Roundtable

Not often associated with poetry, horror’s genre elements can cut a poem open and make it bleed. Through embodiments of the grotesque, the Gothic, and the uncanny, panelists will discuss manifestations of the horror genre’s multifarious, mutating influences within their work. Where does horror lurk in historical and contemporary poetry and what possibilities does it offer poets as a means of exploring the past, trauma, speculative futures, and self-determination? What is the role of horror in contemporary poetry? Is it having a “moment” or has it been with us all along?

This roundtable examines the distinctive narrative and poetic traditions of Louisiana, focusing on how the state’s unique cultural, historical, and ecological landscapes shape its contemporary literature. Emily Goldsmith, whose work traces a distinguishing narrative modality across the Circum-Caribbean region and explores Louisiana’s literary traditions and their intersections with race and colonial history, will moderate the conversation. The discussion will engage five Louisiana poets: Julia Johnson, Dara Barrois/Dixon, Chad Foret, Brad Richard, and Nicole Cooley.

In Optic Subwoof, Douglas Kearney writes: “Humor and horror, there is no or.” This panel will examine how invoking the laughable in poetry not only recognizes the ridiculous, but also links a reader with their power in relation to the inciting horror. “It is better to say, ‘I am suffering,’ than to say, ‘This landscape is ugly,’” says Simone Weil. This panel will speak to why it might be better to say “this is what I can’t endure alone” than to say “this is what I can’t endure.” 

Ekphrasis is usually defined as poetry written in response to art. This roundtable radically expands the practice, revealing its potential to bring action, activism, self-revelation, and vision into our writing. Five poets working with performance, sound, film, visual art, and installation will discuss innovative approaches to ekphrasis.

Seeking a writing life, with time to read and write and some institutional health insurance, a poet might send herself to school. What happens then? This panel explores how research that’s presumed to be objective and scholarly inevitably bleeds into the more subjective realm of poetry as result of creative and critical life’s entwinement.

Panelists will discuss various aspects of leading writing workshops with incarcerated individuals, including the logistics and challenges of establishing and maintaining these programs. The panelists will also discuss funding and supporting these vital programs even when prison administrations might not value their importance. Finally, the contributors will share successful workshop prompts and offer advice to attendees interested in pursuing similar opportunities in their local communities. 

Acknowledging the generative potential of traversal, this roundtable centers on walking as a somatic writing practice and poetic technique.

This panel explores how artists and scholars use non-linear storytelling to resist the dominance of white supremacy, colonial history, and cultural erasure. Linear narratives privilege coherence and permanence—qualities often aligned with the authority of the archive. By contrast, non-linear artistic practices and embodied actions open space for contradiction, silence, and multiplicity, aligning more closely with what Diana Taylor has called the repertoire: ephemeral, embodied, and improvisational forms of cultural transmission.

Poets from Brazil, France, and Ukraine come together with their English-language translators to discuss their work and their collaborations. This panel will showcase recent books by Ricardo Domeneck and Chris Daniels, Anna Malihon and Olena Jennings, and Marie de Quatrebarbes and Aiden Farrell, all published in the last year by World Poetry.

Explore the allure of the witch archetype and its resonance with personal agency and outsider perspectives. Leaders in the magical writing community unveil their journey, showcasing how practices like automatic writing, tarot, animism, glamour magic, and shadow work fuel creative expression and lead to the important revision of harmful narratives. From spell books to award-winning poetry collections to astrology columns, they traverse literary realms, infusing their work with their own personal magic.