A Morning with the Poet Laureate

Come see Phil Asaph, named Cortland County's first Poet Laureate in 2026, for a live reading!

Phil's poetry has been described as “tough and tender, playfully serious, and almost always accessible,” and his work has been published in journals here and abroad, including Poetry, Tampa Review, and The Humanist. The readings will be accompanied by a brief writer's talk and Q&A. Join us for a celebration of writing, poetry, and the English language!

More about Phil: Poet, educator, meditation instructor, and Cortland County’s first poet laureate, Philip Asaph has been in love with poetry since childhood. As a student, he received scholarships and fellowships to Eckerd College, Bucknell University, and NYU, where he studied under some of America’s most prestigious poets and earned his MFA. As a teacher, he taught poetry, creative writing, and public performance for 20 years at The Long Island High School for the Gifted and Talented in the Arts and at numerous other schools and colleges before making Cortland his home ten years ago. Philip is also a well-known meditation instructor in the region and at the Cortland YWCA and is currently completing a self-training manual for meditation and a collection of poems entitled Here at the Heart of Western Civ.