Events Calendar

Iowa Writers' Workshop alum, Caitlin Roach will read from her new book of poetry, Surveille, in conversation with Rachel Yoder.

Writers' Workshop graduate Caitlin Roach will read from her debut book of poems, Surveille, winner of the 2024 Brittingham Poetry Prize. “In Surveille, Caitlin Roach is a reader of omens, of the shapes hidden in shadows, recasting the hard lessons of the natural world. Born between the twin flames of Brigit Pegeen Kelly and Mary Oliver, this book is both intimate and political. A bridge between the public chaos surrounding us and the portentous silence of private life, these poems are urgent and heart-piercing. This debut challenges us to stand witness.” —Amaud Jamaul Johnson

Caitlin Roach is a queer poet from Southern California. Her poems have appeared in Narrative, jubilat, Colorado Review, Best New Poets, Poetry Northwest, Poetry Daily, Tin House, and The Iowa Review, among other journals. Her work has received prizes and recognition from the Granum Foundation, the W.B. Yeats Society of New York for the Yeats Poetry Prize, Narrative Magazine’s 15th and 10th Annual Poetry Contests, the International Literary Awards Rita Dove Award in Poetry, and others. A three-time National Poetry Series Finalist and Tin House Workshop resident alum, she earned an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her first book Surveille was chosen by Amaud Jamaul Johnson as winner of the 2024 Brittingham Prize in Poetry and was published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

She will be joined in conversation by Rachel Yoder. Yoder is the author of the bestselling novel Nightbitch, now a feature film written & directed by Marielle Heller and starring Amy Adams. Her stories and essays have appeared Harper’s, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, and The Sun.  She is an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting and Cinema Arts at the University of Iowa.

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Readings at Prairie Lights are sponsored by the Writing University.}