This series, among the most enduring and prestigious in the U.S., was established in 1986 by friends and supporters of Jean Burden to honor her achievements as a poet, essayist, editor, teacher, and scholar. An Illinois native, University of Chicago alumna, and Altadena resident, Burden served as poetry editor of Yankee Magazine for 47 years, and published her poetry in prominent magazines including Poetry, Saturday Review, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review and American Scholar. She is the author of two poetry collections, Naked as the Glass (October House, 1963) and Taking Light from Each Other (University Press of Florida, 1992). Her poetry has been praised by figures such as James Dickey who called “[h]er voice unforced and lovely, saying the right un-heard-of-things with naturalness,” and Mary Oliver who described her poems as “silky, meditative, purposeful...filled with the deft cadences of reason.” Burden wrote six bestsellers on animal welfare, and an essay collection, Journey Toward Poetry (October House, 1966), lauded by May Sarton as “a key to a way of looking and a way of being.” The Jean Burden Series also honors and celebrates Jean Burden’s decades of commitment to sustaining poetry’s presence at Cal State LA.
This increasingly popular event features an annual reading by a major poet. Noted poets, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Poets Laureate have been guest readers since the inception of the series. Poets visiting campus have included Andrew Motion, Rita Dove, Anthony Hecht, Maxine Kumin, Mary Oliver, Harryette Mullen, Lucille Clifton, Galway Kinnell, Carolyn Kizer, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Richard Wilbur, Linda Pastan, and Mark Strand.
Cal State LA Mourns Jean Burden - 2008
2022 Jean Burden Poetry Reading
Featuring Naomi Shihab Nye
February 22, 2022, 6 p.m. Pacific Time
Register for the Zoom by clicking here.
Past Readers
2021
Claudia Rankine
2020
Marilyn Chin
2019
Kwame Dawes
2018
Joy Harjo
2017
Daniel Borzutsky
2016
Juan Felipe Herrera
2015
Sonia Sanchez
2014
Li-Young Lee
2013
Wanda Coleman
2012
Rhina Espaillat
2011
Vikram Seth
2010
Wendy Cope
2009
Victor Hernàndez Cruz
2008
Adrienne Rich
2007
Andrew Motion
2006
Rita Dove
2005
Linton Kwesi Johnson
2004 Anthony Hecht (press release)
2003 Harryette Mullen (press release)
2002 Liz Rosenberg (press release)
2001 David St. John (press release)
2000 Galway Kinnell (press release)
1999 Linda Pastan (press release)
1998 Donald Hall (press release)
1997 Jean Burden (press release)
1996 Richard Wilbur
1995 Mary Oliver
1994 Diana O'Hehir
1993 Killarney Clary and Bruce Bond
1992 Carolyn Kizer
1991 Lucille Clifton
1990 Mark Strand
1989 Maxine Kumin
1988 Howard Nemerov
1987 Tess Gallagher
1986 Paul Zimmer