Poetry Launch: Matthew Rohrer and Dobby Gibson

Sunday, November 17, 2024, 5 p.m.

A reading by Matthew Rohrer to celebrate his new poetry collection, Army of Giants, with Dobby Gibson, followed by a signing.

Open to the public. 

Matthew Rohrer was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in Oklahoma. He earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His first collection, A Hummock in the Malookas (1995), was selected by Mary Oliver for the National Poetry Series. He is the author of Satellite (2001); A Green Light (2004); Rise Up (2007); They All Seemed Asleep (2008); A Plate of Chicken (2009); Destroyer and Preserver (2011); The Others (2017), winner of the Believer Book Award; and Army of Giants (Wave Books, 2024). He has also collaborated with poet Joshua Beckman on Nice Hat. Thanks (2002) and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (2004). Rohrer’s poems are known for their surreal imagery, imagination, and sharp humor. His book, A Green Light, was short-listed for the 2005 Griffin International Poetry Prize; the judges noted that Rohrer’s poems “present us the sideways view of the world of a young American not able to assume the mantle of hero.” The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, Rohrer has published his work in The New Young American Poets: An Anthology (2000), The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology (2000), and Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (2006). Rohrer teaches writing at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Dobby Gibson is the author of Polar (Alice James Books, 2005), which won the Alice James Award; Skirmish (Graywolf Press, 2009); It Becomes You (Graywolf Press, 2013), which was a finalist for the Believer Poetry Award; Little Glass Planet (Graywolf Press, 2019); and Hold Everything (Graywolf Press, 2024). Gibson's poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, New England Review, and Ploughshares, among other publications, as well as anthologized in books including Good Poems American Places (Penguin Books). He’s been a visitor to colleges and universities including Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, New York University, UMass-Amherst, and the University of Texas at Austin. Born in Minneapolis, Gibson earned his BA in English Literature from Connecticut College, and an MFA in creative writing (fiction) from Indiana University. The recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board, Gibson has served on the Board of Directors of The Loft Literary Center and The Anderson Center at Tower View.