Page65 presents Charif Shanahan reading from his poetry collection ‘Trace Evidence’ – followed by conversation with Rishi Dasidar (Neptune’s Projects).

…Not a portion of the life, Not a possible life,

but my tangled, and patient

Actual implausible resilient fucked-up life?

-‘Trace Evidence’ 2023

Please join us for Page65’s autumn offering! We’ll be doing something a little different this time…

We’re honoured to host Charif Shanahan in conversation with Rishi Dasidar in London(!!) Celebrating and beholding Charif’s latest poetry collection ‘Trace Evidence’, which is currently longlisted for the 2023 National Book Awards for Poetry.

If Page65 was propelled into existence to be a balm for chaos via poetic performance – this iteration will be a personalised version of that. Charif joins us from Chicago for our 8th set of offerings. There will be no open mic this time, however the evening will be short and sweet – consisting of readings from Trace Evidence, as well as listening in on a conversation between two poets. We want to champion new intimacies and take the opportunity to be bold and borderless in bearing witness to this beautiful poetry and this discussion.

Charif Shanahan is the author of two collections of poetry: Trace Evidence: poems (Tin House, 2023), which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry, and Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry/SIU Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award. He is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Northwestern University.

A poem from Rishi Dastidar’s Laurel Prize longlisted third collection, Neptune’s Projects (Nine Arches Press), was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2024. He is editor of The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century (Nine Arches Press), and co-editor of Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (Corsair). He also reviews poetry for The Guardian (UK) and is a trustee of Wasafiri.