A Mini QC MFA Reunion! Tak […] “A Mini QC MFA Reunion!”

Feb 18: Veronica Schanoes & Alaya Dawn Johnson reading in Brooklyn February 18 at 7 pmBarrow’s Intense Tasting Room86 34th Street, Brooklyn, NY Two English Department faculty members, Veronica Schanoes a […]

Alaya Dawn Johnson: Brooklyn Books & Booze February 18 at 7 pmBarrow’s Intense Tasting Room86 34th Street, Brooklyn, NY MFA faculty member Alaya Dawn Johnson will be taking part in one of the city’s most fun reading series, Brooklyn Books & Booze. The series takes place in the tasting room of Barrow’s Intense ginger liqueur distillery on the third Tuesday of each month. For more information, and to see the full lineup for February 18th, please visit the Bro […] “Alaya Dawn Johnson: Brooklyn Books & Booze”

Mosab Abu Toha & Ammiel AlcalayWednesday, February 12, 2025, 8:00 pmThe Parish Hall at St Mark’s ChurchTickets: $10/Free on YouTube QC MFA faculty member Ammiel Alcalay will be appearing at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project this March! Mosab Abu Toha and Ammiel Alcalay’s poetry bring new meaning to the act of witnessing, writing with and for the dead, summoning the living in a call to imagine anew—form an image of another world lying below the rubble of this world’s unending devastation. Since 1966, The Poetry Project has expanded access to literature, education, and opportunities for sharing one’s creative work in a counter-hierarchical, radically open space and community. Premised on the vision that cultural action at the local level can inspire broader shifts in public consciousness, The Project is committed to developing and collaborating on replicable program models that challenge persistent social narratives, especially through the verbal reframing made possible in poetry.  This event will also be livestreamed for free on the Project […] “Mosab Abu Toha & Ammiel Alcalay”

ABORTION STORIES, Launch Event & Conversation Tue, Mar 4, 20256:00 PM–8:00 PMThe Skylight Room (9100)CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, NYC.Free and open to all. Registration required. Penguin Classics presents ABORTION STORIES, a one-of-a-kind, intersectional volume of abortion representation in American literature before Roe v. Wade that compellingly proclaims: when abortion is illegal, people’s lives are always more precarious and limited. Head to the CUNY Grad Center for a conversation with Karen Weingarten (Editor), Rebecca Traister (Foreword), and Renee Bracy Sherman (Afterword) who will discuss these stories, poems, essays, and memoirs that reflect a range of representations and responses to abortion. The conversation will be moderated by Professor Vanessa Pérez-Rosario (Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center). This event is free and open to all, please register to attend. Copies of the book will […] “ABORTION STORIES, Launch Event & Conversation”

Mar 4: Abortion Stories: Book Launch & Conversation Tue, Mar 4, 20256:00 PM–8:00 PMThe Skylight Room (9100)CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, NYC.Free and open to all. Registration r […]

A Nicole Cooley Double Feature – 1/30 & 1/31 Tonight kicks off two nights of Nicole Cooley readings–a double feature, if you will!  The first is tonight at NYU’s Lillian Vernon Writer’s House, to celebrate the launch of Dear Yusef: Essays, Letters, and Poems, For and About One Mr. Komunyakaa, a superb anthology celebrating the legacy of Yusef Komunyakaa. You can catch Nicole along with Anne Marie Macari, Jeffrey McDaniel, Yesenia Montilla, John Murillo, and Nicole Sealey tonight at 7 pm if you’re in the city.  Tomorrow, you can also hear Nicole read from her latest book, Mother Water Ash, as part of the Brainstorm Reading Series, which is organized by alumni and students from the Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation out of the delightful Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn.  If you’re in New York City, don’t miss out—hop on the train […] “A Nicole Cooley Double Feature – 1/30 & 1/31”

QC MFA Virtual Open House – February 19 Wednesday, February 19 at 5 pm via Zoom Located in the most culturally and linguistically diverse county in the nation, the Queens College MFA program attracts students dedicated to crossing boundaries in genre, craft, and language. Classes are small, mostly in the evening, and students work closely with faculty mentors. Join an exciting creative community with affordable public university tuition in an urban environment with a verdant 80-acre campus. Unraveling the application process can feel like this sometimes! Now you have two ways to find out whether the Queens College MFA Program is the right choice for you: Our Open House on February 19 at 5 pm. Our MFA teaching faculty will be on hand to answer questions about the program, so come prepared to ask us anything about how classes are structured to what opportunities MFA students get to publish and work in their field! Sign up via the Zoom link below, or just cl […] “QC MFA Virtual Open House – February 19”

“Zuihitsu as Poetry": Kimiko Hahn & Hiromi Itō PoetryLiveExchange Vol.1Date: February 1, 2025Time: 08:00 p.m. (EST)$15 via Eventbrite In Japanese literature, Zuihitsu has long been a form of expressive, reflective writing. In English-speaking contexts, this traditional genre has been received and explored, and evolved into a new form of poetic expression. Kimiko Hahn has been leading this exploration including through her own poetry. On the other hand, Hiromi Ito has built a distinctive literary world through a free-flowing style that seamlessly moves between poetry and prose. In this event, Kimiko Hahn, drawing from her Japanese-American background, and Hiromi Ito, who has long lived in the United States, will share their perspectives on the fusion of poetry and essay, the influence of cultural backgrounds, and the impact of language. As a special highlight, the poets will perform live readings of their works, creating a unique moment where cultures intersect and merge. Buy Your Ticket Here! BIOS: • Hiromi Ito (Poet) Hiromi Itō is a Japanese poet, born in Tokyo in 1955. She made her debut in 1978 after winning the Gendaishi Techo Award. Exploring themes of gender and the body, she became a leading figure in the 1980s women’s poetry movement and pioneered the genre of “child-rearing essays.” Her unique approach to capturing the lives of women has resonated with a wide audience. From 2018 to 2021, she served as a professor at Waseda University. Her accolades include the Takami Jun Prize for Kawara Arekusa (2006), the Hagiwara Sakutarō Prize for Toge-Nuki: Shin Sugamo Jizō Engi (2007), the Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Literature (2008), the Naoki Award (2015), the Taneda Santōka Award (2019), the Chikada Award (2020), and the Kumamoto Literary Award for Michiyukiya (2021). Itō has also worked on modern translations of Buddhist scriptures, publishing Reading the Heart Sutra and Someday I Will Die, Until Then I Will Live: My Own Buddhist Sutra. Other notable works include Hiromi Itō Poetry Collection (Gendaishi Bunko), Continued: Hiromi Itō Poetry Collection (Gendaishi Bunko), Uma-shi, Shoro no Onna, Forest Correspondence: Traveling with Mori Ogai in Berlin, and Tito, the Wild Puppy. Her poetry has gained international acclaim, particularly the English translation of Toge-Nuki: Shin Sugamo Jizō Engi, titled The Thorn Puller (2022), which has drawn significant attention in the U.S. Other English translations of her work by Jeffrey Angles include Killing Kanoko: Selected Poems of Hiromi Itō (2009), Wild Grass on the Riverbank (2014), and Killing Kanoko / Wild Grass on the Riverbank (2020). • Kimiko Hahn (Poet) Kimiko Hahn is author of eleven collections of poetry, including The Ghost Forest: New & Selected Poems (W.W. Norton, 2024) which plays with given forms while creating new ones, and, in doing so, honors past writers. Her last collection, Foreign Bodies, revisits the personal as political while exploring the immigrant body, the endangered animal’s body, objects removed from children’s bodies, and hoarded things. Previous books Toxic Flora and Brain Fever were prompted by fields of science; The Narrow Road to the Interior takes title and forms from Basho’s famous journals. Reflecting her interest in Japanese poetics, her essay on the zuihitsu was published in the American Poetry Review. In 2023, Kimiko was named a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and received The Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award. Additional honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/Voelcker Award, Shelley Memorial Prize, Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, American Book Award, and NEA Fellowships. In her service to the field, she enjoys promoting chapbooks and has created a chapbook archive at the Queens College Library. Hahn is a distinguished professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation at Queens College, The City University of New York. Ticket Information: $15 via Event […] ““Zuihitsu as Poetry”: Kimiko Hahn & Hiromi Itō”

Tale of the Wall: Luke Leafgren with Ammiel Alcalay Tuesday, January 28 · 7pm ESTFree over Zoom or in-personBrookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith for a virtual event with translator Luke Leafgren to discuss and honor the release of The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on the Meaning of Hope and Freedom by Nasser Abu Srour. He will be in conversation with writer, translator, and Queens College MFA faculty member Ammiel Alcalay. A passionate prison memoir from a Palestinian man incarcerated for over 30 years in an Israeli prison—equal parts metaphysical love story and cry for justice. One of more than 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons before October 7, 2023, Nasser Abu Srour was sentenced to life without parole in 1993 after a forced confession. His extraordinary writings delve into the history of the Nakba to the Intifada of the Stones, as he navigates life within the confines of an Israeli prison. But it is within the walls of his cell that this exceptional memoir takes an unexpected direction—Abu Srour turns the very Wall that has deprived him of freedom into his companion, his interlocutor. It becomes the source of stability that allows him to endure a chaotic, hopeless existence. The limitations of this survival strategy—and singular literary device—become painfully evident when falling in love causes Abu Srour to lose his grip on the Wall. Only by writing the story of his imprisonment and the story of his love does Abu Srour find his way back. In doing so, he has created a work of art that transcends his pain while shining a glaring light on the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian situation. Nasser Abu Srour was arrested in 1993, accused of being an accomplice to the murder of an Israeli intelligence officer, and sentenced to life in prison. While incarcerated, Abu Srour completed the final semester of a bachelor’s degree in English from Bethlehem University, and obtained a master’s degree in political science from Al-Quds University. The Tale of a Wall is his first book to appear in English. Luke Leafgren is an Assistant Dean of Harvard College. He has translated seven novels from Arabic and has twice received the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, in 2018 for Muhsin Al-Ramli’s The President’s Gardens and in 2023 for Najwa Barakat’s Mister N. Moderator Ammiel Alcalay is a poet, novelist, translator, essayist, critic, and scholar. His over 20 books include After Jews and Arabs, Memories of Our Future, a little history, and the forthcoming Follow the Person: Archival Encounters, as well as CONTROLLED DEMOLITION: a work in four books. His co-translation of Palestinian poet Nasser Rabah’s Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, is due out in early 2025. He received an American Book Award in for his work as founder and General Editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, and is a Distinguished Professor at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. What You Need to Know to Attend This virtual event is free to attend but please consider purchasing The Tale of a Wall. Register on this page to receive a Zoom link on the day of the event. If you don’t receive a confirmation email after registering, contact us right away. The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith The Transnational Series focuses on stories of migration, the intersection of politics and literature, and works in translation and is supported by the independent bookstore Brookline Booksmith. Subscribe to the Transnational Series newsletter for information on upcoming events, b […] “Tale of the Wall: Luke Leafgren with Ammiel Alcalay”

Radhika Singh – “The Spirit of Mutiny”The Markaz Review has just published an excerpt of a forthcoming novel from MFA alum Radhika Singh in their latest issue. “The Spirit of Mutiny” is part of Singh’s speculative fiction novel which “imagines a post-imperialist future enabled by the success of ongoing liberation movements, with Gaza holding the frontline of resistance to Empire today.” The Markaz Review is an online and print review of art, music, film, literature, ideas, cities and culture writ large, with an emphasis on freedom of expression and a focus on the writers and artists from the center of the world. Organized as a nonprofit in France and the United States, TMR supports creative people of the greater Middle East, generally thought to include the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Africa. As a global community, TMR is a creative and literary destination that seeks to erase the boundaries between peoples and celebrate cult […] “Radhika Singh – “The Spirit of Mutiny””

Jason Tougaw – The Profound Benefits of Walking There’s a reason you […] “”

2025 QUEENS COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATE WRITING PRIZESGuidelines for Submission All currently matriculated QC undergrads, including students who will finish their degree requirements in the […]

Support The English Department this Giving Tuesday Any Donation Helps This #GivingTuesday Working with the outstanding students at Queens College continues to be the greatest reward for […]

Catherine LaSota: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Best Year in Music: 1994 Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Best Year in Music: 1994Tuesday, Nov 19, 2024 from 8-10pmL.I.C. Bar (Carriage House) 45-58 Vernon Blvd, L.I.C., NYC 11101 Literature is coming back to LIC Bar, but with a twist: it’s a celebration of music alongside words. MFA alum Catherina LaSota will will tinker on her Fender Mustang while hosting Emily Raboteau, Brian Gresko, & Nicole Haroutunian, who will offer their reflections on the music of 1994 (considered by many to be the greatest single year of music for all time) along with some brand-new writing. I think the bigger question is whether this is a reunion of LaSota’s reading series, or just an encore from those days–founded in 2015, LIC Reading Series quickly became one of the literary standouts in the borough of Queens, along with the rise of Newtown Literary and other reading series in Queens, such as Oh, Bernice! which was also run by QC MFA alums. Queens may be more established now as a cultural destination in the hearts of New Yorkers, but we can always use the return of one of the best literary programs in the borough. (Just saying, Catherine, if you’re reading this!) Catherine LaSota is just one of the amazing people who have come through the QC MFA P […] “Catherine LaSota: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Best Year in Music: 1994”

Jason Tougaw: Twenty-First-Century Grief Our own program director, Jason Tougaw, has written a piece for Psychology Today about Asher Young’s immersive art installation Living Memory, which allows people to visit with holograms made from photographs they submit of departed loved ones. The result is another step in the evolution of how media and technology can not just assist us as we grieve, but actually shape how we remember those we’ve lost. Tougaw describes his encounter with one of these holograms and explores how this experience can be both painful and a joy in his piece. If you’ve lost someone, maybe you […] “Jason Tougaw: Twenty-First-Century Grief”

QC MFA Virtual Open House Wednesday, November […] “”

Book Launch for Anna Gréki’s Algeria, Capital: Algiers translated by Marine Cornuet Fri, Nov 8, 20247:00 PM–8:30 PMThe Word is Change Bookstore368 Tompkins Ave. (at Putnam), Brooklyn, NY 11216. Free and open to all. This Friday is the book launch of Anna Gréki’s Algeria, capital: Algiers. Translator Marine Cornuet (a QC MFA alum) will read alongside friends Radhika Singh (another QC MFA alum) who will read an excerpt of her science fiction manuscript that, like Gréki’s work, envisions liberated futures, and translator and poet David Iaconangelo (himself a current QC MFA student) who will read his translation of a poem by Miguel Hernández, one of Gréki’s inspirations. As Gréki puts it, “there will be joy / but we will forget nothing of what has happened.” This is the kind of reading we here at the Queens College MFA Program are overjoyed to see because it shows how connected members of the QC MFA community can be. We find connections, and those connections make us better. It’s not lost on us that the foreword is written by QC faculty member Ammiel Alcalay. This book is copublished by Lost & Found, CUNY’s innovative publishing initiative from the CUNY Graduate Center, which Ammiel edits. Algeria, capital: Algiers was written by Anna Gréki while in prison for her participation in the Algerian liberation struggle. This co-publication, shared between CUNY’s Lost & Found and worldwide with Pinsapo Press, makes this work available to English readers for the first time. Working on cutting-edge and innovative translations with Lost & Found is just one of the many paths our students can take. To find out more of the options av […] “Book Launch for Anna Gréki’s Algeria, Capital: Algiers translated by Marine Cornuet”

Richard Prins: Birdhouse Prize winner We are so excited to announce that the winner of this year’s Birdhouse Prize is MFA alum Richard Prins, for his manuscript, We May Eat Fruit. The chapbook is not available yet on the Ghostbird Press website, but we wanted to let you all know the good news right away! You may remember that, just this year, Richard has also been included in The Best American Essays 2024 and won an NEA Fellowship, so we’re overjoyed Richard was able to add this as the capstone to a great year! Ghostbird Press is a small, independent chapbook press that publishes collaborations of writing and visual art. Peter Vanderberg, a fellow QC MFA alum, offers the annual Birdhouse Prize to graduating QC MFA students, resulting in a gorgeous full-color chapbook for the winner. Winning a chapbook prize with your thesis is only one of the great opportunities you only get as a QC MFA student. Discover more on our Op […] “Richard Prins: Birdhouse Prize winner”

Briallen Hopper: A Tale of Two Graduations Our own Professor Briallen Hopper has just published a personal essay for Public Books called “A Tale of Two Graduations,” based on her experience attending two People’s Graduations last spring: one for Columbia and one for CUNY. In Hopper’s description of the events, we can see the class inequities that have divided the city’s college students for some time: “Columbia’s was held at the largest church in North America, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a beautiful bastion of Gothic architecture and WASP wealth. CUNY’s was held by the basketball court at St. Nicholas Park in Harlem, in front of a weathered chain-link fence.” But we also see how both ceremonies were acts of joy and a testament to the students who organized and participated in these events. Last year’s People’s Graduations, for those who don’t know, were independent commencement ceremonies organized by faculty and staff members from schools in response to the punishment of students who participated in pro-Palestine campus protests. I know this is a sensitive and complicated issue for a lot of people, let alone for members of the QC community, but no matter what your stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict is, I feel we all can appreciate these ceremonies and this essay as a testament to the resiliency of our students that are willing to stand up for their constitutional rights of free speech and peaceful protest. We hope you read it wi […] “Briallen Hopper: A Tale of Two Graduations”