Author: Carolyn Forché
About The Book (from the publisher):
Over more than five decades, Carolyn Forché has demonstrated the power of poetry to bear witness to history and speak to our responsibility to one another. “Otherwhere” gathers poems from throughout her groundbreaking career, from her first collection, “Gathering the Tribes,” to “The Country Between Us” and “In the Lateness of the World.” A short new collection, “If there is ink,” is also included, lighting a signal fire in a state of emergency. In these new poems, Forché sifts through the ruins of the present, conjuring the early days of an emergency where people “pretend to live as we have always lived,” and cautioning, “There are no secrets to staying completely invisible, so they are not included here.”
Selected by Forché herself, “Otherwhere” offers a sweeping portrait of a poet whose work has consistently explored displacement, political violence, memory, and the human capacity for courage and compassion. Together, these poems represent a remarkable contribution to American poetry and letters.
About the Speakers:
Carolyn Forché is an American poet, translator and memoirist whose books of poetry include “In the Lateness of the World,” “Blue Hour,” “The Angel of History,” “The Country Between Us” and “Gathering the Tribes.” Her memoir, “What You Have Heard Is True,” received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Forché is a recipient of the Academy of American Poets Fellowship and the Windham-Campbell Prize. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, she is a university professor at Georgetown University.
Patricia Smith is the author of 10 books of poetry, including “The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems,” winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry and the 2026 NAACP Image Award for Poetry, and a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize. Her other acclaimed collections include “Unshuttered,” “Incendiary Art,” “Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah” and “Blood Dazzler,” which was a National Book Award finalist. Smith is also a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and has received numerous honors for her work as a poet, performer and educator.
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This event was recorded on September 8, 2026.