The annual Open Mouth Reading Series Poetry Festival is going virtual!
Join us on Friday, October 30, 2020 at 7:00pm CDT for readings by Festival features Michael Torres, Jessica Abughattas, Eloisa Amezcua, Shannon Sankey and Allison Joseph with an opening mini-feature by Calypso Jane Selwyn.
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The reading will take place virtually via Zoom with Otter Live Captions, and an ASL interpreter will be present. Access copies of all poems will be provided via Google Docs.
Register for the virtual reading by clicking on the "Registration" button on the Eventbrite page, donating any amount you can, and entering the required fields. You will receive an email with the Zoom information.
Suggested donation of $5.
Every donation to Open Mouth Reading Series supports our programming, ASL interpreters, and feature poets. Become a monthly patron on Patreon or make a one-time donation at our PayPal or to our GoFundMe campaign.
For more Poetry Festival events, visit the Events page on our website.
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FEATURED READERS:
Michael Torres was born and brought up in Pomona, California where he spent his adolescence as a graffiti artist. His debut collection of poems, An Incomplete List of Names (Beacon Press 2020) was selected by Raquel Salas Rivera for the National Poetry Series. His honors include awards and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, CantoMundo, VONA Voices, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, and the Loft Literary Center. Currently he’s an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Visit him at michaeltorreswriter.com
Jessica Abughattas is from California. Her debut book, Strip (University of Arkansas Press), is the winner of the 2020 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize selected by Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara. A Kundiman fellow, her poems appear in Tupelo Quarterly, Waxwing, Redivider, Best of the Net 2019, and other places. She lives in Los Angeles. Visit her at www.jessicaabughattas.com or on Instagram and Twitter at @abugoddess
Eloisa Amezcua is from Arizona. Her debut collection, From the Inside Quietly, is the inaugural winner of the Shelterbelt Poetry Prize selected by Ada Limón. A MacDowell fellow, Eloisa is the founder of Costura Creative. Her second collection of poems, Fighting Is Like a Wife, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. Visit her at www.eloisaamezcua.com and on Twitter at @Eloisa_Amezcua
Shannon Sankey is the author of We Ran Rapturous (The Atlas Review 2019). Her poems have appeared at Poets.org, Best New Poets 2019, Black Warrior Review, Puerto del Sol, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, the minnesota review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2017 Academy of American Poets Prize and a 2019 SAFTA residency. She holds an MFA from Chatham University, where she was the Whitford Fellow. She is the founder of Stranded Oak Press. Visit her at www.shannonsankey.com, or on Twitter at @shansankey
Allison Joseph lives, writes, and teaches in Carbondale, Illinois, where is she is part of the creative writing faculty at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The author of many books and chapbooks of poetry, she is the widow of the poet and editor Jon Tribble, to whom The Last Human Heart is dedicated. Read more about her at www.allisonjosephpoetry.com.