Prageeta Sharma and Thomas Devaney: May 7, 2015

Steve Dickison introduces Prageeta Sharma. Sharma reads works from her book Undergloom: "The Other Profiled in Cerulean," "Five Questions, Now Statements," "Grateful," "Heyday," "We have trees now, more than we did before..." She also reads previously published works about topics such as Roman Polanski, film studies, and her husband: "A Legacy," "Love, Death, and Shadows: 1959 in Missoula." From her upcoming manuscript Homelit Bereavement she reads a work titled "Complicated Spiritual Grief Part One."

Steve Dickison introduces Thomas Devaney. Devaney reads from two books, first from Calamity Jane: "Blood and Thunder Stories," "My Life as a Horse," "Gone, Gone," "Fielding the Same Questions in Other Words," "Fort Russell," "Fort Laramie," "Fort Laramie Continued," "All Men are Mean," "Stirrups and Stews," "Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody," "Joe Black Fox," "Mudslicks of Grass," "The End of the Wild West Shows," "Grit," "Woe and Along," "Jane's Daughter," "An Acorn and my Saysil," "The Dead and the Dead," and then from Runaway Goat Cart: "The Blue Stoop," "How Will I Find You?", "Baby Black Bear," "Burning the Bear Suit,: "Things We String Together," and "Runaway Goat Cart." He ends with a work published in the Black Warrior Review, "Monk, Madison Monk and the Opposition Party." He admits most of his work is in conversation with other artists, and speaks of how others' works influence his poetry.

Prageeta Sharma and Thomas Devaney take questions from the audience. They discuss their friendship, which began when they were neighbors in Brooklyn. Sharma recalls her experience with reading writers of color in school, which later influenced her work organizing a race and creative writing conference, Thinking Its Presence, to create a safe space for writers of color. Sharma then asks Devaney how art and community function as subjects, which he says depends on which experiences and people he writes about. He also speaks about his relationships with artists and his with sister. The two discuss drawing inspiration from one's environment and how to write when one feels stifled, then talk about the musicality of poetry and how writing a poem is similar to painting.