Jennifer Polson Peterson + Catherine Simone Gray

Name: Jennifer Polson Peterson + Catherine Simone Gray
Start: 2026-07-07T17:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-07-07T18:00:00-05:00
Location: Jennifer Polson Peterson + Catherine Simone Gray

July 7, 2026 @ 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Overview

Degenerate Era of an Expanding Universe is a book about apocalypses large and small.

The 2 poems in this meditative debut collection explore economic and climatological trends toward dissolution, and how these forces seep into the domestic sphere. Whether exploring the constellations of family dynamics or observing natural and human disasters, Jennifer Polson Peterson reflects on “the newly unmade world” that nonetheless urges us to continue rebuilding.

Jennifer Polson Peterson is the author of Degenerate Era of an Expanding Universe (Belle Point Press, 2026) and Must Resemble Leisure (Seven Kitchens Press, 2022). She serves as the 2024-28 Poet Laureate of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 2025 she was named a Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals, including The Threepenny Review, The Laurel Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Colorado Review, Image, The Southern Humanities Review, and Denver Quarterly. Her poems have been adapted for performance by choir and orchestra, featured on Poetry Daily, and nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches writing at the University of Southern Mississippi.