2023 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: 10 exciting poets

The 2023 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held on the USC campus with exciting panels, readings from numerous authors, musical performances and much more to satisfy your bookworm needs next week. Since April is National Poetry Month, check out 10 of the auspicious poets joining the 2023 lineup of 500 respected authors, poets, artists, celebrities and musicians.

1. Anthony Cody

Anthony Cody is a Chicanx poet, author, editor and educator from Fresno, California. He is most commonly known for his book publications “The Rendering” and “Borderland Apocrypha,” the latter of which won the 2018 Omnidawn Open Book Contest.

He also has accolades of being a 2022 Whiting winner, 2021 American Book Award winner, a 2020 Poets & Writers debut poet and a 2020 Southwest Book Award winner. Cody has received The National Book Award in Poetry, the PEN America / Jean Stein Book Award, the California Book Award, the L.A. Times Book Award in Poetry, as well as been long listed for The Believer Magazine 2020 Editor’s Award in Poetry.

Cody will be attending the L.A. Times Book Prize Poetry Finalist Roundtable at the Poetry Stage on Saturday, April 22 at 12:30 p.m. Later the same day, Cody will be reading an excerpt from his book “The Rendering,” also taking place at the Poetry Stage at 4:40 p.m.

2. Boris Dralyuk

Boris Dralyuk is a poet, translator, critic, former editor and chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of “My Hollywood and Other Poems.” His collection of poems, translations and essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker, Granta and many others.

His doctorate is in Slavic languages and literature from UCLA, have supported his position as editor of “1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution,” co-editor of “The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry,” and translator of volumes by Isaac Babel, Andrey Kurkov, Maxim Osipov, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Zoshchenko and countless other authors.

He will be reading an excerpt from “My Hollywood and Other Poems” at the Poetry Stage on Sunday, April 23 at 1:20 p.m.

3. Charif Shanahan

Charif Shanahan is the author of two poetry collections: “Trace Evidence” and “Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing”. His poems have been featured in publications such as The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Shanahan is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant to Morocco, among a multitude of awards and acknowledgements. He currently is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Northwestern University.

Shanahan will be reading an excerpt from “Trace Evidence” at the Poetry Stage on Sunday, April 23 at 4:00 p.m.

4. Christopher Soto

Christopher Soto is a L.A.-based poet and activist.

Copper Canyon Press published his debut collection of poems “Diaries of a Terrorist.” He is also the author of “Sad Girl Poems” and the chapbook “How to Eat Glass.” His assortment of poems, reviews, interviews and articles have appeared in publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review, Tin House and others. In 2022, Soto was awarded the Them’s Now Award in Literature for his representation in queer culture. Additionally, he was included in Out100, which celebrates the most impactful and influential LGBTQ+ individuals of the year.

Soto will be reading an excerpt from “Diaries of a Terrorist” at the Poetry Stage on Saturday, April 22 at 2:20 p.m.

5. Cynthia Hogue

Cynthia Hogue is a poet, editor and translator whose collection of poetry includes “In June the Labyrinth,” “Revenance,” “Or Consequence,” “Flux” and “Touchwood.”

Recently, Hogue’s collection of poetry titled “Instead it is Dark” has been published. She has a wide array of accolades, such as a Fulbright Fellowship to Iceland, two NEA Fellowships, and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. Hogue also acted as guest editor for Poem-a-Day for the month of September 2022, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.

Hogue will be reading an excerpt from “Instead it is Dark” at the Poetry Stage on Saturday, April 22 at 10:40 a.m.

6. Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia is an internationally recognized poet and writer. He is the author of six poetry books, five criticism books, twenty literary anthologies and is the former poet laureate of California. Gioia has been awarded the American Book Award, the Poets’ Prize, Aiken-Taylor Award in Modern Poetry and the Laetare Medal, along with a multitude of other prizes. Additionally, he formerly served as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gioia will be reading an excerpt from “Meet Me at the Lighthouse,” the titular poem of his most recent book, at the Poetry Stage on Saturday, April 22 at 3:00 p.m.

7. David Baker

David Baker is most commonly known for being the author of thirteen poetry books, his most recent being “Whale Fall” and “Swift: New and Selected Poems,” as well as six books of prose about poetry.

Baker has been awarded prizes and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, NEA, Mellon Foundation, and Poetry Society of America. His work can be found in publications such as the American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Yale Review, to name a few. Baker focuses on the annual eco-poetry issue called Nature’s Nature from The Kenyon Review, where he served as Poetry Editor.

Baker will be reading an excerpt from “Whale Fall” at the Poetry Stage on Saturday, April 22 at 3:40 p.m.

8. Donna Spruijt-Metz

Donna Spruijt-Metz is a poet, recent MacDowell Fellow and professor of psychology and preventive medicine at USC. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as Copper Nickel, RHINO, Poetry Northwest, the Tahoma Literary Review and many others. She is the author of a multitude of books including “Slippery Surfaces,” “And Haunt the World” and her full length debut, “General Release from the Beginning of the World.”

Spruijt-Metz will be reading an excerpt from “General Release from the Beginning of the World” at the Poetry Stage on Saturday, April 22 at 5:00 p.m.

9. Douglas Manuel

Douglas Manuel is a poet who earned his doctorate in English literature and creative writing from USC. He is most commonly known for his debut collection of poems, “Testify,” which was honored with an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for poetry.

Many of his poems and other writings can be found in an assortment of publications including literary journals, magazines and websites — most recently Zyzzyva, Pleiades and the New Orleans Review. Additionally, Manuel is an assistant professor at Whittier College and teaches in Spalding University’s low-res MFA program. Currently, Manuel is working on his second collection of poems, “Trouble Funk,” which will be released in the spring of 2023.

Manuel will be reading an excerpt from “Trouble Funk” at the Poetry Stage on Sunday, April 23 at 10:40 a.m.

10. Eloise Klein Healy

Eloise Klein Healy is the author of a plethora of poetry books including “Another Phase,” ‘A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings” and, most recently, “A Brilliant Loss.” Healy was the former founding chair of the MFA in creative writing at Antioch University Los Angeles. Along with being recognized as the 2021 poet laureate of the city of L.A., she also has received numerous awards including the Publishing Triangle Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award.

Healy will be reading an excerpt from “A Brilliant Loss” at the Poetry Stage on Sunday, April 23 at 10:20 a.m.