Department of English

The Poetry & Poetics Working Group is a graduate discussion group and event series which focuses on poetic form across disciplinary and temporal boundaries. Though we are especially interested in twentieth and twenty-first century poetry and contemporary critical work in English, we also host and encourage interdisciplinary conversation between non-Anglophone and comparative literatures, new media, cinema studies, the sciences, and the visual and performing arts. Our group is grounded in the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania, but extends into a larger community of poets, critics, and scholars engaged with contemporary poetics in Philadelphia and elsewhere.

Our coordinators from 2021-2023 were Lauren Bakst and Andrew J. Smyth. To request additional information, please contact them at: Lauren Bakst (lbakst@sas.upenn.edu) or Andrew J. Smyth (ajsmyth@sas.upenn.edu).

Upcoming Events 

 TBA

Past Events

Spring 2023

4/6-4/8, School for Temporary Liveness

Fall 2022

10/21, 1pm, Simone White

Spring 2022

4/12, 6:30pm, RAW Académie Fellows

4/27, 6pm, Will Rawls

Fall 2021

10/28, 7pm, R.A. Judy

Fall 2020

11/12, 4:45pm, Anahid Nersessian (w/ Res/Vic)

11/17, 6pm, Ada Smailbegovic

Spring 2020

1/14, 1pm, Julia Dasbach, job talk

2/10, 6:30pm, Joe Torra, in discussion on the poet Stephen Jonas

3/2, 6pm, Zohar Weiman-Kelman, Book talk (with Jewish Studies)

Fall 2019

10/24, 4:30pm, Welcome Back and discussion of Nealon's The Matter of Capital

11/7, 5:30pm, Christopher Nealon

Spring 2019

1/30, 5pm, Davis Knittle, WIP

2/11, 6pm, Keegan Finberg, WIP

3/20, 12:30pm, Brian Teare and Allison Cobb, a discussion of selected readings

4/2, 12pm, Brian Teare and Allison Cobb, lunch

Fall 2018

10/1, 6:30pm, Renee Gladman, a discussion of selected readings

10/16, 5pm, Alexis Pauline-Gumbs, a discussion of selected readings

10/18, 10am-5pm, New Disability Poetics Symposium

11/8, 6pm, Eric Schmaltz, poetry reading combined with a discussion of Surfaces

11/15, 12pm, Jennifer Scappettone, lunch

Spring 2017

03/14, 10am, Orchid Tierney, WIP

04/04, 6pm, Laynie Browne and Pattie McCarthy (Room 222)

04/27, 3pm, erica kaufman (with Gen/Sex)

Fall 2016 Schedule

10/26, 6:30pm, Li Zhimin and Gregory Laynor

11/16, 6:30m, Sarah Arkebauer and Andrew Dieck

12/07, 6:30pm, Trapeta B. Mayson and Andrew Brenza

Spring 2016 Schedule

03/23, 6:30pm, Raquel Salas-Rivera and Oki Sogumi

04/21, 6:30pm, Alex Smith and Levi Bentley 

05/12, 1:30pm, Joshua Schuster 

Fall 2015 Schedule

09/1, 6:30pm Kristen Gallagher and Ariel Resnikoff  

10/13, 7pm, Paolo Javier and Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

11/5, 12pm, Ashley Chang, WIP

12/11, 6:30pm, Michael Leong and Amy Catanzano