Poetry is Meant to Be Shaped and Reshaped, and Leila Chatti Does Just That

September 25, 2025 - Gabrielle Yeary, Center for Poetry Staff

Photos by Madison Stark, Center for Poetry staff

 

Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet born in California and raised in East Lansing. Part of the first graduating class of the Residential College of Arts and Humanities (RCAH) at MSU, she pushes the boundaries of what poetry has historically been with her most recent book Wildness Before Something Sublime. 

Published in 2025 by Copper Canyon Press, Wildness Before Something Sublime uses a variety of different methods to explore the ability and inability to write. Most prominently within her new work, she examines her identity as a poet throughout major points of her life. As Chatti describes it, it is a book about process, the making of art, and the making of poems. 

“This is a book that is very interested in other poets, but in particular, other female poets,” Chatti stated.

On September 14th, Chatti visited East Lansing’s Copper Chimney Lounge at University United Methodist to meet old and new friends and read from her book. The event, hosted by the Lansing Poetry Club and the RCAH Center for Poetry, was kicked off by Lansing Poetry Club president Ruelaine Stokes. Stokes passed the mic to Anita Skeen, the founding director of the Center for Poetry, who also acted as one of Chatti’s early mentors. Skeen shared recollections of Chatti as an MSU student and a poet who showed exceptional promise even then. Skeen then welcomed Chatti to a room filled with students, community members, poets, and poetry lovers.

                                                          

     Ruelaine Stokes welcomes community members to the reading.                            Anita Skeen welcomes Leila Chatti to the lectern.

 

 

The Lansing Poetry Club was created in 1938, with regular monthly meetings that had attendees studying the practice of poetry. In the 90’s, the organization grew to be an official State of Michigan non-profit organization leading it to its current status. While the meetings originally consisted of a member-led analysis of a selected poem followed by sharing poems, under the direction of Stokes, they broadened their horizons in 2015 to include featured poetry readings, open mic sessions, writing workshops, and poetry fundraisers.

Ruelaine Stokes, the president of Lansing Poetry Club since 2015, also currently serves as Lansing’s Poet Laureate. While receiving her Masters Degree in English, she didn’t recognize her love for poetry until attending a poetry reading featuring three young MSU undergraduates. After joining a poetry workshop hosted by one of those undergraduates, it’s all been history.

For such an event, the planning process includes many details. With Chatti now working at the University of Cincinnati, the event required Stokes to work out scheduling between RCAH Center for Poetry, the Lansing Poetry Club, and Chatti’s busy schedule. Furthermore, she had to sort out room and sound reservations, press release distribution, and program scheduling.While the process may seem overwhelming, it all pulled together for a perfectly poetic evening with refreshments and a vibrant hum in the air.

“I have no doubt that one day Leila Chatti will be a name we associate with the most significant works,” Stokes said in her opening speech. “She has rich and powerful material in her background. We need her honest and compassionate voice at this time and at this moment.”

Chatti proceeded to read excerpts from her Wildness Before Something Sublime. The book is divided into five different sections: Oracle, Divine, Night Poems, After Thought, and Shadow/Self. These sections are used to explore different themes, but also organize some of the functions and methods for her poetry. In particular, Night Poems explored Chatti’s struggle with writing.

“I believed I could only be a good person (worthy of love and my place on this earth) if I was a good poet, and I believed the way to be a good poet was to write a poem every day,” Chatti writes at the end of her book. “ Because I needed to be good, having failed to all day, in bed I would write. On my phone, in the dark…But it wasn’t really writing, I told myself, and whatever had come of it was surely not a poem. Bad! Above each one the date, or else: Night Poem.”

Night poems were written on the brink of sleep and explore the idea of what good poetry is. While many may assume poetry is intentional and written at a desk with a cup of tea in hand, Chatti shows that good writing can come to us in the most unassuming of places. The only thing that has the complete control to hinder writing is ourselves.

                                 

                           Leila Chatti talks about the processes behind her new collection "Wildness Before Something Sublime."

 

 

Chatti shared many poems from the new book that are centos, which are poems composed entirely of lines from other authors’ works. Drawing from some of Chatti’s favorite poets—Lucille Clifton, Anne Sexton, C.D. Wright, among many others—she creates new poems based on her own experiences. She continues most of the book by reflecting on those who guided her to poetry. She reimagines poems to fit her voice, and seeks to better understand what poetry means.

All of which was met with enthusiastic applause at the end of her reading. It’s tough to say she had a moment to spare after the event when being ushered into warm greetings from locals, friends, and fans alike. She chatted afterwards about what poetry means, her new life in Cincinnati, and signed a number of books for many folks in the audience.

“I’m very much from East Lansing, so it’s so nice to be home,” Chatti quipped, before joining her husband and child to wrap up the weekend with family and friends.

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To view more photos from this event, click here to visit our Flickr page