The Stanley will launch the latest iteration of its Thresholds: Poetry series with a 45-minute presentation by American poet, Guggenheim Fellow, Pulitzer Prize finalist and Iowa Writers' Workshop alum, Robyn Schiff. An excerpt of Schiff's book-length poem, Information Desk: An Epic, offering a wry, ekphrastic meditation on art and museum life, will be featured on the lobby wall that visitors can enjoy following the talk.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Office of Writing and Communication and coincides with the 2026 Downtown Fall Gallery Walk. Following the talk, visitors are invited to enjoy refreshments and music in the lobby and head up to the galleries to explore the latest exhibitions on view. Copies of the book will be available for purchase in the lobby.

About:
Robyn Schiff is the author of four collections of poetry, including the volume Information Desk: An Epic (Penguin 2023), a book-length poem set at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was awarded the Four Quartets Prize of the Poetry Society of America. A recipient of the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Schiff co-edits the independent poetry press Canarium Books and she is a professor at the University of Chicago.

Photo by Jean LaChat.