Poet laureate will MC 'Oklahoma Poetry at the Bayou' to celebrate National Poetry Month on April 28

 

Oklahoma Poet Laureate Benjamin Myers will be featured among at least five poets and student poets at a special event during National Poetry Month in April.

“Oklahoma Poetry at the Bayou/A Celebration of National Poetry Month” will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 28. Best of Books and the next-door Bayou Grill & Bakery are combining to do the evening event. Poets will begin by signing their books starting at 5:30 p.m. at Best of Books and then do public readings from 6 to 7 p.m. on the Bayou Grill’s stage. They will finish the evening at Best of Books.

 Other poets will include Jessica Isaacs, the most recent 2015 Oklahoma Book Award winner in Poetry, James Coburn, a finalist for the award, and poet Dorothy Alexander of Village Books Press. The evening will include a reading from past poet laureate Nathan Brown’s new book “To Sing Hallucinated/First Thoughts on Last Words,” with all poems based on a person’s last words or gestures. 

 Students, including Jill Hawkins of Oklahoma City University’s Red Earth Creative Writing MFA program, also will be involved. Other poets may be invited.

 “Ben and the other poets are continuing a tradition of outstanding poets from this state,” said Joe Hight, president of Best of Books. “This will be a great way to celebrate their work.”

 Myers, the master of ceremonies for the evening, is an author of two books, a past Oklahoma Book Award winner and the Crouch-Mathis Associate Professor of Literature at Oklahoma Baptist University.

  Isaacs just won the Oklahoma Book Award medal for “Deep August.”

  The event will be free, but seating will be limited at the Bayou Grill, so call Best of Books at 340-9202 to reserve a seat or seats. The Bayou Grill will have drinks and a menu for those who attend.                 
               (Best of Books is at 1313 E. Danforth in Edmond’s Kickingbird Square Shopping Center. The Bayou Grill & Bakery is next door at 1315 E. Danforth.)