Ibis Literary Reading and Performance Series: Barbara Jane Reyes & Oscar Bermeo: As the University of Miami celebrates the year of Humanities and Arts, the MFA in Creative Writing formal reading series carries on its polyglot theme, exploring stories and poems in multilingual form and cross-cultural and political content in the Ibis Literary Reading and Performance Series. This year, UM has invited five extraordinary writers and poets who write within and outside of the borders and expectations of contemporary American literature.

Tonight, we continue the series with poets Oscar Bermeo and Barbara Jane Reyes. Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oscar Bermeo is the author of the poetry chapbooks Anywhere Avenue, Palimpsest, Heaven Below and To the Break of Dawn. Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata, recently noted as a finalist for the California Book Award. She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center and Poeta en San Francisco, which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets.