Poetry by the Sea is thrilled to welcome Cornelius Eady as the Keynote speaker for our 2026 Conference. The conference will run from Tuesday May 19 to Friday May 22, 2026, and the Keynote reading will take place on Wednesday, May 20 following the banquet. Books will be available for sale before and after the Keynote, and you are also welcome to bring books you already own for a brief signing after the event.
Please see link for conference registration information.
Register for Keynote ONLY
Time: 8:15-10:00 p.m.
Venue: Dempsey Hall, Mercy Center, 167 Neck Rd., Madison, CT 06443
Tickets: $15 for non-conference attendees (Pay in advance or at door)
Cornelius Eady is the author of several books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed Hardheaded Weather (Penguin, 2008), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. His work appears in many journals, magazines, and the anthologies, including Every Shut Eye Ain’t Asleep, In Search of Color Everywhere, and The Vintage Anthology of African American Poetry, (1750-2000) ed. Michael S. Harper.
With poet Toi Derricote, Eady is cofounder of Cave Canem, a national organization for African American poetry and poets. In 2023, he and Derricote were the inaugural recipients of The Poetry Foundation’s Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry. In 2025, Eady received the Academy of American Poets’ Wallace Stevens Award, which recognizes lifetime achievement in Poetry. Eady was elected Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2026. Most recently, Eady read his commissioned poem, “Proof,” at NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration on January 1, 2026. Eady has been a teacher for over twenty years, and is currently the Chair of Excellence in the English Department at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.
In most of Eady’s poems, there is a musical quality drawn from the Blues and Jazz. Indeed, many of his poem titles allude to traditional African-American hymns and modern musicians such as Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis. At the Keynote event, Eady will perform with his literary band, The Cornelius Eady Trio, featuring the guitarist Charlie Rauh and the violinist Concetta Abbate. The Cornelius Eady Trio is a New York-based band that calls upon troubadour traditions and evokes the sounds and storytelling of blues greats like Muddy Waters, folk legends such as Woody Guthrie, and the unexpected grooves and subject matter of the Talking Heads. At the same time, band members hold a keen sense of innovation, as they are all working text-and-music makers engaged in building new combinations of words and sounds.
The Keynote event will begin with a short reading by Eady followed by a 20-40 minute set with the band.