Please, please don’t look out your window. Yes, it is almost May. Yes, it is snowing. Before you bring that first spoonful of Froot Loops to your hungry mug, and before you reach for the life-saving espresso, you gotta check out Alexis Kienlen’s guest review of On the Road With Bob Holman. It’s a great portrait of the event. And by all accounts, last night was a humdinger of a night for poetry.

There’s a great lineup today. Here are today’s festival events:

  1. Echoes From the Grand Canyon. 12:00noon – 1:00pm, CBC Center Stage, City Center Mall. This event focuses on publishing poetry. “Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.” So wrote poet-humorist Don Marquis some eighty years ago. Has anything changed? Join Jonathan Hart, Jenna Butler, and Trisia Eddy, who bring you their new books and talk about what it’s like to publish.
  2. Dionne Brand in Conversation. 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Student Lounge, Old Arts Building, U of A Campus. Note the revised event time – was 4:30, now 4:00. You don’t want to miss this one. Our headlining author will read from her work and chat with interviewer Libe Garcia Zarranz. Admission is free, and go prepared to have your mind altered.
  3. Every Poem Tells a Story Don’t It? 7:00pm, Latitude 53, 10248 – 106 Street. This event focuses on narrative poetry. Poetry has told stories from “The Odyssey” to “Casey at the Bat.” So how are poets using narrative today? In many different ways, as our guest performers will illustrate. Their performances will be followed by a lively discussion moderated by host (and narrative poet) Alice Major.
  4. Friday Night On A Roll. The inimitable, indefatigable, unstoppable, undefinable Jem Rolls puts words on the line on this late night performance that is sure to delight, wound, and move. Expect explosions and tectonic plate rearrangement. Seriously, if you’ve never seen him live, you owe it to everyone to check out his show.

All right, poets. Don’t let this idiotic snow set you back. Go forth and listen.