This Poetry Reading Series provides a unique opportunity to hear diverse and unusual sets of readers, in this case pairing long-time friends who rarely have the opportunity to appear together.

Yona Harvey has published two collection of poetry: Hemming the Water, for which she received the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love (2020). Harvey’s work has appeared in Letters to the Future: Black WOMEN / Radical WRITING, A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry and The Force of What’s Possible: Accessibility and the Avant-Garde. She contributed to Marvel’s World of Wakanda with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay.

Crystal Williams’ fourth book of poetry, Detroit as Barn was a finalist for the National Poetry Series, Cleveland State Open Book Prize, and the Maine Book Award. Troubled Tongues was awarded the 2009 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2009 Oregon Book Award, the Idaho Poetry Prize, and the Crab Orchard Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, PEN: America, The Indiana Review, The Sun, Tin House, Ms. Magazine, Ploughshares, and Callaloo.