Book Launch for Shaheen Dil with Poetry Readings

Shaheen Dil joins us to celebrate the launch of her new poetry collection - Letters to My Younger Self. She will be joined by three fellow poets, Robert Walacki, Judith Sanders, and Sharon Fagan McDermott, for a poetry reading. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

About the author:

Shaheen Dil was born in Bangladesh and lives in Pittsburgh. Her poems have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Dil has published two full-length collections of poetry, Acts of Deference (Fakel 2016) and The Boat-maker’s Art (Kelsay Books 2024.) She holds a BA from Vassar College, a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. Additional information is available on her website: shaheendil.com.

About Sharon Fagan McDermott:

Sharon Fagan McDermott is a poet and essayist who teaches at Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh. She has four collections of poetry--most recently Life Without Furniture (Jacar Press). Her first collection of essays, Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life, co-authored by M. Christine Benner Dixon and published by the University of Michigan Press in Nov. 2023, celebrates the joy of living a life engaged with creative writing. "Poets and Writers Magazine" called Millions of Suns one of the "Best Books for Writers."

About Judith Sanders:

Judith Sanders’ debut poetry collection In Deep was published by Kelsay Books; her second, The Universe with Borscht, is forthcoming from Kelsay in Fall 2025. Her work appears in numerous journals, anthologies, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her poems won the Hart Crane and Wergle Flomp Humor prizes. Her prose has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and selected as a Longreads “Top 5.” She earned a B.A. in literature from Yale, an M.A. in creative writing from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in English from Tufts. She taught English at universities and independent schools, and in France on a Fulbright Fellowship. She lives in Pittsburgh.

About Robert Walicki:

Robert Walicki's poems have appeared in over 50 journals. A two-time Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee,Robert's second chapbook. The Almost Sound of Snow Falling was included in the exhibition catalog for New York's Poet's House, and his latest full-length poetry collection is Fountain from Main Street Rag Press. His forthcoming poetry collection, Watershed, will be published by Broadstone Press.

Host or Publisher Riverstone Books