Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival

2027 Nossrat Yassini Festival Headliners

Elizabeth A.I. Powell | April 16, 7 P.M.

Elizabeth A.I. Powell is the author of three books of poems, including ATOMIZER, which The Boston Globe called "confident poems…that disrupt and magnify our relationship with one way in which we sense the world." Her novel, Concerning the Holy Ghost's Interpretation of J.Crew Catalogues, was published in 2019 in the U.K. Her work has appeared in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, American Poetry Review, The New Republic, Women's Review of Books, Colorado Review, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Seneca Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere.

Powell is Editor-in-Chief and Poetry Editor of Green Mountains Review, and Professor and Chair of Writing and Literature at Northern Vermont University-Johnson. She also serves on the faculty of the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She is currently the Nossrat Yassini Poet-in-Residence and will serve as final judge for the 2027 Granite State Poetry Prize.

Patricia Smith | April 16, 7 P.M.

Patricia Smith is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2025 National Book Award and the NAACP Image Award, and finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize; Unshuttered; Incendiary Art, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, the LA Times Book Prize, the NAACP Image Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist. Her work has been published widely, including in Best American Poetry and Best American Essays; her short story “When They Are Done With Us” won the Robert Fish Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was featured in Best American Mystery Stories. She is a professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and a former distinguished professor for the City University of New York. Currently, she is at work on a memoir and novel. Patricia Smith will be the final judge for the 2027 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil | April 17, 7 P.M.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times bestselling author of the poetry collection, Night Owl, and two illustrated essay collections, Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees and World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments, which was a Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She is also author of the award-winning poetry collections: Oceanic, Lucky Fish, At The Drive-In Volcano, and Miracle Fruit, and co-author of the chapbook Lace & Pyrite. Her writing appears in The New Yorker, The Nation, the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review. Additional honors include a poetry fellowship from US Artist Fellows, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Nezhukumatathil is Poetry Editor for The Sierra Club’s magazine, Sierra, and former Poetry Editor of Orion Magazine. A professor of English and Creative Writing for over twenty five years, she also serves as a firefly guide for Mississippi State Parks.

Pádraig Ó Tuama | April 17, 7 P.M.

Pádraig Ó Tuama (b. 1975, Ireland) is a poet with interests in language, violence, power, and religion. He is the host of On Being’s Poetry Unbound and has published volumes of poetry, essays, a memoir and theology. Kitchen Hymns was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award. His two anthologies from the Poetry Unbound series have gathered widespread praise, with author Elif Shafak calling it “Mesmerizing, magical, deeply moving…” In September 2026, his collection Love Between Men will be published, and he will take up the role as Professor in the Practice of Spirituality at Yale Divinity School.

Who was Nossrat Yassini?

A devoted mother, gourmet chef, gardener, and lifelong poet, Nossrat Yassini's story is one of resilience and creativity that continues to inspire this festival in her name.

Read her full story