Slash Pine Press will host its 2014 Slash Pine Poetry Festival outdoors, in bars and beyond this weekend. Readings featuring more than two dozen poets will take place at venues ranging from the Gorgas House Lawn on Friday to Grace Aberdean Habitat Alchemy downtown on Saturday.

“The festival mirrors most closely what we do at our press and in our internship program: foster and promote the work of rising writers at all levels, from those who are engaged in undergraduate creative writing programs to those published by nationally significant presses,” Patti White, director of Slash Pine Press, said in a press release.

Founded in 2009, Slash Pine is no newcomer to showcasing creative writing and local writers. Mathew Pereda and Amber Smith, both seniors majoring in English and Slash Pine interns, plan to read during the opening event of the festival on the Gorgas House Lawn on Friday at 4 p.m.

One of the primary goals of this weekend’s events, Smith said, is to get the Tuscaloosa community involved in the poetry community, if only for a weekend.

“The goal of this night is also to make words, writing and reading all really cool and engaging, even for people who don’t consider themselves super bookish or poetry fans,” she said.

Pereda, who hopes to work in publishing after he graduates, said as someone who also just loves words, he considers his time as a Slash Pine intern a dream come true.

“Whether we’re trying to engage with the T-town community by readings and events, the broader literary community by making chapbooks or simply making our own community, we are always finding some way to have fun with words,” Pereda said.

(See also “‘Uncanny Valley’ event to combine written word, poetry“)

UA graduate students are taking part in the festival as well. Freya Gibbon, an MFA student in the creative writing program, will give her first Slash Pine reading on Saturday morning at the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum. Gibbon said she is still somewhat unsure of what personal piece from her thesis she will read.

“I did my first poetry reading earlier this semester, and I was nervous then,” Gibbon said. “Now I’m just looking forward to Slash Pine. I think it’ll be fun.”

Gibbon has attended Slash Pine events in the past, and she said she loves the fresh spin they put on what could be common poetry readings.

(See also “Poetry slam comes to Bama Theatre“)

“Often they take place outdoors and with multiple readers – sometimes at night, sometimes while hiking – all of which makes the poems way more fun to listen to and the event of the reading feel more communal or something,” Gibbon said.

Smith, Pereda and Gibbon all said they encourage community members to come and listen, whether they consider themselves avid fans of poetry or not.

“This is a great opportunity for people who may not spend a lot of time with poetry to hang out with some exciting language for a change,” Gibbon said.

(See also “Rhymes to fly at poetry jam“)