YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Dan Roche is the author of two memoirs and a third book of nonfiction, Eyes by Hand: Prosthetics of Art and Healing (MIT Press, 2025). His essays have appeared in Fourth Genre, River Teeth, The Journal, Chautauqua, and other places, and he has been awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in nonfiction literature. He directs the creative writing program at Le Moyne College.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Stephen Kuusisto holds a University Professorship at Syracuse University and is the author of the memoirs Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet's Journey; Planet of the Blind (a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year") and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light; Letters to Borges; and Old Horse, What is to Be Done? His latest book is Close Escapes, published in 2025 by Copper Canyon Press. He travels and lectures widely on human rights, disability, literature, and the advantages of guide dogs and human-animal relationships.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Join us to celebrate the 2025 edition of Stone Canoe, the only literary journal focused entirely on writers and artists from upstate New York. We'll have readings by contributors to the new issue, refreshments, and of course, copies of Stone Canoe for purchase.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Debbie Urbanski is the author of the novel After World — named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Engadget, the Los Angeles Times Tech, Booklist, and Strange Horizons — and the story collection Portalmania. Her stories and essays have been published widely in such places as The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Best American Experimental Writing, The Sun, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Granta, and Conjunctions. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award as well as an ASLE book award for environmental creative writing. She lives with her family in Central New York.

Christine Gelineau's latest book, Almanac: A Murmuration, is a memoir, but it is also a consideration of the role of stories in shaping personal and national identities. Gelineau is also the author of three books of poetry: Crave (NYQ Books); Appetite for the Divine (Ashland Poetry Press); and Remorseless Loyalty, winner of the Richard Snyder Memorial Prize from Ashland Poetry Press. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, Gelineau's poetry and essays have been widely published in journals such as Prairie Schooner, New Letters, and The New York Times, and online in venues such as Verse Daily and Rattle. Three of her essays have been cited as Notable Essays in Best American Essays.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Donald Revell is the author of 15 collections of poetry, six volumes of translations from the French, and three volumes of critical writings, including Essay: A Critical Memoir. A former Fellow of the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim Foundations, he is the winner of the PEN USA Translation Award and two-time winner of the PEN USA Award for Poetry, and he has twice been awarded Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His latest book of poems, Canandaigua (Alice James Books), was named a must-read book of 2024 by both Publishers Weekly and LitHub. The book asks how our culture of technological advancement and greed has fed into a wide decline in empathy.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Iain Haley Pollock is the author of three poetry collections, Spit Back a Boy (2011), Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James, 2018), and All the Possible Bodies (Alice James, 2025). His poems have appeared in publications ranging from American Poetry Review to The New York Times Magazine. Pollock has received several honors for his work, including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a 2023 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellowship in Poetry, the Bim Ramke Prize for Poetry from Denver Quarterly, and a nomination for an NAACP Image Award. He serves as Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville University in Purchase, NY.

Ellen Austin-Li's first full-length collection, Incidental Pollen — a 2023 Trio Award finalist, 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series semi-finalist, and runner-up to the 2023 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize — is new from Madville Publishing. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks, Firefly (2019) and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic (2021). SAFTA (Sundress Academy for the Arts) supported her work with an artist's residency in 2024. Her poetry appears in Artemis, One Art,Thimble Literary, The Maine Review, Salamander, Lily Poetry Review, Rust + Moth, and many other places. She's a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee and holds an MFA in poetry from the Solstice Low-Residency Program. Ellen co-founded the monthly reading series, Poetry Night at Sitwell's, in Cincinnati, where she lives.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Sarah C. Harwell is the author of the poetry collection Sit Down Traveler (Antilever Press, 2012) and was collected in a book of emerging poets titled Three New Poets (Sheep Meadow Press, 2006). Her poems and stories have been published in various journals, including Revel, Green River Review, Poetry, Ploughshares and The Washington Post. She has written a book of linked short stories set in an airport during a delay and is currently working on a novel. She is the Associate Director of the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University, where she also holds the post of Teaching Professor.

Lauren K. Watel's debut collection, BOOK of POTIONS (potion = poem + fiction) won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, selected by Ilya Kaminsky and published by Sarabande Books. Her poetry, fiction, essays and translations have appeared widely. Her prose poem honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was set to music by Pulitzer-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and the piece premiered at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2021. A native of Dallas, TX, she currently lives in Decatur, GA, home of the intrepid Decatur High School Marching Band.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.

YMCA Downtown
340 Montgomery St., Syracuse

Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of six nonfiction books, including Flight of the Diamond Smugglers, The Mad Feast, and Preparing the Ghost, and three poetry books. His new nonfiction book, Submersed — a blend of literary prose, science writing, and true crime about the amateur submarine-building community and our obsession with the deep sea — was released June 2025 from Pantheon Books.

This event will take place in person and be streamed on Zoom.