LitFest 2025: Trans/Nonbinary Ecopoetics in the Garden with Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Aaron El Sabrout & imogen xtian smith

As the seasons shift from summer to fall, City of Asylum welcomes poets Aaron El Sabrout, imogen xtian smith, and Julian Talamantez Brolaski to the Alphabet Reading Garden for a poetry reading and exploration of ecologies. 

This expansive reading takes a note from Deseree Fontenot, cofounder of the Queer Eco Project, who defines ecology as “the study of the relationships of home and the knowledge of home.” These trans and nonbinary writers will embark on a poetic exploration of their own homes, with special attention to the intricacies of our ecosystems, formed by both the natural world and our more-than-human kin, as well as the people who make up our communities. It is a meditation on nature, and the ways in which one might turn to the natural world to cultivate one’s own wilderness and reimagine ways of being. 

About the Author:

Julian Talamantez Brolaski (it /xe/ they) is a poet and country musician. They are the author of Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books, 2017), Advice for Lovers (City Lights, 2012), and gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011). Julian plays with the band Juan & the Pines, and their first full-length solo album, It’s Okay Honey, came out in 2023. Julian was the 2023–2024 Bagley Wright lecturer, a 2021 Pew Foundation Fellow, and the recipient of the 2020 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry. Its poems were recently included in Queer Nature (2022), When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020), and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (Nightboat, 2020). Julian is the co-editor of The Glittering Field: A Gathering of New Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Poetry with Crisosto Apache, forthcoming from Litmus Press in 2026.

Aaron El Sabrout is a transgender alien currently living on unceded Haldimand Tract Territory (Haudenosaunee, Michi Saagig Anishinaabe, Attawondaron). He is originally from Cairo, Egypt. He makes comics, art, poetry, and video games, all of which are weird and trans and to do with plants somehow. His work has been published in We Want it All: A Radical Anthology of Trans Poetics, featured in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival, and he is a recurring contributor to T! zine. His games and zines can be found at https://toreachpoise.itch.io. As you read this, he is likely out dreaming of mushrooms or planting seeds for liberation.

imogen smith is a poet and transexual. She is the author of STEMMY THINGS and the forthcoming RAW & ZERO, both from Nightboat Books. Her writings have appeared in this journal and that, and she is the recipient of fellowships from The Poetry Project and NYFA. imogen recently moved to LA, loves true punks, hates cops of all denominations, and believes in a free Palestine.

About Your Visit: 

This program will take place in the Alphabet Reading Garden (1406 Monterey St., Pittsburgh, PA 15212). As a result, this program will be available in person ONLY. 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is open for brunch from 9:30 to 2 p.m. and for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Please visit OpenTable or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.