New Works: Cameron Awkward-Rich, Tara Betts, Hayes Davis and Nathan McClain

Join us for an afternoon of poetry showcasing new collections by fellows. Awkward-Rich is the author of Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016), of which Danez Smith says, “The ornate emotional terrain of these poems is charted with the poet’s sometimes spare, sometimes wild, always skilled lyric.” Betts is the author of a previous collection, Arc & Hue (Willow Books, 2009), and most recently, Break the Habit (Trio House Press, 2016), which Maria Gillan says “[touches] the very core of what it means to be human.” Davis’s debut is Let Our Eyes Linger (Poetry Mutual, 2016), described by Reginald Dwayne Betts as “a testament to how the stories we tell ourselves to get through the day can become the poetry that speaks to more than our own existence.” McClain is the author of Scale (Four Way Books, 2017), which Vievee Francis calls “a daring, unrelenting interrogation of loss, silence, and longing in the plaintive cry of a son among so many other sons.” Free and open to the public. Refreshments served. This event is co-sponsored by the NYU Creative Writing Program.

Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016) and the chapbook Transit (Button Poetry, 2015). A Cave Canem fellow and poetry editor for Muzzle Magazine, his poems have appeared in Narrative, The Baffler, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. Cam is currently a doctoral candidate in Modern Thought & Literature at Stanford University.

Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit and Arc & Hue. Her chapbooks include the upcoming Never Been Lois Lane, 7 x 7: kwansabas, and THE GREATEST!: An Homage to Muhammad Ali. Tara holds a MFA from New England College and a Ph.D. from Binghamton University. Her poems, essays and short stories have appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including Essence, POETRY magazine, NYLON, Octavia’s Brood, Bum Rush the Page, Black Nerd Problems, and The BreakBeat Poets. Tara currently teaches at University of Illinois-Chicago.

Hayes Davis holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Maryland. He is a member of Cave Canem’s first cohort of fellows and a former Bread Loaf working scholar. His debut collection, Let Our Eyes Linger, was published by Poetry Mutual Press. His work has appeared in New England Review, Poet Lore, Gargoyle, Fledgling Rag, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Delaware Poetry Review, Kinfolks, and several anthologies. He teaches high-school English in Washington, DC, and lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, and their children.

The author of Scale (Four Way Books, 2017), Cave Canem fellow Nathan McClain is a graduate of Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers and has received fellowships from The Frost Place and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Callaloo, Ploughshares, Southern Humanities Review, Sou’wester, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Waxwing.