Porter Square Books is delighted to present a virtual reading with award-winning poet Adrian Matejka to mark the release of his new collection Somebody Else Sold The World -- a resonant new collection on love and persistence from the author of The Big Smoke, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He will be joined in conversation by Shara McCallum and Phillip B. Williams! This virtual event is free and open to all, hosted on Crowdcast.

The poems in Adrian Matejka’s newest and fifth collection, Somebody Else Sold the World, meditate on the ways we exist in an uncontrollable world: in love and its aftermaths, in families that divide themselves, in protest-filled streets, in isolation as routines become obsolete because of lockdown orders and curfews. Somebody Else uses past and future touchstones like pop songs, love notes, and imaginary gossip to illuminate those moments of splendor that persist even in exhaustion. These poems show that there are many possibilities of brightness and hope, even in the middle of pandemics and revolutions.

“With blazing virtuosity, Matejka returns in prime form for a wildly syncopated romp—ballasted with earth and music and bombast—serving all the right notes.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders

Adrian Matejka‘s most recent collection of poetry is Map to the Stars. His other books are The Big Smoke, which was the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and a finalist for both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize; Mixology, which was selected for the National Poetry Series; and The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003), winner of the New York / New England Award. Among Matejka’s other honors are fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He served as Poet Laureate of the state of Indiana in 2018-19 and lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Phillip B. Williams is from Chicago, IL, and is the author of the book Thief in the Interior (Alice James, 2016). A recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Lambda Literary Award, and Whiting Award, he has also received fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches at Bennington College and the Randolph College low-residency MFA.

From Jamaica, and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum is the author of six books published in the US & UK, including No Ruined Stone. La historia es un cuarto/History is a Room, an anthology of poems selected from across her six books and translated into Spanish by Adalber Salas Hernández, will be published in 2021 by Mantis Editores in Mexico. McCallum is on the faculty of the Pacific Low-Residency MFA and is an Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Penn State University. She was appointed the 2021-22 Penn State Laureate.

Virtual: Adrian Matejka with Shara McCallum and Phillip B. Williams, Somebody Else Sold the World