The 2020 Salem State University Writers Series opens with a craft panel "On Writing Poetry" presented by Joseph O. Legaspi and Susan Rich.

Joseph O. Legaspi is the author of the poetry collections Threshold and Imago, both from CavanKerry Press; and three chapbooks: Postcards (Ghost Bird Press), Aviary, Bestiary (Organic Weapon Arts), and Subways (Thrush Press). Recent works have appeared in POETRY, New England Review, World Literature Today, Best of the Net and the anthology Reel Verse (Everyman’s Library). He cofounded Kundiman, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing generations of writers and readers of Asian American literature.

Susan Rich is the author of four books of poetry; Cloud Pharmacy, The Alchemist's Kitchen, Cures Include Travel and The Cartographer's Tongue: Poems of the World (White Pine Press). Her awards include an Artists Trust Fellowship, PEN USA Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Times of London Literary Supplement Award. Rich’s poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, O Magazine, World Literature Today and elsewhere. She has two books forthcoming: Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected (Salmon Press) and Blue Atlas (Red Hen Press). Although born and educated in Massachusetts, Rich teaches at Highline College in Seattle, Washington and is the cofounder of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women.