7:30-8:30 pm, Thursday, November 6, 2025
Prout Chapel
Paula J. Lambert has published five full-length poetry collections including Terms of Venery, Revised (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions 2025) and six chapbooks, including Sinkhole (Bottlecap Press 2025). As literary translator, Lambert has published poems by Juan Rojas, translated from Spanish, in Mid-American Review, Plume, and Taos Poetry Journal. She has published work by Duan Qingqing, translated from Chinese, through the New England Poetry Club. Awarded the 2021 PEN America – L’Engle Rahman Prize for Mentorship, her work has been supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She is the 2023 winner of the Slippery Elm Poetry Prize and the New England Poetry Club’s Amy Lowell Prize, was awarded a 2021 Editor’s Choice Award from Sheila-Na-Gig Online, and was the 2019 winner of the Heartland Broadside Series. Lambert owns Full/Crescent Press, a small publisher of poetry books and broadsides, through which she has founded and supported numerous public readings and festivals that support the intersection of poetry and science, including the Sun & Moon Festival now hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association. She lives in Columbus with her husband, Dr. Michael Perkins, a philosopher and technologist. More at www.paulajlambert.com.
Juan Armando Rojas is a Mexican-American transborder poet, essayist, and scholar. He is the author of ten poetry collections, most recently Aurora Boreal (2023), an audio-poetry album available on all major streaming platforms. His bilingual manuscript collection The Path That Carries Our Names, co-translated with U.S. poet Paula J. Lambert, includes poems that have appeared in Taos Poetry Journal, Plume, Luna Luna Magazine, and featured as translation chapbook in the most recent issue of Mid-American Review. Rojas’ work has been translated into English, Arabic, Portuguese, and Italian, and is widely recognized for its exploration of borderland identity, language, and cultural memory. He holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from the University of Arizona, completed postdoctoral studies at Amherst College (2002–2004), and served as poet-in-residence at the University of Coimbra in Portugal (2011). In addition to his creative work, Rojas has held various academic leadership roles in the United States and is the recipient of numerous literary awards and research grants for his contributions to poetry and transnational cultural discourse. He currently serves as the President of the Hispanic Ohio Writers Association.