Third Thursdays Poetry: Diana Whitney, Stephanie Burt, & Anna V.Q. Ross

Diana Whitney writes across genres with a focus on feminism, motherhood, and sexuality. She is the editor of the bestselling anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, winner of the 2022 Claudia Lewis Award, and the author of two books of poetry. Her first collection, Wanting It, won the Rubery Book Award. Her latest, Dark Beds, was a finalist for the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2024 North American Book Award. Diana’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Glamour, the Kenyon Review, Ms. Magazine, and many more. She was the longtime poetry critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she featured women and LGBTQ+ voices in her column. An advocate for survivors of sexual violence, she lives in Vermont with her family and works as an editor and writing coach.

Stephanie Burt's latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids (Graywolf, 2022). Look for a new edited collection of poems and criticism, Super Gay Poems, from Harvard U Press in 2025, and for a book on Taylor Swift after that!

Anna V. Q. Ross is the author of four collections of poems, most recently Flutter, Kick, which won the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award from Red Hen Press, the Julia Ward Howe Award in Poetry from the Boston Authors Club, and was named a 2023 Best New Poetry Book by the New York Public Library. Her previous books include If a Storm , winner of the Robert Dana Anhinga Prize, and the chapbooks Figuring, which was an Editor’s Choice for the Frost Place Chapbook Competition, and Hawk Weather, winner of the New Women’s Voices Prize and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award from the New England Poetry Club. Anna is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and elsewhere. Her work appears in journals including Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, The Missouri Review, and was recently featured on The Slowdown. She teaches at Tufts University and through the Emerson Pr*son Initiative, and lives with her family in Dorchester, MA, where she raises chickens. Find her at annavqross.com

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EVENT ACCESSIBILITY

This event will take place at street level. If possible, the event will be livestreamed to YouTube. ASL interpretation may be provided (based on the availability of interpreters) but must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance of the event. Seats are limited. Please email us at [email protected] as soon as possible if you require ASL interpretation, guaranteed seating, or other accommodations. We will do our best to serve your needs!

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