A Reading and Conversation with Jan-Henry Gray and René Steinke

Join us for a reading and conversation with the award-winning writers, Jan-Henry Gray and René Steinke, both faculty members in the Low-Residency MFA Program at Adelphi University.

Jan-Henry Gray (he/him) is the author of Documents, winner of BOA Editions’ A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize (chosen by D.A. Powell) and finalist for the 2019 Thom Gunn Award. His chapbook, Selected Emails, was published by speCt! Books. His poems have been included in various anthologies, including Undocupoetics: An Introduction (HarperCollins/Harper Perennial, 2025), Permanent Record (Nightboat, 2024), Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry (Green Linden Press, 2024), Queer Nature (Autumn House, 2022) and Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat, 2018). His other writings, including essays and reviews, have been featured by the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Daily, The Rumpus, The Margins, DIAGRAM, Colorado Review, Newcity and Teachers & Writers Magazine.

He has received fellowships from Kundiman and Undocupoets as well as awards from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Juniper Summer Writing Institute and the Academy of American Poets. In 2019, he co-organized Writers for Migrant Justice, a nationwide reading and fundraiser for Immigrant Families Together. He also served as a mentor for the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, a teaching artist for City Lore (New York City) and a co-curator for Meanwhile (Chicago). Born in the Philippines and raised in California, he currently lives in New York.

René Steinke (she/her) is the author of the novel, (Riverhead, 2014), which was named one of National Public Radio’s Great Reads and an Amazon Book-of-the-Month. Darin Strauss called it “a large-hearted, big-brained book.” Steinke is the recipient of a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Her second novel, Holy Skirts (HarperCollins, 2005), a fictionalized biography of Dada artist and poet the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her first novel is The Fires (William Morrow 1999). Her essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Salon.com, 4Columns, Bookforum and in anthologies.

Host or Publisher Adelphi University Low-residency MFA Program