Rita Dove is a celebrated poet, prose writer, editor, musician, and former Poet Laureate of the United States—the youngest to have served in the role. Known for works of lyricism and beauty, Dove applies an unflinching eye to historical and political events. In fact, her tremendous impact on American letters has come not only through her writing but her advocacy work; the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is the only poet honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Playlist for the Apocalypse, is Dove’s poignant meditation on injustice: an investigation of the vacillating moral compass guiding America’s—and the world’s—experiments in democracy. Q&A with Anastacia-Reneé.

In How We Give Now, Lucy Bernholz shows that philanthropy is more than writing a check and claiming a tax deduction. For most of us—the non-wealthy givers—philanthropy can be a way of living our values and fully participating in society. We give in all kinds of ways—shopping at certain businesses, canvassing for candidates, donating money, and making conscious choices with our retirement funds. We give our cash, our time, and even our data to make the world a better place. Join us for “Lucy Bernholz’s How We Give Now,” a candid conversation between Dr. Carmen Rojas, President and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Lucy Bernholz about the often-overlooked worlds of participatory philanthropy, and how philanthropy by the rest of us—across geographies and cultural traditions—begins with and builds on active commitment to our communities.

Local Voices presents a unique opportunity to eavesdrop on the works of SAL’s Writers in the Schools resident writers. These locally acclaimed novelists, poets, essayists, and storytellers come together to read from their own works-in-progress, and inspire the same craft and performance skills they teach in the classroom. Join us in this free event at Hugo House on Thursday, January 13, at 7:00 p.m, or catch it streaming on Facebook Live!

Bernardine Evaristo is the author of the 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other, and the forthcoming memoir Manifesto, which investigates her long journey as a Black writer in a white-dominated industry. Evaristo’s writing is characterized by experimentation, daring, subversion, and challenging the myths of various Afro-diasporic histories and identities, and her books range in genre from poetry to short story to drama to criticism.

Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Minor Feelings is a vulnerable, humorous, and provocative essay collection, whose relentless pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world. Hong will be in conversation with Our Existence Beyond Trauma Series curator, Ijeoma Oluo, for this event, which is co-presented by Langston Seattle.

Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong writes about everything that is or was once alive, from the microbes that secretly rule the world to the species disappearing from it. A staff writer for The Atlantic, Yong is the author of the New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes, a book about the amazing partnerships between animals and microbes. In examining nature at its most granular, Yong’s writing seeks to change our sense of where humans belong within it.