A statewide and month-long celebration of Utah’s poets and poetry throughout April 2022. Register to watch virtual events live or stream all events later via the Utah Humanities YouTube channel. All events closed captioned by AI Media.
To register for virtual events, click the event title to register for each event you wish to attend. Registration closes the day after the event. All panels will allow for moderated community Q&As and discussion.
The Utah Poetry Festival is supported with grants from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums and Utah Humanities.
Shop our festival’s virtual book fair here.
CORE FESTIVAL EVENTS
FRIDAY, APRIL 1st
5:30-6:30 PM Utah Poetry Festival in-person launch. Come listen to local K-12 students, and local slam poets perform their work and talk about the power of poetry to launch the Utah Poetry Festival. Free, in-person, and open to the public. Featuring short performances by the 2022 Utah Poetry Out Loud participants Araxan Olivares and Jackson Shemwell, Kearns High School students Claire Batterman and Kara Bell, West Jordan High and Middle school students Kimberly Meza Lopez and Hasiel Meza Lopez, Jorge Chauca Villar from Latinos in Action, and headliners C Valenta and Melissa Bond. An event with dance, music, and poetry! Event will also be live-streamed by the Utah Humanities Book Festival.
West Jordan Middle School
7550 South Redwood Road
West Jordan, UT 8408
SATURDAY, APRIL 2nd
1-2 PM Red Butte Poetry Walk and Workshop. Write poems in Red Butte Garden with Utah Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal. A poetry workshop for teens on up: writing prompts provided. Free, in-person and outside. Register with Red Butte Gardens.
4-5:15 PM Celebration of Chapbooks. An in-person reading to celebrate new and recent chapbooks by Robert Baldwin, Aaron Cance, Melissa Salguero, Lisa Roullard, Susan Sample, Natalie Taylor, Candace Thomas, and Sunni Brown Wilkinson. The King’s English patio. Masks required for entry into the store.
FRIDAY, APRIL 15
7-8 PM MST Headline Reading with Jay Hopler, Kimberly Johnson and Nan Seymour. Hosted by Paisley Rekdal
A headline reading to celebrate new and recent books by Utah poets Jay Hopler, Kimberly Johnson and Nan Seymour.
SATURDAY, APRIL 16
ROUNDTABLE: 9:30-10:15 AM MST
Poetry Out Loud vs Poetry Slam: A Teacher’s Roundtable
In this panel for high school teachers, organizers will discuss what divides and unites the Utah High School Poetry Slam Initiative and Poetry Out Loud. We will discuss strategies for bolstering the strengths of both programs and bringing together these communities for the benefit of all students. With Jean Tokuda Irwin, Amanda Hurd, Matthew Vanderlaan and Sally Wilde. Moderated by Willy Palomo.
CRAFT TALK 1: 10:30-11:15 AM MST
Artist Books and Re-Thinking the Page
What happens when poets combine image with text, or treat the poem (and book) as a visual and conceptual object, not just a literary one? From poetic experiments with time and collage to radical documentary or “uncreative writing” projects, this craft discussion around book arts and writing will make you re-think the material possibilities of the page. With Kathryn Cowles, Nathan Hauke and Craig Dworkin. Moderated by Paisley Rekdal.
CRAFT TALK 2: 11:30-12:15 PM MST
Poetic structure both excites and vexes poets at every stage of development, presenting the glorious challenge of working out how the logic of the poem’s sentences will interact with the competing logic of its structure. This session features four poets who offer perspectives on the kinds of questions poets ask as they balance the demands of form (even in so-called “free verse”) against the story the poem unfolds. With Michael Lavers, John Talbot, Meg Day. Moderated by Kimberly Johnson. *This panel will have an ASL interpreter.
CRAFT TALK 3: 2-2:45 PM MST
Poets increasingly work in multi-modal forms, combining text not only with image but sound, video, animation, mapping technologies and more. In this panel, we’ll explore the many ways that poetry has begun to merge with other forms of digital, visual and sonic technologies, expanding our ideas of what a poem is. With Ben Gunsberg, Danielle Susi, Laura Stott, Alex Caldiero. Moderated by Lisa Bickmore.
CRAFT TALK 4: 3-3:45 PM MST
Organizing a Poetry Manuscript
Do you have a bunch of poems that you’d like to be a book? Are you uncertain about where to start, or stuck, or looking for some ideas before you begin? Join us for this practical discussion of how to organize a poetry manuscript. With Jason Olsen, Lance Larsen, Cindy King. Moderated by Jennifer Tonge.
APRIL 16th, 7-8 PM MST Headline Reading with Danielle Dubrasky, Nancy Takacs, and John Belk. Hosted by Paisley Rekdal
A headline reading to celebrate new and recent books by Utah poets Danielle Dubrasky, Nancy Takacs, and John Belk.
STATEWIDE POETRY EVENTS
April 6, 7PM: Utah’s Ancient Seas: Poetry Workshop and Reading with Danielle Dubrasky and Natalie Young, Cedar City, UT
April 8-9th: Utah State Poetry Society Conference, virtual. Information here.
April 8-9th: Poetry workshops by Sunni Brown Wilkinson and Mike White, Helper, UT.
April 14th, 7 PM: Helicon West presents the Union of Table Scraps Poetry Group reading, featuring Isaac Timm, Aaron Timm, Asher Blakeley, Teresa Dyer, Brock Dethier, Shanan Ballam, Millie Tullis and Britt Allen, plus open mic. At Riverpoint Senior Housing Clubhouse, 784 Riverwalk Parkway, Logan
April 17th, 7-9 PM: Queer Poetry Night at Under the Umbrella Bookstore. 511 W 200 S Suite 120, Salt Lake City.
April 23rd-25th: Pre-Quill Conference, Utah League of Writers, UMOCA, SLC. Information here.
April 23rd, 3-4:50 PM: “The Art of the Sentence and the Line: A Generative Workshop on the Prose Poem” with Paula Mendoza, Pre-Quill Conference, Utah League of Writers, UMOCA, SLC. Register here.
April 27th, 6:30-7:30 PM: Former Utah Poet Laureate David Lee reads at the Southern Utah Museum of Art.
April 28th, 7 PM: Winners of the USU Creative Writing Contest, USU Merrill Cazier Library, Room 101.
April 28th, 7 PM: Steamboat Mountain Reading Series features former Utah Poet Laureate David Lee at KT Gallery, Helper.
April 29th, 7 PM: Utah State Youth Poetry Slam, virtual.
utahpoetryfestival.com 