Poets in the Conversation Room- Steven Leyva

Join Us for Poets in the Conversation Room Featuring Steven Leyva!

St. John's College is pleased to welcome Steven Leyva for an afternoon of poetry and conversation as part of the Poets in the Conversation Room series.

This event is presented in partnership with Grace Cavalieri, Maryland's Tenth Poet Laureate; Kymberly Taylor, Editor-in-Chief of Annapolis Home Magazine; and St. John's College.

The program will take place in the Mellon Hall, Conversation Room.

About the Poet

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Scalawag, Poetry, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, was published by Blair Publishing in Spring 2025. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor, and former co-director of the Klein Family Center of Communications Design.

About Poets in the Conversation Room

Now in its third season, Poets in the Conversation Room is presented by Annapolis Home Magazine in partnership with St. John's College. The series is hosted by renowned poet, author, playwright, and Maryland's Tenth Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri, and features conversations with some of today's most distinguished poets.

"Annapolis needs poetry," says Kymberly Taylor, poet and Editor-in-Chief of Annapolis Home Magazine. "It needs this incredible art form that helps us feel things beyond what we hear and read online, on television, and in the news."

"I think it's going to create a tremendous audience because it's also entertaining," says Grace Cavalieri. "Poetry speaks to how we feel and what it means to be alive in this world. Who does not want to hear that?"