Events

Mary Ann Samyn is the author of seven collections of poetry, including The Return from Calvary and Air, Light, Dust, Shadow, Distance. She teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia University, writes about all things Cake & Poetry on Substack (https://maryannsamyn.substack.com), and lives in WV and in her home state of Michigan.

Kalamazoo, Michigan native Dr. Shonda Buchanan is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Western Michigan University and teaches in Alma College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing. For the last 30 years, Shonda has taught poetry as a tool for healing and recovery. Author of three collections of poetry, The Lost Songs of Nina Simone, Who’s Afraid of Black Indians?, and Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country as well as the award-winning memoir, Black Indian, chosen by PBS NewsHour as a “Top 20 books to read to learn about institutional racism,” Shonda is the editor of two poetry anthologies, Oxfam Ambassador and a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and Faculty Mentor. Shonda is working on two collections of poetry and an essay collection, Children of the Mixed Blood Trail.