Poets Bob Sykora "Utopians in Love" and Lloyd Schwartz in Conversation

“Human history is ‘crowded with longing’, and in Utopians in Love, Bob Sykora is a diligent and earnest witness of where the unanswered tugs

About this Event

Poets Bob Sykora "Utopians in Love" and Lloyd Schwartz in Conversation 7/10/25 at 6pm.

“Human history is ‘crowded with longing’, and in Utopians in Love, Bob Sykora is a diligent and earnest witness of where the unanswered tugs of wanting have led.” - Alina Pleskova author of Toska

“Bob Sykora’s Utopians in Love is an aching exploration of the dreams and failures of utopias, both historically and personally. Gleaning from visions, archives, and journals, the poems reveal, ‘Utopia/ is the revision of this life/…not a place, but a language/ I used to know scorching my tongue.’”- Diannely Antigua author of Good Monster

PRAISE FOR UTOPIANS IN LOVE

Bob Sykora’s Utopians in Love is an aching exploration of the dreams and failures of utopias, both historically and personally. From Brook Farm to the local pet store, imagined utopias haunt the speaker, spanning through time, through cities, through people. This search for utopia is not anchored in naïvety, but in the very human desire to belong, even in the “soft/ such unbearable, soft nothing.” The dreams of utopia may abandon, yet Sykora’s poems remain steadfast: “The whole universe was dark and cold and scared,/ and I kissed you anyways.” —Diannely Antigua, author of Good Monster (Copper Canyon Press, 2024)

Sykora is a funny and frank companion in this researched dive into these worlds, asking of one leader “How did he dream//such grand community when he died/alone with so many cats?” Also a heartbroken one: “ e moment doesn't last/becasue of course it doesn't.” Heartbreak and research, dwelling in the past because of course we do, history museums and thinking about kissing: “You. And that feeling. And all the ways I've tried to dream it back.” —Jill McDonough, author of American Treasure (Alice James Books, 2022)

Human history is “crowded with longing,” and in Utopians in Love, Bob Sykora is a diligent and earnest witness of where the unanswered tugs of wanting have led. Neither history nor the seemingly-forever sky can resolve our wobbliest entreaties, but as Sykora shows us, absolutes and answers are hardly what's worthwhile, anyway. Crossing paths with such erudite and open-hearted searching is the actual—and utterly resonant—reward here. —Alina Pleskova, author of Toska (Deep Vellum, 2023)

What does it mean to live in a utopia? No, I mean, a REAL utopia? Does one even exist? Bob Sykora takes us on a journey of place and heartbreak, reviewing historical accounts of attempts at utopias along with Sykora's own personal attempts at utopia while seeking love, red skies, memory, and blueberries. His poems will help you process what it may mean for a utopia to unpack its hierarchies and obsessions; including the utopias built in our heads. ank you Bob. —Maya Williams, Author of Judas & Suicide (Game Over Books, 2023) and Refused a Second Date (Small Harbor Publishing, 2023

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