Written by Mackenzie Manley, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library
April is National Poetry Month, and the Library is celebrating with an author talk from Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate Emerita Yalie Kamara, along with other poetry-related events throughout the month. Whether you’re a limerick lover or free verse aficionado, the Library is the place to be for poetry fans this April.
Yalie Kamara at the Downtown Main Library
Yalie will be at the Downtown Main Library on Sunday, April 26 from 3:30-5 p.m. in the South Building to sign books and discuss her writing. The Library’s 2026 Writer in Residence Intisar Khanani will host the discussion.
The event is free and open to the public. The Bookery will be onsite selling books by both Yalie and Intisar. Part of the proceeds will go toward supporting The Library Foundation.
About Yalie Saweda Kamara
Yalie is a Sierra Leonean-American writer, researcher, and educator from Oakland, CA. Her debut poetry collection, Besaydoo (Milkweed Editions, 2024), was the winner of the 2022-2023 Jake Adam York Prize and is the winner of the 2025 Ohio Book Award in Poetry. She is also the editor of the anthology What You Need to Know About Me: Young Writers on Their Experience of Immigration (The Hawkins Project, 2022).
Among her honors, Kamara has received fellowships from Academy of American Poets and the National Book Critics Circle and received residencies from the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, Djerassi, and Smith College. Kamara earned a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University. An assistant professor of English at Xavier University, she teaches courses in global and diasporic literature, creative writing, and hip-hop studies. For more information, please visit her website: yaylala.com.
What You Need to Know About Me
More Poetry Events at the Library
Head to the sun-dappled Reading Garden at the Downtown Main Library to breathe in poetry with a side of fresh air. Held on Tuesday, April 14 from 6-8 p.m., the Library’s annual Poetry in the Garden event will return for its 28th year. Enjoy readings from featured poets followed by a short open mic.
Also held at the Downtown Main Library’s Reading Garden, you can celebrate both National Poetry Month and Earth Month with Enchanted by Poetry on Saturday, April 25 from 1-4 p.m. Enjoy lively poetry readings with an Earth-focused lens by the winners of The Poetry Alive Competition. This event was made possible by Just Earth Cincinnati.
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