8/29: Reading with Valerie Hsiung, Cedar Sigo, Stefania Heim, Carolina Ebeid & Jeffrey Pethybridge, 7pm

Saturday, August 29, reading at Open Books, 7pm, free

** we are still masking for all public events **

Valerie Hsiung is a poet who writes between worlds, where language meets ritual and abolition meets afterlife. Drawing on diasporic, ecological, and metaphysical inquiry, her books dissolve the borders of poetry, prose, performance and philosophy into a single listening body. She is the author of eight full-length books, including The pedestrian (Nightboat Books), The Naif (Ugly Duckling Presse), The only name we can call it now is not its only name (Counterpath), To love an artist (Essay Press), and outside voices, please (CSU). Recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Camargo Foundation and Lighthouse Works as well as grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts and PEN America, she teaches writing at the limits of language at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. Her ceremonial work and pedagogy has been studied by researchers on the subject of emancipatory practices including Sophie Orlando. Born to Chinese-Taiwanese immigrants in Cincinnati, Ohio, she now lives in the foothills of Colorado.

Cedar Sigo is a poet and member of the Suquamish Nation. He studied at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute. He is the author of endless books and pamphlets of poetry, including All This Time (Wave Books, 2021), Stranger in Town (City Lights, 2010), Expensive Magic (House Press, 2008), two editions of Selected Writings (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2003 and 2005) and most recently Siren of Atlantis (Wave Books, 2025). In 2022 he received a grants to artist’s award from The Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He has taught all over the country including The University of Washington, Bard College, Washington University, Naropa University and The Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Lofall, Washington.

Stefania Heim is author of the poetry collections Hour Book and A Table That Goes On for Miles and translator of two volumes by Metaphysical artist Giorgio de Chirico, his Italian poems, Geometry of Shadows, and his posthumous novel, Mr. Dudron. With Catherine Gander she coedited Beyond Ourselves: Contemporary Poets on Muriel Rukeyser and her essay from that volume, “Dynamic Equilibrium of Word and World: what Muriel Rukeyser knows about poetry” was published as the inaugural Annuals pamphlet by Annulet Editions. Originally from Queens, NY, she lives in Bellingham WA where she is a professor of English at Western Washington University.

Carolina Ebeid is a multimedia poet. She is the author of Hide (Graywolf Press, 2026), You Ask Me to Talk About the Interior (Noemi Press, 2016) and the chapbook Dauerwunder: a brief record of facts (Albion Books, 2023). Her work has been supported by the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University, CantoMundo, the NEA, and a residency fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. Her work has been installed and screened at universities and galleries such as Stelo Arts in Portland, and Squeaky Wheel Film and Video Art Center. A longtime editor, she currently edits the multimedia site Visible Binary. Her current work explores the personal story of her family’s exilic and immigrant experience, the idea of home as an elsewhere, and the telepathic power of objects within the diasporas of Palestine and Cuba.

Jeffrey Pethybridge is a poet, editor, and curator; he is the author of Striven, The Bright Treatise (Noemi Press), which was selected as one of ten best debuts of 2013 by Poets & Writers Magazine. His second collection Force Drift, an essay in the epic has recently been released by Tupelo Press. His writing and visual poetry appear internationally in journals such as diSonare (MX); White Wall Review (CA); Writing Utopia (UK); Volt; Best American Experimental Writing, and others.  He teaches in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where he is Co-Artistic Director of the Summer Writing Program.