PGHwrites: grace (ge) gilbert’s “Holly” with Diana Khoi Nguyen

Photo Courtesy: grace (ge) gilbert.

grace (ge) gilbert’s debut full-length collection, Holly, merges poetry, memoir, and visual art in an effort to recreate the author’s grandmother, who was murdered in her home in 1976, and to make sense of their ensuing relationship with their father, who found his mother’s body when he was eleven years old.

Having never been told explicitly by their parents about her murder, grace pieces together their grandmother’s story through fragments, ephemera, history, and the imaginary, looking past the spectacle of the murdered woman and into the things that come, like ripples, after.

This program will be followed by a public reception with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks for all artists and attendees.

You can purchase a copy of grace’s book, Holly, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

About the Author:

grace (ge) gilbert (they/them) is a poet, writer, and collage artist. They received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022, where they now teach. They are the author of Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), a hybrid image and text book about the 1976 murder of their paternal grandmother, as well as three chapbooks. Recent work can be found in Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, the 2023 Best of the Net Anthology, Pleiades, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. They teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at Brooklyn Poets, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and other institutions. They are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all.

About the Moderator:

Diana Khoi Nguyen is the author of Root Fractures and Ghost Of. A Kundiman and MacDowell fellow, she teaches in the MFA programs at Randolph College and the University of Pittsburgh.

About Your Visit:

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.