Poetry at Bennington
Poetry at Bennington brings the most exciting voices in American poetry, including both established and emerging poets, to the Bennington College campus for a series of multi-day residencies.
Poetry at Bennington showcases the range and vitality of contemporary poetic voices with an emphasis on cultural and aesthetic diversity. Since 2012, over 90 poets have visited, including multiple Poets Laureate, winners of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and MacArthur Foundation Fellows, along with emerging writers who have received considerable acclaim. Each visiting poet presents a public reading and engages directly with students through question-and-answer sessions, craft lectures, master classes, group writing exercises, and/or individual consultations. Readings, craft talks, and Q&A sessions are open to the public, and regularly attract students from neighboring colleges as well as poetry enthusiasts across southern Vermont and western Massachusetts. Poetry at Bennington fosters a continual community conversation about poetry, aesthetics, and the power of language, some of the central components of a Bennington education.
Poets Reading in Fall 2024:
Past Speakers
Kaveh Akbar (Fall '17)
Rae Armantrout (Fall '16)
Mary Jo Bang (Spring '13)
Catherine Barnett (Spring ’21)
Rick Barot (Fall '15, Spring '21)
April Bernard (Fall '14)
Reginald Dwayne Betts (Fall '22)
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram (Spring '21)
Mark Bibbins (Fall '14)
Daniel Borzutzky (Fall '18)
Lucie Brock-Broido (Spring '14)
Jericho Brown (Spring '13, Fall ’19)
Stephanie Burt (Spring '13)
Gabrielle Calvocoressi (Fall '17)
Jennifer Chang (Spring '23)
Don Mee Choi (Fall '18)
Heather Christle (Spring '17)
CA Conrad (Spring '15)
Cynthia Cruz (Fall '18)
Mary-Alice Daniel (Spring '24)
Olena Kalytiak Davis (Fall '15)
Erica Dawson (Spring '19)
Alex Dimitrov (Fall '13)
Timothy Donnelly (Fall '14, '20)
Mark Doty (Spring '13)
Camille T. Dungy (Fall '21)
Robert Farnsworth (Spring '19)
Nick Flynn (Fall '16)
Katie Ford (Spring '19)
Rachel Galvin (Fall '18)
Ross Gay (Spring '18)
Johannes Göransson (Fall '22)
Jorie Graham (Fall '14)
James Allen Hall (Fall '16, Fall '23)
Joy Harjo (Fall '20)
Matthea Harvey (Fall '13)
Terrance Hayes (Spring '17)
Cathy Park Hong (Spring '16)
Marie Howe (Fall '17)
Tyehimba Jess (Spring '19)
Ilya Kaminsky (Spring ’22)
Douglas Kearney (Spring ’22)
Wayne Koestenbaum (Spring '16)
Deborah Landau (Fall '21)
Dorothea Lasky (Fall '15, '20)
Eugenia Leigh (Fall '23)
Robin Coste Lewis (Spring '18)
Sandra Lim (Fall '21)
Aditi Machado (Spring ’22)
Dora Malech (Spring '19)
Randall Mann (Fall '22)
Dawn Lundy Martin (Fall '18)
Cate Marvin (Fall '22)
Shane McCrae (Spring '14, Fall '20)
Chelsey Minnis (Fall '19)
Sarah Messer (Fall '15)
Philip Metres (Spring '21)
Valzhyna Mort (Spring '21)
Amanda Nadelberg (Spring '17)
Sawako Nakayasu (Spring '21)
Cindy Juyoung Ok (Spring '24)
José Olivarez (Fall '23)
Ladan Osman (Fall '21)
Morgan Parker (Spring '18)
Khadijah Queen (Spring '24)
Kiki Petrosino (Fall '20)
Claudia Rankine (Spring '15)
Spencer Reece (Spring '14)
Justin Phillip Reed (Fall '21)
Roger Reeves (Fall '15, Spring '23)
Ariana Reines (Fall '19)
Paisley Rekdal (Fall '13, Spring ’22)
Mary Ruefle (Fall '16)
Robyn Schiff (Spring '17)
Zachary Schomburg (Spring '17)
Natalie Shapero (Spring '18)
Prageeta Sharma (Spring '23)
Brenda Shaughnessy (Fall '12, '21)
Evie Shockley (Spring '18, Fall '23)
Charles Simic (Spring '16)
Sandra Simonds (Fall '18)
Safiya Sinclair (Fall '16)
Layli Long Soldier (Fall '20)
Carmen Giménez Smith (Spring '15)
Patricia Smith (Spring '24)
Mark Strand (Fall '13)
Courtney Faye Taylor (Spring '24)
Craig Morgan Teicher (Fall '12, Spring '19)
Mónica de la Torre (Spring '24)
Paul Tran (Spring '23)
Natasha Trethewey (Spring '17)
Genya Turovskaya (Fall '22)
Mai Der Vang (Fall '17)
Anne Waldman (Fall '19)
Sally Wen Mao (Fall '22)
Orlando White (Spring '16)
Jane Wong (Spring ’22)
C.D. Wright (Spring '14)
Mark Wunderlich (Spring '21)
Monica Youn (Spring '13, Fall '16, Fall '23)
Kevin Young (Spring '15)
About the Director
Michael Dumanis, a member of the literature faculty since 2012, is the author of the poetry collection My Soviet Union (University of Massachusetts Press), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry, and coeditor (with poet Cate Marvin) of the younger poets’ anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande). His poems have appeared in journals such as The Believer, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Iowa Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Verse. He also serves as editor of Bennington Review.
How to get here
The Campus
The Bennington College campus is located in Bennington, Vermont, just off of VT Route 67A.
Tishman Auditorium
All readings are held in Tishman Auditorium (#3 on the campus map), which is located near the center of campus. Upon exiting Route 67A and entering the campus drive (also called College Drive), you'll follow it and see a Campus Safety booth (#12 on the campus map) on your left and a red barn (the Barn, #2 on the campus map) coming up on your right. Parking is available in the parking lot (labeled as P on the campus map) below the Campus Safety booth, as well as in the lot behind the library which can be found on the campus map, also labeled with a P. If you continue on the road through campus past the Barn (#2) on your right and the Commons building (#12) on your left, Tishman Auditorium will be visible directly across from the Commons building, on the right side of the road. The building is set back from the road and there is no parking near the building itself. If you've gone past Dickinson Science Building (#4) you've gone too far.
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