The 2021 Goldenrod Poetry Festival is on April 15th and will feature poetry readings from numerous WKU students.

The event will consist of a poetry reading by guest poet Mackenzie Berry and will reveal the top three winners of the contest, as judged by Berry.

The ten student finalists are Samantha Bishop, Ella Corder, Faith Harris, Kaity Kot, Summer Mohamed, Noah Powers, Kayla Spears, Laynie Smith, Morgan Stevens, and Adam Woodard.

The WKU English Club hosts the Goldenrod Poetry Festival annually as an opportunity for students who write poetry and study within any program at WKU to submit their work according to Noah Powers, Vice President of the English Club.

Noah Powers, a finalist and 2020 first place recipient, said the event is important because it helps support new poets. 

“It shows them that people still care about poetry, and about their poetry, which is monumental in the encouragement of a new poet,” Powers said. “It’s important to support these students now because the world needs more poets, believe it or not, and they are the poets of tomorrow and today.”

The Goldenrod Poetry Festival was started in 2005 by Travis Morris, a WKU English major at the time. 

According to English professor Tom Hunley, Berry will also lead an instructional workshop for the ten finalists at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. 

The event is free and will take place via zoom on Friday at 7 p.m.

Henri Aboah can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @HenriAboah