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Poetry Readings & Discussion

Richard Blanco, Campbell McGrath, & Nicole Tallman

Join Richard Blanco, Campbell McGrath, and Nicole Tallman for a reading and discussion of their latest poetry books. The authors will also discuss their publishing experiences and provide tips for aspiring authors, followed by an audience Q&A session. Best for ages 18 yrs.+ For more information contact, 305-375-2665 or hinzes@mdpls.org.

About the Authors:

Richard Blanco

Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s personal negotiation of cultural identity and the universal themes of place and belonging characterize Blanco’s many collections of poetry, including his most recent, Homeland of My Body, which reassess traditional notions of home as strictly a geographical, tangible place that merely exist outside us, but rather, within us. He has also authored the memoirs FOR ALL OF US, ONE TODAY: AN INAUGURAL POET’S JOURNEY and THE PRINCE OF LOS COCUYOS: A MIAMI CHILDHOOD.  Blanco has received numerous awards, including the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize, the PEN American Beyond Margins Award, the Patterson Prize, and a Lambda Prize for memoir. He was Woodrow Wilson Fellow and has received numerous honorary degrees.  Currently, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University.  In April 2022, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County.

Featured Book: Homeland of My Body

Campbell McGrath

Through twelve full-length collections, four chapbooks, and several hundred poems in journals, quarterlies, newspapers and websites, Campbell McGrath has spent the last thirty years transforming his life into poetry. He has also translated Aristophanes, written two librettos for experimental operas with the composer Orlando Garcia, and played in a punk rock band. Born in Chicago, raised in Washington, DC, he has lived for the last thirty years in Miami Beach. He attended college at the University of Chicago, received his MFA from Columbia University, and has taught in various capacities at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the New York State Writer's Institute. He currently serves as the Philip and Patricia Frost Professor of Creative Writing and Distinguished Professor of English at Florida International University.

Featured book: Fever of Unknown Origin

Nicole Tallman

Nicole Tallman serves as the Poetry Ambassador for Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a position she has held since April 2021. In this role, Nicole created the County's very-first Poet Laureate program and works alongside the Poet Laureate to celebrate and elevate poetry and poets, connect community, and promote literacy and learning. Nicole is the author of three poetry collections: Something Kindred, Poems for the People, and FERSACE. She also serves as the Editor of Redacted Books, Poetry and Interviews Editor for The Blue Mountain Review, and an Associate Editor for South Florida Poetry Journal. She is also the creator and host of ELJ Editions/Redacted Books' monthly Be Well Reading Series, and the monthly Lunchtime Poetry & Jazz Series at Miami-Dade County's Main Library. Find her on social media @natallman and at nicoletallman.com.

Featured book: Fersace

For the 2024 Local Author Book Fair schedule of events and a list of participating authors, please visit www.mdpls.org/author-fair. 

Parking Information:

Miami-Dade Cultural Center Garage

50 NW 2nd Avenue
MIAMI, FL 33128

(Exit on 2nd floor elevator- South side)

$5.00 validated parking at the Main Library. Parking ticket is validated in the lobby at the Security Desk.

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