Poets
Check out the poets who are gathering at the 2024 Festival to celebrate Pittsburgh’s literary community! Learn more about each poet by clicking on their name.
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Poet
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.
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Poet
Kelley Beeson is the recipient of the 2023 Lefty Blondie Press Chapbook Award for her book, Undress. Her work is forthcoming in, Kestrel, and The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain and appears in Rogue Agent, Kaliope, Pittsburgh City Paper, and The Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. She grew up in Pittsburgh, works as a crackerjack librarian and has been writing with the Madwomen in the Attic since 1992.
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Poet
Cave Canem co-founder Toi Derricotte’s sixth collection of poetry, “I“ New and Selected Poems, was shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award. She won the Pegasus Award from the Poetry Foundation in 2023, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2021, and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2020.
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Poet
Shyann Glover is an upcoming Pittsburgh poet. She has written a book called “The Mind Inspection”. When Shyann was in her sophomore year of college, she found that Poetry became a safe place that feels like home. Shyann has a new book set to release this year in 2024!
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Poet
Ashnavi Ghosh is a 16-year-old student born and raised in Pittsburgh. Her works about the exploration of the teenage experience are featured in Ralph Munn Creative Writing Anthologies, the National High School Poetry Contest, and various literary magazines. Beyond dabbling in poetry, she authored a book on genetics titled "Corn" in between debate rounds and the rhythms of punk music.
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Poet
Nancy Krygowski is the author of The Woman in the Corner, named one of the top 100 (or so) books of poetry for 2020 by Library Journal, and Velocity, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. She teaches in Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic writing program, in addition to serving as Co-Editor of the Pitt Poetry Series and the Pittsburgh Bureau Chief of the tiny weekly newspaper, Tiny Day.
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Poets
The #notwhite collective is a group of 13 women artists whose mission is to use non-individualistic, multi-disciplinary art to make our stories visible as we relate, connect, and belong to the Global Majority. We utilize our arts practice singularly and collectively to Excavate Histories, Expose Realities, and Exorcise Oppression.
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Poet
Gaia Rajan is the author of the chapbooks Moth Funerals (Glass Poetry Press 2020) and Killing It (Black Lawrence Press 2022). Their work is published or forthcoming in Best New Poets, the Best of the Net anthology, The Kenyon Review, THRUSH, Split Lip Magazine, and elsewhere. They live in Pittsburgh and online at @gaiarajan on Twitter or Instagram.
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Poet
Hallie Dong is the 2023-24 Pittsburgh Youth Poet Laureate. Through writing, she explores the intersections of emotional health, culture, and youth civic engagement. Her work has been recognized by Princeton University, Kelly Writers House, Anaphora Arts, Kenyon College, and JUST POETRY as a national winner, among others. When she’s not writing introspective journal entries on bus rides, you can find her consuming her bodyweight in blueberries, running competitively, or thinking about rain.
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Poet
Diarra Imani imparts her wisdom to willing listeners. Her sets are a composite of real-time stories and revelations, utilizing call and response songs to balance breath, and poetry to deliver deep messages. She writes to fill the soul and to heal the unspoken wounds we all carry as a member of this world.
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Poet
Sheila L. Carter-Jones is the author of Three Birds Deep, winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Book Award, and her chapbook Crooked Star Dream Book was named Honorable Mention for the New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest. She is a fellow of Cave Canem, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and a Walter Dakin Fellow of the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. She was born and raised in a small coal mining town in Western Pennsylvania which is the site for many of her poems. Her poetry has been published
in various journals, anthologies and newspapers. Sheila received her MFA from Carlow University where she currently teaches in their Madwomen in the Attic Program. Her book Every Hard Sweetness is forth coming from BOA Editions, Ltd. in the spring of 2024.
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Poet
Julia Spicher Kasdorf has published four collections in the Pitt Poetry Series, most recently As Is. With Steven Rubin, she also created Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields to document the impacts of fracking in Pennsylvania. She holds the Liberal Arts Professorship at Penn State where she teaches poetry writing and directs the creative writing program.
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Poet
Michelle Gil-Montero is a poet and translator of contemporary Latin American writing. She is the author of the book Object Permanence and the translator of books by Maria Negroni, Valerie Mejer Caso, and others. She teaches at Saint Vincent College and is the founding editor of Eulalia Books.
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Poet
Mj is an award-winning ASL Poet Laureate of Allegheny County. She has also been in the Peace Corps Program and lived in Kenya while working as a Special Education teacher with deaf children with those with other disabilities such as deafblind, learning disabilities, and autism.
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Poet
AJ Wiles is a queer Black Appalachian artist and activist, and a member of the Affrilachian Poets. A former National Student Poet, Wiles is currently a student at Case Western Reserve University. His works center on themes of place, belonging, heritage, identity, and history. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring nature, reading, cooking, listening to music, and traveling.
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Poet
Leslie "Ezra" Smith is a professional spoken word artist, actor, director, event coordinator and host. He has been a popular open mic host and coordinator of several events. In 2010, Meeting of the Minds Publications published his first book of poetry entitled, "Journey of a Teardrop".
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Poet
Jessica Manack holds degrees from Hollins University and lives with her family in Pittsburgh. She was the recipient of a 2022 Curious Creators Grant. Her work has appeared widely in literary journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her first collection, GASTROMYTHOLOGY, is forthcoming from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.
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Poet
Orlando Watson’s début EP, Everything’s Personal, was released in 2017 and peaked at #18 on iTunes R&B/Soul charts, which led him to open for Lalah Hathaway and Chantae Cann’s respective tours in 2018. His full-length album, Corner Stories, peaked at #14 on iTunes top 20 R&B/Soul charts upon its release.
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Poet
Doralee Brooks is a facilitator for the Madwomen in the Attic poetry workshops at Carlow University and professor emerita of the Community College of Allegheny County in Developmental Studies. She is a fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (95) and Cave Canem (97 and 99). Doralee holds an MEd from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from Carlow University. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies including Voices from the Attic, Paterson Literary Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and Uppagus. Doralee has also led community writing workshops for adolescents. Her experiences in education are the inspiration for much of her work which often addresses issues of race and gender. Doralee’s chapbook, When I Hold You Up to the Light, won the 2019 Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest published by Main Street Rag. Doralee is City of Asylum’s Poet Laureate of Allegheny County 2022-2024.
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Poet
Natalie Augustine is a writer from Pittsburgh. She is an 11th grade student in the literary arts department of Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12. She particularly finds inspiration in nature and wildlife.
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Poet
Emily Carlson is the author of four poetry collections: Why Misread a Cloud, I Have a Teacher, Symphony No. 2, & the forthcoming Majestic Cut. Emily teaches poetry at PPS CAPA & is the director of Art in the Garden, an LGBTQ led, joy-centered program. Emily lives with their partner & their three children in an intentional community centered around an urban garden.