The event, which was free and open to the public, was part of Quinnipiac's Creative Writing Series.

Murillo is the author of the poetry collections, “Up Jump the Boogie,” a finalist for both the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Pen Open Book Award. He additionally published another book, “Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry,” winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award, as well as a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the NAACP Image Award.

His many honors include the Four Quartets Prize from the T.S. Eliot Foundation and the Poetry Society of America, two Larry Neal Writers Awards, a pair of Pushcart Prizes, the J Howard and Barbara MJ Wood Prize from the Poetry Foundation, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Recently, his poems have appeared in “American Poetry Review,” “Poetry” and “Best American Poetry” anthology collections in 2017, 2019 and 2020. He is an associate professor of English at Wesleyan University.