The Life of a Poet Featuring Acclaimed Poet Reginald Harris in Conversation with Poet/Editor Kyle Dargan

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“Reginald Harris’s Autogeography is the winner of the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize. The book has been praised for being great black poetry and great LGBT poetry, but it’s great writing beyond category.”         – Poet, Sean Singer

Established in 2013, The Life of a Poet is a quarterly series of in-depth literary conversations. The series offers a rare opportunity to consider a writer’s entire career and explore the major events that have shaped their work. Readings from that work are interspersed throughout the conversation. Originally moderated by Washington Post book critic Ron Charles, the series is now helmed by noted poet and editor Kyle Dargan. Over the years featured poets have included Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Alexander, Marie Howe, Ada Limon, Marilyn Chin, Adrian Matejka, Janine Joseph, and Carl Phillips among many others.

Reginald Harris is a poet, writer, and literary consultant. A Cave Canem Fellow born in Annapolis, Maryland, and raised in Baltimore, his first book, 10 Tongues, was finalist for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year, and a Lambda Literary Award; his second collection, Autogeography, was a finalist for the Griot-Stadler and White Pine Press Poetry Prizes, won the 2012 Cave Canem / Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, and was on lists of “Best Books of Year” in The Volta and Beltway Poetry Quarterly. A member of the National Book Critics Circle and recipient of Individual Artist Awards for poetry and fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, Harris’s work has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including African-American Review, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Obsidian, Poetry, smartish pace, and in the anthologies A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poems, Of Poetry and Protest: Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets, and This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets. He has served on award selection committees for the Bronx Council on the Arts, George Mason University’s Creative Writing Department, the “One Maryland / One Book” program, Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, and the Publishing Triangle. Involved in library technology and programming for over thirty years, from Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library to Poets House in Manhattan, Reginald Harris currently lives in Brooklyn, where he is a Lead Digital Navigator for the Brooklyn Public Library’s Neighborhood Tech Help service.

Kyle Dargan is the author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize andlonglisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)–were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He’s worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program. He is currently an Associate Professor of literature and Asst. Director of creative writing at American University, as well as the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He also works as a Managing Editor for Janelle Monae’s creative company, Wondaland. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Dargan is a graduate of Saint Benedict’s Prep, The University of Virginia and Indiana University.

Books will be available for sale. A booksigning will follow the conversation.

Reginald Harris Photo Credit: Nicholas Nichols