The OSVC Annual Poet's Picnic!

ONGOING Weathergram viewing throughout the Open Space Visitor Center grounds—new Weathergrams will be going up on April 28.

10:00 - 11:30 am: "Ekphrastic Haiku" Haiku Workshop with Dale Harris & Scott Wiggerman in Conference Room and East Gallery. Please RSVP the Open Space to reserve a place (505) 768-4951. We will be viewing and writing to work in the Scissors and Glue: Geometry in Nature exhibit opening the weekend of the Poets’ Picnic! All artwork is for sale!

10:00 am – 2:30 pm: Escribiente Calligraphers Weathergram demos and sales at front entrance patio tables. Chapbook sales at front entrance plus other locations. Price is $10 each to the public; contributors (those whose haiku are in the chapbook) are $5 (limit of 2 copies) then $10 each. Proceeds are donated to the Open Space Alliance volunteer organization. Bring cash!

10:00 am – 2:30 pm: Richard Wolfson's Poetry Dice spontaneous poetry table at the front entrance.

10:00 am – 3:00 pm: New Mexico Small Press book sales and information tables: Casa Urraca Press; Dos Gatos Press; Hummingbird Hollow Press; Jules Poetry Playhouse; New Mexico State Poetry Society; Read or Green Books; The Communication Circle. Cash appreciated!

12:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Picnic on the patio with stunning views! Bring a lunch and your picnic blanket. Some seating available (covered) or bring your own spectator chairs. Food truck fare for purchase. 

12:00 pm – 12:45 pm: Music Entertainment Tom Andes.

1:00 pm –3:00 pm: Featured Poets: Hosts Dale Harris, Scott Wiggerman; Margaret Randall, Rene Mullen, Sharon Neiderman, Wayne Lee

3:00 pm – 4 pm Open Mic by signup.

 

Here’s more on our features:

Tom Andes, musician, lives in Albuquerque. His latest musical release is The Ones That Brought You Home (Southern Crescent Recording Co. 2025). His first full-length record, Wonderful Days, will be released in 2026. More at tomandes.com. He is also the author of the detective novel Wait There Till You Hear from Me (Crescent City Books 2025) and Guess This Is Kaput: Stories (forthcoming, Cowboy Jamboree Press). His stories have appeared in Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories 2025 and he received the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America.

Margaret Randall grew up in New Mexico. In Mexico City in the 1960s, she co-founded and edited a bilingual poetry journal, El Corno Emplumado, and took an active part in the Mexican student movement of 1968. She then lived in Cuba for eleven years and Nicaragua for four. Randall returned to the United States in 1984, only to face deportation when the government declared her writings “against the good order and happiness of the United States.” With the support of many, she won her case in 1989. Randall is the author of more than two hundred books. Her most recent book of poems is 2026’s The Calendar’s Whim from Casa Urraca Press.

Rene Mullen’s work can be found in Santa Fe Literary Review, Blue Collar Review, Poets.org. He is the winner of the 2023 Charles and Fanny Fay Wood Poetry Prize. Rene has been on multiple poetry slam teams, on regional stages, and holds a Political Science MA from UW-Milwaukee and a Creative Writing MFA from Randolph College. Born and raised in the village of Rogers, Connecticut, he currently calls the Southwest home.

Sharon Niederman is an award-winning Southwestern author and photographer living in the North Valley.  She specializes in documenting cuisine, travel, women’s stories and history in words and images. She recently returned to Albuquerque after 15 years living in northern NM.  Her collection, “Ungentrified: Poems of the North Valley and Beyond” is her first published poetry collection. 

Wayne Lee is a Santa Fe, NM, writer, editor and teacher. Lee’s poems have appeared in Tupelo Press, Slipstream, The New Guard, Writer’s Digest and other journals and anthologies. He was awarded the 2012 Fischer Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and four Best of the Net Awards. His collection The Underside of Light was a finalist for the 2014 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award; his collection Dining on Salt: Four Seasons of Septets was published by Cornerstone Press in April 2025; and his 2026 collection The Beautiful Foolishness is now available from Casa Urraca Press. Lee is the host of the online Tuesday Poetry Practice community.

They will be joined by your long-time hosts, organizers, and emcees:

Dale Harris lives in Albuquerque’s Sawmill Neighborhood and helps coordinate the annual Poets Picnic at the Open Space Visitor Center. She is the author of five books of poetry and her poems have been widely anthologized. Dale was the editor and emcee for Central Avenue, a monthly poetry chapbook and reading series in Nob Hill 2002 – 2008, and an associate editor for the Malpais Review Poetry Quarterly. She currently is an editor for Hummingbird Hollow Press, an independent publishing service. 

Scott Wiggerman—poet, teacher, editor, artist, haikuist, publisher—served five years as the Chair of the Albuquerque chapter of the New Mexico State Poetry Society. He continues to co-organize the annual Poets Picnic at the Open Space Visitor Center. He and his husband have run Dos Gatos Press for twenty years, and they conduct monthly workshops, including a bi-monthly series at Books on the Bosque. Scott Wiggerman is the author of four books of poetry—including the 2026 volume Beginning and Ending with Emily--and the editor or co-editor of over nearly two dozen poetry publications, including the best-selling craft books Wingbeats I & II: Exercises & Practice in Poetry. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2021.

 

Other Information:

If you cannot make it to the Picnic, but want to purchase a chapbook, contact Dale Harris for details: [email protected] Last year we sold out of chapbooks quickly!

Parking fills up, so you might consider carpooling. Inside the circle directly to the west of the main building, there should be a drop-off point for publishers. This is also the area set aside for the food truck.

Don't forget to call (505) 768-4951 to reserve a spot in the Ekphrastic Haiku workshop!