Baylor University’s Beall Poetry Festival is a three-day celebration of contemporary poetry, with poetry readings, a panel discussion, and the Virginia Beall Ball Lecture on Contemporary Poetry. The festival is supported by the John A. and DeLouise McClelland Beall Endowed Fund, established in 1994 by Mrs. Virginia B. Ball to honor her parents and to encourage the writing and appreciation of poetry.
30th Annual Festival
April 3 - 5
Full Schedule2024 Participants
Rebecca Gayle Howell is the author of two award-winning novels-in-verse, American Purgatory (2017) and Render (2013).
Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, including Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems (2023).
Ruben Quesada received the Gold Medal IPPY Award for his anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (2022).
Tracy K. Smith served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019.
Allison Benis White is the author of The Wendys (2020) and Please Bury Me in This (2017), winner of the Rilke Prize.