An unseasonably warm spring week was the perfect backdrop for the Phoenix Poets Literary Festival, a three-day program of readings, panels and roundtables featuring world-renowned writers in conversation with University of Chicago faculty, students and the literary community on the South Side of Chicago.
The event ran from April 12-14 in celebration of National Poetry Month and the relaunch of the Phoenix Poets series. Originally founded by the University of Chicago Press in 1983, it has published countless contemporary poets. Books in the series have won many major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award and more.
In 2021, a new editorial team took over the series, led by UChicago professor, poet and literary scholar Srikanth Reddy, the series’ first publicly named editor since the 1990s. Under new leadership, the Phoenix Poets series hopes to expand its reach and readership by including and promoting emerging literary voices both nationally and globally.
The literary festival was a collaborative effort from both the University of Chicago Press and the UChicago Creative Writing department. Its programming was created by faculty and geared towards undergraduate students in the program, in particular those interested in poetry.
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This story was first published by the College at UChicago.
