A Face to Meet the Faces will be released by The University of Akron Press in February 2012. Oliver de la Paz and Stacey Lynn Brown are hosting an AWP book release party at The Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct., four blocks from the Chicago Hilton, on Thursday, March 1, 2012, from 6-7:30 pm. Readers include Tara Betts, Eduardo C. Corral, Nina Corwin, Matthew Guenette, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Marty McConnell, Tomas Q. Morin, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Patricia Smith, and Brian Turner.

On Friday, March 2, 2012, 6-7:30 p.m. at Harold Washington College, 30 E. Lake Street, Room 102, Chicago, IL. contributors to the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets Series’ new anthology, VILLANELLES, co-edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali. Free and open to the public. Tara Betts is featured in this anthology, and readers at this event include: Grace Bauer, Robin Becker, Bruce Bennett, Martha Collins, Brendan Constantine, Steven Cramer, Timothy Donnelly, Danna Ephland, Annie Finch, Charles Fort, Claudia Gary, Matthew Hittinger, Marie-Elizabeth Mali, Taylor Mali, Patricia Monaghan, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Marilyn Nelson, Kathleen Ossip, Lois Roma-Deeley, Jill Allyn Rosser, Susan B.A. Somers Willett, Kate Sontag, Lisa Vihos, and Ken Waldman.

Saturday, March 3, 2012, 4:30-5:45 p.m. Tara Betts will be presenting at the 2012 AWP Conference panel “Ear Candy: Teaching the Pleasures of Poetic Meter” with Liz Ahl, Jeff Oaks, Annie Finch, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Rooted in a diversity of aesthetic and pedagogical perspectives, this panel focuses on the teaching and learning of meter: how, when, and why might one teach meter to young poets? Is teaching meter like teaching other elements of poetic craft and technique? Is meter akin to music or language when it comes to learning and teaching? How can we help our students sing out rather than slog through? How might activities like scansion, reading aloud, or imitation, help poets develop an ear for meter?

Saturday, March 3, 2012, 6-8 p.m. Aquarius Press/Willow will host a special off-site reading. Details on readers and venue are soon to be announced.

Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali, editors for VILLANELLES (Everyman Publishing, 2012) host one of the first release parties for this diverse collection of voices using poems in this classic French form. Tara Betts and other contributors will read from this new volume at Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, New York, NY (between Houston & Bleecker).

Tara Betts will be one of several poets sharing poetry and discussion on mixed race identity. The Brooklyn Historical Society is located at 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street. For directions and other information, visit .

Tara Betts and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarashina double feature at Equilibrium, a series curated by Bao Phi at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, MN. More info on the time and place will be posted soon.

Tara Betts appears with several other poets who have contributed to VILLANELLES, a new anthology on Random House’s Everyman Publishing, edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali. Poets, day, and time of the panel will be announced soon. Click here to learn more about the festival.

Tara Betts features at Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam. Starts at 7:30 p.m. Followed by the feature and open mic at 9:30 p.m. Lizard Lounge is located at 1667 Mass Ave. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the Harvard Square red line stop. Admission: $5. Hosted by Joyce Cunha and Jeff Robinson. Musical accompaniment by the Jeff Robinson Trio.
Visit for more info.