Students had the opportunity to ask Franny Choi questions after her
poetry reading.
The Department of English and Andover administrators selected poet Franny Choi as the 2026 Isham Fellow in Poetry. Hailing from Minneapolis and having attended Brown University, Choi has authored four books including “Soft Science,” a recipient of the Elgin Award for Science Fiction Poetry. Preceding their tenure, Choi held a poetry reading for the Andover community in Kemper Auditorium sponsored by the Isham Fund and Donald Sutherland Fund.
The Isham Fellow in Poetry position is awarded annually to an established poet chosen by a group of English Department instructors and Andover administrators. Leon Calleja, Instructor and Chair in English, elaborated on the decision process behind Choi’s candidacy and pointed to the timely relevance of Choi’s work.
“The Isham fund and the Donald Sutherland fund make it possible for us to invite a prominent poet each year to give a reading, a lecture in a master class, and spend some time with the faculty in the English Department. We’ve had an amazing array of incredible poets over the past few decades since the program’s inception. Franny’s [work] has been taught in the department at times. There is a lot of excitement about “Soft Science” because of how it plays with and reflects on artificial intelligence (AI). It’s always been in our minds that at some point we would invite her, and so this was the year,” said Calleja.
Calleja also explained stand-out aspects of Choi’s literary works that enabled audiences to meaningfully engage. Calleja continued, “She’s someone whose poetry reads very well to our audience, which is our students. Her poetry deals with big issues and reflects on the world in ways that are really lively and interesting. So, that was another reason why we decided on her, and we were lucky enough that she was available. Usually the discussion of who gets chosen is one that happens among the department, the chair, the assistant chair, and others as well. We’ll have some input from the faculty, and then the visiting writer residents will also have some input as well.”
Kate McQuade, Instructor in English, helped organize the poetry reading event. McQuade described the preparation process and logistics of arranging the event.
“The English Department started preparing for this visit almost a year ago. We reviewed and discussed a number of potential poets, ultimately zeroing in on Franny Choi as our first choice for the upcoming school year. We worked with their agent to set up the day and make sure they were okay with things like recording video for the simulcast. We worked with English teachers to plan lessons and make excerpted work available for students. And we tried to get the word out on campus in various ways, with posters and advertisements. This is always a special event for the English Department,” wrote McQuade in an email to The Phillipian.
Senior Tasnia Begum ’26 took the course Asian American Literature and Film during the Winter Term and attended the poetry reading. Inspired to participate after encountering Franny Choi’s work in class, Begum offered positive feedback on the audience experience and noted Choi’s crowd work with students.
“The atmosphere was really great, and she was good with crowd work. You could sit in silence if you wanted to or you could clap if you wanted to, and it didn’t have to be awkward. I’m grateful to everyone who asked a question and that we could get through all the questions hearing her insight on questions that are super important to us and our backgrounds and our futures meant a lot… Something that I took away was that she mentioned that there’s someone out there in the world that looks just like me, except we are not the same. We don’t share the same privileges, and things like that,” said Begum.
Cora Rogers ’27 enjoyed reading a Franny Choi poem in her English class, and was similarly encouraged by her teacher to attend the reading. Rogers found an overarching theme of hope across many of Franny Choi’s works, and shared her favorite poem from the reading, “The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On,” a poetry collection by Choi.
“I thought that the apocalypse poem was really cool. I thought the idea of describing ‘apocalypses’ that happened in the past was insinuating hope. Even if we feel like we’re in an apocalypse now, you can look back at everything we’ve moved through and how we have gotten over it. So, we’ll get through everything eventually. Franny Choi is exactly the type of poet we need right now in this era because she is really pushing for this idea that there is so much hope for change and we can get through anything. Looking back at where we were before today, really calls for action and inspires a lot of hope,” said Rogers.
Aviad Awa ’28 noted that live literary performances offer unique benefits to audience members. In particular, Awa noticed how the oral delivery of a poem reveals the performer’s personal perception of its meaning.
“It makes a lot of things make sense. When you’re hearing the author read the poem live, you can see their interpretation of their poem, especially with word choice and stress. You can see what words the author chose to stress and their cadence and rhythm, elements you wouldn’t get from reading the poem straight up yourself. [The event] was a valuable experience to see the perspective of a young author, whose viewpoint many students may not be familiar with. Andover allows the mixing of perspectives. Having access to a different perspective is a great tool or resource to further one’s own understanding of their surroundings,” said Awa.
