Local Poet Fest, Volume One (8/18/12)

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.

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.