“A magician of perspective and scale.” – The New Yorker

In this conversation, resonating with both the past and tradition exemplified in the exhibition Flowers on a River and with the distillation and duality explored in Inside/Outside, Jenny Xie opens up, as US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera described, “multiple terrains of seeing.” With longing and memory, nuance and subtlety, the “anxiety of bilingualism,” and the unknowability of the self, Xie takes us deep into what is irreducible with pure piercing beauty.

Born in China and raised in New Jersey, Xie is the author of Eye Level (Graywolf Press, 2018), a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry and the PEN Open Book Award and recipient of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets and the Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University; and The Rupture Tense (Graywolf, 2022), long listed for the National Book Award in Poetry. Lauded for its precision, beauty and humanity, her work has appeared in Poetry, New York Times Magazine, and Tin House, among other publications.

As part of a series of nationwide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of non- profit publisher and longtime Museum partner, Graywolf Press, Xie is joined on stage by Director and Publisher of Graywolf, renowned poet, Carmen Giménez, who read in the Museum galleries last April.

This program is in partnership with:

Book signing to follow.

Parallel Stories is a literary and performing arts series that pairs art and artists with award-winning authors and performers of regional, national, and international acclaim. This series functions as a multidisciplinary lens through which to view the Museum's collection and special exhibitions.