Poetry with Mary Brancaccio, Michael Klein, Bruce E. Whitacre, Shelley Wong

Award-winning poetry by established and emerging poets throughout the summer.

***Tonight's event has been moved to an indoor location:

5 Bryant Park 
Suite 2400
New York, NY 10018

Mary Brancaccio is a poet and teacher. She is the author of Fierce Geometry: Poems (Get Fresh Books Publishing), which was recommended by the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared in Terrain.org, Naugatuck River Review, Minerva Rising, Edison Literary Review, Rattle, as well as on Major Jackson’s poetry podcast, The Slowdown. Brancaccio’s poetry is included in several Writing the Land anthologies and two international anthologies, Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women; and Farewell to Nuclear, Welcome to Renewable Energy (Japanese/English bilingual edition). She is a Pushcart Prize nominee.

Michael Klein is a five-time finalist and two-time winner of a Lambda Literary Award in poetry. His newest book is The Early Minutes of Without: New & Selected Poems and he’s just finished a new book of essays called Happiness Ruined Everything: My Devotions to Poetry, Conspiracy, Magical Thinking, Stephen Sondheim & Others which is currently making the rounds. He lives in Newport, RI and teaches in the College Unbound program as well as consulting writers with poetry and memoir manuscripts.

Bruce Whitacre is the author of Good Housekeeping (Poets Wear Prada), a BookLife Reviews Editors Pick. The Elk in the Glade: The World of Pioneer and Painter Jennie Hicks, placed 2nd in Contemporary Poetry at The BookFest Spring 2023. His crown sonnet about the culture of violence won the Nebraska Poetry Society’s 2023 Open Poetry Contest. He has been published in Queensbound and many anthologies and journals. “Leave Meeting” is included in Diane Lockward’s craft book, The Strategic Poet, Terrapin Books, 2021. He has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. He lives with his husband in Forest Hills, NY.

Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears, which was longlisted for the National Book Award for poetry and won a Lambda Literary Award. She has received fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and Montalvo Arts Center. She lives in San Francisco.

Jason Schneiderman is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen, 2020), and including the forthcoming Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire (Red Hen, 2024). He edited the anthology Queer: A Reader for Writers (Oxford UP 2016). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. His awards include the Emily Dickinson Award, the Shestack Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. He is longtime co-host of the podcast Painted Bride Quarterly Slush Pile and a guest host for The Slowdown. He is Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.