GREGORY ORR is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, the most recent of

which his Selected Books of the Beloved appeared from Copper Canyon Press in the fall

of 2022. Prior to that W.W. Norton published The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write

(2019) and Milkweed Editions reissued his memoir, The Blessing (2019). His prose

books include A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry (Norton, 2018) and Poetry as

Survival (University of Georgia Press, 2002). At the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2018, he

premiered a 50 minute song/poem cycle “The Beloved” with the Parkington Sisters. He’s

been interviewed by Krista Tippett for her “On Being” series, been interviewed on PBS

News Hour and NPR’s “This I Believe” series and has published op-ed pieces in the New

York Times on gun violence and trauma and his experiences as a volunteer in the civil

rights movement in the Sixties. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim

Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Award in Literature from

the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Virginia, Orr taught there from

1975 until 2019 and was founder and first director of its MFA Program in Writing. He

lives with his wife, the painter Trisha Orr in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Following his reading, he will be joined by GABI BURNHAM for a Q&A and audience questions.