Little Rock poet Earleywine featured at WNP
Little Rock prize-winning poet, author and educator Caroline Earleywine will be featured at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee + Tea, 110 Central Ave.
“This week is a special community-partnered event in coordination with the 11th annual Arts & The Park Festival, put on by the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance,” a news release said. The regular open mic session for all poets, musicians, and storytellers will begin at 6:30 p.m. today. Earleywine will begin her feature set at 7:30 p.m., followed by another round of open mic. “Admission is free and open to all ages. All are welcome. WNP is a safe space,” it said.
Earleywine will be launching her new book, “I Now Pronounce You,” published by Write Bloody Publishing on April 26. Her chapbook, “Lesbian Fashion Struggles,” was published with Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020.
“I was born in Batesville … and now live in Little Rock,” Earleywine said in the release. “I was a high school English teacher for 10 years in central Arkansas. Now, I am on the curriculum team at UALR MidSOUTH. I like that I can use my skills as a teacher to write curriculum that is engaging and impactful, and I especially like that it’s curriculum for family service workers so I can still have a small part in supporting youth in Arkansas.”
Earleywine has been married to her wife, Bonnie Earleywine, for seven years and they have two dogs, Bug and Holden. She started playing roller derby about a year and a half ago with Rock Town Roller Derby, “and I love it! I’m also a part of a queer book club in Little Rock, the QLCA (Queer Ladies of Central Arkansas) book club.”
Earleywine got her Bachelor of Arts in English as well as her Master of Arts in Teaching:
Secondary Education from the University of Arkansas. “In 2018, I completed my MFA in poetry at the low-residency program at Queens University in Charlotte. Currently, I’m getting my MA in professional and technical writing at UALR.”
Earleywine said she has been writing little poems and stories “for about as long as I can remember! As a kid, I would write special poems for birthdays and holidays and give them as gifts. Poetry has always been how I express myself best; as someone who grew up a shy kid who was not comfortable speaking her mind, poetry became a safe place for me to explore my feelings. I like the opportunity that writing poetry gives you to take your time to get the words right.”
“I feel like I come to the page for a variety of reasons. When it came to my latest book, poetry was a way for me to witness and validate my own experiences and pain, particularly
from childhood. That kind of witnessing was something I always needed, and I think it’s beautiful that I was able to be the one to gift that to myself years later. I also am drawn to the page to process and figure out how I feel about things—those moments of discovery are some of my favorite moments in writing,” she said.
Her favorite poets include Mary Oliver, Ada Limón, Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Maggie Smith, and Nickole Brown.
Earleywine has been a part of the Wednesday Night Poetry community for over a decade.
“When I moved to the Little Rock area in 2012, Wednesday Night Poetry was one of the ways I started to find a poetry community,” she said. “I remember meeting Kai at one of the shows while Bud Kenny was still the host. The space that Kai has upheld and created at WNP is the best open mic environment I’ve ever seen. It takes a lot of intentionality and empathy to create that space, and no one does that better than Kai.”
“It is an honor to provide space for Caroline Earleywine to officially launch her debut full-length collection ‘I Now Pronounce You’ this week at Wednesday Night Poetry,” said WNP Host and Hot Springs Poet Laureate Kai Coggin.
“This book is an intimate marvel, a healing journey, a symphony of hard-earned songs. Caroline asked me to write a blurb for this collection, and I was so thrilled to do so, because her literary merit and poetry are exceptional. Write Bloody Publishing is a highly sought-after publishing house, publishing books by huge names in the poetry world like Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson, Megan Falley, and Anis Mojgani — and Caroline won the Jack McCarthy Book Prize with them to gain this publication! It’s truly remarkable! Arkansas should be so proud,” Coggin said.
“Caroline has been actively publishing poems for about the same amount of time that I have here in central Arkansas, and so many of our poems and stories intersect as educators, as wives, as women who are bravely naming the silences. I am so thrilled for her, and I am so happy that her launch also coincides with Arts & The Park! Wednesday Night Poetry is proud to be a community partner of this amazing festival celebrating the Arts in Hot Springs. It’s going to be a special night!”
This week marks 1,840 consecutive Wednesdays of open mic poetry in downtown since Feb. 1, 1989, over 35 years ago. “Wednesday Night Poetry is the longest-running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country. For more information, email wednesdaynightpoetry@gmail.com,” the release said.