2026 General Donations

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Tucson Poetry Festival / Ocotillo Literary Endeavors Inc

The Tucson Poetry Festival fosters an accessible and diverse celebration of poetry annually. Our workshops and readings celebrate the art of poetry and its power to inspire and connect. All festival events are free and open to all community members. 

If poetry is wrestling into words that which can&rsquo;t be said in any other way&ndash;&ndash;what are the mechanics of making that happen? Join us for &quot;Lush Desert: Contrast, Juxtaposition, and Metaphor&quot; with Tucson&#39;s new poet laureate, Logan Phillips! This workshop will study metaphor, contradiction and juxtaposition as techniques that open language as more than a sum of its parts. We&rsquo;ll read craft essays, deconstruct contemporary poems and use generative exercises to explore how dichotomy can open unique liminal spaces in our own poems. Throughout, we&rsquo;ll stay grounded in our context as writers in the Sonoran Desert, itself a contradictory space: a lush desert, a beautiful danger, a cultural landscape of border wall construction and humanitarian aid. Logan Phillips is a poet and cultural worker based in Tucson. He is author of the books Reckon (The University of Arizona Press, 2026) and Sonoran Strange, as well as the ongoing NoVoGRAF&iacute;AS series. Holding collaboration as a core creative practice, Phillips has contributed to a wide range of performance, music and community-centered education projects in the US, Mexico, Colombia and beyond. His website and newsletter are at Dirtyverbs.com. All Tucson Poetry Festival events are free and open to the public. Your registration helps us plan a welcoming space for all.&nbsp;

Lush Desert: Writing Contradiction, Juxtaposition and Metaphor with Logan Phillips

&ldquo;A shape poem, or concrete poem, is an arrangement of words on a page into shapes or patterns that reveal an image, such as in a calligram. These visual poems are an artistic blend of the literary and the visual arts. Readers experience a shape poem via its words, typography, and the visual representation of the poem&rsquo;s subject. In this type of visual poetry, the meaning of the poem is enhanced by the shape of the poem itself, rather than the actual words used.&rdquo; (Masterclass) Join us for an engaging workshop where we&rsquo;ll dive into the world of concrete poetry! We&rsquo;ll explore the innovative ways that concrete poets have played with language, blending visual, verbal, kinetic, and sonic elements. Through examining various examples, we&rsquo;ll discover how to create our own shape poems while embracing experimentation. Come ready to unleash your creativity and reshape yourunderstanding of poetry! Amber McCrary is Din&eacute; poet and zinester. She is Red House Clan born for Mexican people. Originally from Shonto, Arizona and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona. She earned her BA from Arizona State University in Political Science with a minor in American Indian Studies. She received her MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in poetry at Mills College. McCrary is also the owner and founder of Abalone Mountain Press, a press dedicated to publishing Indigenous voices. She is a board member of the Northern Arizona Book Festival. She is the AZ Humanities 2022 Rising Star of the year and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation LIFT awardee. Her debut poetry collection, Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of a Desert is outnow from University of Arizona Press. She currently resides on Akimel O&rsquo;odham lands. All Tucson Poetry Festival events are free and open to the public. Your registration helps us plan a welcoming space for all.&nbsp;

A Fighter Flowers: An Intro to Concrete Poetry with Amber McCrary

What thoughts do you carry/hide, what keeps you up at night that you are fearful of saying aloud? Join us for &quot;Poetry as Unburden&quot; with Catherine Strisik and refine the art of release.&nbsp;In this generative workshop, we&#39;ll write our way toward poems that release our burdens. Whether glory or grime, allow your poetry to spill and meander. To lighten. Catherine Strisik, award-winning poet, teacher, editor, is author of Goat, Goddess, Moon ( Holy Cow! Press, September 2025); Insectum Gravitis (Main Street Rag, 2019; finalist New Mexico/AZ Book Award in Poetry 2020); The Mistress (3: A Taos Press, 2016; awarded New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song (Plain View Press 2010, 2nd edition 2016); &nbsp;manuscript: Dear Unholy: (finalist: Two Sylvia&rsquo;s Press &amp; Elixir Press); was Taos, New Mexico&rsquo;s Poet Laureate 2020-2021; recipient of Taose&ntilde;a Award as Woman of Impact based on literary contribution in northern New Mexico; co-founder and editor of Taos Journal of Poetry, on advisory board of Pocket Samovar, is a Pushcart nominee, and has over 35 years of publications with poetry translated into Greek, Persian, and Bulgarian. Strisik&rsquo;s poems appear in &nbsp;Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Poet Lore, Drunken Boat, Ergon, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Kaleidoscope, Puerto del Sol, Tusculum Review, The Maynard, and elsewhere. She&rsquo;s received grants, honors and prizes from CutThroat, Peregrine, and Comstock Review, The Southwest Literary Center, The Puffin Foundation, as well as residencies at Lakkos Artists, Crete, Vermont Studio Center, Community of Writers, Truchas Peaks Place amongst others. Strisik currently divides her time between northern New Mexico and Cape Ann, MA. All Tucson Poetry Festival events are free and open to the public. Your registration helps us plan a welcoming space for all.&nbsp;

Poetry as Unburden with Catherine Strisik

Is there a mystic in you, a seeker longing to express potent insights? Using poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Mark Doty, Linda Gregg, Mark Strand, and James Wright, among others, &ldquo;The Alphabet of the Sacred: A Poetry Workshop&rdquo; with Cyrus Cassells, is designed to celebrate your individual spiritual expression through verse. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent political and social turmoil, many writers and readers have experienced a renewed sense of poetry&rsquo;s sacred power for consolation and truth-telling amid chaos. How have you looked for spiritual meaning and insight in your own work lately? Among the questions to be considered: if language is inherently dual, how do poets convey experiences and visions that go beyond our often polarized, everyday selves? Students are encouraged to share a poem that emphasizes revelation, oneness, and the link between the human and the divine. Cyrus Cassells is a poet, translator, and cultural critic. His books have earned the Poetry Society of America&rsquo;s William Carlos Williams Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and two Pulitzer Prize nominations. He is the 2025 recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. From 2021 to 2022 he was appointed Poet Laureate of Texas and received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship. He is a Regents&rsquo; Professor and University Distinguished Professor of English at Texas State University where he received the Presidential Excellence Award. All Tucson Poetry Festival events are free and open to the public. Your registration helps us plan a welcoming space for all.&nbsp;

The Alphabet of the Sacred with Cyrus Cassells

Join us for THE VERB: Its Uses and Beauty, a virtual session with Veronica Golos. In this interactive workshop, we&rsquo;ll explore the power behind the verbs in your lines. We will examine how strong, surprising, and intentional verb choices can elevate a poem. We&#39;ll look at poems that do wonderful things with verbs, and model our own work after the poets who do it well. Writers will receive a list of verbs to spark inspiration beforehand, and they are invited to bring both an old poem for revision, and a new one in which they&#39;ve used exciting verbs. &nbsp;You will also have time to generate work during the workshop. Veronica Golos is the author of GIRL, awarded the Naji Naaman Honor Prize, 2019 (Beirut, Lebanon); Rootwork, Winner of the Southwest Book Design Award in Poetry, 2016; Vocabulary of Silence winner of the 2011 New Mexico Book Award, translated into Arabic, Spanish and Persian; and A Bell Buried Deep, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. She teaches poetry for Tupelo Press, Gemini Ink (San Antonio, Tx.), Din&eacute; Technical Institute (Arizona), and SOMOS (Taos, NM). She will be teaching for the Tucson Poetry Festival, and presenting her work at the Wyoming Poetry Society Festival. She lives in Taos, New Mexico, with her husband, David P&eacute;rez. Workshop link will be sent out the week before the event and the morning of.&nbsp;

The Verb: Uses and Beauty, Winter Workshop with Veronica Golos

&quot;Please, put the book uphill on the desk.&quot; Join us for The Language of Location&nbsp;with our own Wyatt Welch. This is a hybrid event taking place in person at Write on 4th Community Center and streamed live for virtual attendees.&nbsp; Inside this poetry-writing workshop, we&rsquo;ll begin with an exploration of how different languages discuss space (as bodily-orientation, as visible versus invisible, as temporal metaphor, as emanating from a landform) to get participants to rethink the space of English. We will also explore how prepositions themselves in English move emotional and imagistic weight. This linguistics tour will offer participants some fresh ways to rethink where things are. Wyatt Welch&nbsp;(they/them) is a local Tucson poet and English teacher. Welch earned an MA in Linguistics from the University of Florida, and as a linguist, is interested in phonology and language revitalization movements. Welch&#39;s debut book of poetry, Capitalism Calls Poetry Lazy, was released in 2022 by FlowerSong Press with many of these poems having previously been published in some really exciting journals. Welch is currently working on their third book, The Tarot, which is a comprehensive, tarotic poetry collection of the 78 cards.&quot; They joined the board in 2024. Workshop link will be sent out the week before the event and the morning of.&nbsp;

The Language of Location with Wyatt Welch, HYBRID Winter Workshop

When the news feels like a siren, a poem can feel like a small, clear bell. Join us for Poetry as Protest: Writing for Human Rights, a virtual workshop with Janel Galnares, part of our winter workshop series. In this generative workshop, we&rsquo;ll create work that writes toward our collective and individual responsibility in protecting human rights, drawing inspiration from Langston Hughes, Ilya Kaminsky, Naomi Shihab Nye, Audre Lorde, Nazim Hikmet, and other poets who invite us to think about complicity, empathy, and action within oppressive systems. We&rsquo;ll end the workshop by linking our new stanzas together to create a collaborative renga. Beginners and long-time writers are welcome to join us as we risk vulnerability, experiment with writing difficult topics, and see what our language can build together in a time of crisis. Embrace the power of words in a session that delves into the intersection of poetry and social activism. Janel Galnares (she/her) is a poet and teacher from Tucson, Arizona living in Chicago. She has been teaching creative writing in secondary and post-secondary schools for over 10 years and is editor-in-chief for Harpy Hybrid Review. She was a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Poetry Center in 2023. Her work has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Portable Gray, Red Ogre Review, Poetry International, among others.&nbsp; Workshop link will be sent out the week before the event and the morning of.&nbsp;

Poetry as Protest with Janel Galnares, TPF Winter Workshop Series

***This is an in-person festival workshop held in the Cabaret Theater at the Temple of Music and Art. Please arrive 15 minutes before start time. Rhyme is often viewed as constricting and conventional. In this workshop led by 2025 featured poet Armen Davoudian, we'll explore how it can, instead, militate against constraint and convention. We'll approach rhyme as a way of thought, rather than simply as decorative. We will read and try our hands at writing poetry that is not just rhyming, but rhyme-driven.  Armen Davoudian is the author of The Palace of Forty Pillars (Tin House, US), long-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, and the translator, from Persian, of Hopscotch by Fatemeh Shams (Ugly Duckling Presse).

Why Rhyme with Armen Davoudian

Passion in Performance Poetry with Ashanti Files

***This is an in-person festival workshop held in the Cabaret Theater at the Temple of Music and Art. Please arrive 15 minutes before start time. In this workshop, led by poet and assistant UA professor Sara Sams, we will use some concepts from the discipline of particle physics, as discovered in the past century, to lead us to a deeper understanding of our perceptive faculties— and of the poems we most need to write. We will consider the paradoxical opportunities of “wave” vs “particle” poetics, and practice some of each. We will translate a poem, imitate a poem, and finally, write an original poem that learns from our workshop’s experimentation with language. And we will discuss the sequence of thought we’ve followed, pushing each other toward truer and more authentic verse.  Sara Sams is the author of Atom City, a book of poetry that scrutinizes various legacies of her Manhattan Project hometown: the received history of the atomic bomb, local mythologies orbiting that narrative, and closer stories of family and inheritance. Reviewing the collection, poet Sarah Vap writes: “Sams shows us what violence and invisible interiority and tenderness is at the core of the American hometown. At the core of the American superpower myth. At the core of American exceptionalism, and uranium, and the atom, itself— which is at the core of everything.” Sams grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and researches the influence discoveries in particle physics have had on contemporary poetics. Creatively, she is working on new poems about medical science, childbirth, infant surgery, and metaphysics, as well as a novel about nuclear-reactor-powered ghosts and the opioid crisis in rural Tennessee.

Particle Poetics: A Workshop Collider with Sara Sams

&nbsp;***This is an in-person festival workshop held in the Cabaret Theater at the Temple of Music and Art. Please arrive 15 minutes before start time. Since the beginning of time we&rsquo;ve been obsessed with time. How does it move? How are we held within it? How can we move in and out of it? Poets particularly seem obsessed with time and many have used poetry as a vehicle for time travel, finding queer and radical possibilities in going forward into the future or backward into the past for healing, or revolution, or for pure play. In this workshop with award-winning poet Danez Smith, we&rsquo;ll read a sampling of poets going forward, backwards, and deeper into time before designing our own machines (hint: its poems) that will move us across the timeline to discover what waits for us if we dive into the stream and let it carry us further into our imaginations.&nbsp; Danez Smith is the author of four collections including Don&rsquo;t Call Us Dead, Homie, and, most recently, Bluff. They are also the curator of Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes. For their work, Danez has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, as well as an array of grants, fellowships, and residencies including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Princeton Arts Fellowship. Smith teaches at the Randolph College MFA program and the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul, and lives in Minneapolis with their people.

Poems as Time Travel with Danez Smith

We're wrapping up our winter workshop series with a virtual open mic! This event is open to the public but you must register for the event here in order to receive the Zoom link to attend. Reading time will depend on how many readers sign up, so stay patient and flexible for this community event.

Winter Open Mic

Facilitated by our own Wyatt Welch, this Zoom workshop will explore how linguistics can enhance our poetry writing. Attendees will learn how vowels and consonants phonologically function in English so that writers can wield alliteration with more nuance and expertise. Through interactive exercises, we'll experiment with these elements to enrich our creative process and deepen the musicality of our poems. The workshop aims to provide a foundation for using sound effectively in poetry, regardless of experience level. By the end, participants will have gained new tools to experiment with and refine their poetic craft. <span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">Wyatt<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline"> (<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">they<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">/<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">them<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">) <span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">is a local Tucson poet and English teacher. Welch earned an MA in Linguistics from the University of Florida, and as a linguist, is interested in phonology and language revitalization movements. Welch's debut book of poetry, <span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline">Capitalism Calls Poetry Lazy<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">, was released in 2022 by FlowerSong Press with many of these poems having previously been published in some really exciting journals. Welch is currently working on their third book, <span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline">The Tarot<span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">, which is a comprehensive, tarotic poetry collection of the 78 cards." They joined the TPF board in 2024. <span fr-original-style="font-size: 14px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline;" style="font-size:14px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Roboto;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:center;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);vertical-align:baseline">Zoom link will be sent the week before the event.

Winter Workshop: Linguistics for Poetry with Wyatt Welch

I<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.25px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Roboto;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:0.25px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">n this<span fr-original-style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.25px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;" style="box-sizing:inherit;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Roboto;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:0.25px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);float:none;display:inline !important"> Zoom workshop, David Chorlton will share his Ekphrastic writing method. From David: "Seeing is just the beginning. A poem that grows from a work of art can move beyond translating visual imagery into language. Words might reach territory that drawing and painting only suggest. It doesn’t serve us as writers simply to appropriate the artist’s own creation, but to use it as a starting point toward whatever we discover for ourselves in the process, to see through the painting rather than simply looking at it." David Chorlton spent his early life in Europe and loved visiting the major galleries and began painting before it occurred to him to write poetry. Since moving to Phoenix in 1979, he has been drawn into the Southwestern landscape and owes more today to the desert than to historical study as a guide to his writing. His most recent book is Dreams the Stones Have from The Bitter Oleander Press, and other publications include The Inner Mountain from Cholla Needles in California, in which his paintings become integral to the poems that focus on the desert mountain near where he lives. Other works include Speech Scroll, a book-length sequence, and Shatter the Bell in my Ear, translations from Austrian poet Christine Lavant. Zoom link will be sent to registrants the week before the event.

Winter Workshop: The Ekphrastic Dimension with David Chorlton

<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">Get some insider tips on the publishing side of poetry from our own Sarah Kotemeier! In this Zoom presentation with Q&A, Sarah will share her publishing experience and insight. Sarah is the author of Ganbatte<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit"> (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019) and A ri ot Poetics: Erasures<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit"> (The Offending Adam, 2022). She is Library Director at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">, Ploughshares<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">, Alaska Quarterly Review, Sentence, Pilgrimage, Fairy Tale Review, The Feminist Wire, Barrow Street,<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit"> and Spiral Orb<span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">, among others.  She <span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">holds an MFA in Poetry and an MA in Library and Information Science, both from The University of Arizona. <span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit"><span fr-original-style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif; font-size: 21.12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;" style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:MiloSerifWeb, TimesNewRoman, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;font-size:21.12px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:normal;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline !important;box-sizing:inherit">Zoom link will be sent to registrants the week before the event.

Winter Workshop: Getting Published with Sarah Kortemeier

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2026Every donation directly supports poet honorariums, travel, and venue costs for the 2026 Poetry Festival.&nbsp;Why Give?<ul fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Keep poetry accessible to everyone.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Support a celebration of diverse voices and stories.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Strengthen community bonds through collaborative events.</li></ul>The Tucson Poetry Festival is always free and open to all, so we rely on donations from the public to keep us going. Thank you for being part of a 40+ year celebration of poetry.&nbsp;

2026Every donation directly supports poet honorariums, travel, and venue costs for the 2026 Poetry Festival. Why Give?Keep poetry accessible to everyone.Support a celebration of diverse voices and stories.Strengthen community bonds through collaborative events.The Tucson Poetry Festival is always free and open to all, so we rely on donations from the public to keep us going. Thank you for being part of a 40+ year celebration of poetry.

Your gift keeps the Tucson Poetry Festival free and open to everyone. Your support helps us welcome poets from near and far and gather our community around the shared experience of poetry. Donations directly cover:<ul fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Poet honorariums</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Travel and lodging</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Accessible venues and materials for all</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Open Mic Events</li></ul> Thank you for helping build an inclusive, diverse celebration of poetry in Tucson.

Your gift keeps the Tucson Poetry Festival free and open to everyone. Your support helps us welcome poets from near and far and gather our community around the shared experience of poetry.Donations directly cover:Poet honorariumsTravel and lodgingAccessible venues and materials for allOpen Mic EventsThank you for helping build an inclusive, diverse celebration of poetry in Tucson.

Tucson Poetry Festival / Ocotillo Literary Endeavors Inc

Tucson Poetry Festival / Ocotillo Literary Endeavors Inc

Past events

Past events

Lush Desert: Writing Contradiction, Juxtaposition and Metaphor with Logan Phillips

A Fighter Flowers: An Intro to Concrete Poetry with Amber McCrary

Poetry as Unburden with Catherine Strisik

The Alphabet of the Sacred with Cyrus Cassells

The Verb: Uses and Beauty, Winter Workshop with Veronica Golos

The Language of Location with Wyatt Welch, HYBRID Winter Workshop

Poetry as Protest with Janel Galnares, TPF Winter Workshop Series

Why Rhyme with Armen Davoudian

Passion in Performance Poetry with Ashanti Files

Particle Poetics: A Workshop Collider with Sara Sams

Poems as Time Travel with Danez Smith

Winter Open Mic

Winter Workshop: Linguistics for Poetry with Wyatt Welch

Winter Workshop: The Ekphrastic Dimension with David Chorlton

Winter Workshop: Getting Published with Sarah Kortemeier

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