The Burning Chair Readings
present
Local Poet Fest
with short readings by eight local poets
Roger Barrett
Willi
Goehring
Catherine
Hotaling-Donnelly
Katie Nichol
Geoff Oelsner
E. Milton Vaught
Jessica Weisenfels
Rodney Wilhite
Saturday, August 18, 8 pm
Nightbird Books
205 West Dickson Street
Fayetteville, Arkansas
We suggest attendees bring a coffee mug, wine glass, or $3
as a donation to help stock Nightbird Books’ new coffee and wine bar.
Come celebrate locally-grown poetry of diverse styles in a
laid-back atmosphere. Beverages with
and without alcohol will be available for purchase.
The Burning Chair Readings,
founded by Katy and Matthew Henriksen in New York City in 2004, have organized
regular and special literary events in several cities and now call Nightbird
Books and Fayetteville, Arkansas home.
Look for future monthly readings at Nightbird Books that will bring some
of the most exciting emerging poets to share their work here in Fayetteville.
Roger Barrett self published 8 issues of the
zine Arm Chair Water Boy before they were doomed to the infoshops of
imagination. You can find his other zines—Love God and You are Dead, For
Victoria Forgetting, and We’re More River Piss than Grounded Kid by
asking someone in their 20’s to ask someone in their 30’s. Random poems appear
in Art Amiss chapbooks here and there. A failed stand-up comedian, a lousy
hitchhiker, a regular college dropout, and a singer in the unsuccessful punk
rock bands Kings of New England, Blood Eagle, The Counterlife, and currently in
Escapists, there are so many things that
he can't do.
he can't do.
Willi
Goehring
was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, but has spent the last ten years in
Western Illinois before moving to Arkansas. He received a BA at Knox College in
Galesburg, Illinois and is in pursuit of an MFA in poetry at the U of A. In
addition to writing poems, he likes to sing when he can.
Catherine
Hotaling-Donnelly is a non-traditional student of English/Creative Writing about to
graduate from the University of Arkansas and has had numerous articles and
columns published in the Ozark
Gazette, The White River
Valley News, The Northwest Arkansas Times and
the Fayetteville Free Weekly.
She has been on the board or has held offices in community groups such as Poets
Northwest and The Ozark Poets & Writers Collective. Donnelly has won
numerous poetry and writing contests and has had her poetry published in the Lamplighter Review and @Urban
Magazine. She has lived on both coasts before getting landlocked in
Arkansas. She currently lives in a Civil War farmhouse on four acres with
her husband and sons, two cats, a pug and twenty-nine chickens.
Katie
Nichol
is a fourth-year student in the MFA program at the University of Arkansas. She really
likes to bake cakes.
Geoffrey Oelsner is a poet, a singer/songwriter,
and a psychotherapist. He has lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the Ozarks
bioregion since 1979. His wife, Leslie Berman Oelsner, is also his musical
partner. Native Joy: Poems Songs
Visions Dreams is Oelsner’s first full-length book of poems. He presents
his poetry and original songs in not-for-profit benefit performances,
accompanied by harmonium, dulcimer, autoharp, guitar, and banjo.
Arkansas-born-and-raised E. Milton Vaught
has accepted that after living in Fayetteville for the past 16 years, she is
now a “local.” She is currently pursuing her second degree in English/Creative
Writing at the University of Arkansas. Most of the time, she feels as though
she is living On the Grid.
Jessica Weisenfels is a poet of necessity. She
provides shelter to outcasts and animals while mothering two daughters and a
neighborhood of other people’s children and pursuing an English degree and
affordable health care.
Rodney
Wilhite is
originally from Oklahoma and is an MFA candidate at University of Arkansas.