Poetry Readings
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Abby Duran
LOWCOUNTRY POETRY READINGS
Abby Duran, recognized by Charleston Scene as one of Charleston’s Most Influential Women in the Arts, is a celebrated spoken word artist and storyteller. Her work was commissioned for Singers & Stanzas, presented by HALO, which premiered at Dock Street Theatre in 2024. Her publications Between Words (2023) and A Soul’s Tree Speaks (2025) reflect the mosaics and fabrics to a global tapestry. She’s a member of Charleston’s Free Verse and a Berkeley Center of the Arts writing mentor. She’s performed and read across the southeast and transforms writing for non-native English speakers under her platform, VeraNation.
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Christian Morant
LOWCOUNTRY POETRY READINGS
Christian Morant is a renowned poet, musician, author of the book GROWTH, best actor for the shortfilm Wormhole, and illustrator of the children's adventure I Belong!. He's also an advocate for mental health, proud to have embraced the TEDx stage at the iconic Charleston Music Hall, and his album I Am Not A Rapper features the hit single Mermaid Green where he is accompanied by Lowcountry's own Emily Curtis, Michael Duff, and many more. Morant's latest project, Stage Presence, has broken poetic and cinematic barriers by uniting more than 20 extraordinary artists into one grandiose vision. Discover more at christianmorant.com
Shakeema Smalls
LOWCOUNTRY POETRY READINGS
Evelyn Berry (she/her) is the trans, Southern author of Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2024) and the chapbook Buggery (Bateau Press, 2020). Her chapbook T4T is forthcoming from Small Harbor Publishing in 2026. She lives in Columbia, SC.
Richard Allen Taylor
UPSTATE POETRY READING
Richard Allen Taylor is the author of several poetry collections including Letters to Karen Carpenter and Other Poems (2023) from Main Street Rag Publishing Company. His poems, articles and reviews have appeared in Rattle, Comstock Review, The Pedestal, Litmosphere, Gyroscope Review and South Carolina Review, among others. Several of his poems have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes or Best of the Net. Taylor formerly served as review editor for The Main Street Rag and co-editor of Kakalak. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte and currently resides in the Greenville, SC area.
Tinasha LaRayé
UPSTATE POETRY READING
Tinasha LaRayé is a poet, life coach, speaker, actress, and Heartland Emmy nominated director who lives and breathes storytelling. As a poet and spoken word artist, she has performed across the nation for non profit organizations, justice rallies, churches, schools, special events, experimental short films, and music videos. She has a strong passion for community and for art that provokes thought, change, and motivates the human experience toward healing and oneness.
Millie Tullis
UPSTATE POETRY READINGS
Millie Tullis (she/they) is a writer, editor, teacher, and researcher. She holds an MFA from George Mason University and an MA in American Studies & Folklore from Utah State University. Their digital micro-chap, “Dream With Teeth,” was published by Ghost City Press in 2023. Their full-length collection is forthcoming in 2026. Millie’s poetry has been published in Sugar House Review, Stone Circle Review, Cimarron Review, Ninth Letter, SWWIM, Moist Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Psaltery & Lyre and incoming Editor-in-Chief of Exponent II. Raised in northern Utah, Millie lives in upstate South Carolina.
Evelyn Berry
MIDLANDS POETRY READING
Evelyn Berry (she/her) is the trans, Southern author of Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2024) and the chapbook Buggery (Bateau Press, 2020). Her chapbook T4T is forthcoming from Small Harbor Publishing in 2026. She lives in Columbia, SC.
Naya Lanai
MIDLANDS POETRY READINGS
Naya Lanai is pink, queer, and ready to be fierce! She uses both pain and pleasure in her writing to create a kinder world. Not afraid to be vulnerable, she writes with healing in mind for both herself and others. Connect with her on Instagram at @nayalanai.
Cassie Premo Steele
MIDLANDS POETRY READINGS
Cassie Premo Steele is the author of 18 books, including 3 novels and 7 books of poetry, and her newest poetry book is Swimming in Gilead from Yellow Arrow Publishing, an independent, nonprofit press based in Baltimore that supports women-identified writers. Jennifer Bartell Boykin, the Poet Laureate of Columbia, praised the poems in the collection as “a needed balm in these times of our modern-day Gilead, where women’s rights are being stripped away. These poems exhort you to live, live, live and fight, fight, fight.” She lives in Columbia with her wife.
Ms Tonya
PEE DEE POETRY READINGS
Tonya Morman, affectionately known as MsTonya, is a Mother, Author, Poet, and Content Creator who uses her voice to spark conversation and connection. Inspired by community, culture, and lived experience, she believes poetry is a powerful tool for truth-telling and change. Her debut collection, The Little Black Book of Poetry, explores identity, family, and the Black experience with strength and sensitivity. Known for her engaging, conversational tone, MsTonya invites readers and listeners to see themselves in her work. She continues to share her art at events and online. Follow her @mstonyathepoet or @mstonyatv on socials.
Jessica Cloud
PEE DEE POETRY READINGS
Jessica Neno Cloud writes poetry grounded in memory, mythology, and the messy beauty of embodied life. A native of Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf South, her work explores themes of family, feminism, spirituality, grief, and self-reclamation. Her (as yet unpublished) poetic memoir, Aries Stellium, Scorpio Moon, braids autobiography with astrological archetypes and Southern storytelling. For the past three years, Jessica has lived in Hartsville, South Carolina, where she works in higher education fundraising and parents two marvelous children with her husband, Daniel. She is delighted to represent the Pee Dee region at the Soda City Poetry Festival.
Adam Houle
PEE DEE POETRY READINGS
Adam Houle is the author of Stray (Lithic Press), a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. His poems have appeared in AGNI, Guesthouse, The Shore, and elsewhere. He lives in Darlington, South Carolina and teaches at Francis Marion University.