Spots remain for LBF WordShops! Learn about the festival's master-class writing workshops and reserve your seat here.

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Poetry

Home Featured Authors & Panelists Programs by Subject 2026 Poetry

9:00 am to 10:30 am
Outside Museum, West Tent
Diving Into Nature: An Eco-Poetry Anthology of Louisiana
Ralph Adamo, Jack B. Bedell, Jordan Biggs, Toby Daspit, Malaika Favorite, John Gery, Ashley Mace Havird, David Havird, Roberta Whitman Hoff, Mason Joiner, Julie Kane, Biljana D. Obradović, Ed Ruzicka, Bessie Senette, Michael S. True, and Andy Young with John P. Travis

10:45 am to 11:45 am
Outside Museum, West Tent
The Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets, Vol I
Taylor Clement, do not destroy this: Poems
Rodney Jones, The Body and the End of Time: Poems Selected & New, 1985-2025
Justin Lacour, A Reading from the Book of Panic
Jonathan Penton, A Limited Number of Miracles: A Walk Through the New Orleans Sculpture Garden
Jennifer Polson Peterson, Degenerate Era of an Expanding Universe: Poems
with Gina Ferrara

Noon to 4:00 pm
State Library Lobby
Poetry-to-Order
Cassandra de Alba and GennaRose Nethercott will compose free custom poetry written on the topic of your choice – by individual request.

Noon to 12:30 pm
Outside Museum, West Tent
Fire in the Mind: New and Selected Poems
Catharine Savage Brosman with moderator Julie Kane

12:45 pm to 1:45 pm
Outside Museum, West Tent
Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets, Vol II
Emily Cosper, Witness Before the Fall
Bill Lavender, city of god
Biljana D. Obradović, Called by Distances: Poems
Ann Plicque, New Barrier Islands: Poems
Ed Ruzicka, The Invention of Dreaming: Poems
with Gina Ferrara

2:00 pm to 2:45 pm
Outside Museum, West Tent
Second Sight: Poets Laureate Write Through Vision Loss
In this discussion inspired by a recent 64 Parishes magazine article, former Louisiana poets laureate Darrell Bourque and Peter Cooley will discuss what it means to write through a major life change: recent diagnoses of macular degeneration and vision loss. This discussion will range over many issues central to poetic life: the senses, reading habits, writing practices, adaptations to disability, and sources of inspiration. Poet Benjamin Morris, author of the magazine article, will moderate.