Creative Conversations: Jay Gao
Poet Jay Gao in Conversation
Creative Conversations
Date: Monday 16 November 2026
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Venue: University Memorial Chapel
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Jay Gao
Jay Gao is a poet and writer from Edinburgh, Scotland, living in New York City. His second poetry collection The Dead One, The Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber is forthcoming in Fall 2026 from Nightboat Books and Carcanet Press. His debut collection Imperium (Carcanet, 2022) was a winner of the 2023 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize, an Eric Gregory Award and a Somerset Maugham Award. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
His pamphlets and chapbooks include: Bark, Archive, Splinter (2024) and Bark, Archive, Splinter (2024). He earned his MFA in Literary Arts (Poetry) from Brown University. He was a co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, a former reader and book reviewer for Poetry magazine, and a former Contributing Editor for The White Review. He is represented by Matt Turner at RCW Literary Agency.
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Creative Conversations is supported generously by The Ferguson Bequest. Professor Thomas Ferguson (1900-1977), Henry Mechan Chair of Public Health (1944-64), bequeathed his estate to the University, with the instruction that the money should be used to foster the social side of University life.