Author Talk & Book Launch: Wayne Miller's The End of Childhood

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Come celebrate the book launch of The End of Childhood by Wayne Miller! Joining Wayne Miller is Juan Morales and Kevin Prufer. The authors will each read from their work and then we will sign some books!

ABOUT THE BOOK

From accomplished poet Wayne Miller comes a collection examining how an individual’s story both hews to and defies larger socio-political narratives and the sweep of history. A cubist making World War I camouflage, a forlorn panel on the ethics of violence in literature, an obsessive litany of “late capitalist” activities, a military drone pilot driving home after work—here, the awkward, the sweet, and the disturbing often merge. And underlying it all is Miller’s own domestic life with two children, who highlight the hopeful and ingenious aspects of childhood, which is “not // as I had thought / the thicket of light back at the entrance // but the wind still blowing / invisibly toward me / through it.”

The End of Childhood, Miller’s sixth collection of poems, is his most intimate, juxtaposing his own fraught youth with that of his children amid insurrection and pandemic, vacation and vocation, art and war. This piercing book spares nothing as it searches for a measure of personal benevolence and truth in today’s turbulent, brutalizing world—which it confronts through a singularly candid and lyrical voice.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Wayne Miller’s previous books of poetry include Only the Senses Sleep, The Book of Props, The City, Our City, Post-, and We the Jury. His awards include a UNT Rilke Prize, two Colorado Book Awards, an NEA Translation Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, six individual awards from the Poetry Society of America, and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship to Northern Ireland. He has co-translated two books from Albanian—most recently Moikom Zeqo’s Zodiac, shortlisted for the PEN Center USA Award in Translation—and has co-edited three books, most recently Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century. He lives in Denver, where he co-directs the Unsung Masters Series, teaches at the University of Colorado Denver, and edits Copper Nickel.

Juan Morales is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Dream of the Bird Tattoo: Poems and Sueñitos (U of New Mexico Press, 2025) and The Handyman's Guide to End Times (2018), which won the International Latino Book Award. His poems have appeared in Breakbeats Vol. 4 LatiNEXT, Copper Nickel, Crazyhorse, Poetry, Sugar House Review, and elsewhere. He teaches at Colorado College and lives in Pueblo.

Kevin Prufer is the author of nine poetry collections, most recent The Fears (Copper Canyon Press, 2023); his debut novel, Sleepaway, was published in 2024 by Acre Books. Prufer's awards and honors include the UNT Rilke Prize, the Julie Suk Award, multiple Pushcart Prizes and Best American Poetry selections, numerous awards from the Poetry Society of America, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the the Arts and the Lannan Foundation. He has also co-edited many books, including World'd Too Much: Selected Poetry of Russell Atkins (Cleveland State Poetry, 2019); Into English: Poems, Translations, Commentaries (Graywolf Press, 2017), and Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century (Milkweed Editions, 2016). He teaches at the University of Houston and co-directs the Unsung Masters Series.

AGENDA

6:30PM Welcome to MATTER
7:00PM Poetry Reading
8:00PM Book Signing

Masks are encouraged. They will be supplied at the door.
The Shop at MATTER is ADA Accessible

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Shop at MATTER, 2114 Market Street, Denver, United States