Something held by poetry
In this intimate workshop, UC Santa Cruz students, faculty, and staff are invited into conversation with poets Ronaldo V. Wilson and Terri Witek. Something held by poetry is programmed for Wilson’s multimedia exhibition, there are no words, but melodies, currently on view at the IAS.
RSVP is required.
Ronaldo V. Wilson is a poet, interdisciplinary artist, academic, and the author of Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man, winner of the Cave Canem Prize; Poems of the Black Object, winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and the Asian American Literary Award in Poetry; Farther Traveler: Poetry, Prose, Other, and Lucy 72. His latest books are Carmelina: Figures and Virgil Kills: Stories. He is the editor of three special issues of hybrid and experimental work in Interim: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics; and Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. Wilson is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at U.C. Santa Cruz, where he directs the Creative Writing Program, and serves on the core faculty of the Creative Critical PhD Program; principal faculty member of CRES (Critical Race and Ethnic Studies); and affiliate faculty member of DANM (Digital Arts and New Media).
Terri Witek’s most recent books include her 2026 eco-poetics collection with Amaranth Borsuk, W/\ SH, which loops two rain prophets, both women, into a crisis between future worlds, and 2023’s Something’s Missing in This Museum (Anhinga Press). A translation by Dona Mayoora of 2018’s The Rape Kit into Malayalam is forthcoming. Her work has been included in many anthologies, including 2 from 2021: JUDITH: Women Making Visual Poetry (Timglaset Editions ) and the WAAVe Global Gallery (Hysterical Books). Witek’s solo and collaborative work has been featured in a wide variety of text venues, including Fence, The Colorado Review, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Slate, Hudson Review, Lana Turner, The New Republic, and UTSANGA .