Slash Pine Press Fourth Annual Festival
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — More than two dozen poets will read from their work during the Slash Pine Press’s fourth annual festival Friday, Oct. 12, and Saturday, Oct. 13, in venues at The University of Alabama and in downtown Tuscaloosa.
The events are free and open to the public.
Among the poets reading at the festival are Ethan Saul Bull, author of “In the Hour and a Bedroom Later” (Slash Pine Press, 2012); William Burke, author of “The World is Full of Peasants” (Slash Pine, 2011); and Cindy St. John, author of “Be the Heat” (Slash Pine, 2011).
Also featured are Dr. Mark Yakich, associate professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans; and Carol Lynne Knight, co-director of Anhinga Press.
Invited faculty poets are Carolyn Hembree instructor at the University of New Orleans; Bryn Chancellor, assistant professor of English at the University of Montevallo; Dr. Randy Blythe of the University of Alabama-Birmingham; Dr. Norman Golar, assistant professor at Stillman College; and Ashley McWaters, instructor of English and coordinator of undergraduate creative writing at UA.
Also featured are 25 undergraduate creative writers from these institutions.
“The festival mirrors most closely what we do at our press and in our internship program: foster and promote the work of rising writers at all levels, from those who are engaged in undergraduate creative writing programs to those published by nationally significant presses,” said Dr. Patti White, director of Slash Pine Press. “We want to invite everyone in the community to join us as we celebrate the way words bind us together, not only intellectually but in deep and lasting ways that alter the way we see the world.”
The first Slash Pine reading will be at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, on the lawn in front of Gorgas House and feature poets Summer Upchurch, Alex Munster, Kyle Dennan, Monica Marie Linam, Alexandra Franklin and Riley Patrick.
The second will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, at 205 Gorgas Library and feature Carol Lynne Knight, Lindsay Hodgens, JM Gamble, Judah Martin, Debra Logan, Bryn Chancellor, Robert Conditt, Amber Brown and Ethan Saul Bull.
The third will be at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Green Bar, 2350 Fourth St. in Tuscaloosa, and feature Dr. Mark Yakich, Jasmine McElwee, Nadia Barksdale, Evan B. Patton, Ashley McWaters, Laurie Christolear, Dr. Norman Golar, Blake Posey and William Burke.
The fourth will be at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at Mellow Mushroom, 2230 University Blvd. in Tuscaloosa, and feature Cindy St. John, Ethan Taylor, Dr. Randy Blythe, Lauren Howton, Dani Langone, William Gillette and Carolyn Hembree.
For details, go to http://slashpinepress.com/ or contact White at patti.white@ua.edu or Joseph Wood at josephpatrickwood@gmail.com.
Founded in 2009, Slash Pine Press publishes chapbooks of poetry and mixed-genre work. Slash Pine Press is housed in UA’s English department, part of The College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.
Support for Slash Pine Press comes from the Alabama Writers Forum, the Alabama Center for the Book, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the University of Alabama English department and its creative writing program and UA’s College of Arts and Sciences.