Join us as we welcome back poet
P. Scott Cunnningham as he discusses
Self-Portrait as the "i" in Florida
with Clint Smith
To be held at Solid State Books on H St. NE
Tickets with, AND without a book are available here!
". . . formally various and deliciously propulsive." —Kaveh Akbar
A love letter to Miami and a meditation on fatherhood, Self-Portrait as the “i” in Florida paints a vivid picture of contemporary South Florida in all its contradictions and beauty.
Selected by Major Jackson as the winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize, Cunningham’s second collection weaves together ecological and familial landscapes, capturing both the spectacle—burning sugarcane fields, snake farms, chaotic highways—and the daily rituals that bind a family: school drop-offs, sick days, and small kindnesses. Blending formalist and free verse, the book becomes both an inquiry into belonging and a celebration of the essential everyday moments that define a life.
At once panoramic and deeply personal, Cunningham writes with a documentarian’s eye and a father’s heart.
P. Scott Cunningham is the author of Self-Portrait as the “i” in Florida (Autumn House, 2026), winner of the 2025 Donald Justice Poetry Prize, selected by Major Jackson. His debut collection, Ya Te Veo (University of Arkansas, 2018), was selected by Billy Collins for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared in The Nation, American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, POETRY, A Public Space, Harvard Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Monocle, and The Guardian, among others. Born and raised in South Florida, he is the founder of the O, Miami Poetry Festival. He lives with his family in Illinois.
Clint Smith is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021. He is also the author of two books of poetry, the New York Times bestselling collection Above Ground as well as Counting Descent. Both poetry collections were winners of the Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and both were finalists for NAACP Image Awards. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.