2025 Festival

Featured Readers

Aaron Coleman

Aaron Coleman is a poet, translator, educator, and scholar of the African Diaspora. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, Cave Canem, the Fulbright Program, and the American Literary Translators Association. His debut poetry collection, Threat Come Close, was the winner of the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and his chapbook, St. Trigger, won the Button Poetry Prize. He is also the translator of Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén’s 1967 collection, The Great Zoo, selected for the Phoenix Poet Series by University of Chicago Press. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Boston Review, Callaloo, and Poetry Magazine. From Metro-Detroit, Coleman has lived and worked with youth in locations including Spain, South Africa, Chicago, St. Louis, and Kalamazoo. He is an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature in the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan.

Denise Miller

Denise Miller, a professor, artist, poet, and community activist, was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, and raised in Cadiz. She teaches at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and is co-founder of The Institute of Public Scholarship, an organization dedicated to fostering just, restorative, and sustainable solutions through the integration of the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences. Holding a BFA from Bowling Green State University and an MA from Central Michigan University, her work has been recognized with grants from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo and the Gilmore Foundation.

Her poetry explores themes of truth, oppression, and resistance, drawing connections between domestic violence, racial injustice, and LGBTQIA+ struggles. Published in Terror and Transformation, Growing Up Girl, Dunes Review, African American Review, and American Ghost, she was a 2014 Hedgebrook Fellow and Willow Books Literature Award Finalist.

Miller also researches the intersections of race and labor, inspired by oral histories of African Americans and Latino/as in Michigan and coal miners in Ohio. Miller’s work—whether through poetry, activism, or culinary arts—remains rooted in storytelling, history, and community engagement. Denise currently attends Western Michigan University to further her education, and serves as host and producer for some of the many programs at The Institute of Public Scholarship.