The Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, housed in the Department of English, and the CMU Creative Writing Program will welcome two poets on Nov. 5 and 6 for a class visit, joint reading and film screening.  

Paisley Rekdal and Cathy Linh Che will have a joint reading and conversation at 6 p.m. Nov. 5 in 1500 Posvar Hall.  

Redkal, who also will visit a class at Carnegie Mellon University earlier in the day, is the author of four books of nonfiction and seven books of poetry — most recently, “West: A Translation.” The former Utah poet laureate, she teaches at the University of Utah where she directs the American West Center. 

Che, a writer and multidisciplinary artist, is the author of “Becoming Ghost” (Washington Square Press, 2025) and “Split” (Alice James Books, 2014), and co-author, with Kyle Lucia Wu, of the children’s book “An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide to Our History” (Haymarket Books, 2023). 

She’s also the writer and producer of the documentary “We Were the Scenery,” which will be screened at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at 501 Cathedral of Learning. The 15-minute film is about Che’s parents, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che, who fled from Vietnam in 1975,  by boat and docked in the Philippines, where they were utilized as background extras during the filming of “Apocalypse Now.” This documentary short film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Short Film Jury Prize: Nonfiction