An Afternoon of Poetry: Readings by Cave Canem Poets, featuring Steven Leyva and Evie Shockley

Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

This year's program features readings by Evie Shockley and Steven Leyva, and local Cave Canem fellows:

Saida Agostini
Abdul Ali
Teri Cross-Davis
Hayes Davis
Raina Fields
Linda Susan Jackson
Bettina Judd
Alan King
Kateema Lee
Hermine Pinson

Hosted by Reginald Harris from Poets House, New York City. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project.

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an assistant professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design.

Evie Shockley is a poet and scholar. Her most recent poetry collections are the new black (Wesleyan, 2011) and semiautomatic (Wesleyan, 2017); both won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the latter was a finalist for the Pulitzer and LA Times Book Prizes. She has received the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Stephen Henderson Award, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Cave Canem. Shockley is Professor of English at Rutgers University.

Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.

Recorded On: Sunday, December 6, 2020