Poetry at Round Top: A Literary Festival

04/24/2026

04/24/2026

It's impossible to capture all the magical moments of Poetry at Round Top 2026. There were moments of quiet contemplation, thoughtful panel (and interpersonal) conversations, an exuberant young poets' reading, stunning new books presentations, powerful readings, inspiring workshops and portfolio consultations, revelatory open-mic sharing, mesmerizing music and poetry performances, joyous dancing, a creative's brilliant silent auction, poignant remembrances, a choral reading of the anthology over the closing lunch. . .

Is P@RT a retreat or a festival?

Were you here this year? We hope it was a memorable, renewing experience for you, and you will join us next year, April 16-18, 2027, for the 25th! Poetry at Round Top.

Poetry at Round Top and the Round Top Festival Institute gratefully acknowledge the special assistance of the Festival Hill staff, Festival Hill founder James Dick, and the generous support of The Shanti Foundation for Intercultural Understanding, BookWoman bookstore in Austin, friends of Dom Zuccone, and many individual donors.

04/16/2026

Umbrella, so it won't rain. . . ? Oh, but we do need the rain.

04/16/2026

So you're packing, right? Or, thinking what to pack as the weekend draws near. . .

Something to write with and on would probably be a good idea.

Something to read. . . or, wait--maybe an empty bag or two for all the creative silent auction treasures and poetry books you could want?

Bookwoman, Austin's extraordinary feminist bookstore for 50 years (!) is an integral part of P@RT weekend. Books by the poets featured at P@RT and so many more will be available for sale on site, right by the signing table. Come browse! What poet and poetry lover doesn't love a cozy corner bookstore?

April 17-19, 2026 on Festival Hill in Round Top, TX
(Registration is now closed online but you can still show up and register onsite, Friday, April 17th, 1:30 pm, when checkin begins.)
poetryatroundtop.org

04/14/2026

The creative, eclectic, spectacular, and sometimes funny, sometimes tender Richard Royall (that lovely man in the photo with the umbrella and light sword) Memorial Silent Auction at Poetry at Round Top is like no other silent auction anywhere.

Lean in now and let me whisper.

{Chief silent (well, she does speak and write a bit) auctioneer Naomi Shihab Nye shared some hints about some items we will ooh and ahh at (and maybe take home) this year:

Rare William Stafford and Kim Stafford books!
Magnificent Art by Paula Owen, Meredith Dean, Terry Ybanez - prominent and beloved San Antonio artists!
Exquisite Palestinian tatreez embroidered dresses!
Poetic jackets!
Stunning book bags and broadsides!
Irish tea cups!}

Oh, and we've heard one of our featured poets might be offering a tarot card reading. . . There will be more, more than we could imagine, from fine art to frivolous fun.

Come prepared to be fascinated.

Bring a (environmentally friendly) bag to take home your treasures! It only happens once a year, here.

Poetry at Round Top, April 17-19, 2026
poetryatroundtop.org

04/12/2026

Part of the enchantment of Poetry at Round Top must be its beautiful natural setting, accented with interesting and somewhat eccentric art and architecture. There is no place like it. The grounds and gardens inspire, calm, and nurture our poets and poetry lovers, especially those sensitive to the ecosystem of which we are one.

It's a rural setting, without city services many of us may take for granted like curbside recycling or compost pickup. We need to be mindful of the waste we create and the way we move through this charming place.

It's much harder to plan a gathering of humans with the impact on the environment in mind than one might imagine. So, please do imagine how we can do this together.

Please bring a refillable water bottle with you and be mindful of what you do with inevitable trash. We're planning to do the same. Let us, as Wendell Berry whispers, come into the peace of wild things where we gather.
https://poetryatroundtop.org/

04/08/2026

Perhaps you have read, perhaps you have heard Ilya Kaminsky's poem, "We Lived Happily During the War." Click on the link below to hear him read the poem and talk about it with Victoria Chang, in a 2022 interview in the New York Times.

Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union, in 1977, and arrived to the US in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the government. He is the author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019) and Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004) and co-editor and co-translator of many other books. His work was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, and Poetry magazine’s Levinson Prize, and was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Neustadt International Literature Prize, and T.S. Eliot Prize (UK). He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Fellowship, an Academy of American Poets’ Fellowship, and an NEA Fellowship. He currently teaches in Princeton and lives in New Jersey.

Join us at Poetry at Round Top, April 17-19, 2026, to hear and be with the remarkable, gifted Ilya Kaminsky.
https://www.festivalhill.org/ #/events/4384

This poem subverts a more conventional political poem by leaning into the speaker’s pleasurable life amid the suffering of others.

04/05/2026

Listen to Katie read "What Would Root." Then you will be scrolling through the web seeking more enchanting poems by Katie Farris. Or, you could come to magical Poetry at Round Top, April 17-19, 2026, and be enchanted in person.

"Katie Farris is a poet, writer of hybrid forms, and translator. Her poetry has been called 'extraordinary' by both Paris Review and The Los Angeles Review of Books, while The Literary Review commented on the 'immersive magic and unforgettable imagery' of Farris's writing. Farris's work has been commissioned by MoMA and appears in American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeneys, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, Poetry and 2022 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Her most recent book is Standing in the Forest of Being Alive (Alice James Books, 2023.) It has been called 'luminous' by Carolyn Forche and 'real genius' by Kaveh Akbar. Farris is also the author of the chapbook, A Net to Catch My Body in its Weaving, which won Chad Walsh Poetry Award from Beloit Poetry Journal, and was called 'gorgeous' by Victoria Chang, 'enchanting' by Jericho Brown, and 'extraordinary' by The Los Angeles Review of Books. . .

In addition to her poetry and translations, Farris also writes prose about cancer, the body, and its relationship to writing, such as in her recent, widely circulated essay in Oprah Daily."

So many reasons to come be enchanted at Poetry at Round Top, April 17-19, 2026. Come, listen, dine, wander, write. . .
https://www.festivalhill.org/ #/events/4384

Katie reads 'What Would Root' from her shortlisted collection 'Standing in the Forest of Being Alive', published by Pavilion Poetry / Liverpool University Pr...

04/01/2026

"A truly magical achievement," Ocean Vuong says of Charif Shanahan's TRACE EVIDENCE.

"Dangerously wise…
this book is for anyone who has ever questioned where they belonged," says Ada Limón of TRACE EVIDENCE.

"His is the poetry of the traveling mind, the wandering soul, the poet as reporter and as fortune-teller, as confidant and soothsayer. This book will not leave you, will not easily shake you free to move onto the next book," Allison Joseph says of Charif Shanahan's INTO EACH ROOM WE ENTER WITHOUT KNOWING

“Lyrical and unforgiving…a rare kind of poet.”—Ilya Kaminsky�says of Charif Shanahan.

Charif Shanahan is the author of two poetry collections, Trace Evidence (Tin House, 2023), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, longlisted for the National Book Award, and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award; and Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award.

We welcome Charif Shanahan to Poetry at Round Top 2026, April 17-19!

If you have not yet registered, there is still time. Come, dine with us, if you like; come join us for poetry, music, and community, for a peaceful interlude in a beautiful place. https://www.festivalhill.org/ #/events/4384

Trace Evidence: PoemsWritten by: Charif ShanahanPerformed by: Charif ShanahanPublished by: HighBridge AudioIn Trace Evidence, the urgent follow-up to his awa...