Topics include poems/poets that shaped how they think about poetry, how they consider aesthetic issues and the composition of their own poetry, and/or the use of poetic techniques in their own and/or others' poems. Question and answer to follow talk and all are invited.

Visiting Poet Valerie Wallace’s debut poetry collection House of McQueen (March 2018) was chosen by Vievee Francis for the Four Way Books Intro Prize in Poetry. In their starred review Publishers Weekly said that Wallace created “…a literary seance…serving as a scholar of and medium for the late iconic fashion designer Alexander McQueen….” Her work was chosen by Margaret Atwood for the Atty Award, and she has received an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award and the San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference Award in Poetry, as well as many grants to support her work, for which she is extremely grateful.