The final reading in the Creative Writing Minor Speaker Series. A reading & conversation about first books, literary friendships, and interdisciplinary arts.

Enzo Silon Surin (Poetry, 2012), Haitian-born poet, educator, speaker, publisher and social advocate, is the author of When My Body Was A Clinched Fist (Black Lawrence Press, July 2020) and two chapbooks, A Letter of Resignation: An American Libretto (2017) and Higher Ground. He is a PEN New England Celebrated New Voice in Poetry, the recipient of a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation and a 2020 Denis Diderot [A-i-R] Grant as an Artist-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France. Surin’s work gives voice to experiences that take place in what he calls “broken spaces” and his poems have been featured in numerous publications and exhibits. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, teaches creative writing and literature at Bunker Hill Community College and is President and Director of Faraday Publishing.

Cheryl Clark Vermeulen is author of the book They Can Take It Out (this reading is a part of the launch for the book due out in November by The Word Works, 2021) and the chapbooks Dead-Eye Spring and This Paper Lantern. Her poems, translations, and poetry reviews have appeared in Caketrain, The Drunken Boat, Jubilat, Tarpaulin Sky, Third Coast, Two Lines, Interim, DIAGRAM, EOAGH, among others, and the anthology Connecting Lines: New Poetry from Mexico. She received an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Beyond teaching at MassArt, she is Poetry Editor at Pangyrus. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her family.