Join us in celebrating two new books and new work by three queer poets in celebration of National Poetry Month, and in support of the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division. Elaine Sexton will read from Drive, just out this month with Grid Books (April ‘22). MacArthur Fellow John Keene’s Punks: New & Selected Poems is from The Song Cave, (Dec. ‘21). Poet, translator, and literary matchmaker Scott Hightower rounds out this roster of three poets reading new work.

This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.

Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.

Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel

Safety protocol

In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

If you have any symptoms associated with COVID-19 in the days leading up to the event, we ask you to please stay home.

Please note that masks are required at all times inside The LGBT Community Center, where the Bureau is located.

Suggested donation $10 to benefit the Bureau’s work.

All are welcome to attend, with or without donation.

We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or you can donate in advance on Eventbrite.

Books by John Keene, Elaine Sexton, and Scott Hightower will be available for purchase at the event.

Purchase Elaine Sexton’s Drive (Grid Books, 2022, paperback, $16) from the Bureau’s online store (click on the title).

Purchase John Keene’s Punks: New and Selected Poems (The Song Cave, 2021, paperback, $20) from the Bureau’s online store (click on the title).

Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!

JOHN KEENE is the author of Punks: New and Selected Poems (The Song Cave, 2021), a 2022 Lambda Lit Award finalist, as well as several other works of poetry, fiction and translations. Keene is the recipient of numerous honors—most notably a MacArthur Genius Award, a Windham-Campbell Prize, and a Lannan Award for Fiction. A Graduate Fellow of the Cave Canem Writers Workshops, he teaches and chairs at Rutgers University-Newark.

ELAINE SEXTON‘s newest book is Drive (GRID, 2022). Work from this book also appears in three forthcoming anthologies: Treelines (Grayson Books), I Wanna Be Loved By You (Milk & Honey Press), and Stronger Than Fear (Cave Moon Press). Her book, Causeway, was a finalist for the Audre Lorde/ Publishing Triangle Award. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, and teaches at the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute.

SCOTT HIGHTOWER is the author of four books of poetry in the US and two bilingual collections published in Madrid. He lives in Manhattan and teaches at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.