Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse

Join the Center for Racial Justice in welcoming Airea D. Matthews, acclaimed poet, educator, and Ford School Alumna, to discuss her latest work Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification, through a personal lens. This event is part of our Fall 2023 Racial Foundations of Public Policy speaker series and is open to U-M students, faculty, staff, and community partners. 

About the speaker

Airea D. Matthews’ first collection of poems is the critically acclaimed Simulacra, which received the prestigious 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Matthews is also the author of Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification, through a personal lens. Matthews received a 2020 Pew Fellowship, a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and was awarded the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from the 2016 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Matthews earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. In 2022, she was named Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate. She is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College where she directs the poetry program.

Faculty Expert

Molly Spencer

Writing Instructor

Molly Spencer is a writing instructor, the author of two poetry collections, If the House (U. of Wisc. Press) and Hinge (SIU Press), and many essays and book reviews. Prior to her writing career, she worked in public sector project management and legislative relations. She holds degrees in economics, public policy, and writing.

• Airea D. Matthews
• Center for Racial Justice
• poetry
• Ford School
• Racial Foundations of Public Policy
• DEI
• Afroamerican and African studies
• Molly Spencer