In honor of National Poetry Month, O, Miami presents a reading by former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins and emerging poet Melissa Broder.

Billy Collins has published eight collections of poetry and was the United States Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003 and the New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. He was named a "Literary Lion" by the New York Public Library and has been awarded fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In October 2004, Collins was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry.

Melissa Broder is the author of two collections of poems, When You Say One Thing but Mean Your Mother, and most recently MEAT HEART. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Guernica, Redivider, The Missouri Review online, Court Green, Drunken Boat, Barrelhouse, The Awl, et al. She edits La Petite Zine. By day she is a publicity manager at Penguin.

After the reading, Collins and Broder will sign books, courtesy of Books & Books.

This event is made by possible through support from the Knight Foundation, Miami-Dade County, and The Betsy South Beach.

Photo of Billy Collins by Steven Kovich.