hope you can join us for some of the many upcoming events in the second half of her term, which this month alone includes:

• Friday, April 10: The Authors Next Door at Residences at Vantage Point
  
• Sunday, April 12: A Poetry Tea at Elkridge Furnace Inn
  
• Thursday, April 23: Blackbird Poetry Festival at Howard Community College

Meanwhile, as a reminder, applications are open NOW for the next one-year term of Howard County Poet Laureate, for eligible applicants aged 14–21 and who either reside in or will be able to present at in-person events in Howard County. The next Youth Poet Laureate will serve from September 2026 until August 2027, and receives an honorarium of $500.

Eligible candidates may apply now by clicking HERE! The deadline for self-submitted applications is April 30, 2026. Full program guidelines can be found on the Howard County Arts Council grants homepage; for questions on the application process, please contact grantsandprojects@hocoarts.org, or by phone call to (410) 313-2787 during regular business hours.

Last but certainly not least, both County Poets Laureate will present at this year’s Blackbird Poetry Festival, to be held Thursday, April 23rd, again in partnership with and on the campus of Howard Community College. Truth Thomas will host a morning poetry writing workshop, centered on his original, “Skinny” poetry form; and Penelope Tofigh will read alongside the Festival headliner, Sarah Kay, at the afternoon Sunbird Reading and evening Nightbird Reading. The day-long event is open to the public, with attendance to daytime events free of charge, and admission to Nightbird available for purchase now, while seating lasts.

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 supported in part by funds gratefully received from the Maryland State and Howard County Arts Councils; Howard County Government; Community Foundation of Howard County; Dr. Lillian Bauder; and from numerous other, generous individual and corporate contributors. Event proceeds support the live and recorded literary programs offered by HoCoPoLitSo for student and general audiences. 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.

The Bauder Lecture Series and Blackbird Poetry Festival are partnerships of HoCoPoLitSo and Howard Community College. The Howard County Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate Programs are a partnership of HoCoPoLitSo, Howard County Arts Council, and the Office of the Howard County Executive.

HoCoPoLitSo welcomes all to the April edition of the Wilde Reading Series, proudly continuing its ongoing tenth season of highlighting local authors in Howard County. This month’s reading features Jennifer Sutherland and Jo Tyler, hosted by Linda Joy Burke. Please join us at independent bookstore Queen Takes Book on Tuesday, April 14th 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 Jennifer and Jo!

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

Jennifer: Probably my mother. How cliche. But I will always be trying to work out where I begin and my mother ends.

Jo: It’s the dead ones who keep coming back: My Nana, my partner Louise, my Mom and Dad. They all have poems of their own, and they keep making cameos in other poems where they’re important or interesting, but not necessarily central. I like to think they appreciate having this poetic venue in which to revisit this place. And it makes me wonder what they’ll do when I’m no longer here to create the space for them.

Where is your favorite place to write?

Jennifer: At a table in a gorgeous little seaside cafe in Mykonos, Greece. I hope someday I get to write there. For now I have a desk in my bedroom. Rockvale Writers Colony in Tennessee is also lovely and the barn cats make excellent writing companions. The last couple of summers I have generously been allowed the use of a house in Bar Harbor for a week, and I have gotten a lot of writing done there.

Jo: I write lots of places, and I’ve always got a field notebook with me. But I have a cozy home office, and I like to write there, with my little dog Moxie curled up under the desk.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Jennifer: Bird song, either naturally or electronically supplied. I find it really helpful to put on old school headphones. They remind me that it is alright to wall myself off for a bit.

Jo: For the past year or so I’ve been lighting a candle, and asking Ganesha for help in clearing obstacles to creativity before I get into it.

Who always gets a first read?

Jennifer: My husband, Steve, who is a drummer. He never paid attention to the lyrics when he was in a band years ago, but he pays attention to mine.

Jo: My wife, Gail Rosen.

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

Jennifer: Louise Gluck’s Faithful and Virtuous Night. Anne Carson’s Glass, Irony and God. Maggie Nelson’s Bluets. And Plath’s Ariel, I will always return to Ariel.

Jo: There are several, but in this moment Mary Oliver’s House of Light is the one that comes to mind. It’s probably that notion that has me in its grip these days of how hard it is to love the world in the face of so many challenges. Mary Oliver can help with that.

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Jennifer: I recently got to read at an event with Patricia Smith, Kim Addonizio, Joy Priest, Annie Finch, Alexis Sears. There was so much feminine poetic power in the room, the air was thick with it. And joy. Kim told a couple of dirty riddles. Joy Priest read “Looking for the Beautiful Things.” I have maybe never been so grateful to be in a room in my life.

Jo: For me, the answer is always the most recent one I’ve been to, so right now that’s Moira Egan and Jennifer Sutherland at Enoch Pratt this past Wednesday night! And I’m a big fan of the monthly readings/open mics at The Hot L in Baltimore and Manor Mill in Monkton. Both venues bring in excellent, thoughtful and highly varied writers, and I look forward to them every month.

• Jennifer A. Sutherland is is the author of Bullet Points: A Lyric, a finalist for Foreword Indies Poetry Book of the Year, and of her most recent collection, House of Myth and Necessity, released in February 2026. Her work has appeared or will soon appear in Plume, Arcturus (Chicago Review of Books), Chicago Quarterly, Birmingham Poetry Review, EPOCH, Hopkins Review, Best New Poets, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA at Hollins University and she lives and works in Baltimore.

Jennifer can be found online at jenniferasutherland.com, and on Instagram as @jennifer_sutherland_writes.

• Jo Tyler is is a queer poet and an elder. A retired Penn State professor and Fortune 500 Vice President, she returned to poetry after decades of writing prose in academic and business. Her work has been published in Yellow Arrow Journal, Maryland Literary Review, and MacQueen’s Quinterly. She is an MFA candidate at Spalding University, and she writes and thrives in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lives with her wife Gail and her dog Moxie.

Jo’s website is jotylerpoet.com, and she says: “Please do visit! You’ll find some of my poems there alongside their audio recordings, as well as a tab with some of my mosaic art.”

HoCoPoLitSo invites all to join us on Sunday, April 12th, from 12–3 p.m. at the historic Elkridge Furnace Inn for a relaxing afternoon featuring a four-course tea service accompanied by readings from current Howard County Youth Poet Laureate, Penelope Tofigh. Tickets are available for purchase now by clicking here; please contact Elkridge Furnace Inn for questions or accommodations regarding ticketing and attendance.

The Howard County Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate Programs are a partnership of HoCoPoLitSo, Howard County Arts Council, and the Office of Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.

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.