28 Aug Talking Gourds: Battiste Featured at Bardic Trails 9/1!
Poet Laureate of Lafayette Michele Battiste is the featured guest for the Talking Gourds First Tuesday Bardic Trails virtual reading series. Event takes place September 1, 7 pm MDT.
The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program hosts the free Bardic Trails virtual zoom series on the first Tuesday of each month. The Wilkinson Public Library continues as a collaboration partner, with town support from Commission for Community Assistance, Arts & Special Events.
Participants are encouraged to visit https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar to get the zoom link each month, if they aren’t already on our mailing list. Or email Art Goodtimes directly.
For more information, visit the Telluride Institute Talking Gourds website, tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds
Go here for more about Talking Gourds dating back to 2009.
Battiste, courtesy Telluride Institute.
“I’ve heard Michele read at several poetry festivals,” said Art Goodtimes, Talking Gourds director, “and never failed to be impressed.”
The author of four books of poetry and an oracle deck, Battiste’s collection, “Waiting for the Wreck to Burn,” won the Louise Bogan Award for Literary Merit and Excellence from Trio House Press. Her latest work, “The Elsewhere Oracle,” is a collection of poems that doubles as a divination tool (Black Lawrence Press, 2025). Battiste is the current poet laureate of Lafayette.
Battiste’s work has appeared widely: in publications such as American Poetry Review, American Book Review, LIT, The Rumpus, Women’s Studies Quarterly. She has also received awards, fellowships and residencies from AWP, the Center of the American West, The Jerome Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, and Good Hart Artist Residency, among others.
Battiste is associate director of philanthropy for The Nature Conservancy where she works to tackle climate change and protect nature: www.michelebattiste.net
For those who like story or poem prompts, we are suggesting “Fire,” although poems on any subject are welcome. Virtual attendees are encouraged to bring a story or poem to share each month after the featured reader – their own work or that of someone else.
OTHER PROGRAMS
The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program is teaming up with Grand Junction’s Art Center of Western Colorado host the first Book Cliffs Poetry Festival, a one-day extravaganza “packed with poetry,” on Saturday, Sept. 26th. More information coming soon. Headliners include Wendy Videlock, Danny Rosen, David Rothman and the awarding of the Chamberlain Award for lifetime achievement in Colorado poetry to the late Andrea Gibson of Denver, as well as the awarding of the new Western Slope Poet Laureate.
Talking Gourds continues its collaboration with the Naturita Community Library usually on the second Thursday of each month at 6 pm for the West End Stories & Poems series.
Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library and Talking Gourds host a live Stories & Poems series at the library’s Magazine Room on the third Tuesday of every month at 5:15 pm. Ruth Duffy and Michael Olschewsky will be our featured poets on September 15th. In October, Elle Metrick of Norwood and Rob Schultheis of Telluride will be the featured poets. Participants are encouraged to bring a poem or story to share.
The international Fischer Prize poetry contest and the Colorado-focused Cantor Prize poetry contest are almost over for submissions. August 31st is the deadline. Lesley Wheeler of Virginia will be the Fischer final judge, and Scott Nicolay of New Mexico the Cantor final judge.
For more information, visit the Telluride Institute Talking Gourds website: tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds
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