Welcome to the Sunken Garden Poetry Video Library!
With video recordings from Hill-Stead Museum’s Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, the Sunken Garden Poetry Video Library features links to Simsbury TV and performances by Pulitzer Prize winners, rising stars in the world of poetry, and students who won acclaim in Hill-Stead’s own Fresh Voices Poetry Competition.
This site is an ongoing project and new material will continue to be added. Please check back often.
2020 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Watch selected readings from 2020
Festival poets included
- Mahogany L. Browne
- Fresh Voices Winners
- Joy Harjo
- Margaret Gibson
The 2019 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Festival poets included
- Claudia Rankine
- Emily Skillings
- Terrance Hayes
- Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Rajiv Mohabir
- Chris Abani & Mai Der Vang
- Elizabeth Acevedo
- Winners of the Fresh Voices Poetry Competition
2018 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Festival poets included
- Eamon Grennan
- David McLoghlin
- Molly Brown
- Margaret Gibson
- United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith
- Solmaz Sharif
- Javier Zamora
- Andrea Gibson
- Winners of the Fresh Voices Poetry Competition
2017 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Watch selected readings from 2017
Festival poets included
- Billy Collins
- Jericho Brown & Ladan Osman
- Cornelius Eady & Emily Jungmin Yoon
- Mark Doty & Eileen Myles
- Ocean Vuong & the Fresh Voices Winners
2016 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Watch selected readings from 2016
Festival poets included
- Heather McHugh & Suzanne Parker
- Brian Turner & Doug Anderson
- Edward Hirsch & Clare Rossini
- Juan Felipe Herrera, United States Poet Laureate & Peg Boyers
- Kwame Dawes and the winners of the Fresh Voices Poetry Competition
2015 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Watch selected readings from 2015
Festival poets included
- Ted Kooser
- Hadara Bar-Nadav
- Marie Howe, Ciaran Berry
- Vijay Seshadri
- Ravi Shakar
- Li-Young Lee
- Tina Chang
- Natalie Diaz
- Aja Monet
- Fresh Voices Poetry Competition Winners
2014 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival
Watch selected readings from 2014
Festival poets included
- Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Ted Lardner
- Jeffrey Harrison
- Alicia Ostriker
- Frank Bidart
- Kevin Young
- Richard Blanco