September
Furious Flower Poetry Prize Reading w/ Guest Judge Major Jackson
Thursday, September 17th| Reading: 5:30pm & Reception: 6:30 | Carrier Library RM 1011 & Gwendolyn Brooks Reading Room
The Furious Flower Reading Series kicks off its first event of the season in the renovated Carrier Library! Join us as we bask in a poetry-filled evening with poetry prize honorable mention Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe, prize winner Wes Matthews, and our Guest Judge Major Jackson. The reading will conclude with a book signing with Major Jackson at the reception in the dedicated Gwendolyn Brooks Reading Room and Furious Flower Suite. This event is free and open to the public; free parking will be available across the street in the Grace Street Parking Garage.
On Campus: Furious Flower Poetry Workshop with Major Jackson
Friday, September 18th | 12-1:15PM | Gwendolyn Brooks Reading Room
Furious Flower is delighted to announce our first poetry workshop in the Gwendolyn Brooks Reading Room at Carrier Library. This workshop will be led by accomplished poet Major Jackson and is open to all JMU faculty, staff, and students. No experience required. Registration advised.
Tell Your Story: FFPC X Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project Community Poetry Workshop and Participant Open Mic with Major Jackson
Saturday , September 19th | 11AM-2:30PM | Northeast Neighborhood Community Center
Furious Flower is teaming up with the SVBHP to offer a special workshop and open mic with the Harrisonburg/Shenandoah Valley community. The event will begin with a poetry workshop from 11:30 AM – 1 PM, followed by a 1-hour participant open mic that begins at 1:30. This workshop will take place at the historic Northeast Neighborhood Community Center located at 491 Broad Street, Harrisonburg, VA, 22802, and a light lunch will be provided to workshop participants. Registration highly advised.
Artist Bio:
Major Jackson is the author of numerous books, including six books of poetry such as Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems (2023), The Absurd Man (2020), and Leaving Saturn (2002), which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. He has edited multiple volumes, including Library of America’s Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. A recipient of multiple prestigious fellowships and awards, Major Jackson has also been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. His poetry and essays are widely published, appearing in American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, and World Literature Today among others. Major Jackson lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review.
October 2026
Furious Flower Reading Series X Dia de los Muertos Ofrenda Exhibition presents Ariana Brown
Thursday, October 22nd| Doors Open: 5PM | Reading: 7PM | Memorial Hall Forum
Join us as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month alongside JMU’s Hispanic Caucus with a poetry reading by Black Mexican American poet Ariana Brown. This event will take place in the Memorial Hall Forum as part of the Día de los Muertos Ofrenda Exhibition. The evening will include a viewing of Hostile Terrain 94, an exhibition highlighting migration as a global human rights issue while focusing on the 1994 policy that still plays a pivotal role in US immigration at the US/Mexico border today. There will be a faculty-led discussion, and participants will have the opportunity to purchase a copy of Ariana's book at the end of the event. This event is free and open to the public.
Artist Bio:
Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet based in Houston. She is the author of the poetry collections We Are Owed (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Her academic and poetic works explore queerness, Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, girlhood, loneliness, and care. Ariana is a national collegiate poetry slam champion, winner of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, Lambda Literary Fellow, and a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant.
She holds a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies from UT Austin, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She currently develops ethnic studies and ELA curriculum for high schools and colleges and teaches creative writing to teens in Houston.
Hike & Write w/ Furious Flower Poetry Center
Saturday, October 24th | 1-5PM | Meet at UREC | Registration Required
On this adventure trip, participants will travel in a UREC van to Hone Quarry for a short 1-mile hike to an overlook called “Lover’s Leap." At the overlook, Program Manager Jazmin Witherspoon will lead a poetry workshop. No experience needed, beginners welcome.
November 2026
Furious Flower Reading Series With Amber Flora Thomas
Thursday, November 12th | 5:30PM | Gwendolyn Brooks Reading Room
Furious Flower’s final poetry reading before finals and the holiday season! Participants are invited to immerse themselves in the nature-laden poetry of Amber Flora Thomas. This poetry reading will take place at Carrier Library in the Gwendolyn Brooks reading room. This event is free and open to the public; free parking will be available across the street in the Grace Street Parking Garage.
Artist Bio:
Amber Flora Thomas is the author of three collections of poetry, including Eye of Water, which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. A recipient of the Dylan Thomas American Poet Prize, the Richard Peterson Prize, and the Ann Stanford Prize, her poetry has appeared in Tin House, The New England Review, Callaloo, Orion Magazine, Saranac Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review, as well as Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, and numerous other journals and anthologies. Thomas is a Cave Canem fellow and faculty member. She regularly teaches at the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and Sewanee Writers Conference. She earned an MFA at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She was born and raised in northern California.
