THE FESTIVAL
OF WORDS NOVEMBER 8-9, 2024
FEATURING

A$iahMae

A$iahMae, stylized A$iahMae, (they/she) is a Black, non-binary Southern poet, humorist and cultural worker with roots in Georgia, South and North Carolina. A multi-hyphenated artist, their background spans across film, curation, production, performance and language arts. A$iahMae is a Watering Hole Fellow and their work has been featured in The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston Food & Wine Festival, The Post and Courier, and more. They are the co-creator of the writing platform For The Scribes and co-host of its podcast FTS Presents: Penpals, along with fellow poet Willie Kinard III. They are currently serving as the Second Poet Laureate of Charleston, SC.

FEATURING

Darrell Bourque
Darrell Bourque was born in southwest Louisiana in 1942. He started publishing poems when he worked on his Ph. D. at Florida State in the mid-70s and is the author of six books of poems: Plainsongs (issue # 1 in the Cajun writers series of Cross Cultural Communications, Merrick, NY,1994), The Doors Between Us (the inaugural issue of the Louisiana Writers Chapbook Series of Louisiana Literature Press,1997), Burnt Water Suite (Wings Press, San Antonio,1999), The Blue Boat (the inaugural issue of University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press's Louisiana Writers Series, 2004), and Call and Response: Conversations in Verse (with Jack B. Bedell- Texas Review Press, 2009), and In Ordinary Light, New and Selected Poems (University of Louisiana Press, 2010). He was named the Artist of the Year by the Acadiana Arts Council in 2001 and he served as both President of the National Association of Humanities Education and Editor in Chief of its journal Interdisciplinary Humanities. He is professor emeritus in English at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and he was named poet laureate of Louisiana by Governor Kathleen Blanco in 2007. He served in that capacity in 2007 and 2008 and was reappointed to the position in 2009 by Governor Bobby Jindal. Bourque lives with his wife Karen, a glass artist, in rural southwest Louisiana

FEATURING

Tyler Robert Sheldon

Tyler Robert Sheldon is an American poet, writer, educator, editor, and critic. He is the author of the full-length poetry collections When to Ask for Rain (Spartan, 2021), and Driving Together (Meadowlark Books, 2018), as well as the chapbooks Consolation Prize (Finishing Line, 2018), Traumas (Yellow Flag Press, 2017), and First Breaths of Arrival (Oil Hill Press, 2016). With James Benger he coauthored Against the Dark: road poems (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019), a composite travel narrative. Sheldon is the Editor-in-Chief of MockingHeart Review, and is also a book reviewer for various print and online publications. His poetry, fiction, artwork, and reviews have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Quiddity International Literary Journal, The Tulane Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Pleiades, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Coal City Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, Entropy Magazine, Thorny Locust, The Big Nasty Press, and other places. His latest chapbook, "Everything is Ghosts" is forthcoming this fall from Finishing Line Press.



Past Featured Authors
Jack Bedell 2018
Darrell Bourque 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017
Jericho Brown 2015
Patricia Cravins 2007
Desiree Dallagiacomo 2011
Jarvis DeBerry 2012
Toby Daspit 2010
Toi Derricotte 2011
Anderson Dovilas
Cornelius Eady 2019, 2018
Kendra Hamilton 2010
Kelly Harris 2012
Ava Leavell Haymon 2014
Rebecca Henry 2013
Yuri Herrera
D'Andre Hill
(Baton Rouge Slam Team) 2010
Ravi Howard 2009
Ladee Hubbard 2018
Kirby Jambon 015
Barb Johnson 2011
Allison Joseph
Julie Kane 2012
Fabienne Kanor 2013
Randall Kenan 2012
Saddi Khali 2007
Genaro Ky-Li Smith 2013
Yvette Landry 2016
Corey Ledet 2015
Akeem Martin 2013
Patrice Melnick 2012
Jessica Powers 2009
Mona Lisa Saloy 2009
Clare L. Martin 2007
Jerry McGuire 2007
Bonny McDonald 2012
Rain Prud'homme-Cranford 2016
Charlie Rauh 2018
Roddie Romero 2014
Donney Rose
(Baton Rouge Slam Team) 2010, 2019
Naomi Shihab Nye 2013
Chancellor "Xero" Skidmore
(Baton Rouge Slam Team) 2010, 2012
Tim Seibles 2011
Patricia Smith 2017
Olympia Vernon 2010
Cedric Watson 2018
Latasha Weatherspoon 2010, 2014
Lana Wiggins 2007
Jocelyn Young
(Baton Rouge Slam Team) 2010
Reggie Young 2007
Luis Urrea 2014