Organization Type: Literary & Language Arts
Mission: To support and promote community involvement in Ozark literary arts.
To encourage an appreciation of local writers by providing access to their work through readings, publications, workshops, and other events and activities as demand and need become evident.
To ensure that the experience of writing and reading remain a vital part of life in the Ozarks.
Ozark Poets & Writers Collective
Location: Fayetteville
Organization Type: Literary & Language Arts
Events
Check the Organizations website or social links below for upcoming events. You can also check out CACHE’s Arts + Culture Calendar for hundreds of creative events every month in Northwest Arkansas. Zero FOMO.
Mission
- To support and promote community involvement in Ozark literary arts.
- To encourage an appreciation of local writers by providing access to their work through readings, publications, workshops, and other events and activities as demand and need become evident.
- To ensure that the experience of writing and reading remain a vital part of life in the Ozarks.
About
The Ozark Poets and Writers Collective is moving into a new phase, now a group of writers in every skill level, published or not, centered in Fayetteville but representing Northwest Arkansas and the Ozarks overall.
From its 1994 debut until the 2020 Covid Pandemic, OPWC comprised this definition, taking the active form of hosting monthly public programs with a featured reader and open mic at central Fayetteville restaurants, independent bookshops or bars. Eleven spoken-word programs a year for 26 years! As soon as a featured reader or open miker went too far for the sensibilities of the joint’s management or unsuspecting patrons, we found ourselves evicted and searching for the next venue. We plodded on, OK, plotted on. Our last and best stage, Nightbird Books, has closed. The end?
OWPC, the Next Generation
In spring 2023, local independent bookshop Pearl’s Books began hosting a monthly Writers Night where around a dozen-and-a-half creatives from throughout the region met to figure out what such a group could be or could do of mutual benefit. The consensus heading into 2024 was to meet regularly to share knowledge as well has host workshops to enhance both the writer’s process and their business/marketing skills.
They meet at Pearl’s Books, 28 E. Center St. just off the downtown Fayetteville Square, for about an hour starting at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.