Book Talk: Be Easy with Adrian Matejka

Join us on Tuesday, March 31 at 7 PM as we celebrate the release of critically-acclaimed poet Adrian Matejka's latest collection, Be Easy! Poet "I.S." Jones will be joining Adrian in conversation.

Revered for his "patient, clever, controlled, [and] visionary" (Hanif Abdurraquib) poems, Adrian Matejka has been a mainstay of contemporary American poetry for over two decades. Gathering hits from six extraordinary collections, Be Easy showcases his singular sonics and narrative vision in fresh, dynamic poems that lyrically complicate place, race, and identity.

Traversing the Midwest from Indianapolis to Chicago, new poems explore the twitchy unease of unintentional migration and economic instability as the country faces a future every bit as unsettling and circus-like as parking lot carnivals of the poet's childhood. Selections from Mixology (2008)--"a post-soul tour de force" (Kevin Young)--reverberate with the rhythm of '80s hip-hop, while "revelatory" (Gabrielle Calvocoressi) odes from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Big Smoke (2013) reimagine the legacy of prizefighter Jack Johnson and transcendent poems from Map to the Stars (2017) brim with cosmic jazz.

Matejka's smooth lyricism flows into a singular, indispensable collection of memories lost and found again. Tracing the continuum of a "rocket-powered" (Campbell McGrath) writer, Be Easy affirms Matejka as one of the most exciting voices of our time.

Adrian Matejka is the author of six poetry collections and the graphic novel Last on His Feet. He has been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, served as the poet laureate of the state of Indiana from 2018–2019, and is editor–in–chief of Poetry magazine. He lives in Chicago.

I.S. Jones is the author of Bloodmercy, chosen by Nicole Sealey as the winner of the 2025 APR / Honickman First Book Prize and the chapbook Spells of My Name, selected by Newfound in 2021 for their Emerging Writers Series.  Currently, she is a Senior Editor for Poetry Northwest, where she runs her column, The Legacy Suite, a three-part interview documenting the journey of writers publishing their debut poetry collections. Her works have appeared in Granta, LA Review of Books, Guernica, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. While she has lived in many places across the U.S., she gratefully calls Chicago home.