North Central: A Virtual Reading Series presents Ed Roberson & Joel Felix
March 27 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm CDT
The Friends of Lorine Niedecker welcome two innovative poets for a free, virtual poetry reading and discussion, open to all, on Friday, March 27, 2026 at 7 p.m. Central.
Ed Roberson is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Asked What Has Changed (Wesleyan University Press, 2021), a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. His most recent publications include the chapbook Five Poems for a Quartet (Foolscap Poetry, 2025) and found poem(s) (Corbett vs. Dempsey, 2024), a collaboration with photographer Ken Taylor. Since 2023 he has served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Roberson’s varied career has seen him working in Pittsburgh steel mills, in an advertising graphics agency, as a limnologist’s assistant, and as a Rutgers University administrator. His extensive travels have taken him to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, Mexico, the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Andes, and West Africa. Since moving to Chicago in 2004, he has held teaching positions at Columbia College, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. His many honors include the Jackson Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award.
Joel Felix awoke in the shadow of Ford Motor’s River Rouge plant, birthplace of automation. His most recent publication is Holograms of Dawn (selva oscura press). He is currently being raised by children in Lake City, Seattle.
North Central is a virtual reading series providing a space to gather and hear living poets who connect in various ways to the poetry of Lorine Niedecker. The series takes its title from North Central (London: Fulcrum Press, 1968), the third book of poems published in Niedecker’s lifetime. The readings are supported by the Friends of Lorine Niedecker. Past readers have included Merrill Gilfillan, Joshua Beckman, Tirzah Goldenberg, Noah Zannella, and Shannon Tharp. Readings are held twice per year, in the fall and the spring.
This virtual event will take place on Zoom and will be recorded.
Learn information about the Friends of Lorine Niedecker.
Visit our YouTube playlist to view past events in the North Central reading series.
For more information about this event, contact David Pavelich: david.pavelich@gmail.com