Louisiana Native to Read at First Tuesday Poetry Open Mic

Katie Bowler Young

Katie Bowler Young is the Featured Poet at the First Tuesday Poetry Open Mic at 7 pm, December 3rd, at the Harrison Center, 311 Middle St. in New Bern.

Katie grew up in Louisiana and currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

She is the author of the chapbook State Street (Bull City Press, 2009) and a biography of Enrique Alférez (The Historic New Orleans Collection, forthcoming). She will be reading from her new book, Through Water with Ease, her first full collection of poems. She has published poetry, book reviews, creative non-fiction, and fiction in The Southern Review, Louisiana Literature, Carolina Quarterly, The Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies, Plainsongs, Soundings East, and other publications.

Peter Cooley, Louisiana Poet Laureate 2015-17 said this about her new book, “Katie Bowler Young’s Through Water with Ease scores songs of a survivor, testifying to a deep, abiding commitment to the everyday and more-than-everyday. Her deep love of place and family, the heft and hues of being alive, inspires and uplifts us.”

Katie earned her MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College. She is director of global relations for UNC Global at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she shapes and supports the university’s international activity. She is senior editor and advisor for Carolina Passport, a magazine produced through an internship program she leads.

After the Featured Poet reads at the Open Mic, the mike is open for original poems from other poets who sign up. The Harrison Center is located at 311 Middle St. in New Bern. This is a free event with donations requested to pay for the space. The readings are sponsored by Nexus Poets, a nonprofit group of Eastern North Carolina poets promoting poetry in the area.

Submitted by: Sam Love, Nexus Poets