An evening of readings and conversation with Devon Walker-Figueroa, Lisa Wells, and Leni Zumas

Devon Walker-Figueroa is the author of Lazarus Species (Milkweed Editions, 2025) and Philomath (Milkweed Editions, 2021), which was a National Poetry Series selection and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. An assistant professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, Devon’s work can be found in The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.

Lisa Wells is the author of two poetry collections The Fire Passage, a 2026 Oregon Book Award finalists and winner of the Levis Poetry Prize and The Fix, winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize. Her book Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2021 and was a finalist for the 2022 PEN E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. She lives in Portland.

Leni Zumas is the author of Red Clocks, Farewell Navigator: Stories, and The Listeners, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She teaches in the MFA and BFA programs at Portland State University. Visit her online at lenizumas.com.