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Opening Reception and Registration
3:00-5:30pm, San Diego Central Library Dome, 9th Floor
Please join us for an informal gathering of conference participants. Registered conference attendees may pick up their name badges and a Sesquicentennial brochure. At 5:00 PM, Misty Jones (Director of the San Diego Central Library) and Robert Bernard Hass (Executive Director of the Robert Frost Society), will offer opening remarks and acknowledge Sesquicentennial sponsors.
Plenary Opening: An evening with poet Allison Joseph
7:30-9:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
Allison Joseph, Judge William Cook Endowed Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, will read from her work. Joseph has published eight poetry collections, most recently Smart Pretender (2020) and Confessions of a Barefaced Woman (2018). Among her many awards are the John C. Zacharis First Book Award and a Ruth Lilly fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Joseph will be available to sign books immediately following her reading.
Poetry Workshop: David Yezzi
9:00-10:30am, UCSD Park and Market, Conference Room 211
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David Yezzi will conduct a 3-day poetry writing workshop, during which participants will present drafts of their work to the group for discussion and critique. The workshop is limited to 12 poets over the age of 18.
An accomplished Shakespearean actor, scholar, biographer, professor, and poet, David Yezzi is the author of five collections of poems, most recently More Things in Heaven (2022) and Black Sea (2018). He is also the author of Late Romance: Anthony Hecht: A Poet’s Life, which the New York Times Book Review singled out as a recommended read in January 2024. His poems have been selected for the annual anthology The Best American Poetry in 2006 and 2012. Yezzi’s second book, Azores (2008) was named by Slate Magazine as a “Best Book of 2008,” and his collection Birds of the Air (2015) was a finalist for the Poets’ Prize.
Poetry Workshop: Karla Cordero
9:00-10:30am, UCSD Park and Market, Conference Room 212
San Diego poet, artist, and professor Karla Cordero will conduct a 3-day poetry writing workshop, during which participants will present drafts of work to the group for discussion and critique. The workshop is limited to 12 poets over the age of 18.
A descendent of the Chichimeca peoples of northern Mexico, Cordero is the author of the poetry collection How to Pull Apart the Earth (2018), a San Diego Book Award winner, and a finalist for the International Latino Book Award and the International Book Award. Her work has appeared with NPR, Academy of American Poets, and Oprah Magazine. She is a 2021 recipient of a California Arts Fellowship.
Poetry Workshop: Bruce Weigl
9:00-10:30am, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 319
Emeritus Professor of English Bruce Weigl will conduct a 3-day poetry writing workshop, during which participants will present drafts of their work to the group for discussion and critique. The workshop is limited to 12 poets over the age of 18.
The author of more than 20 books of poems, memoirs, translations and literary criticism, Weigl has won numerous awards for his work, including the Robert Creeley Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Poet’s Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and two Pushcart Prizes. In 2019 he was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Poetry Workshop: Ryan Wilson
9:00-10:30am, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 318
Poet, editor, essayist, and translator Ryan Wilson will conduct a 3-day poetry writing workshop, during which participatants will present drafts of their work to the group for discussion and critique. The workshop will focus on traditional metrical forms and is limited to 12 poets over the age of 18.
Wilson is the author of two collections of poems, most recently In Ghostlight (2024), and a collection of translations, Proteus Bound: Selected Translations (2008-2020). The winner of the Donald Justice Prize in American Poetry and the Jacques Maritain Prize in Literary Criticism for his book How to Think Like a Poet (2019), he is professor of English at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and serves as the CFO and administrator for the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers.
Poetry Workshop: Ron Salisbury
9:00-10:30am, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 320
Former San Diego Poet Laureate Ron Salisbury will conduct a 3-day poetry writing workshop, during which participants will present drafts of their work to the group for discussion and critique. The workshop is limited to 12 poets over the age of 18.
The workshop, entitled “Why Poems Don’t Sound or Look Like Robert Frost’s Anymore,” will provide a historical overview of four 20th-Century poetic movements that informed and inspired contemporary aesthetic practice. Salisbury’s first book, Miss Desert Inn (2015), won the Main Street Rag Poetry Prize. He was named San Diego’s inaugural poet laureate in 2020.
Poetry Roundtable: “American Nature Poetry” with Karen Kilcup
10:30am-12:00pm, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 318
Literary critic, poet, and professor Karen Kilcup will lead a 3-day roundtable discussion on “American Nature Poetry.” Topics may include discussions on climate change, animals in poetry, American wilderness/wildness, American pastoral, women’s nature writing, and the American Agrarian tradition.
Professor Kilcup is the author or editor of more than a dozen books of literary criticism, including the well-recieved Robert Frost and the Feminine Literary Tradition (1998). She has also published three poetry collections, most recently, The Art of Restoration (2023). She is currently Elizabeth Rosenthal Excellence Professor of English, Environmental and Sustainability Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Poetry Roundtable: “The New Lyric” with Natalie Gerber and Jonathan Barron
10:30am-12:00pm, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 319
Professors Natalie Gerber and Jonathan Barron will lead a 3-day roundtable discussion on how the contemporary lyric poem has evolved in form, aesthetics, subject, and style from the practice of the early 20th-Century modernists. A professor of English at SUNY Fredonia, Gerber has published widely on prosody and the linguistic foundations of poetic intonation. University of Maine professor of English Jonathan Barron is a former executive director of the Robert Frost Society and the author or editor of several books of criticism, including most recently How Robert Frost Made Realism Matter (2015).
Poetry Roundtable: “Elected Friends, Edward Thomas and Robert Frost”
with Virginia Smith, Henry Atmore and Jeremy Mitchell
10:30am-12:00pm, UCSD Park and Market, Conference Room 212
Professors Virginia Smith, Henry Atmore, and Jeremy Mitchell will lead a 3-day roundtable discussion on the poetic friendship Robert Frost and British poet Edward Thomas established while Frost was living in England prior to the outbreak of World War I. Calling Thomas the “only brother” he ever had, Frost inspired Thomas to write poetry, and in turn, Thomas influenced the development of Frost’s lyric poetry. Virginia Smith, professor of Chemistry at the United States Naval Academy, is the editor of the Robert Frost Review and author of A Scientific Companion to Robert Frost (2018). Henry Atmore, who lives and teaches in Japan, is the author of several articles on Robert Frost and a co-editor of the Letters of Robert Frost. Jeremy Mitchell is the Director of the Petersfield Museum in Petersfield, UK, which hosts the Edward Thomas Study Center. This roundtable will also be available online. (If you are interested in joining online, do not register for a ticket; instead, email robertfrostsociety@gmail.com with the subject heading "Edward Thomas Roundtable Online Participant.")
Poetry Roundtable: “Robert Frost’s Greatest Hits”
with Robert Bernard Hass, Amit Majmudar, and Jim Hurley
10:30am-12:00pm, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 321
Professor Robert Bernard Hass and poets Amit Majmudar and Jim Hurley will lead a 3-day roundtable on some of Robert Frost’s most famous poems. Designed for a scholarly and poetic audience alike, this roundtable will focus on poems such as “Mending Wall,” “Tree at My Window,” “Home Burial,” “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “For Once, Then, Something,” “The Road Not Taken,” and several other Frost standards. Robert Bernard Hass is the executive director of the Robert Frost Society and the author of Going by Contraries: Robert Frost’s Conflict with Science (2002) and a co-editor of Letters of Robert Frost. Poet and novelist Amit Majmudar is the author of four poetry collections, most recently, What He Did in Solitary (2020). The state of Ohio’s first poet laureate, Majmudar was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First-Book Award and the winner of the 2011 Donald Justice Prize in American Poetry. Jim Hurley, who met Robert Frost as a student at the University of Iowa, is the author of several articles on Robert Frost and the poetry collection A Westbound Sun (2021). He spearheaded the establishment of the Frost Society’s new home in the San Diego Central Library and currently serves as the Society’s Treasurer.
Poetry Roundtable: “The Philosophical Frost”
with Donald G. Sheehy and Mark Richardson
10:30am-12:00pm, UCSD Park and Market, Meeting Room 320
Professors Donald G. Sheehy and Mark Richardson will lead a roundtable discussion on Frost’s indebtedness to the philosophers who influenced his thought and practice. Among the philosophers who figure prominently into Frost’s work, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, Henri Bergson, and George Santayana played a particularly significant role in shaping Frost’s thought. Donald G. Sheehy is the author of several groundbreaking articles on Robert Frost that changed the direction of Frost studies, editor of Robert Frost: Poems, Life, Legacy (1998) and lead editor of the Letters of Robert Frost. Mark Richardson is the author and editor of several important books of literary criticism, including The Ordeal of Robert Frost (1997). With the late Richard Poirier, he also the editor of the Library of America’s Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays (1995), which has become the standard edition of Frost’s work.
Robert Frost Archive Display: Matthew Nye
1:00-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library,
Marilyn and Gene Marx Special Collections Room, 9th floor
San Diego Library archivist Matthew Nye has curated an impressive display of Robert Frost’s primary and secondary works. Signed first editions, letters, and ephemera will provide Frost enthusiasts access to material the late poet held and signed for others. Along with this display, conference participants can view the documentary film JKF: The Last Speech, which will run on the hour in a small viewing station adjacent to the rare book room.
Frost Poetry Lecture: “Falling into Philosophy” with Donald G. Sheehy
1:30-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
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Donald G. Sheehy’s lecture will focus on the “philosophical” turn in Robert Frost’s poetry, which began in 1923 with the publication of New Hampshire and continued throughout the rest of his career. The lecture will examine how Frost’s penchant for using poetry as the vehicle for philosophical statement altered his reputation and helped usher in the negative reviews of his poetry that became more prolific during the Great Depression. Sheehy is the author of several groundbreaking articles on Frost that changed the direction of Frost studies, editor of Robert Frost: Poems, Life, Legacy (1998) and co-editor of the Letters of Robert Frost.
Happy Hour Poetry Reading: David Yezzi and Amit Majmudar
3:30-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
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David Yezzi and Amit Majmudar will read from their work and field audience questions. An accomplished Shakespearean actor, scholar, biographer, and poet, David Yezzi is the author of five collections of poems, most recently More Things in Heaven (2022) and Black Sea (2018). He is also the author of Late Romance: Anthony Hecht: A Poet’s Life, which the New York Times Book Review singled out as a recommended read in January 2024. His poems have been selected for the annual anthology The Best American Poetry in 2006 and 2012. Yezzi’s second book, Azores (2008) was named by Slate Magazine as a “Best Book of 2008,” and his collection Birds of the Air (2015) was a finalist for the Poet’s Prize.
Keynote Poetry Lecture: “Robert Frost and the American Experience: The Poet at 150”
with Jay Parini
7:30-9:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
The author of more than twenty books of fiction, poetry, biography, memoir, and literary criticism, including his award-winning biography, Robert Frost: A Life (1998), Jay Parini is the D. E. Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College. He will be available to sign books after his lecture.
Novelist, poet, biographer, and literary critic Jay Parini will assess the impact of Robert Frost’s career and its continuing relevance to contemporary American life and poetry. Far from his frequent portrayal as a folksy, Yankee “pastoralist,” Frost was an astute observer of his times, and his poetry provides readers with a valuable narrative of how the century unfolded. His incisive commentary on literary modernism, science, religion, politics, economics, philosophy, and natural history creates a distinctive historical account of his era. Frost’s witty and shrewd observations of significant developments in so many varied disciplines contribute not only to a greater understanding of his age, but ultimately help readers better discover what it means to be an American in the 21st century.
Robert Frost Archive Display: Matthew Nye
1:00-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library,
Marilyn and Gene Marx Special Collections Room, 9th Floor
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San Diego Library archivist Matthew Nye has curated an impressive display of Robert Frost’s primary and secondary works. Signed first editions, letters, and ephemera will provide Frost enthusiasts access to material the late poet held and signed for others. Along with this display, participants can view the documentary film JKF: The Last Speech, which examines President Kennedy’s impassioned defense of the humanities and celebration of Frost’s life. The film will run on the hour in a small viewing station adjacent to the rare book room.
Frost Poetry Lecture: “Robert Frost and the Classical Tradition” with Ryan Wilson
1:30-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
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Ryan Wilson, a prolific translator of classical poetry, will discuss Robert Frost’s poems and their indebtedness to the classical forms of such poets as Virgil, Horace, and Catullus. He will then demonstrate how that tradition has helped shape his own poetic practice by reading from his own verse. Wilson is the author of two collections of poems, most recently In Ghostlight (2024), and a book of translations, Proteus Bound: Selected Translations (2008-2020). The winner of the Donald Justice Prize in American Poetry and the Jacques Maritain Prize in Literary Criticism for his book How to Think Like a Poet (2019), he is professor of English at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and serves as the CFO and administrator for the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers.
Happy Hour Poetry Reading with Karla Cordero and Ruth-Ellen Kocher
3:30-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
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Karla Cordero and Ruth-Ellen Kocher will read from their work and field audience questions. A descendent of the Chichimeca peoples of northern Mexico, Karla Cordero is the author of the poetry collection How to Pull Apart the Earth, a San Diego Book Award winner and a finalist for the International Latino Book Award and the International Book Award. Her work has appeared on NPR and the Academy of American Poets website, and in Oprah Magazine. She is a 2021 recipient of a California Arts Fellowship. Ruth-Ellen Kocher is a former dean of humanities and professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently godhouse (2023) and the winner of several national poetry prizes, including the Noemi Book Prize, Dorset Prize, the PEN Open Book Award, the Green Rose Prize, and the Naomi Padgett Long Prize. The winner of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and Yaddo, she currently serves on the Board of Directors for RASA: Race, Solidarity, and the Arts.
Keynote Poetry Reading: An Evening with Bruce Weigl
7:30-9:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
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Emeritus Professor of English Bruce Weigl is author of more than 20 books of poems, memoirs, translations and literary criticism. Weigl has won numerous awards for his work, including the Robert Creeley Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Poet’s Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and two Pushcart Prizes. In 2019 he was named one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Robert Frost Archive Display: Matthew Nye
1:00-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library,
Marilyn and Gene Marx Special Collections Room, 9th Floor
.jpg)
San Diego Library archivist Matthew Nye has curated an impressive display of Robert Frost’s primary and secondary works. Signed first editions, letters, and ephemera will provide Frost enthusiasts access to material the late poet held and signed for others. Along with this display, participants can view the documentary film JKF: The Last Speech, which examines President Kennedy’s impassioned defense of the humanities and celebration of Frost’s life. The film will run on the hour in a small viewing station adjacent to the rare book room.
Afternoon Poetry Reading with Karen Kilcup and Jason Magabo Perez
1:30-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
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Karen Kilcup and Jason Magabo Perez will read from their work. Professor Kilcup is the author or editor of more than a dozen books of literary criticism, including the well-received Robert Frost and the Feminine Literary Tradition (1998). She has also published three poetry collections, most recently, The Art of Restoration (2023). She is currently Elizabeth Rosenthal Excellence Professor of English, Environmental and Sustainability Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Professor Jason Magabo Perez is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently his book-length elegy, I ask about what falls away (2024). The winner of an Academy of American Poets fellowship, Perez is currently serving as San Diego’s poet laureate and an associate editor of Ethnic Studies. He is associate professor of English and Ethnic Studies at California State University, San Marcos.
Frost Keynote Lecture: “Robert Frost as Living Force” with Dana Gioia
3:30-5:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Library
Former California Poet Laureate and National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia will examine Robert Frost’s influence on 20th-Century poetry and how his own poetry is indebted to Frost’s forms, language, and narrative voice. The author of six collections of poetry, four books of literary criticism, three opera libretti, two collections of translations, and the editor of another eight books, Gioia has won the American Book Award and the Poets Prize. His most recent collection of poetry, Meet Me at the Lighthouse, was published in 2023.
Keynote Poetry Reading:
An Evening with Pulitzer Prize-winner and Former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith
7:30-9:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith will read from her work. The author of five books of poetry, most recently Such Color: New and Selected Poems (2021), Professor Smith has won numerous awards for her poetry. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, she has won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Cave Canem Prize, a Whiting Award, the James Laughlin Award, and an Academy of American Poets fellowship. She was also a finalist for the National Book Award for her non-fiction memoir, Ordinary Light (2015).
Open Mic Poetry Reading for Conference Participants
10:30am-12:00pm, San Diego Central Library Dome, 9th Floor
Conference participants and conference instructors will have the opportunity to read their poems during this open-mic session. One of two culminating experiences on Sunday, this open-mic session encourages poets to “publish” their poems to the larger group. This open-mic session does not place any restrictions upon form, style, or subject matter and is intended to showcase the rich variety of aesthetic practice in contemporary poetry.
Plenary Closing: Poetry in America Panel on Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”
with Elisa New
1:30-3:00pm, San Diego Central Library, Neil Morgan Auditorium
One of Robert Frost’s most famous poems, “Mending Wall” explores the benefits and detriments of walls and boundaries. This public discussion will examine the implications of national boundaries, immigration, and the problems associated with ethnic exclusion or national isolationism. In a special stand-alone session, a diverse group of panel participants, along with regional political leaders and high-school students, will contemplate the implications of this poem for the 21st century. Hosted by Poetry in America director Elisa New, who will film the discussion for future educational programming, this panel session promises to promote lively civic discussion and facilitate greater tolerance and understanding of competing ideas.
Professor New created Poetry in America to bring poetry beyond classrooms into living rooms and onto screens of all kinds. Her PBS series can be seen on public television and streaming platforms, in schools and libraries, and on airlines. The author of a memoir and three books of literary criticism, most recently New England Beyond Criticism: In Defense of America’s First Literature (2014), Professor New is the director of the Center for Public Humanities at Arizona State University and Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature Emerita at Harvard University.