This UGA Poetry Festival keynote event features readings and Q&A with celebrated poet Edward Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and Robin Coste Lewis, a National Book Award winner and former poet laureate of Los Angeles. The event is part of the University’s 2025 Fall Signature Lecture Series. Those who require accommodations to attend should contact Dave Marr at davemarr@uga.edu. Requests should be made as soon as possible but at least one week prior to the event.

The UGA Poetry Festival takes place November 4-5 and is presented by The Georgia Review and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, in partnership with the department of English and the Creative Writing Program, as part of the university's 2025 Spotlight on the Arts festival. Books and other publications will be available for purchase at the events. The second event in the UGA Poetry Festival, featuring Michael Collier, Vievee Francis, and Garrett Hongo, takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5, in the Georgia Museum of Art. Both events are free and open to the public.

MacArthur Fellow Edward Hirsch has published ten books of poetry, including Gabriel: A Poem and Stranger by Night. His eight books of prose include How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry and The Heart of American Poetry. His new book is the memoir My Childhood in Pieces. He has received numerous prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pablo Neruda Presidential Medal of Honor, and the National Jewish Book Award. Since 2003, he has been president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Robin Coste Lewis won the National Book Award for Voyage of the Sable Venus, which Literary Hub named one of the best books of the last 20 years. Lewis is a former poet laureate of Los Angeles, has published work in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and is a professor of poetry and poetics at USC.