Poet

Jessica Q. Stark is the author of Buffalo Girl (BOA Editions, forthcoming April 2023), Savage Pageant (Birds, LLC, 2020) and four poetry chapbooks, including INNANET (The Offending Adam, 2021). Savage Pageant was named one of the “Best Books of 2020” in The Boston Globe and in Hyperallergic. Her poetry has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry, Poetry Society of America, Pleiades, The Southeast Review, Carolina Quarterly, The Boiler, Tupelo Quarterly, Glass Poetry Journal, among others. She is a Poetry Editor at AGNI and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Florida.

Aaron Woodson is a Florida-based military combat veteran who has served in the US Air Force and US Air National Guard for over 15 years. He began his military career participating in military campaigns such as Operation Iraqi Freedom and Inherent Resolve. At a very young age, Aaron began to nurture an interest in and passion for poetry. He began to write poems at school and his love for writing grew so deep that he told his parents that someday he would publish his own book. Having moved to Jacksonville in 2016, he decided to finish up his now-completed book, The Face of Expression, a poetry book that fuses story-telling and non-fiction clips into it.

How do you talk to kids about slavery? In the new book, An American Story, New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander's unparalleled poetry combines with debut illustrator Dare Coulter's singular art to present a sweeping account of our country's founding. They'll join us, as part of their book tour, for an interview with Jacksonville's own Rahman Johnson to talk about how they put this book together and what they want readers to take away from it. The book and this interview program are intended for middle and high schoolers, educators, parents, and caregivers.