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Reading Series 2025-2026 - Events & Programs

The Art of Seeing: Reflections on Art through Poetry

Aug. 29, 5 p.m. | The Downtown Gallery (141 E Main St., Kent, OH 44240)

A collaboration between the School of Art Collection and Galleries and the Wick Poetry Center

This exhibit features over twenty artworks from the School of Art Collection and ekphrastic poems by members of the Kent community written in response to those selected works. 

Wick Weekly: Every Friday at 1 p.m. | Wick Poetry Center (126 S Lincoln Street)

Every Friday*, 1 p.m. | Gaston Prentice House, Wick Poetry Center

Join the Wick Poetry Center student workers and interns for a free workshop each week. Wick Weekly invites ����ɫ��ҹ students and community members to engage in informal writing prompts and activities. No prior writing experience is required.

*Wick Weekly follows ����ɫ��ҹ University's Academic Calendar and will not occur on days when the University is closed or classes are on break.

 

The Nature of Our Times. Book Launch, Poetry Readings, and Exhibit with poets and co-editors Aileen Cassinetto and Luisa A. Igloria, and United By Nature director, Phillip Levin

Sept. 18-19

Sponsored by the Environmental Science and Design Research Institute and the Poetry Coalition 

Join us for the book launch and exhibit opening of The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and other Natural Wonders, with the coeditors and Ohio poets featured in the anthology. These programs will also include a presentation by Dr. Phillip Levin discussing the role of the anthology as a companion to the work of United by Nature, a first-of-its-kind, collaborative initiative to understand how nature shapes our lives, and how we can shape nature’s future.

September 18, 7 pm | Book Launch and Poetry Reading
Kent Student Center Ballroom Balcony 

September 19, 3 pm | Exhibit Opening, Poetry Reading, and Panel Discussion
Cleveland Public Library, Main Library, Louis Stokes Wing, 2nd Floor

Sept. 19, 8 p.m. | Poetry Reading 
Last Exit Books & Coffeehouse 

Aileen Cassinetto was the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County and a 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She is the winner of the 2025 Foley Poetry Prize and co-founder of Paloma Press in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Caulbearer, Maps for Migrants and Ghosts, The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis, 12 other books, and 4 chapbooks. She is the 20th Poet Laureate of Virginia (2020-22), Emerita. During her term, the Academy of American Poets awarded her a 2021 Poet Laureate Fellowship. 

Phillip Levin is a professor at the University of Washington and Interim Executive Director of UW’s EarthLab. He directs United by Nature, a national initiative exploring how nature supports communities. His work centers on conservation, sustainability, and connecting science with policy to shape a more just and thriving future.

 

 

Portage County Mental Health Walk and Poetry Reading

Saturday, Sept. 20, 9 a.m. 

Join the Recovery Walk & Poetry Reading organized by the Mental Health & Recover Board of Portage County. The walk begins at the Kent United Church of Christ, where you can learn more about services in Portage County, and ends at the Wick Poetry Center’s Maj Ragain Poetry Park with a chance to share and reflect. 

Pledge: A Poets for Science Dance Performance

Directed by Assistant Professor Ambre Emory-Maier,
����ɫ��ҹ University School of Theatre & Dance

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 4 p.m. | Integrated Science Building, first floor lobby 

Sponsored by the Wick Poetry Center and Brain Health Research Institute

Four student choreographers with professor Ambre Emory-Maier and David Hassler, transform Poets for Science community poem, “Pledge,” into a tribute to the earth, blending beauty, fragility, gratitude, and resilience. Their work celebrates both nature and the potential of human creativity.

Celebrating Our Own

featuring winners of the 2025 Wick Poetry Center poetry awards and scholarships

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m. | The Wick Poetry Corner, University Library 

Celebrate with us the student winners of the 2025 Wick Poetry Center scholarship awards and learn more about our annual poetry and project scholarships. 

The Buckeye Book Fair 

Saturday, Nov. 1, 9:30 a.m. | Greystone Event Center, Wooster, OH

Enjoy creative activities inside the Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas Mobile Makerspace and share your voice

The Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Reading 

featuring Alison Hawthorne Deming and Terry Belew 

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 7 p.m. | Kent Student Center Ballroom Balcony 

This annual event, now in its 30th year, features the winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and the distinguished poet that served as the final judge of the competition.  

Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of six books of poetry and five books of nonfiction. Recipient of Guggenheim & National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, she has two books out in 2025: the poetry collection Blue Flax & Yellow Mustard Flower (Red Hen Press) and the anthology The Gift of Animals: Poems of Love, Loss, & Connection (Storey Press). She is Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Terry Belew’s debut collection, The Deep Blue of Neptune, won the 2024 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. He received his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and his MA from Missouri State University. 

The Ohio Poets Reading

featuring Felicia Zamora, Ben Kline, and Sara Moore Wagner

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. | The Murphy Auditorium, Rockwell Hall

Our second annual showcase of Ohio poets welcomes three writers up from the Cincinnati area. Join us as we continue this tradition of championing talented voices in our own state. 

Felicia Zamora is the author of eight books of poetry including Murmuration Archives, Interstitial Archaeology, and I Always Carry My Bones, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize and the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. She’s an associate professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati and a poetry editor at Colorado Review.

Ben Kline lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of the collections It Was Never Supposed to Be (Variant Literature,) Twang (ELJ Editions) and Stiff Wrist (fourteen poems.) His work has appeared in Poet Lore, Copper Nickel, Florida Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Poetry, and other publications. 

Sara Moore Wagner is an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence award winner, the Managing Poetry Editor of Driftwood Press, and the author of three prize-winning full-length books of poetry, Lady Wing Shot, Swan Wife, and Hillbilly Madonna. Find her at www.saramoorewagner.com

Giving Voice

Thursday, April 30, 6 p.m. | Murphy Auditorium, Rockwell Hall

Giving Voice features local students (grades 3-12). All material is created in Wick outreach programs, including workshops led by ����ɫ��ҹ University undergraduates enrolled in the service-learning course “Teaching Poetry in the Schools.”