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Workshop | Politics of Poetics: Solmaz Sharif

June 21, 202511:00 am - 12:30 pm

Portrait of a female-presenting person with olive skin and dark brown hair. Their right arm rests on a ledge with their hand to their face in a contemplative pose

Solmaz Sharif. Photo: Cassidy Araiza.

About the Event

Politics of Poetics is a series of readings and workshops that highlights influential contemporary poets whose practices traverse the political through writing, teaching, and activism. For this iteration, Solmaz Sharif—winner of the 2017 American Book Award for poetry for her book Look—leads a workshop at the MCA.

This event is followed by a reading from Sharif and a talk with Wafaa Bilal, whose exhibition Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me is currently on view.

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About the Author

Born in Istanbul to Iranian parents, Solmaz Sharif is the author of Customs (Graywolf Press, 2022) and Look (Graywolf Press, 2016), a finalist for the National Book Award. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley, where she studied and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, and New York University. Her work has appeared in Harper’sThe Paris Review, PoetryThe Kenyon Review, the New York Times, and others. Her work has been recognized with a “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lannan Foundation, and Stanford University. Sharif is currently the Shirley Shenker Assistant Professor of English at UC Berkeley.

Funding

This program is made possible with funding from the Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives and works to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry.

Poetry Foundation logo.

Exhibition

Lead support for Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, the Zell Family Foundation, and Cari and Michael Sacks.

Generous support is provided by Creative Capital Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, and the Margot and W. George Greig Ascendant Artist Fund.

Creative Capital logoThe Joyce Foundation logo