Poetry Readings
A rapt audience at Nightbird Books on 31 August 2010
On the last Tuesday of every month (except December) OPWC features regional and nationally acclaimed poets. An open mic for audience members is a vital part of the evening.
We meet at Nightbird Books, 205 W. Dickson St. in Fayetteville. All ages are welcome to the Collective program, but be cautioned that the language and themes of contemporary poetry can be raw. Nightbird’s books and gifts will be for sale as well. Featured readers often offer their books and chapbooks (and sometimes CDs and DVDs) for sale, and are happy to autograph them.
Coming up
7 p.m. Tuesday, May 28 — Fiction writer Padma Viswanathan. Her first published novel, The Toss of the Lemon, earned remarkable reviews. The year 2014 will see the release of her second novel.
Upcoming Events
- Tuesday, June 25 — We welcome back Michael Heffernan. He is the author of the recent collection At the Bureau of Divine Music.
- Tuesday, July 30 — To Be Announced. Very soon.
The collective is proud to have as a host Fayetteville’s locally owned independent bookstore Nightbird. It is a member of the American Booksellers Association, specifically its IndieBound program for independent bookstores and their fans. Nightbird Books offers beverages and tasty snacks. Buy a book, get a free coffee.
All ages are welcome at Nightbird Books.
Monthly Featured Readers
Here is how the Ozark Poets & Writers Collective chooses the featured artist for its monthly program.
The collective schedules its programs months in advance. We rarely audition formally, nor do we accept everyone who requests.
The board often picks featured writers by:
- Recommendation of at least two board members.
- Studying a poet’s published works plus video or audio (often via the poet’s website or social network page). and/or
- Seeing the poet doing 4-minute sets at many OPWC open mic’s.
We turn down some requesting writers because they don’t seem to have 30-45 minutes of top material or have a proven stage presence. We tell them that maybe with another year or two of writing and open mic’s or similar endeavors they may meet those two criteria, when we’ll reconsider.
Click for OPWC contact info. Northwest Arkansas has other comparable venues for writers and spoken wordsmiths. The main ones can be found on the OPWC links page.
