# Poetry ## expand\_more In working to advance its mission to “promote the study of the world’s religions in their classical and contemporary forms,” the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) has focused on the intersections of poetry, philosophy, and religion. Since 2017, Sherah Bloor, CSWR resident fellow, host of the poetry series, and editor-in-chief of *Peripheries*, has played an instrumental role in addressing the Center’s focus on poetry through programming and resources, in addition to offering a creative venue for HDS poets. Poetry Series initiatives can be viewed as a three-legged stool; talks and workshops with visiting poets, in-house poetry workshops, and the publication *Peripheries*. ## Poetry at the CSWR: Events and News [### Video: The Invisible Sun: Poetry, Translation, and the Mystical Imagination ](/news/2026/04/29/video-invisible-sun-poetry-translation-and-mystical-imagination) April 29, 2026 CSWR Poetry Series: With Sholeh Wolpé The Invisible Sun is the first comprehensive English collection of poetry by the twelfth-century Persian mystic Attar, revered by Rumi as his master. Translated by award-winning poet Sholeh Wolpé, this luminous... ![Title card for The Invisible Sun](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-04/YT%20Thumbnail.Poetry.Sholeh%20Wolpe%CC%81.png?itok=QHnu_TPZ) [### Video: CSWR Poetry Series: A Reading by Jane Hirshfield ](/news/2026/02/12/video-cswr-poetry-series-reading-jane-hirshfield) February 12, 2026 On January 29, 2026, the Center for the Study of World Religions welcomed acclaimed poet Jane Hirshfield for a memorable evening of poetry and reflection. One of the most esteemed poets writing today, Hirshfield is known for work that brings together... ![Title card for poetry reading with Jane Hirshfield](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Poetry.Jane%20Hirshfield.png?itok=twmCCcL4) [### VIDEO: Poetry Reading: Writing as Alchemy with Laynie Browne, Julie Carr, & Chloe Garcia Roberts ](/news/2025/12/05/video-poetry-reading-writing-alchemy-laynie-browne-julie-carr-chloe-garcia-roberts) December 05, 2025 On November 13, 2025 the CSWR and Sherah Bloor, Editor-in-Chief of Peripheries, hosted three poets—Laynie Browne, Julie Carr, and Chloe Garcia Roberts—who read from their new books, each engaging in its own way in an intertextual communion with the living... ![Title card for Writing as Alchemy](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Poetry.Writing%20as%20Alchemy.png?itok=ttiI6I7C) [### Video: Shangyang Fang Poetry Reading: Study of Sorrow ](/news/2025/12/05/video-shangyang-fang-poetry-reading-study-sorrow) December 05, 2025 On October 8, 2025, in the CSWR Common Room, the CSWR and Sherah Bloor, Editor-in-Chief of Peripheries, hosted a celebration of the publication of Study of Sorrow: Translations (Copper Canyon Press, October 2025). Shangyang Fang read his translations of... ![Title card for poetry reading with Shangyang Fang](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Poetry.Shangyang%20Fang.png?itok=5-jpFB2v) [### Rooms Within Rooms: Peripheries 7 Explores the Architecture of Poetry and Art ](/news/2025/05/rooms-within-rooms-peripheries-7-explores-architecture-poetry-and-art) May 09, 2025 Peripheries is a journal of word, image, and sound that crosses thresholds between genres, senses, languages, and traditions. This seventh edition explores poetry—and art—as a habitable space, a room of sorts. After all, “stanza” comes from the Italian... ![Colorful charcoal drawing of human figures and geometric shapes](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-05/Screenshot%202025-05-09%20093546.png?itok=sZhxXzNj) [### Volume 7 of Peripheries Explores Spirituality, Memory, and the Arts ](/news/2025/04/volume-7-peripheries-explores-spirituality-memory-and-arts) April 10, 2025 The Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School will mark the release of the seventh volume of Peripheries: A Journal of Word, Image, and Sound with a public launch featuring readings, art, and multimedia installations on May 1... ![Abstract image of a dome in multiple shades of blue](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-04/Slide2_0.JPG?itok=I3bBKVaP) [### The Intersection of Arts and Spirituality: A Journey Beyond the Self ](/news/2024/10/intersection-arts-and-spirituality-journey-beyond-self) October 22, 2024 *To what degree do the arts open us to religion and spirituality? To what degree is creativity part and parcel of spirituality and religion? The CSWR creates the conditions to model the intersection of spirituality and the arts—to discuss, practice, and*... ![Ethan Seeley, Sherah Bloor, Stephanie Burt, and Nat Raha listen to a poetry reading at the Center for the Study of World Religions in September.](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-10/Poetry%20reading%2009-2024_1.jpg?itok=g1CajEb6) [### Video: Poetry Reading featuring Jackie Wang and Stephanie Burt, joined by Nat Raha and Ethan Seeley ](/news/2024/10/video-poetry-reading-featuring-jackie-wang-and-stephanie-burt-joined-nat-raha-and) October 02, 2024 On September 9, 2024, the CSWR hosted our first poetry event of the academic year. The reading featured four poets: Jackie Wang, Stephanie Burt, Nat Raha, and Ethan Seeley. Jackie Wang is the author of the poetry collection The Sunflower Cast a Spell to... ![artistic rendition of flowers and circles](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/iStock.PoetryImage.resize.jpg?itok=_P6dmZrM) [### Video: Adrie Kusserow's The Trauma Mantras, Reading with HDS poets ](/news/2024/10/02/video-adrie-kusserows-trauma-mantras-reading-hds-poets) October 02, 2024 On September 19, 2024, the CSWR hosted Adrie Kusserow who read from her recently released work, The Trauma Mantras. Other readers at the event included local poets Yena Sharma Purmasir and Zia Polis. The Trauma Mantras is a memoir written by medical... ![Title card for poetry reading with Adrie Kusserow](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/YT%20Thumbnail.Poetry.Adrie%20Kusserow.png?itok=InXwaHsG) [### Video: Spring Poetry Reading and Q&A with Poet Jane Miller ](/news/06/27/2024/video-spring-poetry-reading-and-qa-poet-jane-miller) April 17, 2024 On April 17, 2024, poet Jane Miller presented works from her collection Paper Banners, published in 2023 with Copper Canyon Press, and from more recent work inspired by the editors of Peripheries Journal. Jane Miller is the author of thirteen books of... ![Photo of Jane Miller looking into the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/janemiller_photo.resize.jpg?itok=IHP8AYQM) [### Video: Peripheries Launch Event 2023 ](/news/2024/01/16/video.peripherieslaunch.event-2023) January 16, 2024 On the evening of November 30, 2023, the much-anticipated event celebrating the launch of Peripheries, the Center for the Study of World Religions’s (CSWR) annual literary and arts journal, unfolded with a blend of poetry, music, and art, drawing over 140... ![Antique Glass letter wax seal](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/peripheriescover.crop_.website.png?h=e45c50a8&itok=MWCnw2R-) [### An Evening of Poetry, Music, Art: Celebrating Peripheries No. 6 ](/news/2023/12/05/evening-poetry-music-art-celebrating-peripheries-no-6) December 05, 2023 by Tristan Angieri, MDiv Student and CSWR Student Research Assistant On the evening of November 30, 2023, the much-anticipated event celebrating the launch of Peripheries, the Center for the Study of World Religions’s (CSWR) annual literary and arts... ![Photo of crowd watching poet Jorie Graham read via Zoom broadcast](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/peripheries.j.graham.photo_.png?itok=RrimzrUF) [### Poetry, Philosophy, and Religion at the CSWR: Peripheries Launch 2023 ](/news/2023/11/21/poetry-philosophy-and-religion-cswr-peripheries-launch-2023) November 21, 2023 by Gosia Sklodowska Peripheries, our annual literary and arts journal, occupies a special place at the CSWR. The journal publishes poetry, prose, visual art, and music that is, broadly understood, "peripheral"; work that, in form, explores the interstices... ![Antique wax seal in glass](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/23.10.6_cover_spread_view.crop_.png?itok=IC60ud3d) [### Video: Don Revell, Reading and Conversation (with Intro by Stephanie Burt): Almost a Prayer: The Afterlife of Enchantment ](/news/2023/11/13/video-don-revell-reading-and-conversation-intro-stephanie-burt-almost-prayer-afterlife) November 13, 2023 As part of the CSWR Poetry Series, the Center hosted award-winning poet, Don Revell for the Fall 2023 Poetry Symposium, Almost a Prayer: The Afterlife of Enchantment. The symposium and Revell were introduced by literary critic, poet, and professor of... ![Artistic Rendition](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/istock-1140422631_1_0_0.jpg?itok=XZq0gvtw) [### The Peripheries Poetry Series and Sherah Bloor at the Center for the Study of World Religions ](/news/peripheries-poetry-series-and-sherah-bloor-center-study-world-religions%C2%A0) July 11, 2023 In working to advance its mission to “promote the study of the world’s religions in their classical and contemporary forms,” the Center for the Study of World Religions(CSWR) focuses its efforts along five themes, one of them being, “poetry, philosophy... ![Sherah Bloor standing under a tree with arm raised, gazing at the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/sherah-bloor-400px.jpg?itok=O6Ha7GdE) [### Video: Poetry Craft Talk and Reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith ](/news/video-poetry-craft-talk-and-reading-pulitzer-prize-winning-poet-tracy-k-smith) May 08, 2023 On Monday, May 8, 2023, CSWR Resident Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of Peripheries, Sherah Bloor hosted a Poetry Craft Talk and Reading with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Tracy K. Smith for a capacity Zoom audience. "During the Zoom lecture, Smith read aloud... ![Photo of Tracy K. Smith](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/tks_headshot_400px.png?itok=tz0dnq94) [### Pulitzer Prize-Winner Tracy K. Smith Hosts Poetry Workshop at HDS ](/news/2023/05/25/pulitzer-prize-winner-tracy-k-smith-hosts-poetry-workshop) May 08, 2023 “If this were the only poem that you had ever seen, what would you suspect poems are for?” On a recent sunny afternoon, Harvard Divinity School students and community members made their way to the Center for the Study of World Religion (CSWR) for a... ![Tracy K. Smith](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/smith-cswr-news-250x250.jpg?itok=vKhiTHSL) [### Video: New Voices in Poetry: Tawanda Mulalu, Isabel Duarte-Gray, and Jess Yuan ](/news/06/27/2024/video-new-voices-poetry-tawanda-mulalu-isabel-duarte-gray-and-jess-yuan) April 10, 2023 On April 10, 2023, Sherah Bloor, editor of the Peripheries Journal at the Center for the Study of World Religions hosted three exciting new voices in poetry. Bloor invited Tawanda Mulalu, Isabel Duarte-Gray, and Jess Yuan to discuss their latest works... ![Photo of an open book with flower and leaf lain on the page](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/openbookimage.resizeforwebsite.jpg?itok=OhHvw5zG) [### Video: The Jew as Migrant: From Theory to Poetry ](/news/2020/03/02/video-jew-migrant-theory-poetry) March 02, 2020 On February 25, Vivian Liska, Professor of German literature and director of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, delivered the annual List Lecture in Jewish Studies at the CSWR. The Jew as archetypal migrant is a... ![Vivian Liska](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/liska-news-600x400.jpg?itok=_-vd1Xt8) [### Video: Forms of Grief ](/news/2020/02/10/video-forms-grief) February 10, 2020 This talk, held February 3 at the CSWR, examined the forms that grief can take, in the work of Zoe Leonard, Peter Hujar, David Wojnarowicz, and John Constable. Kate Zambreno is the author of several acclaimed books, including Screen Tests, Heroines, and... ![Kate Zambreno](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/forms-grief-video-600x400.jpg?itok=1LRoAg4m) - Previous page chevron\_left - [1](?page=0 "Current page") - [2](?page=1 "Go to page 2") - [ Next page chevron\_right ](?page=1 "Go to next page")