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We think the Writers Resist event included in our weekly culture picks sounds pretty excellent, so we tracked down co-organizer/poet Dana Levin to get a liite more information. Levin most recently released Banana Palace, a collection of poems that's receiving rave reviews from such esteemed publications as the Boston Review and The Washington Post. Catch Levin's brief reading this Sunday at Writers Resist, alongside writers like Arthur Sze, Valerie Martinez, Joan Logghe and more.

How did you get involved with Writers Resist?
I was doing a reading at Florida State University, and Erin Belieu, who is a professor there and also a press mate of mine at Copper Canyon Press, asked if I wanted to get invovled. It was really her brainchild. The whole idea is to create these events all over the country to raise money in support of nonprofits that serve things we thought would be imperiled with the current administration, like women's health, immigration or civil liberties in general.

How did you select the participating authors?
We wanted to have as many voices as possible. And instead of having four, five, six 'stars,' we wanted as many writers from diverse styles as we could. We really wanted to cast a wide net, because as much as we wish it were an endless event, it couldn't be.

What's going on with you outsdie of the event?
I'm in a time of change. After living in Santa Fe 19 years, I'll be moving to St. Louis permanently. I'm running around reading for my book. I guess the most high-profile thing is that I'll take part in this Library of Congress thing called Life of a Poet, where I'll be interviewed by The Washington Post's Book World editor Ron Charles and talk about my process. I'm sort of trying to intuit what my next writing project might be.

Santa Fe Reporter