The 39th Salina Spring Poetry Series, sponsored and organized by Salina Arts & Humanities, begins on Tuesday, April 4, with a reading by Kansas Poet Laureate Traci Brimhall.
The reading will begin at 7 pm at Ad Astra Books & Coffee House (135 N. Santa Fe Ave.). Admission will be $5 at the door and free for students with ID.
Huascar Medina, Kansas Poet Laureate Emeritus, curated this year’s series. Medina selected poets with a broad range of perspectives who will share their work in Salina this April. As Kansas Poet Laureate, Brimhall plans to curate the 2024 Salina Spring Poetry Series.
“I am glad she said yes. Traci Brimhall is a poet whose work I follow closely. As part of the Salina Spring Poetry Series, I find Traci's presence essential as Poet of Kansas. I look forward to seeing who Traci brings to Salina as the next series curator, and I hope this becomes part of the storied tradition of poetic excellence the series set forth almost four decades ago,” says Medina.
Traci Brimhall is the author of four poetry collections: Come the Slumberless from the Land of Nod (Copper Canyon); Saudade (Copper Canyon); Our Lady of the Ruins (W.W. Norton), winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Rookery (Southern Illinois University Press), winner of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Believer, The New Republic, Orion, New York Times Magazine, and Best American Poetry. She’s received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and the National Endowment for the Arts. She currently serves as Poet Laureate of Kansas.