Grace Notes: Poetry at Grace Cathedral

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Litquake, the largest independent literary festival on the West Coast. Join us in this gloriously Gothic space to enjoy poetry in the pews from a distinguished roster of poets. Curated and hosted by D.A. Powell and Preeti Vangani, this special evening of exalted verse features four celebrated poets who will share their newly published work: Thea Matthews, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Preeti Vangani, and Devon Walker-Figueroa. A book sale and signing will follow the readings. Book sales provided by Green Apple Books.

FREE, $10–15 suggested donation.

Thea Matthews is the author of GRIME (City Lights Books, 2025) and Unearth [The Flowers] (Red Light Lit Press, 2020), which was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Poetry Books of 2020. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, The Cortland Review, Colorado Review, The Common, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Massachusetts Review, The New Republic, Alta Journal, On the Seawall, among others. Thea attained her MFA from New York University in 2022, and currently teaches at Columbia University. Originally from San Francisco, Thea lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times bestselling author of two illustrated collections of essays: Bite by Bite and World of Wonders, chosen as Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year and as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She has published four award-winning poetry collections and spent a decade serving as the poetry editor for environmental magazines, first for Orion and then Sierra. A professor of English and creative writing for more than twenty-five years, she gives firefly tours for Mississippi State Parks and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her family.

Preeti Vangani is a poet and writer from Bombay based in San Francisco. She is the author of the poetry collections Mother Tongue Apologize (2019) and Fifty Mothers (River River Books, 2026). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Gulf Coast, and Prairie Schooner, among other places. Her debut short story won the 2021 Pen/Dau Emerging Writers Prize. Vangani has received artist grants from San Francisco Arts Commission, YBCA, and The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She holds an MFA in Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches in the program.

Devon Walker-Figueroa is the author of Lazarus Species (Milkweed Editions, 2025) and Philomath (Milkweed Editions, 2021), which was a National Poetry Series selection, a winner of the Levis Reading Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. An assistant professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, Devon’s work can be found in The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.

Preeti Vangani is a poet and writer from Bombay based in San Francisco. She is the author of the poetry collections Mother Tongue Apologize (2019) and Fifty Mothers (River River Books, 2026). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Gulf Coast, and Prairie Schooner, among other places. Her debut short story won the 2021 Pen/Dau Emerging Writers Prize. Vangani has received artist grants from San Francisco Arts Commission, YBCA, and The Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She holds an MFA in Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches in the program.

D. A. Powell's books include Repast (Graywolf, 2014) and Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (Graywolf, 2012), the latter a recipient of the Northern California Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. His honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize, and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Academy of American Poets. He teaches at University of San Francisco.

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