Friday April 14 * 7 pm * RSVP

FORGET WHY POETRY SERIES - Justin Marks, Chia-Lun Chang, and Ryan Walker
“Never be sad again”

The Forget Why Reading Series brings together poets who question, play with, and derange their poetic inheritance, at times defying categorization as "poetry." Forget Why was named in honor of our beloved friend, poet Doug Lang (1941-2022), and is run by Leslie Bumstead and Cathy Eisenhower.

Uncertainty is hell, certainty is hell. It’s what and when
And where. It’s who. Forget why. The wolf is at the door.

-Doug Lang, “Namaste Sonnet” from In the Works

Chia-Lun Chang is the author of Prescribee (2022), winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize, and two chapbooks, An Alien Well-Tamed and One Day We Become Whites. She has received support from Jerome Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Tofte Lake Center, Poets House, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council among others. Chia-Lun teaches contemporary Taiwanese poetry and fiction at the Brooklyn Public Library. Born and raised in New Taipei City, Taiwan, she lives in Brooklyn. For more info visit chialunchang.com

Justin Marks’ books are, If This Should Reach You in Time (Barrelhouse Books, 2022) The Comedown, (Publishing Genius Press, 2021), You’re Going to Miss Me When You’re Bored, (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) and A Million in Prizes (New Issues, 2009). He is a co-founder of Birds, LLC, an independent poetry press, and lives in New York City with his family.

Ryan’s in Florida when he wrote this. He pronounces it Floridia in his head. He lives in Washington, DC. I’m thinking about how it might be upsetting to people when I’m genuinely curious about them and don’t pressure them to experience things like I do. That respect implies a world of restraint and ambiguity, I suppose. People are sometimes afraid of that world. Ryan is smug about negative capability.