Poetry and History

Poems about historical events or places are acts of bearing witness. They depict personal voices and perspectives that are not delivered in official records. On this panel, three writers will share their poems about modern events and locales, thus making the past present.

Michelle M. Tokarczyk, originally from the Bronx, moved to Queens at age nine but remained nostalgic for her hometown. Years later, her nostalgia catalyzed the poetry book Bronx Migrations. She earned a doctorate in English at SUNY Stony Brook, where she met her husband. For twenty-nine years she was taught at Goucher College, in Maryland. Michelle's writing—poetry, essays, and criticism—focuses on class, social justice, gender, and urban spaces. She held leadership roles in academic associations and remains an activist in retirement. Michelle's latest book, Galapagos: Islas Encantadas, blends poetry with photography by her spouse, Paul J. Groncki, marking her exploration of natural themes. She is currently working on a poetry book tentatively titled Difficult Conversations, and will read poetry from this manuscript.

Cheryl J. Fish, Ph.D., originally from Flushing, NY, is a poet, fiction writer, and environmental justice scholar. Her recent books include Crater & Tower, exploring trauma and ecology after the Mount St. Helens eruption and 9/11, and The Sauna is Full of Maids, a collection celebrating Finnish sauna culture and the natural world. Cheryl's poetry appears in journals such as Poetics-for-the-More-than-Human-World and New American Writing, while her fiction has been featured in Iron Horse Literary Review and CheapPop. Her debut novel, Off the Yoga Mat, set around the turn of the millennium, will be published in 2022 by Livingston Press. An accomplished scholar, Cheryl has written essays on film and photography by Sami artists in books like Arctic Cinemas and Nordic Narratives of Nature and the Environment. She has taught as a Fulbright professor in Finland and is currently a lecturer at BMCC/City University of New York and the University of Helsinki.

Paola Corso, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a distinguished American fiction writer, poet, photographer, and literary activist. She is celebrated as a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow and has garnered recognition as a Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award Winner. Corso has authored eight books spanning fiction and poetry, including Vertical Bridges: Poems and Photographs of City Steps (2020), featuring her original photos alongside archival images from the University of Pittsburgh Library. Her novel Catina's Haircut: A Novel in Stories (2010) was noted by Library Journal, and Giovanna's 86 Circles And Other Stories (2005) was a finalist for Binghamton University's John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Paola's work explores themes of ethnicity, the working class, social change, and magical realism, rooted in her family's history in Pittsburgh's steel mills. She has also contributed extensively to discussions on environmental issues through poetry and essays, focusing on industrial pollution and its health impacts. Co-founder of Steppin Stanzas and a member of the Park Slope Windsor Terrace Artists Collective, Paola has served as a writer-in-residence at Western Connecticut State University’s MFA Program and as a lecturer in Chatham University's MFA Program in Creative Writing. Currently, she teaches in the Languages and Literature Department at Touro College, dividing her time between Pittsburgh and New York City.

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