Save the date! Held at the Albuquerque Open Space area and visitor center, join local poets for readings, book tables from local publishers, and haiku calligraphy.
Poetry Playhouse Publications will have a book table, along with many other local presses.
Poets’ Picnic 2025, a Celebration of Nature, Poetry, and Music
May 3, 2025
10 a.m. -4:00 p.m.
Open Space Visitor Center
6500 Coors NW Blvd. - Albuquerque, NM
https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/open-space/events/poets-picnic-2025
We are thrilled to announce our featured poets for the Poets' Picnic 2025 event:
Lauren Camp serves as New Mexico Poet Laureate. She founded the New Mexico Epic Poem Project, in conjunction with New Mexico Arts, and has been crisscrossing the state for the last few years. This project ensures that people across the state, especially in remote and arts-underserved regions, have the chance to explore poetry—and write about their home communities. Camp is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently In Old Sky (Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2024), which grew out of her experience as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Her poems have been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, French, and Arabic.
Matthew John Conley is a house rabbit advocate and university professor who co-founded the Albuquerque Poetry & Beer poetry slam in 1994. His work can be found in Poetry Motel, Spiral Orb, The Mas Tequila Poetry Review, and The Sonoran Desert: a Literary Field Guide (University of Arizona Press), as well as the 2024 New Mexico Poetry Anthology published by UNM Press.
Zachary Kluckman is a nationally ranked slam poet with appearances on over 100 stages nationwide. Kluckman is the Founder of MindWell Poetry and the Chicharra Poetry Slam Festival. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Crab Creek Review, Arts & Letters, the Pedestal and Blue Mountain Review. Kluckman won the Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize in 2012, a Gold Medal from the Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards and was recently named Best Local Poet by Albuquerque the Magazine. He is the author of three poetry collections. His forthcoming collection, When I say Ghost I Don’t Mean Dead was selected by Oliver de la Paz as the winner of the Two Sylvia’s Chapbook Prize and will be published this fall.
Hilda Raz lives in Placitas. She is Series editor of the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series at the University of New Mexico Press, a co-publisher of Bosque Press and Poetry Editor of the magazine, ABQinPrint. Her most recent book is Letter from a Place I’ve Never Been: Collected and New Poems (University of Nebraska Press).
They will we joined by your long-time hosts, organizers, and emcees:
Dale Harris lives in Albuquerque’s Sawmill Neighborhood and helps coordinate the annual Poets Picnic at the Open Space Visitor Center. She is the author of five books of poetry and her poems have been widely anthologized. Dale was the editor and emcee for Central Avenue, a monthly poetry chapbook and reading series in Nob Hill 2002 – 2008, and an associate editor for the Malpais Review Poetry Quarterly. She currently works as an editor for Hummingbird Hollow Press, an independent publishing service.
Scott Wiggerman—poet, teacher, editor, artist, haikuist, publisher—served five years as the Chair of the Albuquerque chapter of the New Mexico State Poetry Society. He continues to co-organize the annual Poets Picnic at the Open Space Visitor Center. He and his husband have run Dos Gatos Press for twenty years, and they conduct monthly workshops, including a bi-monthly series at Books on the Bosque. Scott Wiggerman is the author of three books of poetry and the editor or co-editor of over nearly two dozen poetry publications, including the best-selling craft books Wingbeats I & II: Exercises & Practice in Poetry. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2021.
Here's the schedule for the day
All day: Weathergrams viewing on the OSVC grounds (they will be hung April 29)
10:00 - 11:30 am: "How to Haiku: What Teachers Never Taught You" Haiku Workshop with Scott Wiggerman in Conference Room; RSVP at the Open Space to reserve a place (505) 768-4951.
10:00 am – 2:30 pm: Escribiente Calligraphers' Weathergram demos and sales at front entrance patio tables. Chapbook sales at front entrance plus other locations (no tariffs, same price as past years: $10 each to the public; contributor copies $5. limit 2, any additional copies at $10. each (and this year there will be a limit on copies so that everyone will have a chance to get one!).
11:30 – 3:00 pm: New Mexico Small Press book sales featuring Casa Urraca Press, Dos Gatos Press, Hummingbird Hollow Press, Jules' Poetry Playhouse, and Read or Green Books under the trees in the back patio area
11:30 am - 1:00 pm: Picnic on the Patio
12:00 – 12:45 pm: Entertainment on the back patio by Last Call
12:45 – 1:00 pm: Introductions & Opening Remarks
1:00 – 4:00 pm: Featured Poets & Open Mic hosted by Dale Harris & Scott Wiggerman
1:00 – 2:00 pm Featured Poets: Lauren Camp, Matthew John Conley, Dale Harris
2:00– 3:00 pm Featured Poets: Zachary Kluckman, Hilda Raz, Scott Wiggerman
3:00 – 4:00 pm: Open Mic by signup at the Picnic
Also returning: Richard Wolfson's Poetry Dice spontaneous poetry table at the front entrance and we just added a table for the New Mexico State Poetry Society, where NMSPS members can sell their books.