Anne Newman Sutton Weeks Alumni Poetry Reading

Celebrate the inauguration of Westminster Pres. Sylvia Torti with a speaker series ft. fresh perspectives on the value of mutual respect. Join us for our first Speaker Series event, to celebrate the inauguration of President Sylvia Torti! Alumni panelists Willy Palomo, Amanda Nicole Corbin, and Alaa Al-Barkawi return to campus for a poetry reading on thier popular written art. Reception to follow from 5-6 PM. Willy Palomo is the author of MERCURY IN REGGAETÓN, winner of the Lightscatter Prize, and Wake the Others, winner of a Foreword Prize in Indie Poetry. She translated Collateral Damage, an anthology of Salvadoran fiction about mass incarceration in El Salvador, and Three Treacherous Trenches, a collection of poetry about women's experiences in the Salvadoran Civil War by Marielos Olivo. A veteran of the Salt Lake City poetry slam scene, she has performed or keynoted at 200+ events in the past 15 years, including the Amada Libertad International Poetry Festival in El Salvador, the World Poetry Slam in Ciudad Juarez, and many more. Amanda Nicole Corbin is an award-winning Ohio-based poet who has had her work published in Black Warrior Review, New Ohio Review, Notre Dame Review, The London Magazine, Door is a Jar, Palette Poetry, and more. She is the winner of the 2025 Mississippi Review Poetry contest where her work received a Pushcart Nomination. Her second full-length collection, a say in patience (Sundress Publications) is forthcoming in 2027. Alaa Al-Barkawi is a first-generation, Iraqi American Shia Muslim writer. She is the co-runner of QuillersSWANA, a literary organization dedicated to Southwest Asian and North African writers, and serves as a Literary Peace Ambassador for Threads of Peace. Alaa holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and has worked with refugee and immigrant students for nearly a decade. In the Country I Love is her debut novel.