Poets from around the United States and the world will share work they created in the Poetry Foundation’s online poetry workshop and discussion series, Forms & Features. Join us for a reading and celebration of their diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words.

Forms & Features is the Poetry Foundation’s series of free online creative writing workshops for adults. To learn about current and upcoming offerings, including workshops created and led by Visiting Teaching Artists, please visit our Events page and sign up for our Events newsletter.

This reading’s featured poets:

Amanda Alden (she/her) grew up in Texas and graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Studies with a degree in human rights and humanitarian action in 2021. She now reads, writes, and sketches in France, where she works as a legal advocate for people on the move. Her written work holds reverence for the elusive minutiae that comprise meaning in the midst of grief, violence, and perilous unknowns.

Alka Balain is an Indian educator turned poet and artist. She is the Club Chair of the Writing Enthusiasts’ Club, Indian Women’s Association, Singapore; and the chapter head (Singapore) of the Asian Literary Society (ALS), India. Balain’s poems have been shortlisted for the Glass House Poetry Award 2024, ALS Wordsmith Award 2024/2020, Poetry Festival Singapore-Catharsis 2023/2021, and Wordweavers Contest 2022. Her debut poetry book is Parijat Petals, of longing and seeking.

Dawn Angelicca Barcelona is a Filipina-American writer from New Jersey. Her honors include the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award (2022) and Epiphany’s Fresh Voices Fellowship (2023). She’s currently a graduate student in Northwestern University’s Litowitz MFA+MA Program. Her work can be read in Atlanta Review, Red Ogre Review, Epiphany, 2River View, SUSPECT, and Brink. Her debut chapbook, Roundtrip, will be released by Finishing Line Press in 2025.

Mekay Cocquemas (she/her) is a singer, songwriter, and music producer with a background in theater, which she studied at DePaul University and The Second City. She holds an MFA in museum and exhibition studies and a BA in Africana and art history from University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2024, she received the esteemed Roots. Wounds. Words. Literary Arts Scholarship. Currently, she is writing her first novel and EP while she and her partner split their time between London and Dubai.

Śivani Howe is the author of the memoir The Yoga of Remembrance (2018) and Land’s Breath (2024), her first novel from the trees, which reached #1 on the Canadian Women Writers best seller list. Her highly anticipated poetry collection, THIS Is Written in the Stars , released December 1, 2024. She is currently studying for a masters in poetry at Pacific Oregon University.

Utkarsha Laharia is an architect-trained journalist, critic, educator, curator, and more recently,a poet. Her writing has appeared in esteemed publications such as Architectural Record, The Architect’s Newspaper, Dwell, AIA’s ARCHITECT, American Theatre Magazine, and Newshouse, among others. Currently, she works at the Chicago office of architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, where she is deeply immersed in the city and its architectural discourse. Whether wandering the streets of Chicago or engaging in thoughtful discussions about its architecture, Laharia’s passion for design is ever-present. This marks her debut performing her own poetry, blending her diverse talents in an exciting new way.

Rachel Lindsay-Snow is a Chicago-based artist and writer working in performance, installation, drawing, poetry, memoir, and essay. In 2020, they received an MFA in visual arts from UIUC with a graduate minor in dance. They are a Luminarts Fellow with select solo shows at Krannert Art Museum, Swedish Covenant Hospital, North Park University, and The Front Gallery New Orleans. They are a member of Conscious Writers Collective and Out of Site Artist Collective and a writer for Sixty Inches from Center.

Gracie Novacek is a writer, sculptor, and visual artist from Downers Grove, Illinois. Their work, which has appeared in Human Condition and Off Menu Press, flirts with fantasy and grief. Connect with them at @gnovs on Instagram.

A. Michael Schultz is a writer and educator residing in Northern Appalachia. He is assistant professor of English at Belmont College in Ohio.

Jennifer Spector is a poet and writer from New York, currently living in Panama. She is the author of Hithe (2021) and Thacchen: The Dwelling Body in the Rough House (chapter) in Dwelling: Cultural Representations of Inhabited Spaces (2024). Her poetic and visual work has appeared in Shearsman, Reliquiae, Towards an Experimental Ecology of Line, Chant de la Sirène Journal, Book of Hours: An Artist’s Book for the Anthropocene , Nature & Sentience, La Vague, Molly Bloom, Alterity, 14 magazine, Imminent, Litmus, and PSi Fluid States-Performances of Unknowing “ship’s log.” Learn more at jenniferspectorstudio.com

Robin is a recent graduate of Bennington College where they studied environmental studies, theater, and psychology. A long time lover of poetry, Robin is new to sharing their work and is grateful for this opportunity to share their early explorations. They turn to poetry for manifesting the intangible and exploring secret corners of the body and mind.

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Tags: A. Michael Schultz, Alka Balain, Amanda Alden, Chicago, Dawn Angelicca Barcelona, Forms & Features, Forms & Features Community Reading, Gracie Novacek, Jennifer Spector, Loop, Mekay Cocquemas, Poetry Foundation, Rachel Lindsay-Snow, Robin, Śivani Howe, Utkarsha Laharia