Hey there! You throwin' an offsite for NOPF 2026? Let's know where y'at and what y'all doing, and we'll list it on this page. Here's the form: https://forms.gle/jcWz8yEYgxj4HyRN6
“Firry Spiral” — A Mercury Firs & Spiral Editions Collaboration takes place on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 5:00 PM at Okay Bar (1700 Port St., New Orleans, LA). This collaborative reading features poets Yuyi Chen, Chris Philpot, Gabrielle Octavia Rucker, Miri Karraker, Evan Gray, Bo Hwang, Leah Nieboer, Stella Corso, and Matt Broaddus, with music by Neal Todten.
Thursday Night Reading Series (TNRS) takes place on Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 7:30 PM at Magnolia Pantry (19 E. Vermilion St., Lafayette, LA 70501). Presented by University of Louisiana at Lafayette graduate students in celebration of National Poetry Month, this reading features NOPF panelists Gauri Awasthi and Nicole Stockburger, along with poet Allyssa Veney. Awasthi, originally from Kanpur, India, is a New York–based writer and educator whose collection Mother Wound is forthcoming in 2026; Stockburger is the author of Nowhere Beulah and a PhD candidate at UL Lafayette with work in major literary journals; and Veney is a Louisiana native and joint MA/PhD student in Literature and Creative Writing at UL Lafayette.
PRROBLEM X Blue Bag Press Reading will be held on Friday, April 17, 2026 from 5:00–7:00 PM at Kermit’s Treme Mother-in-Law Lounge (1500 N. Claiborne Ave., New Orleans). Hosted by Blue Bag Press and PRROBLEM, this lively reading features Eric Tyler Benick, Jenkin Benson, Corbett Bresner, Sol Cabrini, Yuyi Chen, Ry Cook, Christine Kelly, Kimberly Lambright, Maura Modeya, Laura Paul, and Léon Pradeau.
Ecopoetry from the Inside Out takes place on Friday, April 17, 2026 from 5:30–7:00 PM at The Abolitionist's Sanctuary (1653 N. Robertson St., New Orleans, LA). This reading spotlights nature poetry by systems-impacted writers, reflecting on how a shared kinship with the living earth persists despite the isolation of carceral systems. Featured poets include Robert “Yogi” McKee, Cefus Jenkins, James Washington, Obie Weathers, Tim Young, and Black the Creator. The event is hosted by Freedom to Grow, an abolitionist initiative that imagines and creates a landscape without prisons through public art, community gardens, and archives.
Good Tyme Writers: Bill Lavender & Steve Hughes takes place on Friday, April 17, 2026 at 5:30 PM at Farrington Smith Gallery (1924 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA). In response to the art show Tim Hailey’s Redux, Lavender and Hughes present poems on rock ’n’ roll, the “oh-no” feeling of dismemberment, bathing in bars, and other happy absurdities.
Continuing Education Poetry Reading takes place on Friday, April 17, 2026 at 6:00 PM at St. Roch Tavern (1200 St. Roch Ave., New Orleans, LA). This reading features Ariel Yelen, Claire DeVoogd, James Loop, and Rachael Guynn Wilson, along with additional readers.
Indie Press Poetry Reading takes place on Friday, April 17, 2026 at 6:00 PM at Anna’s NOLA (2601 Royal St., New Orleans, LA — upstairs). This evening of poetry features four independent publishers—Black Lawrence Press, Tupelo Press, Sundress Publications, and The McNeese Review—and includes readings by Christine Kwon, Isaac Pickell, Darby Price, Teresa Dzieglewicz, Jeffrey Pethybridge, Stacey Balkun, K. Iver, Bess Cooley, Gwenyth Wheat, Robert Hess, and Madeline Ricard.
Walking Poem takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 12:00 PM, meeting at the front entrance of the New Orleans Healing Center (2372 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA). Presented by the Red Rover Series, participants are invited to bring one poem to read outdoors and join a collective walk. Featured writers include Carrie Olivia Adams, Steven Alvarez, Lee Ann Brown, Julie Carr, Amanda Deutch, Teresa Dzieglewicz, Jennifer Firestone, Edgar Garcia, Kenning JP Garcia, laaura goldstein, K. Lorraine Graham, Nathan Hoks, MC Hyland, Christine Kanownik, Jennifer Karmin, Stephen Miller, Sarah Rae, Kenyatta Rogers, Michael Ruby, Sarah Rosenthal, Jennifer Scappettone, Samantha Schaefer, Dawn Tefft, Snezana Zabic, and Sharkey Zalek, along with participants. Stay for the full hour or drop in for a few minutes—all languages are welcome.
nDada Workshop takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 4:00 PM at Garden on Marais (4600 Marais Street, New Orleans, LA 70117). nDada is a combination of an unconventional, perhaps absurd, cartoon and a poem or micro-poem/thought; the two are entirely unrelated and often come together by chance, with the cartoon unexpectedly interrupting the poem and reorienting the reader’s point of view, perhaps deflecting any sense of ego in the reading or writing. The workshop will begin with a few nDada skits, where participants are the audience, using a set of Whiskey Radish’s nDada poems as prompts as facilitators perform improvised moments of theater to capture the spirit of “rude interruption” that is the heartbeat of nDada. Everyone will be given a chance to create poems in the nDada style and to work in pairs to act these out, in what is sure to be a historic moment in the history of the absurd!
NOLA Poetry Crush takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 4:00 PM at Parlour Gallery (822 Camp St., New Orleans, LA 70130). This reading invites poets to share a poem they “have a crush on”—one they return to again and again—alongside a poem of their own written in conversation with that work. Readers include Dorsey Craft, JD Debris, jason b crawford, Kenning JP Garcia, Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez, Chengru He, K Iver, Jennifer Karmin, Marcia Mahoney, Maya Marshall, Paul Martinez-Pompa, Tawanda Mulalu, Karisma Price, Phil SaintDenisSanchez, Jessica Q. Stark, Randall James Tyrone, and Samantha Schaefer.
Film Screening: Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge (6621 St. Claude Ave., Arabi, LA 70032 | 504-352-1150 | www.Zeitgeistnola.org). This special screening features the acclaimed documentary about Africa’s first Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Premiering in 2024 in celebration of the writer’s 90th birthday, the film has since screened internationally, earned multiple awards, and is now used in classrooms and cultural institutions around the world. The event will conclude with a short Q&A with the film’s director, Mr. Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, who is also co-editor of Best Literary Translations, featured at the 2026 New Orleans Poetry Festival.
Speak Social Reading Series: Sublimity City & Friends takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 from 5:00–7:00 PM at Saturn Bar (3067 Saint Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA). Presented by the Speak Social Reading Series, this event features members of the Louisville-based poetry collective Sublimity City alongside guest readers V. Joshua Adams, Adam Clay, Ann DeVilbiss, Jessica Farquhar, John James, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Karisma Price, and Joy Priest.
“The Chicago Table” Reading takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 5:30 PM at Mudlark Public Theatre. Hosted by Chicago Review, The Year, Transat’, and Selva Oscura, this collaborative event brings together an international group of writers for a dynamic early-morning reading. Featured readers include Hannah Piette, Emily Bark Brown, James Garwood-Cole, Lee Ann Brown, Vincent Broqua, Camille Bloomfield, and Emmett Lewis.
Futurepoem & Sputnik & Fizzle Reading takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 5:30 PM at The AllWays Lounge & Cabaret (2240 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117). This reading features authors and friends from Futurepoem and Sputnik & Fizzle, including David Buuck, Aiden Farrell, Joe Hall, MC Hyland, Isabel Sobral Campos, Laura Jaramillo, Jerika Marchan, and Mónica de la Torre.
The First Last Word Reading takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 6:00 PM at Touro House (Touro & Urquhart, two blocks north of St. Claude and three blocks west of Siberia, New Orleans, LA). This reading features Cody-Rose Clevidence, Valerie Hsiung, Jimin Seo, Bo Hwang, Ian U. Lockaby, and Rodrigo Toscano.
Texas Review Mega-Reading & Dance Party kicks off on Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 10:00 PM in the Twilight Room at The AllWays Lounge & Cabaret (2240 St. Claude Ave.). Celebrating 45 years of Texas Review and the many contributors who have shaped its legacy, this high-energy evening features readings by Danielle Pafunda, Paul Cunningham, Henry Goldkamp, Sean F. Munro, Becca Klaver, Vanessa Jimenez Gabb, Monica Prince, Jadine Pluecker, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Megan Kaminski, Aliah Lavonne Tigh, Steven Alvarez, Mike Bagwell, Parker Logan, Petra Kuppers, Stephanie Heit, Shira Dentz, Maura Modeya, Brent Armendinger, and many more. The celebration keeps going with a dance party starting at midnight.
Walking Poem takes place on Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 12:00 PM, meeting at the front entrance of the New Orleans Healing Center (2372 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA). Presented by the Red Rover Series, participants are invited to bring one poem to read outdoors and join a collective walk. Featured writers include Lee Ann Brown, Kenning JP Garcia, Kai Ihns, Roman Johnson, Jennifer Karmin, Kenyatta Rogers, Michael Ruby, Samantha Schaefer, S. Yarberry, Megan Kaminski, Jessica Smith, and Dawn Tefft, along with participants. Stay for the full hour or drop in for a few minutes—all languages are welcome.
Winter Editions Reading takes place on Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 3:30 PM at Siberia (2227 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117). Winter Editions, a literary small press focused on poetry and its intersections with the essay, novel, and visual and performing arts, presents a reading by its authors James Loop, Jacqueline Waters, Serena Solin, Leah Flax Barber, Cristina Pérez Díaz, Claire DeVoogd, and Robert Fitterman.