Join us for an afternoon with poets Brandon Lamson and Brian Nicolet.

Brandon Dean Lamson teaches literature and creative writing in the Honors College at the University of Houston. His first book, Starship Tahiti, won the Juniper Prize for Poetry and was published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Beginning on Rikers Island, the book traces a creation myth in reverse, moving from prison to the spacious arches of Grand Central Station and finally to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Themes of violence, race, and identity are explored in various real and imagined settings where inmates read Antigone, Howlin’ Wolf sings in a black barbershop, and Metallica records burn on a Viking altar. He is also the author of a chapbook entitled Houston Gothic (LaMunde Press, 2007) and his recent work has appeared in Poetry Daily, Brilliant Corners, NO INFINITE, Synecdoche, and Buddhadharma Quarterly. An avid yogi, he teaches meditation and leads workshops in yoga and poetry. Currently, he is finishing a second book of poems titled Mountains Walking that explores ecological crises in Western Appalachia and a memoir based on his prison teaching experience titled Caged.  

Brian Nicolet holds an MFA from the University of Houston and has received scholarships to Bread Loaf and Sewanee writers’ conferences. His poems and reviews have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Colorado Review, and Subtropics, among other publications. He works and teaches at Austin Community College.