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Read Everything. Be Curious. Be Driven by Compassion: A Q&A with Poet and Professor Michael Lauchlan
by Alyssa Knowles (’28) On September 15th of this year, University of Detroit Mercy’s current Poet-in-Residence, Professor Michael Lauchlan, released Running Lights, his second full-length poetry collection. To celebrate the launch of this highly-anticipated book, friends, family, and fans joined Lauchlan for a reading of his new work at 27th Letter Books in Detroit the…
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UDM’s Poet-in-Residence Celebrates Publication of New Book with Reading at 27th Letter Books
by Lena Williams On September 25th at 27th Letter Books, people gathered to celebrate the launch of Running Lights, the latest book of poetry by University of Detroit Mercy’s Poet-In-Residence, Professor Michael Lauchlan. The event opened with Cal Freeman, the author of The Weather of Our Names, and a University of Detroit Mercy alumnus. He…
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Magnetic Poetry Contest—2026 Winners!
University of Detroit Mercy’s English Department is excited to announce the winners of the 2026 Magnetic Poetry Contest! For the third year, students, faculty, staff, and alumni were encouraged to create original poems using the magnets on Briggs’s second-floor lockers. The contest judges received more submissions than ever before. Read the poems they selected as…
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Ways of Seeing
In April 2026, students in Professor Stephen Pasqualina’s Writing About Literature and Literary Theory courses visited the Detroit Institute of Arts. Their task: spend 10 minutes with a single work of art. What follows are their selections and reflections.
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To Translate is To Love: Poets Ilya Kaminsky & Katie Farris Share New Book of Translations by Ukrainian Poet with the Detroit Mercy Community
This special evening began not with a pair, but, ironically, a triptych. On March 18th, audience members from the Detroit Mercy community and beyond gathered to witness a merging of three spirits: Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky, poets and partners, standing as harbingers for the voice of Lesyk Panasiuk. Kaminsky is the acclaimed author of…
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The Mundane, the Profane, and Everything in Between: An Evening of Poetry with Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount
On February 24th, 2026, the University of Detroit Mercy’s English department welcomed local poets Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount. Brittany Rogers is an artist, educator, and lifelong Detroiter who strives for her poems to be bold and audacious, as well as to subvert heteronormative and patriarchal norms. Tommye Blount is a poet who explores the…
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Artist Statement: “Backrooms” by Eliza Makhdoom
Now in its 56th year, University of Detroit Mercy’s Dudley Randall Poetry Prize continues Dudley Randall’s legacy of amplifying creative voices within our community. The 2026 1st prize winner is “Backrooms” by Eliza Makhdoom. Read the rest of this year’s prize-winning poems at udmercy.edu/dudley. Backrooms By Eliza Makhdoom I would do anything for a cheap…
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Botanically Inspired Love: A Night with Poet Ross Gay
On February 19, 2026, the University of Detroit Mercy’s English Department hosted the final virtual installment of its fourth Triptych season. The guest of honor was Ross Gay, a poet described by host Stacy Gnall as contemporary poetry’s “consummate connoisseur” and “town crier” of delights. Gay joined the call from the driver’s seat of his…
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Poetry Reading by Cate Marvin Inspires Students to Take Risks in Their Writing
On January 15th, the University of Detroit Mercy hosted its first Triptych Visiting Authors series reading of 2026 via Zoom. This reading featured Cate Marvin, poet and Professor of English at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, who also teaches poetry writing in the Stonecoast M.F.A. Program at the University of…
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If You Know Too Much of What You’re Going To Say, Then You’re Not Discovering Anything: A Virtual Poetry Reading with Joanna Fuhrman
On October 1, 2025, the University of Detroit Mercy hosted a virtual poetry reading featuring Joanna Fuhrman, poet and Assistant Teaching Professor in Creative Writing at Rutgers University. A graduate of the University of Washington’s MFA program, where she received both the Academy of American Poets Prize and the Joan Grayson Award, Fuhrman’s distinctive style…
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