May is AAPI Heritage Month, a time to pay tribute to generations of Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders whose cultures, languages, & innumerable contributions have enriched our history. Civitella celebrates our many AAPI Fellows & spotlights American poet Jenny Xie (CRF 2018).

Xie’s first collection, Eye Level, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award, as well as the 2017 recipient of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and Princeton University’s Holmes National Poetry Prize. Currently a faculty member at Bard College, Xie’s second collection, The Rupture Tense, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in September 2022. Click here to read her most recently published poem, “Umbrian Paces,” which appears in the latest issue of The Margins. Xie wrote “Umbrian Paces” at Civitella, oftentimes on the terrace overlooking the Secret Garden. During her time at the Castle, Xie quickly earned her still-uncontested title as the Fellow who has checked out the most books from our library during a residency session. She will be reading at a pop-up poetry event at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC on May 21st at 6:30PM. Click here for more information.