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How has the city of Chicago–as a place, and as a center for poets and poetry–shaped the work of three of the city’s most exciting poets? Find out in an evening of poetry with Srikanth Reddy, Ed Roberson, and Suzanne Buffam and moderated by the Newberry’s Liesl Olson. Each poet will read and discuss new work alongside poems from Chicago’s so-called Renaissance period that have inspired them.

Suzanne Buffam is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently “A Pillow Book,” which was named one of the ten Best Poetry Books of 2016 by The New York Times. Her other books are “The Irrationalist,” a finalist for the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize, and “Past Imperfect,” winner of Canada’s 2006 Gerald Lampert Award. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Jeannette Haien Ballard Writers Trust. She earned her MA in English literature from Concordia University in Montreal and her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ workshop. Buffam is currently an associate professor of Practice in the Arts at the University of Chicago.

Srikanth Reddy is the author of the poetry collections “Underworld Lit” (Wave Books, forthcoming 2020), “Voyager” (2011), and “Facts for Visitors” (2004). His poetry and criticism have also appeared in Harper’s, The Guardian (UK), The New Republic, and The New York Times. Reddy has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Creative Capital Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa and a PhD in English Literature from Harvard University. He is currently a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Chicago.

Ed Roberson is the author of 10 books of of poetry, including “Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In,” winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize; “Just In: Word of Navigational Change: New and Selected Work”; “Atmosphere Conditions,” a National Poetry Series winner; and his most recent, “City Eclogue.” Roberson’s honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2016), the Lila Wallace Writers’ Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Award, and the 2016 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. His work has also been included in Best American Poetry. Roberson lives in Chicago and has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University.

Liesl Olson is Director of Chicago Studies at the Newberry Library. Olson has written widely on twentieth-century literature and art, including her first book “Modernism and the Ordinary” (Oxford UP, 2009) and her most recent book “Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis” (Yale, 2017), which won the 2018 Pegasus Award from the Poetry Foundation for best book of poetry criticism, and the 2019 Mid-America Award from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. She earned her PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University in New York City, and for four years she taught at the University of Chicago as a Harper-Schmidt Fellow.

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Tags: Chicago, Chicago Poetry Then and Now, Ed Roberson, Near North Side, Newberry Library, Srikanth Reddy, Suzanne Buffam