Join us on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at the Civitella Castle for Presentations by David Baker, Mihret Sibhat, and Page Starzinger. We will welcome you with light refreshments at 5:45 PM. Reserve your spot below or tune in to our livestream on Instagram @CivitellaRanieri.
5:45PM CEST Welcome Cocktail
6PM CEST/12PM EDT Presentations
David Baker is an American poet, literary editor, critic, and educator based in Granville, Ohio, and Hudson, New York. He is author of many books of poetry and poetry commentary, most recently Transit (poems, W. W. Norton, 2026), Whale Fall (poems, W.W. Norton, 2022), and as editor, Collected Poems of Stanley Plumly (W.W. Norton, 2025). His work appears in such journals as The Atlantic, The Nation, New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry, and has been translated into Romanian, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian.
Mihret Sibhat was born and raised in Ethiopia before moving to California at 17. Her debut novel, The History of a Difficult Child, won a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. A graduate of the University of Minnesota’s MFA program in Creative Writing, she was a recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant. Her essays have appeared in the LA Times, The Paris Review [Daily], LitHub, and Electric Literature. She is currently revising her second novel, The Door of No Refund.
Page Hill Starzinger is a poet based in New York City. Her second book, Vortex Street, was short-listed for the Grand Prize in Poetry by the Eric Hoffer Award Committee. She has won honors such as the Barrow Street Book Prize for her first book Vestigial and the Noemi Chapbook Contest for her chapbook Unshelter. Previously the Copy Director at Aveda, Starzinger has also taught at Hudson Valley Writer’s Center and The Frost Place. Starzinger’s third poetry collection, Blood Brook, will be published in March 2027 by Four Way Books.