An Evening of Poetry with Dana Gioia and A.E. Stallings

When: Tuesday, November 17, 2026 Time: 6:00–7:30 pm Where: Trident Booksellers and Cafe, 940 Pearl St, Boulder, CO 80302 About the Event Join the Benson Center for an evening of poetry featuring Dana Gioia and A.E. Stallings, with an introduction by Professor Joseph Bottum. No registration required. About the Readings A.E. Stallings will read from her most recent book, Archaic Smile. In Archaic Smile, by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist A. E. Stallings, the poet couples poetic meditations on classic stories and themes with poems about the everyday, sometimes mundane occurrences of contemporary life (like losing an umbrella or fishing with one’s father), and she infuses the latter with the magic of myth and history. With the skill of a scholar and translator and the playful, pristine composition of a poet, Stallings bridges the gap between these two distant worlds. Stallings “invigorates the old forms and makes them sing” (Meryl Natchez, ZYZZYVA) in her poetry, and the scope and origins of her talents are on full display in the acclaimed author’s first collection. The poems of Archaic Smile are sung with a timeless, technically impeccable, and utterly true voice. Dana Gioia will read from his most recent book, Meet Me at the Lighthouse. Dana Gioia has been hailed for decades as a master of traditional lyric forms, whose expansive and accessible poems are offerings of rare poignancy and insight. In Meet Me at the Lighthouse, he invites us back to old Los Angeles, where the shabby nightclub of the title beckons us into its noirish immortality. Elsewhere, he laments the once-vibrant neighborhood where he grew up, now bulldozed, and recalls his working-class family of immigrants. Gioia describes a haunting from his mother on his birthday, Christmas Eve. Another poem remembers his uncle, a US Merchant Marine. And “The Ballad of Jesús Ortiz” tells the story of his great-grandfather, a Mexican vaquero who was shot dead at a tavern in Wyoming during a dispute over a bar tab. “I praise my ancestors, the unkillable poor,” Gioia writes. This book is dedicated to their memory. Including poems, song lyrics, translations, and concluding with an unsettling train ride to the underworld, Meet Me at the Lighthouse is a luminous exploration of nostalgia, mortality, and what makes a life worth living and remembering. About the Introduction Joseph Bottum will introduce both speakers. Bottum is one of the nation’s most widely published writers, with over a thousand essays, reviews, poems, and short stories from the Atlantic to the Wall Street Journal. Holding a PhD in medieval philosophy, he is currently the Visiting Scholar of Conservative Thought and Policy for the Benson Center at the University of Colorado. “A poet and critic and essayist with a sideline in history and philosophy,” according to the New York Times, Bottum has twice been the #1 nationally bestselling ebook author. His print books include four volumes of poetry along with the sociological study, An Anxious Age, and The World Is Awake, for which he shared the Christopher Award for the year’s best children’s book. National Review has called him the “poetic voice” of American commentary who “shaped the minds of a generation,” adding that “his name would be mandatory on any objective short list of America’s public intellectuals.” Related Event The previous evening, Gioia and Stallings joined a panel discussion on philosophy and poetry at CU Boulder, with Joseph Bottum and a Q&A to follow. Details here.