Poetry

As the AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical approaches its fifth annual Labor Day weekend extravaganza in downtown Decatur, poetry remains at the heart of programming.

Poets featured this year include four-time National Poetry Slam champion Patricia Smith reading from her National Book Award finalist Blood Dazzler, her collection of poems set just before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Smith’s presentation will be Sunday at noon at the Decatur Presbyterian Sanctuary Stage.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey will launch her nonfiction book Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as part of a Katrina track of events presented in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Trethewey’s presentation will be at 1:15 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Decatur Carreker Hall Stage.

Georgia Poet Laureate David Bottoms will appear with Georgia Tech poetry chair Thomas Lux and former Vermont Poet Laureate Ellen Bryant Voigt in a program called “Poets in Conversation” at 3:45 p.m. Sunday at Decatur High School. Bottoms currently holds the Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters at Georgia State University.

Bottoms is also part of a panel, “Seriously Funny,” at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the First Baptist Decatur Carreker Hall Stage along with Lux and poets David Kirby, Barbara Hamby, and Kevin Young.

Young, a recent Guggenheim Fellow, will also appear with award-winning obituary writer Kay Powell for a discussion, titled “When Death Does Us Part,” about Young’s anthology The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing on Saturday at 1:45 p.m. at the First Baptist Decatur Carreker Hall Stage.

Digging into American literary history, the AJC DBF will host a series of events celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe. This series is prompted by a Big Read grant received from the NEA by the Atlanta History Center, with the Festival as a supporting partner. In a unique approach to Poe, Theresa Davis — one of Atlanta's best known performance poets — will emcee some of Atlanta’s top slam poets performing Poe’s poems, slam style, Sunday at 5 p.m. on the Eddie's Attic Stage.

The popular Java Monkey Invitational Poetry Slam presented by Poetry Atlanta returns this year featuring some of the best slam poets from metro Atlanta. The slam will be held at the Local Poetry Stage from 8-10 p.m., and will be moderated by Kodac Harrison. The weekend will conclude with Java Monkey Speaks Open Mic Sunday night, being held from 8-10 p.m. The Open Mic Night will feature Patricia Smith, and is once again moderated by Kodac Harrison.