What makes a poet?
Erica Reid dives into the life and work of poet and writer, Michael Hettich. Join this reading and discussion between one poet creating community here in Colorado and another who has shaped the writing of countless students for decades.
Hettich is the author of the poetry collection, A Sharper Silence, published by Terrapin Books in 2025. It has been called a “heartfelt, heartbreaking collection” (Marie Harris). His previous book of poetry, The Halo of Bees: New and Selected Poems, 1990-2022 won the 2024 Brockman-Campbell Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals and anthologies, and he has published more than a dozen books of poetry across four decades. His other honors include several Individual Artist Fellowships from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, The Tampa Review Prize in Poetry, the David Martinson/Meadowhawk Prize, a Florida Book Award, the Lena M. Shull Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society, and the inaugural Hudson-Fowler Prize from Slant magazine at the University of Central Arkansas. A new book of poems, Waking Up Alone, is forthcoming in 2026. He lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina. His website is
michaelhettich.com.
Erica Reid is the author of
Ghost Man on Second, winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize (Autumn House Press, 2024). Erica’s poems appear in
Rattle,Cherry Tree, Colorado Review, and more. Erica is a 2025 Fellow at the Vermont Center for the Creative Arts and teaches in Western Colorado University’s MFA program.
ericareidpoet.com
