Join BMI for a reading and conversation with poet Oliver de la Paz, author of The Diaspora Sonnets, with 2024-25 Shearing Fellow Monica Macansantos. 

Oliver de la Paz is the author and editor of several books and serves as the Poet Laureate of Worcester, MA. His latest collection of poetry, The Diaspora Sonnets, was published by Liveright Press (2023). It was a winner of the 2023 New England Book Award and was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award. A founding member of Kundiman, he teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the Low-Residency MFA Program at PLU.

Monica Macansantos holds an MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. from the International Institute of Modern Letters at the Victoria University of Wellington. She is the author of the forthcoming essay collection Returning to My Father’s Kitchen, and the story collection Love and Other Rituals. Her work has been recognized as Notable in the Best American Essays 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2016. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the I-Park Foundation, and others.



This event is part of the Kwentuhan at Chikahan – Las Vegas Filipino Book Club series. The goal of the Club is to read and respond to the works of critically acclaimed Filipino authors, towards finding meaning in everyday struggles and triumphs.

Parking/getting there: Parking on UNLV’s campus is free and open to all after 7 p.m.; reserved parking spots are enforced 24 hours a day, but you may park in any staff, student, or paid spots. To find the Rogers Literature & Law Building, please turn onto East Harmon Ave and take it as far as you can into campus. We encourage you to park in Lot I or Lot J as they’re closest to our building. 

Questions? Please email blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu or call (702) 895-5542.