New Issues Poetry Reading with Ailish Hopper, Wesley Rothman and Abdul Ali
New Issues poets Abdul Ali, Ailish Hopper, and Wesley Rothman will share work from their most recent collections of poetry, all of which will be available for purchase. Please come hear these poets who are intensely engaged with their craft and committed to social betterment.
Abdul Ali is the author of Trouble Sleeping, winner the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize, judged by Fanny Howe. He’s a two-time recipient of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Literature fellowship. He was a fellow at American University where he received his M.F.A in Creative Writing. His poems have appeared in Gargoyle, A Gathering of Tribes, New Contrast, Poet Lore, Academy of American Poets and elsewhere. He currently is a faculty member at Howard University where he teaches in the Writing program.
Ailish Hopper is the author of Dark~Sky Society (2014), selected by David St. John as runner up for the New Issues Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Bird in the Head (2005), selected by Jean Valentine for the Center for Book Arts Prize. Individual poems have appeared in Agni, APR, Blackbird, Harvard Review Online, Ploughshares, Poetry, Tidal Basin Review, and other places. In addition to page poetry, she performed with the band Heroes are Gang Leaders, and her essays on art and literature that deal with race have appeared in Boston Review, The Volta, and the anthology, A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race, as well as other places. She has received support from the Baltimore Commission for the Arts and Humanities, the MacDowell Colony, Maryland State Arts Council, and Yaddo. She teaches in the Creative Writing and Peace Studies programs at Goucher College.
Wesley Rothman is the author of SUBWOOFER (2017), selected by Mary Szybist as runner up for the New Issues Poetry Prize, & his poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Crab Orchard Review, Crazyhorse, Day One, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, The Los Angeles Review, Mississippi Review, New England Review, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Southern Humanities Review, Vinyl, Waxwing, the Poets on Growth anthology, & The Golden Shovel Anthology, among other venues. His criticism has appeared in Publisher's Weekly, Boston Review, Callaloo, Rain Taxi Review of Books, & American Microreviews & Interviews. A Teaching Artist for the National Gallery of Art & recipient of a Vermont Studio Center fellowship, he lives in Washington, D.C.