In her poem “Morning Swim,” Maxine Kumin defies societal expectations that sexuality is exclusively for the young. Here, five women poets in their mid-40s to late 60s—Kim Addonizio, Zeina Hashem Beck, Susan Browne, Danusha Laméris, and Julia Levine—will share frankly erotic work that refuses to be muted or mooted and makes a bulwark of bodily sensuality against death, time, and our aging selves. 

Kim Addonizio is the author of nine poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two craft books, The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. Her latest poetry collection is Exit Opera (W.W. Norton) and Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. She also has two word/music CDS: Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing (with Susan Browne) and My Black Angel.  Her awards include two fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim, and two Pushcart Prizes. 

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet whose collection of 40 palindromic sonnets, This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, releases from Penguin Poets in 2027. She won the 2023 Arab American Book Award for O, named a Best Book of the Year by LitHub and The New York Public Library. She’s the author of Louder than Hearts and  several other books and coeditor of We Call to the Eye and the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent. 

Susan Browne has published four books of poetry: Monster Mash, Just Living, Zephyr, and Buddha’s Dogs. Her awards include the Four Way Books Intro Prize, the Los Angeles Poetry Festival Prize, the Steel Toe Books Editor’s Prize, the Fischer Poetry Prize, the Catamaran Poetry Prize and the James Dickey Poetry Prize, and a Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellowship. She was an English professor for 34 years and currently teaches poetry workshops online. 

Danusha Laméris's first book, The Moons of August was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye for the 2014 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize. She’s also the author of Bonfire Opera, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and winner of the Northern California Book Award. Recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, Danusha is on the faculty of Pacific University’s MFA Program. Her third book, Blade by Blade, was published by Copper Canyon in fall 2024.                                                                                                               

Julia Levine’s six poetry collections include Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction, winner of the Wolfson Press Poetry prize; Ordinary Psalms (LSU press), a Nautilus Award winner; and Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight (LSU press), winner of the Northern California Book Award. Recently, she was awarded a Pushcart prize, as well as an American Academy of Poetry Poet Laureate Fellowship for her work in building resiliency in teenagers related to climate change through poetry, science and technology.