Reading with Robin Coste Lewis, the Mohr Visiting Poet

The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce the next event with the Mohr Visiting Poet: A Reading with Robin Coste Lewis.

This event is open to Stanford affiliates and the general public. Registration is encouraged but not required; RSVP form to follow.

Robin Coste Lewis is a writer and artist. Lewis won the National Book Award for Voyage of the Sable Venus, her first collection of poetry. The book was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and it was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New York Times. Literary Hub named it one of the best books of the last twenty years. Lewis was the first African-American to ever win the National Book Award in a debut, and the first woman to do so since 1974. Her second book, To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness, was the winner of the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. She is also the coauthor, with Kevin Young, of Robert Rauschenberg: Thirty-Four Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno, published by the Museum of Modern Art. Her latest book, Archive of Desire, was named by the Brooklyn Public Library as one of the best poetry collections of the year. The former poet laureate of Los Angeles, Lewis holds a PhD in poetry and visual studies from the University of Southern California, an MFA in poetry from New York University, an MTS in Sanskrit and comparative religious literature from the Divinity School at Harvard University, and a BA in post-colonial literature and creative writing from Hampshire College. Her writing has appeared in various journals, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Transition. Lewis also has a band with Vijay Iyer, Julie Mehretu, and Jeffrey Ziegler. Their EP/LP, Archive of Desire, will be released next year, in 2027. Lewis collaborates with artists regularly, most recently: Alice Diop, Julie Mehretu, Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, and composer Paola Prestini. A founding member of Julie Mehretu’s African Film and Media Arts Collective, Lewis’s video installations have been exhibited domestically and abroad, most recently at the Palazzo Grassi for the Venice Biennale. Forthcoming exhibitions will premiere next year at NY Public Library’s Schomburg Center Research in Black Culture, and Zeitz MoCAA in Capetown. A new opera, in collaboration with Paola Prestini and Ava DuVernay will premiere at Spoleto and NY PublicTheater in 2028. Lewis is currently a professor of poetry and poetics at USC’s PhD Program in Creative Writing.

Lewis is this year's Mohr Visiting Poet. Each year, the Creative Writing Program welcomes distinguished poets to host events and teach a Stanford writing seminar to undergraduates. These events and seminars are made possible with the generous support of Lawrence and Nancy Mohr.

No personal recordings (audio or visual) are allowed. By attending, you consent for your image to be used for Stanford-related promotions and materials. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

If you require disability-related accommodation, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible or at least 7 business days in advance of the event.