Poetry at Round Top is the best kept secret on the American poetry scene. It's new, small, powerfully charged and incredibly intimate. In early May, a handful of the nation's poetic luminary descend from their desks for a weekend outside of Austin. For $100 (or around $250 if you want to bunk on site and eat like a queen) you can join in. Seventy-two packed hours of reading poetry, writing workshops, panels on craft, and basking in pastoral beauty await. Grab a picnic lunch and sit down next to a Pulitzer Prize winner in the sunshine. Discuss the nuances of birdsong. Carolyn Forche, Claudia Rankine, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Barbara Ras read in 2006. Expect Li-Young Lee, Chase Twichell, Rosemary Catacalos, Cyrus Cassells, and more in 2007. With lakes, herb gardens, hidden fountains, chapels, and a sense that time is suspended for us to cherish its details, the Poetry at Round Top Festival is paradise – for poets and poetry lovers alike.
