The West End Poetry Festival is sponsored by the Town of Carrboro and is planned by the Carrboro Poets Council (currently comprised of Carrboro Poet Laureate Liza Wolff-Francis, Gideon Young, Susan Spalt, Jay Bryan, Fred Joiner, Abigail Browning, Chad Knuth and Paul Jones, with the assistance of the staff of Carrboro’s Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department and the support of the Carrboro Arts Committee and the Carrboro Tourism Development Authority.
Carrboro held its first poetry festival, organized by then Carrboro Poet Laureate Patrick Herron, in 2006.
Since 2006, many poets from North Carolina and beyond have participated. Participants have included finalists for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; winners of the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Los Angeles Book Prize, the Oregon Book Award, and the Pushcart Prize; recipients of fellowships Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; and too many other accolades to easily list here.
Participants have also included poets at the beginning of their writing career with few, if any, publishing credits. The festival aims to be broadly representative of poets and poetry. You don't have to be a poet to attend and attendance is free.
The West End Poetry Festival welcomes all poets and all people curious about or interested in poetry. There are opportunities to meet people, hang out, listen to poetry, share poetry, and celebrate poetry and those who love it.
