The Open Door: Quraysh Ali Lansana and Lisa Fishman

The Open Door series presents work from Chicago’s new and emerging poets and highlights the area’s outstanding writing programs. Each hour-long reading features two Chicagoland college and graduate writing program instructors and two of their current or recent students.

Quraysh Ali Lansana moved to Chicago after discovering the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. Lansana has received the 1999 Henry Blakely Award (presented by Gwendolyn Brooks) and the 2000 Poet of the Year Award from Chicago’s Black Book Fair. A former director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing, Lansana is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Chicago State University.

Lisa Fishman composes haunting poems that explore the movement of mind and memory. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Dear, Read (2002), The Happiness Experiment (2007), and Current (2010). Fishman and her husband, along with poet Richard Meier, run a 12-acre “Poetry Farm” in southern Wisconsin. Fishman has taught at Beloit College and Columbia College Chicago.

Keith S. Wilson is an Affrilachian Poet, Cave Canem fellow, graduate of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, and recipient of a Bread Loaf scholarship. His work has appeared or is appearing in the following journals: American Letters & Commentary, 32 Poems, Cider Press Review, Anti-, Muzzle, Mobius, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Amy Lipman is an MFA candidate at Columbia College where she serves as an editorial assistant for the journal Court Green and teaches first-year writing.