Join Poetry Daily, its Editorial Staff and its Editorial Board Members at AWP 2026 in Baltimore! Poetry Daily will be at Booth 1053 under George Mason University at the AWP 2026 Bookfair conference, and participating in the following sessions.
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2026
Start-Up Literary Centers on Campus: Years 1 & 5
Moderator: Kara Oakleaf. Presenters: Alice Magelssen-Green (Poetry Daily Director of Development), Alexander Chee, Laura Jean Gilloux
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM EST
Room 320, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Join representatives from the Literary Arts Bridge at Dartmouth College and Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice at George Mason University for a discussion on the challenges and opportunities in starting a campus literary center. The Bridge is in its first year of operation, while Watershed Lit will be entering its fifth year. Join both organizations as they talk about securing funding, finding space, and building partnerships, as well as the impact on their communities.
The Lyric “We”
Moderator: Taije Silverman. Presenters: M.Nzadi Keita, Cynthia Dewi Oka, Eleanor Wilner, Ilya Kaminsky (Poetry Daily Editorial Board Member)
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM EST
Room 308, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Poets will read and discuss different forms of the first-person plural voice, exploring how the porousness of an individual voice can expand into, and expand, history. Placing Eleanor Wilner’s idea of the transpersonal at the center of our conversation, we will consider the juncture between singular and communal selves as it surfaces in our poetry and often leads to engagement beyond the page. Examining the plural voice, we will celebrate how friendship shapes and sustains both words and worlds.
Enduring Ephemeral Forms: On Poetry Chapbooks & Building Community
Moderator: Aishvarya Arora. Presenters: David Haydon, Zoe Tuck, Dujie Tahat, Brian Teare (Poetry Daily Editorial Board Member)
12:10 PM – 1:25 PM EST
Room 327, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Chapbooks have a countercultural history and democratizing ethic. This panel of poets, editors, and publishers discuss the challenges and opportunities of this short form. They’ll offer insights into contests that support debut authors, chaplets that commemorate reading series, alternative modes of production, such as letterpress and risograph printing. We’ll consider how chapbooks create enduring connections and contribute to an essential, living archive of work by queer, BIPOC, and feminist authors.
Black Poets & Their Fictions: A Reading & Conversation, Sponsored by Furious Flower Poetry Center
Moderator: Lauren Alleyne. Presenters: Phillip Williams (Poetry Daily Editorial Board Member), Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Canisia Lubrin
1:45 PM – 3:00 PM EST
Ballroom II, Level 400, Baltimore Convention Center
In September 2024, Furious Flower celebrated its fourth decennial conference, “Furious Flower IV: The Worlds of Black Poetry,” which explored the expansiveness of expression within traditional and contemporary Black poetic practice. This panel extends that theme, bringing together three award-winning poets who have recently—and successfully—ventured into the world of fiction to share their experiences with the craft, complications, and rewards of engaging self, history, and language across genre.
FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 2026
Said & Unsaid: Crafting Silence in Poetry
Moderator: Allison Adair. Presenters: Randall Mann, Gabrielle Bates, Sandra Lim (Poetry Daily Board Member)
10:35 AM – 11:50 AM EST
Room 302, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Of the poet’s tools, Li-Young Lee praises the “different colors and shades” of silence, while Jane Hirshfield calls intersections of language and silence “thresholds” for the “marriage of said and unsaid.” This panel explores the craft of silences: pauses, line breaks, blank space, hesitation, disruption, and implication. Using models from their own and others’ work, panelists reveal how silences shape poems, heighten consciousness, manage risks of miscommunication, and counteract daily chatter.
Poetry in Translation: Sound & Musicality Around the World, Sponsored by ALTA
Moderator: Sergio Waisman. Presenters: Kristin Dykstra, Anna Deeny Morales, Karen Bishop, Vivek Narayanan (Co-Editorial Director, Poetry Daily)
10:35 AM – 11:50 AM EST
Room 324, Level 300, Baltimore Convention Center
Can sound and musicality be translated? Taking cues from their translations of poetry from India, Chile, Cuba, Argentina, and Spain, the participants will consider: What happens to sound and musicality as it travels in and through translation? What is the relationship between sound, musicality, voice and memory, identity, race, and gender and sexuality in the translation of poetry?
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Location: 4 North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21201
Cost: Free. Registration required.
Event URL: https://citylitproject.salsalabs.org/hardtimesrequirefuriousdancing/index.html
When the world is heavy, we must find our joy and dance. Hard Times Require Furious Dancing* is a gathering that is defiant in joy. Step out of conference mode and onto the dance floor. Come celebrate that one good thing that’s worth the sweat. Featuring DJ Chris Brooks and The Jonathan Gilmore Project, with light bites, a cash bar, a photo booth, and plenty of room to dance, meet people, and reconnect with friends. Whether you come to move or simply be in the room, this is a space for collective joy and footstompin’ music. Wear something festive that makes you feel seen.
*Alice Walker.
