YMCA
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Patricia Spears Jones is a poet, playwright, anthologist, educator, and cultural activist. She is the winner of the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers and is the 2023 New York State Poet Laureate. Her most recent book is The Beloved Community (Copper Canyon, 2023). She is also the author of A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems. Her work is anthologized in African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song; Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin; and BAX 2016: Best American Experimental Writing. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Brooklyn Rail, The Ocean State Review, Ms., and Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts. Patricia Spears Jones edited THINK: Poems for Aretha Franklin's Inauguration Day Hat and Ordinary Women: An Anthology of New York City Women. Patricia Spears Jones co-curated the Wednesday Night Series for St. Mark's Church Poetry Project. She has taught graduate and undergraduate creative writing at Hollins University, Adelphi University, Hunter College, and Barnard College. She organizes the American Poets Congress and is a Senior Fellow Emeritus of the Black Earth Institute. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

This event will take place in person and online.

YMCA
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Join us to celebrate Patrick Meeds' brand new collection of poems, The Invisible Man's Tailor, and support the important work of the DWC and Writers Voice Online! This event will be live at the DWC's Shinder Theater, but if you cannot join us in person, a Zoom link will be made available to you.

YMCA
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Steven Schwankert is an award-winning writer and editor. He is the co-creator of The Six, a book and documentary project about the Chinese passengers aboard RMS Titanic. He is the author of Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine and Beijing & Shanghai, a guidebook now in its third edition. Steven is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a fellow and East and South Asia Chapter Chair of The Explorers Club, and founded SinoScuba. His writing has appeared in The Asian Wall Street Journal, The South China Morning Post, Billboard, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. He divides his time between New York City and the People's Republic of China.

This event will take place in person and online.

Online

KateLynn Hibbard's books are Sleeping Upside Down (Silverfish Review Press, winner of the Gerald Cable Book Award), Sweet Weight (Tiger Bark Press), and Simples, winner of the 2018 Howling Bird Press Poetry Prize. Her latest book is Unblossoming (Tiger Bark Press, 2025). Her work has appeared in numerous print and online venues, including Barrow Street, Mid-American Review, and Prairie Schooner. Editor of When We Become Weavers: Queer Female Poets on the Midwest Experience (Squares and Rebels Press), she teaches writing and women's history at Minneapolis College, sings with One Voice Mixed Chorus, the largest LGBTQ choral group in America, and lives with her spouse Jan and many pets in Saint Paul, MN.

Lynn Domina is the author of several books, including three full-length collections of poetry, Inland Sea, Framed in Silence, and Corporal Works, and one chapbook, Killing Him. Her work appears in The Los Angeles Review, The Canary, Barrow Street, Lake Effect, and many other periodicals and anthologies. After living for many years in upstate New York, she moved to Marquette, MI, where she teaches English at Northern Michigan University and lives on the beautiful shore of Lake Superior.

YMCA
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Stephen Kuusisto holds a University Professorship at Syracuse University, and is the author of the memoirs Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet's Journey; Planet of the Blind (a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year") and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light; Letters to Borges; and Old Horse, What is to Be Done? His latest book is Close Escapes from Copper Canyon Press in 2025. He travels and lectures widely on human rights, disability, literature, and the advantages of guide dogs and human-animal relationships.

This event will take place in person and online.

Online

Lynn Emanuel is the author of six books of poetry. Her selected poems, The Nerve of It, was awarded the Lenore Marshall Award by The Academy of American Poets. She has, been awarded the Eric Matthieu King Award from the Academy, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The National Poetry Series Award, and a fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. She has been a judge for the National Book Awards and has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Warren Wilson Program in Creative Writing, and the Bennington Low-Residency MFA Program. Her poetry has been published and reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, LA Review of Books, and Publisher's Weekly. Her latest book is Transcript of the Disappearance, Exact and Diminishing.

Sherre Vernon is the award-winning author of Green Ink Wings, The Name is Perilous, and Flame Nebula, Bright Nova. Her newest book, Translating Blue, is new in April 2025. Sherre has been published in journals such as Tahoma Literary Review and The Chestnut Review, nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes, and anthologized in several collections including Fat & Queer and Best Small Fictions. She also teaches workshops at the Writers Voice.