Accounting the Migration Experience and America’s Inequities: Oliver de la Paz and Jill McDonough

Oliver de la Paz, recipient of multiple prizes and grants, a founding member of Kundiman, and author of six collections, including The Boy in the Labyrinth, a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award, reads from The Diaspora Sonnets (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2023) along with Jill McDonough, recipient of three Pushcart prizes and half-a-dozen fellowships that supported the work of her sixth collection from which she reads, American Treasure (Alice James Press, 2022), a 2023 Mass Book Award “Must Read”. Afterwards, the poets will engage in conversation with the audience about the inspirations and craft that led to their collections, followed by book-signings and light refreshments.

This Panel will be led by Glenn Mitchell, Curator, Poetry at the Library Series, and sponsored by the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library.

Oliver de la Paz biography - Oliver de la Paz is the Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA for 2023-2025. He is the author and editor of seven books: Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, Requiem for the Orchard, Post Subject: A Fable, and The Boy in the Labyrinth, a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry. His newest work, The Diaspora Sonnets, is published by Liveright Press (July 2023). With Stacey Lynn Brown he co-edited A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. Oliver serves as the co-chair of the Kundiman advisory board. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He has received grants from the NEA, NYFA, the Artist’s Trust, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and has been awarded multiple Pushcart Prizes. He teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the Low-Residency MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University. Learn more at his website: https://www.oliverdelapaz.com/bio

Jill McDonough's biography - Jill McDonough is the author of American Treasure (Alice James, 2022), Here All Night (Alice James, 2019), Reaper (Alice James, 2017), Where You Live (Salt, 2012), Oh, James! (Seven Kitchens, 2012), and Habeas Corpus (Salt, 2008). The recipient of three Pushcart prizes and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and Stanford’s Stegner program, she taught incarcerated college students through Boston University’s Prison Education Program for thirteen years. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Slate, The Nation, The Threepenny Review, and Best American Poetry. She teaches in the MFA program at UMass-Boston and started a program offering College Reading and Writing in two Boston jails. Her website is jillmcdonough.com.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library, a patron-supported non-profit organization.
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