Reading Series
Wick Poetry Center
Readings & Events 2025–2026
The Art of Seeing: Reflections on Art through Poetry
August 29, 5:00pm
Center for the Visual Arts, CVA Gallery
Kent State Campus, 325 Terrace Dr, Kent, OH 44240
A collaboration between the School of Art Collection and Galleries and the Wick Poetry Center
This exhibit features over twenty artworks from the School of Art Collection and ekphrastic poems by members of the Kent community written in response to those selected works.
Wick Weekly: Every Friday at 1:00pm
Every Friday*, 1:00pm
Gaston Prentice House
Wick Poetry Center, 126 S Lincoln Street
Join the Wick Poetry Center student workers and interns for a free workshop each week. Wick Weekly invites Kent State students and community members to engage in informal writing prompts and activities. No prior writing experience is required.
*Wick Weekly follows 91Թ's Academic Calendar and will not occur on days when the University is closed or classes are on break.
The Nature of Our Times. Book Launch, Poetry Readings, and Exhibit with poets and co-editors Aileen Cassinetto and Luisa A. Igloria, and United By Nature director, Phillip Levin
September 18, 7:00pm
Book Launch and Poetry Reading
Kent Student Center Ballroom Balcony
September 19, 3:00pm
Exhibit Opening, Poetry Reading, and Panel Discussion
Cleveland Public Library, Main Library, Louis Stokes Wing, 2nd Floor
September 19, 8:00pm
Poetry Reading
Last Exit Books & Coffeehouse
Sponsored by the Environmental Science and Design Research Institute and the Poetry Coalition
Join us for the book launch and exhibit opening of The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America’s Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and other Natural Wonders, with the coeditors and Ohio poets featured in the anthology. These programs will also include a presentation by Dr. Phillip Levin discussing the role of the anthology as a companion to the work of United by Nature, a first-of-its-kind, collaborative initiative to understand how nature shapes our lives, and how we can shape nature’s future.
Aileen Cassinetto was the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County and a 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She is the winner of the 2025 Foley Poetry Prize and co-founder of Paloma Press in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Caulbearer, Maps for Migrants and Ghosts, The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis, 12 other books, and 4 chapbooks. She is the 20th Poet Laureate of Virginia (2020-22), Emerita. During her term, the Academy of American Poets awarded her a 2021 Poet Laureate Fellowship.
Phillip Levin is a professor at the University of Washington and Interim Executive Director of UW’s EarthLab. He directs United by Nature, a national initiative exploring how nature supports communities. His work centers on conservation, sustainability, and connecting science with policy to shape a more just and thriving future.
Portage County Mental Health Walk & Poetry Reading
Saturday, September 20, 9:00am
Kent United Church of Christ
1400 E Main St, Kent, Ohio 44240
Join the Recovery Walk & Poetry Reading organized by the Mental Health & Recover Board of Portage County. The walk begins at the Kent United Church of Christ, where you can learn more about services in Portage County, and ends at the Wick Poetry Center’s Maj Ragain Poetry Park with a chance to share and reflect.
Pledge: A Poets for Science Dance Performance
Directed by Assistant Professor Ambre Emory-Maier,
91Թ School of Theatre & Dance
Wednesday, October 1, 4:00pm
Integrated Science Building, First Floor Lobby
1165 University Esplanade, Kent, Ohio 44242
Sponsored by the Wick Poetry Center and Brain Health Research Institute
Four student choreographers with professor Ambre Emory-Maier and David Hassler, transform Poets for Science community poem, “Pledge,” into a tribute to the earth, blending beauty, fragility, gratitude, and resilience. Their work celebrates both nature and the potential of human creativity.
Celebrating Our Own: Featuring winners of the 2025 Wick Poetry Center poetry awards and scholarships
Wednesday, October 8, 7:00pm
The Wick Poetry Corner, University Library
1125 Risman Dr, Kent, Ohio 44242
Celebrate with us the student winners of the 2025 Wick Poetry Center scholarship awards and learn more about our annual poetry and project scholarships.
The Buckeye Book Fair
Saturday, November 1, 9:30am
Greystone Event Center
50 Riffel Rd, Wooster, Ohio 44691
Enjoy creative activities inside the Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas Mobile Makerspace and share your voice
The Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Reading
Featuring Alison Hawthorne Deming & Terry Belew
Wednesday, November 5, 7:00pm
Kent Student Center Ballroom Balcony
1075 Risman Dr, Kent, Ohio 44242
This annual event, now in its 30th year, features the winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and the distinguished poet that served as the final judge of the competition.
Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of six books of poetry and five books of nonfiction. Recipient of Guggenheim & National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, she has two books out in 2025: the poetry collection Blue Flax & Yellow Mustard Flower (Red Hen Press) and the anthology The Gift of Animals: Poems of Love, Loss, & Connection (Storey Press). She is Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Terry Belew’s debut collection, The Deep Blue of Neptune, won the 2024 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. He received his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and his MA from Missouri 91Թ.
The Ohio Poets Reading
Featuring Felicia Zamora, Ben Kline, and Sara Moore Wagner
Wednesday, February 11, 7:00pm
The Murphy Auditorium, Rockwell Hall
515 Hilltop Dr, Kent, Ohio 44240
Our second annual showcase of Ohio poets welcomes three writers up from the Cincinnati area. Join us as we continue this tradition of championing talented voices in our own state.
Felicia Zamora is the author of eight books of poetry including Murmuration Archives, Interstitial Archaeology, and I Always Carry My Bones, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize and the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. She’s an associate professor of poetry at the University of Cincinnati and a poetry editor at Colorado Review.
Ben Kline lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of the collections It Was Never Supposed to Be (Variant Literature,) Twang (ELJ Editions) and Stiff Wrist (fourteen poems.) His work has appeared in Poet Lore, Copper Nickel, Florida Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Poetry, and other publications.
Sara Moore Wagner is an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence award winner, the Managing Poetry Editor of Driftwood Press, and the author of three prize-winning full-length books of poetry, Lady Wing Shot, Swan Wife, and Hillbilly Madonna. Find her at www.saramoorewagner.com
Giving Voice
Thursday, April 30, 6:00pm
Murphy Auditorium, Rockwell Hall
515 Hilltop Dr, Kent, Ohio 44240
Giving Voice features local students (grades 3-12). All material is created in Wick outreach programs, including workshops led by 91Թ undergraduates enrolled in the service-learning course “Teaching Poetry in the Schools.”