Poetry on the Plaza

Join us outdoors for Poetry on the Plaza and have the opportunity to recite your very own poem to celebrate National Poetry Month. Community poetry recitations will be preceded by an introduction and reading from keynote speaker Sara Henning. Henning is a poet, author, and assistant professor of English at Marshall University.

Registration is required only for participants who wish to recite their poems, all others are free to attend and enjoy the poetry and keynote presentation without registering.

There are 12 registration spots. Each spot reserves a reading time lasting 5 minutes. The first community reading will begin at 5:45 p.m., following our keynote speaker, and the last reading will occur at 6:45 p.m.

Those who register will be contacted individually via email to receive a confirmation for their scheduled reading time.

There is limited seating outdoors. Feel free to bring a blanket to sit on the grassy areas of our Plaza. In the event of inclement weather, this event will be held in room 311A. 

Poetry on the Plaza's keynote speaker, Sara Henning, is the author of the poetry collections Burn (Southern Illinois University Press, 2024), a 2022 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Editor’s Selection; Terra Incognita (Ohio University Press, 2022), winner of the 2021 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize; and View from True North (Southern Illinois University Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Award and the 2019 High Plains Book Award. She was awarded the 2015 Crazyhorse Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize, the 2019 Poetry Society of America's George Bogin Memorial Award, and First Prize in the 2020 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award (Passaic County Community College). She’s a recipient of scholarships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference and Appalachian Writers’ Workshop. She is an assistant professor of English at Marshall University.