Reading: Pitt MFA Speakeasy, First + Second Year Students

Join us for the Pitt MFA Speakeasy Reading! The Pitt Speakeasy is a long-running reading series hosted by and featuring MFA in Creative Writing students at the University of Pittsburgh.

SPEAKEASY is an entirely volunteer-run reading series organized by Pitt MFA in Writing Students.

This Spring, we are thrilled to feature new writing by first and second-year MFA writers with a public reading. The event name is a nod to local Pittsburgh history—the very first speakeasy was based in the Pittsburgh region during Prohibition! This year's Speakeasy was organized by MFA students—a special thank you to Amari Onyx, Tyler Henderson, Lila Bonow, and David Lo. A special shout out to Noa Denmon for the flyer! All gratitude to staff at White Whale Bookstore for their support and collaboration. Learn more about the Creative Writing MFA at Pitt at writing.pitt.edu.

READERS:

NOAH ASIMOW is a journalist and writer. He has worked as a news editor and reporter at the Vineyard Gazette, and covered mayoral elections, fires and aldermanic softball games for Block Club Chicago. He previously served for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. His hobbies include ball sports, crosswords and never missing a meal.

JASON GERMAINE HAWKINS is a Black queer poet and short fiction writer from Georgia. He is currently in the MFA program at the University of Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in Stillpoint Literary Magazine and is set to appear in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. He has attended the Community of Writers Poetry Workshop as a Maat scholar and the Tin House Summer Workshop. He loves RPGs, insects, watching movies very closely, and language learning. He is currently searching the archives for century-old entomology books.

LUKE KOESTERS is a writer of poetry and prose from Omaha, NE. He is pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh, and his work examines self-identity, distance, and place. His most recent work can be found in Bear Review and he can be most recently found nearby a body of water.

AMARI ONYX is a Black trans writer and artist pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh. Amari’s writing explores the intersection of Documentary Poetics, Ekphrasis, and trans embodiment. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review and Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. In 2024, Amari founded meTamorphosis: a queer & trans led event series. He is a proud trans butch queen vogue femme in the Kiki Haus of Baby Phat and House of Revlon.

CATE PEEBLES is the author of the poetry collections The Haunting (Tupelo Press, 2025) and Thicket (Lost Roads Press, 2018), as well as five chapbooks, including Sun King (Factory Hollow Press, 2025) and The Woodlands (Sixth Finch Books, 2016). She is an archivist who has held positions at the Yale Center for British Art and Tulane University and she is currently pursuing a PhD in Literature at the University of Pittsburgh.

DAVID DANIEL RIEDEL was born and educated in Bosler, Wyoming, and is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Pittsburgh. His writing frequently explores obsession and the uncanny within our everyday world. Terrestrial Issues, his UFO novella, won the Torry Award in 2021. His short stories and essays have appeared in Worm Moon Archive, The Huffington Post, and forthcoming in The McNeese Review.

ANNA SWAN is a writer and educator whose work focuses on family, memory, and neurodegenerative disease. Previously, she facilitated writing workshops in summer camps, parks, correction centers, mental health facilities, and schools. She values the sacred spaces where meaning-making comes to life. Her passions include foraging, boating, and deep diving in the archives.

MORGAN VARNADO is a poet and writer from Oak Park, Illinois. He received my Bachelor’s in English from Brown University and is currently obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh. His poetry can be found in Poetry (December 2021) and Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School published by Penguin Workshop.

SPEAKEASY HOST:

DAVID HSU-TAI LO羅煦泰 is a poet, translator, and photographer from Taipei and raised in Ho Chi Minh City. He is currently attending the MFA program at the University of Pittsburgh and has attended residencies at Tin House and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. His work has appeared in The Margins. He is former managing editor of Aster(ix) Journal. He is currently dreaming of setting up a fish tank in his Pittsburgh home.

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