Writer Lisa Wells will read an excerpt from her newest book of nonfiction (forthcoming from FSG in 2020), and from her debut poetry collection, THE FIX (2018), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize.

In her judge’s citation, Brenda Shaughnessy wrote, “The Fix is ruthless, sleepless, vigilant, obsessive: a profound work of mystery and matter, of power and pleasure, in which any singular truth is always just a step ahead, a bit beyond reach, below sight line. The multiplicity of meanings, however, blossom at a touch, on sight… You’ll read this brilliant book, again and again, looking for the way back from it.”

Bio: Lisa Wells is a poet and nonfiction writer from Portland, Oregon. A first-generation college graduate, she dropped out of high school and worked in food service for fifteen years before earning a BFA from Goddard College in 2012, and an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2014.

Her debut collection of poetry, THE FIX, (2018) was selected by Brenda Shaughnessy for the Iowa Poetry Prize. A starred review at Publisher’s Weekly described the collection as “a brilliant, taut, terrifying debut that renders the parts of the inner and outer world for which there is no real cure.”