Poetry @ the Public

Poetry readings highlighting regional and native Arkansas poets in partnership with the University of Central Arkansas School of Language & Literature.

Join us for an afternoon of light refreshments, community, and poetry! Doors will open at 2:00 pm and guests are invited to enjoy light refreshments and a meet-and-greet with the authors. Readings will start at 2:30 pm.

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About the Poets:

Paulette Guerin is a native of Little Rock who attended Louisiana State University, where she received a BA in English. She earned an MA in English from UCA and later an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Florida. While taking classes toward the MA, she worked on SLANT with then editor James Fowler as a Graduate Assistant. She now lives in Searcy and teaches literature and writing as an Associate Professor of English at Harding University. She has published widely in literary journals and is included in the anthology Best New Poets 2018, published by the University of Virginia Press, and Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry published by Cornerpost Press. Her initial book-length collection, Wading Through Lethe, was published by FutureCycle Press  in 2022. Her newest book, When I First Loved You, is slated for publication later this year.

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Michael Blanchard is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He now lives in central Arkansas, near the point where Cadron Creek flows into the Arkansas River. Since 2018, he has been an adjunct professor in the University of Central Arkansas’ School of Language & Literature. In addition to his teaching duties, he serves as editor of SLANT, the University’s international journal of contemporary poetry. Michael was educated at the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar and an inductee into Phi Beta Kappa and where he twice won the University Union Fine Arts Award for Poetry. He also earned a Master’s degree from Indiana University and completed additional graduate studies in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His fifth and most recent collection of poetry, The Things of This World, was published in February of this year.

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This event is free and open to the public.

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