Second Annual Open Mouth Poetry Festival Oct. 31 to Nov. 3

Open Mouth Reading Series will present its second annual poetry festival, presenting local poets in conversation with visiting poets from around the nation from Wednesday, Oct. 31, through Saturday, Nov. 3.

In partnership with the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies, this event will feature Peter Twal, whose book was selected as the winner of the second annual Etel Adnan Poetry Prize and published by the University of Arkansas Press. Twal will read at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, alongside University of Arkansas professor Mohja Kahf and author and scholar Kaveh Bassiri.

The festival, which is sponsored in part by a grant from Experience Fayetteville, will also feature the following events:

• Reading by Emma Bolden and Ashley Roach-Freiman, presented at the Fayetteville Public Library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31, in partnership with True Lit.
• Reading by University of Arkansas M.F.A. recipient Brody Parrish Craig and poet Dorothy Chan, presented at Walton Arts Center at 9:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, following a performance by Kealoha.
• Reading by poet Kimberly Ann Southwick at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, at Fenix Gallery.
• Generative writing workshop with poet Nabila Lovelace, presented at the Fayetteville Public Library at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, in partnership with True Lit.
• Reading by poets Nabila Lovelace and Sarah Rose Nordgren at 7 p.m Saturday, Nov. 3, at The Nines.

All events are free and open to the public. University of Arkansas students and affiliates have also designed custom broadsides for each featured poet, limited editions of which will be available for purchase—along with books by the poets—at each of these events.