Norman poet, publisher to be featured at WNP
Norman poet and head publisher at Gnashing Teeth Publishing, Karen Cline-Tardiff, will be featured at Wednesday Night Poetry, at Kollective Coffee + Tea, 110 Central Ave.
The regular open mic session for all poets, musicians, storytellers will begin at 6:30 p.m. today. Tardiff 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. Masks are recommended. All are welcome.
“I was born in Dallas, raised in East Texas, and have lived a little bit of everywhere ever since. I have always considered Texas my home, but I’m settling in to a slow life in little Norman, Arkansas,” Tardiff said in a news release.
“I started working a ‘real’ job at 15. I’ve done just about every job you can imagine. I was even in the Army for six years. Since then, I have worked a government job for most of my life. After Hurricane Harvey tossed our lives upside down, my husband and I decided that life was way too short. I quit my job and we started working for ourselves. I do part-time work for a nonprofit in Texas whose mission is coastal conservation and etiquette. My husband and I own an open-pit gravel mine, which is what brought us to Arkansas,” she said.
“My passion, and my main purpose in life, is Gnashing Teeth Publishing. For over three years now, I have worked to bring the most amazing voices to the public. If I can’t gush about a book for over 30 minutes, I’m not going to publish it. Period. So I am very invested in finding unique voices who have something exciting, new, or important to share,” she said. “About two months after coming up with Gnashing Teeth Publishing, I called up an old high school friend and basically said ‘Guess what you’re doing now?’ Jennifer has been with me through our first anthology.
This year we have eleven book releases planned. And we have even bigger plans in the future. So watch out!”
As far as her history with poetry, Tardiff said, “I can never remember a time when I didn’t write poetry. In first or second grade, we had to copy a poem we liked and draw a picture to go with it. My dad kept that picture up on the wall until the day he died. In third grade, every student had to memorize a poem, and my teacher had me memorize the longest, hardest poem. I still remember most of it to this day. So poetry has been with me since as long as I can remember.
“I write lots of poetry. When I was in high school, I wrote a fair bit of flash fiction and I’ve been revisiting that the past few years. I’ve also been experimenting with visual poetry. I have been published in several online and in-print literary outlets and anthologies. I was one of three winners of the 2021 George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest. I have a chapbook under contract right now, to be released in October. Basically, I write a lot, but I never submit anywhere. I’m too busy publishing everyone else, which is my favorite thing,” she said.
“I have been on different panels at the Peoples Poetry Fest in Corpus Christi. Now I’m on the committee. I’ve taught poetry workshops. I’ve hosted open mics. The best compliment I ever got was from Alan Berecka, who said ‘you put poetry everywhere you go.’ I plan on bringing books from my publishing company,” she added.
As far as her connection to Wednesday Night Poetry, Tardiff said she discovered Virtual WNP on Facebook during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Honestly, I would log in and watch, but never participate. I always felt like my work wasn’t ‘good enough’ compared to the powerhouses coming out to WNP. When we ended up buying the mine in Arkansas, one of my first thoughts was to see how far it was from there to Hot Springs. The first time I walked through the doors WNP felt like a home. Everyone was so inviting. It’s such a wonderful, inclusive space. Everyone going to the mic was leaving it on the stage. I left so inspired. Every time I come to WNP, it’s the same feeling. The love, the community, the family. Kai has created this amazing bubble of positivity that makes the hour drive worth it. WNP really means so much to me. I really miss the poetry community where I moved from (Corpus Christi area). WNP will never replace them, but they’re sure trying!”
“Karen is such a cool lady, and I feel such a kinship with her because we are both passionate about holding space for other voices, me on the mic and her on the page. Her poetry is raw, unique, humorous, sometimes tender, sometimes tough, but always, always so real. She has a style and a voice all her own, and I am so excited to feature her this week and to thank her publicly for all the work she does with Gnashing Teeth Publishing. She has a huge heart and it shows in everything she does. It’s going to be another awesome night at Wednesday Night Poetry. Come out and be a part of our community,” WNP Host Kai Coggin said in the release.
This week marks 1,778 consecutive Wednesdays of open mic poetry in downtown Hot Springs single week since Feb. 1, 1989. WNP is the longest-running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country. For more information, email wednesdaynightpoetry@gmail.com.