Featured Readers
Patrycja HumienikPatrycja Humienik is the author of We Contain Landscapes (Tin House, 2025), selected as a New York Public Library Best New Poetry Book. An editor and teaching artist, Patrycja has developed writing and movement workshops for Arts+Literature Laboratory, The Seventh Wave, Northwest Film Forum, Henry Art Gallery, and in prisons. Her work can be found in The New Yorker, Gulf Coast, West Branch, Poetry Daily, Poetry Society of America, The Slowdown Show, and elsewhere.
Soham PatelSoham Patel was born in the East Midlands of England and raised in the western regions of North Dakota. She is the author of the poetry collections to afar from afar (Civil Coping Mechanisms/Writ Large Press/The Accomplices, 2018), ever really hear it (Subito Press, 2018), winner of the Subito Prize, all one in the end—/water (Delete Press, 2023) and The Daughter Industry (Nightboat Books, 2026). They currently live on Tutelo/Monacan land in Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. with their wife and families.
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 7:15. The reading starts promptly at 7:30. 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.
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 >
