October events focused on creative writing, poetry
Hot Springs Poet Laureate Kai Coggin
The University of Central Arkansas will host Kai Coggin, inaugural Poet Laureate of the city of Hot Springs, Ark., from Oct. 7-21 with events focused on creative writing and poetry.
The residency will include two student-focused writing workshops and a public poetry reading by Coggin at “The AIDS Memorial Quilt” opening reception and remembrance tribute, which will be held at 1:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in the Reynolds Performance Hall lobby. All events are located on the UCA campus and are open to the public and free of charge, with no tickets required for entry.
“We’re thrilled to have Kai Coggin hosting a writing workshop for students who identify as writers, and students who don’t yet see themselves that way,” Dr. Taine Duncan, an associate professor and director of UCA’s Gender Studies program, said. “Her work, especially in books like ‘Incandescent,’ moves people to feel and to act as empowered and energized members of a community.
“I find solace in her words, and in her generous approach to working with students, and look forward to the new poems that will be shared on Oct. 21.”
The full schedule for Coggin’s residency is as follows:
- Tuesday, Oct. 7, 10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. – Student Event: Generative Writing Workshop #1, Main Hall 203.
- Tuesday, Oct. 14, 10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. – Student Event: Generative Writing Workshop #2, Main Hall 203.
- Tuesday, Oct. 21, 1:40-2:30 p.m. – Public Event: “The AIDS Memorial Quilt” Opening Reception and Remembrance Tribute. Hosting and poetry reading by Kai Coggin, Reynolds Performance Hall lobby.
Coggin was appointed as Hot Springs’ first Poet Laureate in 2023 by Mayor Pat McCabe. She is also a recipient of a 2024 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for her community poetry project “SHARING TREE SPACE.” The author of five poetry collections, Coggin published her most recent work entitled “Mother of Other Kingdoms” in 2024. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, and her work appears in POETRY, Prairie Schooner, Sinister Wisdom and on Poets.org. Ten of her poems are headed to the moon via the Lunar Codex project. Coggin is a K-12 teaching artist with the Arkansas Arts Council and a Certified Master Naturalist, and she also hosts Wednesday Night Poetry, the nation’s longest-running weekly open mic, in Hot Springs. Coggin has received the 2023 Don Munro Leadership in the Arts Award, the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award for Arts in Education and two “Best Poet in Arkansas” honors.
More information about Kai Coggin is available at kaicoggin.com. More information about the residency is available by contacting Duncan at tduncan@uca.edu.
The UCA Artists in Residence program is funded by the Fine and Performing Arts Fee paid by all students, with additional support from Engage Management and Pyramid Art, Books, and Custom Framing. More information about the Artists in Residence program is available at uca.edu/go/artistsinresidence or by contacting Dr. Gayle Seymour, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at gayles@uca.edu.