OWU Alumni Amy Lemmon and Marwa Helal will read from their work, answer questions, and sign copies of their books.

Amy Lemmon is the author of three poetry collections: Fine Motor, Saint Nobody , and The Miracles (C&R Press, 2019) and co-author, with Denise Duhamel, of the chapbooks ABBA: The Poems (Coconut Books) and Enjoy Hot or Iced: Poems in Conversation and a Conversation (Slapering Hol Press). Her writing has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Rolling Stone, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The Journal, Marginalia, and many other magazines and anthologies. She is Professor and Chairperson of English and Communication Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY and lives in New York City, where she is primary caregiver and advocate for her developmentally disabled daughter.

Poet and journalist Marwa Helal is the author of I AM MADE TO LEAVE I AM MADE TO RETURN (No, Dear/Small Anchor Press, 2017) and Invasive species (Nightboat Books, 2019). Helal is the winner of BOMB Magazine’s Biennial 2016 Poetry Contest and has been awarded fellowships from Poets House, Brooklyn Poets, and Cave Canem. She has presented her work at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Studio Museum in Harlem and Brooklyn Museum.

Her work appears in Apogee, Hyperallergic, the Offing, Poets & Writers, the Recluse, Winter Tangerine, Bettering American Poetry 2016, Best American Experimental Writing 2018, Brooklyn Poets Anthology, Halal If You Hear Me, and BreakBeat Poets: Black Girl Magic. She is the editor of the Poetry Project’s newsletter.

Born in Al Mansurah, Egypt, Helal received her MFA in creative nonfiction from The New School and her BA in journalism and international studies from Ohio Wesleyan University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY, the 92nd Street Y, and other organizations.