Youth Open Mic Takeover Featuring Poet & Novelist Erica Wright
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We've got something exciting coming your way this December.... by special request, an open mic 🎤🎉 for high school students only. We will be joined by Knoxville poet Erica Wright, whose "poems resist despair, carrying an insistent, even defiant joy, as likely to argue with the divine as to celebrate what remains green and growing," according to one reviewer. 🌱 High school students from near and far are invited to share poetry and other works, including short prose, songs, creative monologues, and more on Plenty's stage on Dec. 7th. Readings begin at 7:00, arrive early to snag your spot.
We're also planning for Wright to visit with students earlier that day... stay tuned for details. ✨
Erica Wright is a poet and novelist. Her latest mystery Hollow Bones (Severn House) was called "an incredibly rich work of literature" in the Nashville Scene. Her essay collection Snake (Bloomsbury) was one of LitReactor's Best Books of 2020. She’s over the moon to be releasing two books in 2026: the poetry collection A Buyer's Guide to the Afterlife (Black Lawrence Press) and the mystery The Museum of Unusual Occurrence (Severn House).
Her poems have appeared in Arts & Letters, Blackbird, Denver Quarterly, New Orleans Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She was the senior poetry editor at Guernica Magazine for more than a decade and currently teaches at Bellevue University. She holds degrees from New York University and Columbia University.
Erica grew up in Wartrace, Tennessee (pronounced “war trace” not “wart race”) and has also lived in New York City, Atlanta, Gainesville, Nashville, Houston, and Washington D.C. She currently resides in Knoxville with her family where she is trying to befriend the local crows. She’s happiest wandering around a museum or bookshop. Her current read is How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson.
We're also planning for Wright to visit with students earlier that day... stay tuned for details. ✨
Erica Wright is a poet and novelist. Her latest mystery Hollow Bones (Severn House) was called "an incredibly rich work of literature" in the Nashville Scene. Her essay collection Snake (Bloomsbury) was one of LitReactor's Best Books of 2020. She’s over the moon to be releasing two books in 2026: the poetry collection A Buyer's Guide to the Afterlife (Black Lawrence Press) and the mystery The Museum of Unusual Occurrence (Severn House).
Her poems have appeared in Arts & Letters, Blackbird, Denver Quarterly, New Orleans Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She was the senior poetry editor at Guernica Magazine for more than a decade and currently teaches at Bellevue University. She holds degrees from New York University and Columbia University.
Erica grew up in Wartrace, Tennessee (pronounced “war trace” not “wart race”) and has also lived in New York City, Atlanta, Gainesville, Nashville, Houston, and Washington D.C. She currently resides in Knoxville with her family where she is trying to befriend the local crows. She’s happiest wandering around a museum or bookshop. Her current read is How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay by Jenny Lawson.
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Where is it happening?
Plenty Downtown Bookshop, 39 W Spring St, Cookeville, TN 38501-3240, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherSawmill Poetry Series
