Taylor Byas and Laura Joyce-Hubbard: Poetry on the Preserve

Taylor Byas and Laura Joyce-Hubbard: Poetry on the Preserve

Morning Write-In. Join Special Guest, poet Taylor Byas, along with Highland Park Poet Laureate, Laura Joyce-Hubbard, for a morning of creative inspiration overlooking the re-wilded prairie preserve. An award-winning poet, Taylor Byas’ most recent collection was selected by Roxanne Gay as the Audacious Book Club pick for September.

Friday, Oct 3rd

The Moraine/HP Senior Center (East Entrance)—a newly renovated space that overlooks the rewilded prairie preserve.

1201 Park Avenue West, Highland Park

Come spend a morning overlooking the fall prairie and leap into creative writing. We’ll listen to Dr. Taylor Byas’ read from her new collection, Resting Bitch Face: Poems, then enjoy a free-write in response to conversation and suggested prompts. Please bring pen and paper. Signed books will be available for sale.

Dr. Taylor Byas, Ph.D. is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she is a Features Editor for The Rumpus, an Editorial Advisor for Jackleg Press, a member of the Beloit Poetry Journal Editorial Board, and a Poetry Editor-at-Large for Texas Review Press. Her debut full-length, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times from Soft Skull Press, won the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award, the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry, and the 2024 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. Her second full-length, Resting Bitch Face (2025), is a September pick for Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club. She is also a coeditor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol X: Alabama, from Texas Review Press, and Poemhood: Our Black Revival, a YA anthology from HarperCollins. She is represented by Noah Grey Rosenzweig at Triangle House Literary.

Laura Joyce-Hubbard’s poems and essays have appeared inPoetry, The Iowa Review, Chicago Tribune, Sewanee Review, and elsewhere. Her work was recognized in Best American Essays 2022 and 2023 and has been supported by the Aspen Institute, Ragdale, Fine Arts Work Center, Longleaf Writers Conference, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Laura is a retired Air Force pilot and is currently serving as a fiction editor for TriQuarterly, member of the Ragdale Curatorial Council, and as the inaugural Highland Park Poet Laureate.

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