The Poetry Center's Annual Reading Series is the first and best poetry series of its kind in the city of Chicago. In 1973 William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg gave the first official reading for the Poetry Center in the basement of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Today, 35 years later, the Annual Reading Series has presented uninterrupted monthly readings by Pulitzer Prize winners, U.S. Poets Laureate, as well as emerging poets and young writers at the beginning of their careers.

The Poetry Center strives to uphold the tradition of its founders by continuing to bring the very finest in poetic talent to Chicago, by challenging the conventional boundaries of poetic form with innovative, visionary artists, and by promoting Chicago's rich literary scene through collaborations with some of the city's foremost institutions and outstanding independent presses.

Find out what the Poetry Center has to offer you in this season's Reading Series.

  
Past Reading Series Poets