Readings by Utah Book Award honorees from the U

The Utah Center for the Book at Utah Humanities and the Tanner Humanities Center are hosting a reading by University of Utah writers who have been honored by the Utah Book Awards for 2025.

Free and open to the public. Limited seating. Ticket reservations strongly recommended.

Writers who will be reading from their celebrated works:

Paisley Rekdal, author of (Copper Canyon Press) — Winner, 2025 Utah Book Award for Poetry

An unflinching hybrid collection of poems and essays drawing a powerful connection between the railroad’s completion and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Winner, 2024 Kingsley Tufts Award; longlist, 2023 National Book Award. Rekdal is Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing and director of the American West Center.

Lindsey Drager, author of (Dzanc Books) — Finalist, 2025 Utah Book Award for Speculative Fiction

A reflection on the intersecting crises of mental health, the climate emergency, political polarization, and the exponentially growing reliance on technology. Drager is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing.

Susan J. Sample, author of (Main Street Rag Publishing Company) — Finalist, 2025 Utah Book Award for Poetry

A personal elegy with a medical researcher’s knowledge of how we care for the sick and dying. Susan J. Sample is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, and Writer-in-Residence at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Lindsey Webb, author of (Archway Editions) — Notable Read, 2025 Utah Book Award for Poetry

A vivid and haunting elegy reflecting on Mormonism, suicide, and gender in the American West. Webb earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Utah in 2025 and is now Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Grinnell College.

The Utah Book Awards are a project of The Utah Center for the Book at Utah Humanities (an affiliate of The Library of Congress Center), the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, the Utah State Library Division, and The League of Utah Writers.

The Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah supports academic research, public engagement, and educational programming in the humanities. Views expressed in events and programming do not represent the official views of the Center or University.

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