Schedule

2026 Symposium

All events, unless otherwise noted, will be held in Bridwell Library’s Methodist Collection Reading Room (Blue Room).

 

8:20-8:50 Check in at Bridwell Library.
9:00-10:15 Welcome and keynote panel: David Caplan, chair, and Ayesha Ramachandran, “Lyric Thinking: Poetics across Cultures,” Jahan Ramazani, “Of Elegies and Griefbots,” and Patience Agbabi, “A Form for Divided Times: The Specular, the Palindrome and the Reverse
10:30-11:45 Dan Moss, chair, Catherine Nicholson, “Beginnings,” Leah Whittington, “Endings,” and Joe Moshenska, “In-Betweens”
12:00-1:00 Lunch and creative conversation: Jahan Ramazani in conversation with Ada Limón
1:15-2:30 Rhyme’s Orders, Courtney Weiss Smith and Dustin Stewart, chairs, Bernardo S. Hinojosa, “God’s Rhymes,” Toby Altman, “Rhyme as Poetics, Rhyme as Politics,” Chris Catanese, "Rhyme as Natural Resource: Pope’s Neoclassical Nature," and Naomi Levine, “Rhyme and Period Style”
2:45-4:00 Poetry and Data, Rosanne Brooks, chair, Renee Wherle, “Print (list(permutations(“I”))): Reading Toward a Theory of Computational Lyricism with Lillian-Yvonne Bertram’s Travesty Generator, ”Matthew Kilbane, “The History of Poetry (as told by Generative AI),” and Meredith Martin, “On Not Counting”
4:10-5:10 Writing in Forms: Roundtable discussion moderated by Mag Gabbert, Oliver de la Paz, and Rowan Ricardo Phillips
5:30-6:30 Keynote lecture: Anahid Nersessian, “How to Have Sex in a Poem?” in Bob and Jean Smith Auditorium, Meadows Museum
6:40 Reception, with catered dinner

9:00-10:15 Prosody and Sound, Celine Shanosky, chair, Peter Miller, "Poetic Numbers: Wordsworth to Beyoncé,” Roi Tartakovsky, “On the Possibility and Likelihood of Sound Signatures,” and Eric Weiskott, “‘A poem ends / when the sound of it is finished': Reading Elizabeth Willis with John Gower," and William Logan, "Form as Bondage and Discipline”
10:30-11:45 Editing Poetry roundtable discussion: Greg Brownderville chair, Jenny Molberg, Srikanth Reddy, Adrian Matejka, and Anahid Nersessian
11:45-1:15 Lunch break
12:00-1:00 The Historical Poetics Reading Group conducts a discussion of Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Physiology of Versification,” Bridwell Library Benefactors Room
1:15-2:30 Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Religion, Charles LaPorte, chair, Charles LaPorte, “Poetry and Faith in the Nineteenth Century,” Lori Branch, Poetry, Liturgy, and Spontaneity across Wordsworth’s Oeuvre,” and Joseph McQueen, “Symbol, Sacrament, Doubt, Form: David Jones's Inheritance of Nineteenth-Century Religion and Poetry”
2:45-4:00 Keynote panel: Marimac McRae Carty, chair, Stephanie Burt, “Learning from New Zealand," Camille Dungy, “How Form Can Shape Function,” and Virginia Jackson, “What is Poetry?”
4:20-5:20 Keynote poetry reading: Ada Limón, McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall
5:20-6:15 Book signing and wine reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres
6:30 Group poetry reading, with catered dinner: Katie Condon, host. Featured readers: Patience Agbabi, Camille Dungy, Stephanie Burt, Oliver de la Paz, Mag Gabbert, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Jenny Molberg, Srikanth Reddy, and Adrian Matejka, Ozona Grill and Bar