May 16, 2026

An Inconvenient Hour

May 16, 2026

5:00 pm, Metropolis Cafe, 1039 W Granville

READERS:

Laura-Gray Street

… is the author of three poetry collections: Pigment and Fume (Salmon Poetry, 2014), Shift Work (Red Bird, 2016), and Just Labor (Press 53, 2025). A 2022-2025 Black Earth Institute fellow, she has received honors from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences, the Southern Women Writers Conference, and many others. Her writing has appeared in The Colorado Review, Poet Lore, Blackbird, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. She currently teaches at Randolph College in Virginia.

Teresa Dzieglewicz

… is the author of the poetry collection Something Small of How to See a River (Tupelo Press, 2025) and co-author of the forthcoming children’s book, Belonging. She is a fellow with Black Earth Institute, a Poet-in-Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center, and part of the founding team of Mni Wichoni Nakicizin Wounspe (Defenders of the Water School). She has won a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, the Auburn Witness Prize, and the Palette Poetry Prize and has received fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson, and Brooklyn Poets.

Christine Poreba

… is the author of This Eye is for Seeing Stars (Orison Books, 2025), winner of theOrison Poetry Prize, and Rough Knowledge (Anhinga Press, 2016), winner of the Philip Levine Prize. Her poetry has appeared in The Sun, Rattle, Palette Poetry, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. She lives in the Chicago suburbs and works at the public library.

Meghan Malachi

… is a poet and writer from The Bronx. Her poetry collection, No Lace Fronts in Iowa City, was selected by Allison Joseph as runner-up of Madville Publishing’s 2024 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize. She was a winner of the Spoon River Poetry Review Editor’s Prize and has been a finalist for the Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize, the Trio Book Award, the Hilary Tham Capital Collection, and the Gasher Press Book Award. She is a 2026 SAFTA Summer Fellow and a 2026 Chicago Women's History Center Writing Fellow. She is an Associate Editor at RHINO.

Barry Pearce

… is the author of The Plan of Chicago: A City in Stories (Cornerstone Press, 2025). His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Chicago Tribune, The Cimarron Review, The Colorado Review, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. He holds a journalism degree from Northwestern University and an MFA from New Mexico State University. He lives in Chicago, where he works as a ghostwriter and occasional teacher.

Email: InconvenientHourReadingSeries [at] gmail [dot] com