We are excited to introduce July's featured Poet of the Month: Aishvarya Arora!
Arora will give a reading and lead us through a generative writing workshop from 7pm-8:30pm on July 1st, 2025 at 12Gates, located at 106 N 2nd St. Doors open at 6:30pm and close promptly at 7pm.

Curated by Sanam Sheriff, THE POETS' STUDIO is a monthly gathering for local poets who are interested in writing, sharing, and connecting through poetry. This event is free and open to all who are interested in engaging more deeply with lyric and the written word. 

Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and The Seventh Wave, among others. Sanam’s work has been published in Indiana Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, Washington Square Review, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. They currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organize the Reading Series. Sanam is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.

This Month’s Poet is Aishvarya Arora, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this Junly’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.

Aishvarya Arora is a poet, teaching artist, and cultural orgarizer from Queens, NY.

They're the author of Mr. Time, which is forthcoming from Gold Line Press in 2026. They've received support from the Falbright Program, Tapelo Press's Merrill Family Fellowskip, Brew & Forge, and the Asian American Writers' Workshop, where they were a Poetry Coalition Fellow. Their writing is featured in, or forthcoming from, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Poetry Northwest, The Margins, Foglifter and elsewhere.

Currently, they live in Ithaca, NY where they teach poetry at Correll University. Find them online at coolslug.wordpress.com.