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*Sponsored by Kundiman Midwest*R.A. Villanueva will read from his new poetry collection, A Holy Dread, and will be joined in conversation with Kaveh Akbar and Hanif Abdurraqib. Described in a Publishers Weekly Starred Review as "Intellectually rigorous and emotionally piercing," Sarah Michaelis of Library Journal praises A Holy Dread as "tackl[ing] difficult topics while interweaving Villanueva’s Filipino American upbringing throughout," while Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed and Above Ground, says: "Villanueva has the ability to transform language into images, ideas, and moments that stir my spirit and enkindle my mind. It is a remarkable thing, to watch as a writer gives you new vocabulary with which to move through the world—to describe things you have seen, or felt, or sensed but could never capture with your own tongue or pen. We are so lucky to have these poems."
R. A. Villanueva is the author of two award-winning collections of poetry: A Holy Dread (Alice James Books, 2026), and Reliquaria (U. of Nebraska Press, 2014). New work has been featured by the Academy of American Poets and National Public Radio—and his writing appears widely in international publications such as Poetry London and The Poetry Review. His honors include commendations from the Forward Prizes, and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. He lives in Brooklyn.
Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in the New Yorker, New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James 2017), in addition to a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry 2016). He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine (Penguin Classics 2022). Martyr! (Knopf, 2024), Kaveh’s first novel, was a New York Times Bestseller, the 2024 recipient of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize for Fiction, a 2024 Discover Prize Finalist, and a 2024 National Book Award Finalist.
Hanif Abdurraqib is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His newest release, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024) was a New York Times Bestseller and longlisted for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His previous book, A Little Devil In America (Random House, 2021) was a winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burn Prize. In 2021, Abdurraqib was named a MacArthur Fellow, and in 2024 was named a Windham-Campbell Prize recipient. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.
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Event Venue
15 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA, United States, Iowa 52240
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