About the Reading
Each event includes a brief open mic followed by two featured poets. Pre-registration is free and recommended. The open mic includes five readers drawn lottery-style from a hat that goes out at 7:15pm. The reading starts promptly at 7:30pm. Each open mic poet reads one poem or for three minutes, whichever comes first.
About The Workshop
The Blue Hour generative writing workshop is suitable for writers and poetry fans of all levels. We will discuss a poem together, then Marty will guide the group through individual writing on an exploratory prompt that draws on themes from the poem.
Accessibility, Health, & Safety
- All restrooms at Haymarket House are gender-neutral, including single-user and stalled restrooms.
- Each event includes ASL interpretation. Haymarket House is ADA compliant and fully wheelchair-accessible; email curator@poetrycenter.org to ensure ramp access and with any other accessibility needs.
- Masks are currently strongly encouraged for all indoor events, and the space is equipped with a professional air filtration system.
A NOTE ON PARKING: Limited free and paid street parking is available near Haymarket House. The parking lot at Disney Magnet School is relatively close and is a paid lot; there are also locations nearby available through SpotHero.
About The Host
Marty McConnell is a poet, educator, and healer based in Chicago. She is the author of when they say you can’t go home again, what they mean is you were never there, winner of the 2017 Michael Waters Poetry Prize; her first full-length collection, wine for a shotgun, received the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Awards and was a finalist for both the Audre Lorde Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Her first nonfiction book, Gathering Voices: Creating a Community-Based Poetry Workshop, is available through YesYes Books. She is the co-creator and co-editor of underbelly, a web site focused on the art and magic of poetry revision. An MFA graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Best American Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, Gulf Coast, and Indiana Review.
Learn more about the series and history >
Featured Readers
Eduardo Martínez-Leyva was born in El Paso, TX to Mexican immigrants. He is the author of
Cowboy Park, which was published by the University of Wisconsin Press and was the winner of the 2024 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, the 2025 Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters, a Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Poetry, and the 2026 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He teaches and resides in Los Angeles, California.
Diana Cao’s poetry and fiction have appeared in Ploughshares, Graywolf Labs, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. Her debut full-length collection, Slipstream, won the Berkshire Prize at Tupelo Press. She is also the author of Relational (2024), winner of Sixth Finch’s annual chapbook contest, and the acquisitions editor at Overheard Lit. She was Just Buffalo Literary Center’s 2024 Poetry Fellow, selected by Megan Fernandes, and the winner of the 2025 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest. She has received support from MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Willapa Bay AiR.