Contemporary Writers Series Welcomes Philip Metres

April 12, 2024
Canisius University

BUFFALO, NY – The Canisius University Contemporary Writers Series will welcome award-winning author and poet Philip Metres to campus on Tuesday, April 16. The event takes place at 7:00 p.m. in the Grupp Fireside Lounge, located on the second floor of the Richard E. Winter Student Center.  The event is free and open to the public.  Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and seating is first-come, first-served. A question-and-answer session and reception will follow the reading. 

Metres was born in San Deigo and grew up outside of Chicago. He graduated from the College of Holly Cross and earned an MFA and earned a PHD from Indiana University.  

Metres is the author of 12 books including Sand Opera, Shrapnel Maps, Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance, and his most recent Fugitive/Refuge

Among his awards and honors are the Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannon Literary Fellowship, two NEA (National Endowment of the Arts) fellowships and three Arab American Book Awards. 

Metres is a professor of English and director of the Peace Justice and Human Rights program at John Carroll University. 

Founded with a grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation and continued through the Peter Canisius Distinguished Teaching Professorship Program, the Contemporary Writers Series is generously supported today by the Hassett, Scoma and Lowery Endowments and with the cooperation of The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Just Buffalo Literary Center, the Center for Urban Education and Talking Leaves Books. 

For more information or to watch a live stream of the event, Email Mick Cochrane, professor of English and coordinator of the Contemporary Writers Series, at @email

Canisius was founded in 1870 in Buffalo, NY, and is one of 27 Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S. Consistently ranked among the top institutions in the Northeast, Canisius offers undergraduate, graduate and pre-professional programs distinguished by close student-faculty collaboration, mentoring and an emphasis on ethical, purpose-driven leadership.