2026 Mark Strand Memorial Reading by Elizabeth Alexander

Poet, scholar, and cultural advocate Elizabeth Alexander will deliver the 2026 Mark Strand Memorial Reading. Dr. Alexander is the president of the Mellon Foundation, the largest funder of the arts, culture, and humanities in the United States. She has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University – where she taught for more than 15 years, helped rebuild and chaired the African American Studies Department, and was named Yale’s inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry. Dr. Alexander is the author or co-author of 15 books, including “American Sublime” (Pulitzer finalist, Poetry, 2006), “The Light of the World” (Pulitzer finalist, Biography, 2015), and “The Trayvon Generation” (2022). In 2009, she composed and delivered the poem “Praise Song for the Day” for President Barack Obama’s inauguration. She is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets, a former co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and a founding member of the African American poetry organization Cave Canem. Among her many other honors, Dr. Alexander has been awarded 10 honorary doctorates, is the 2019 recipient of Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal and was recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and as one of “Time Magazine’s” 100 Most Influential People. Dr. Alexander holds a BA from Yale University, an MA from Boston University, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and works in New York City. The 2026 Mark Strand Memorial Reading is held in conjunction with the exhibition “Cave Canem: A Home for Black Poetry,” organized in honor of Cave Canem’s 30th anniversary, which is on view at Beinecke from October 10, 2026 to May 30, 2027. The reading will be followed by a celebration from 5 to 7 p.m. at Beinecke library with Cave Canem founders, Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, and members of the Cave Canem and Yale Poetry communities. The reading and reception are free and open to the public. More information about the Mark Strand Memorial Reading can be found here.