If you love poetry, then you probably know that April is National Poetry Month. In honor of the magic of poetry. In Miami, we’re celebrating with O, Miami, a biennial poetry festival created by the University of Wynwood and Knight Foundation, which aims for every single person in Miami-Dade County to encounter a poem during the month of April.

Over the next month, we’ll celebrate the month with a series of events at The Betsy Hotel on South Beach. Readings and informal talks will feature four emerging, yet nationally-recognized poets. Melissa Broder, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Malachi Black and Ariana Reines will be in residence for one week during the month of April. Each poet will share his or her work and discuss the process of writing every Wednesday night of the residency. This is a great event for students, poetry aficionados and the general public who want to get a peek inside how poetry is created.

The O, Miami festival took place in 2011, and will take place again in April 2013. For more, visit omiami.org.

Billy Collins

Over the weekend, O, Miami kicked the month off with a reading by the famed former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Collins’ poetry is known for wittily undresses suburban America. Although his work is quirky and often humorous, it subtly addresses serious themes in an unassuming tone.

This is my landscape— a tobacco-colored room, the ceiling with its river-like crack the pond of a mirror on one wall a pen and ink drawing of a snarling fish on another. (from “A Sense of Place)

Schedule of Events:

Emerging Artist Readings: The Wednesday emerging writers readings and informal talks are free, and all begin at 8 p.m. at The Betsy Hotel. Melissa Broder (April 6), Reginald Dwayne Betts (April 12), Malachi Black (April 19) and Ariana Reines (April 25). Read about the emerging poets and see the full schedule here.