June’s installment of What The Universe Is features two of the most original voices in contemporary poetry:

Maria Zoccola is a poet and writer from Memphis, Tennessee. Her work has previously appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, and elsewhere, and has received a special mention for the Pushcart Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Helen of Troy, 1993 (Scribner, 2025), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and was named a best book of the year by The New Yorker and NPR.

Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of nonfiction, and seven books of poetry, including, West: A Translation, which won the 2024 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the Utah Book Award in Poetry, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. Her forthcoming book of poems is Heritance. The former Utah poet laureate, she directs the American West Center at the University of Utah.

Register at bit.ly/WTUIJun2026 so you don’t miss this extraordinary reading!