Poison Pen Reading Series

Poison Pen Reading Series Long-running reading series in the heart of Houston: fiction, poetry, non-fiction, hybrid. Past read

Meet our September readers! See you at Poison Girl tonight!Hayan Charara has four poetry books and a children’s book; he...
09/25/2025

Meet our September readers! See you at Poison Girl tonight!

Hayan Charara has four poetry books and a children’s book; he also edited an anthology of contemporary Arab American poetry, and founded the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. He teaches at UH. He was born and raised in Detroit. Hush Little Children is his first novel.

Meet our September readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 9/25.Courtney O’Banion Smith is a neurodivergent, awar...
09/24/2025

Meet our September readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 9/25.

Courtney O’Banion Smith is a neurodivergent, award-winning writer and educator with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-Poetry from Texas State University-San Marcos and a Master of Arts in Theopoetics and Writing from Bethany Theological Seminary. She lives in Houston with her neurospicy dog and family.

Meet our September readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 9/25.Kartika Budhwar's writing and scholarship have be...
09/23/2025

Meet our September readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 9/25.

Kartika Budhwar's writing and scholarship have been supported generously by the Matthew Salesses Asian American Fellowship, the Inprint Fellowship and the Brazos Bookstore-CWP Fellowship. She has received multiple Teaching Excellence and Research excellence awards. She was awarded Second place in the Arts and Letters Fiction Prize, the Blue Mesa Nonfiction Prize, and the Indiana Review Fiction Prize. She was also a Finalist for the Frank McCourt Memoir Prize.

Meet our August readers! See you at Poison Girl tonight!Anna Story is a writer from Illinois. She is an MFA candidate in...
08/28/2025

Meet our August readers! See you at Poison Girl tonight!

Anna Story is a writer from Illinois. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Houston, where she is an Inprint Brown Foundation Fellow and serves as an assistant fiction editor for Gulf Coast.

Meet our August readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 8/28.Louisa Brady moved to Houston from Brooklyn, NY wher...
08/27/2025

Meet our August readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 8/28.

Louisa Brady moved to Houston from Brooklyn, NY where she worked as an elementary school science teacher. She is a candidate for an MFA in Fiction at University of Houston where she is an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow and serves as Assistant Fiction Editor for Gulf Coast. She is currently at work on a novel.

Meet our August readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 8/28.Diego Nguyen was mentored by Keith Tuma and Former T...
08/27/2025

Meet our August readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 8/28.

Diego Nguyen was mentored by Keith Tuma and Former Texas Poet Laureate Jenny Browne. He has work published in Poet Lore and the Kitchen Table Quarterly, and has been nominated for a Pushcart prize while being a government paper pusher.

Meet our July readers, and see you all Tonight!Nicole Zaza has been teaching writing classes in Houston for 20 years. Sh...
07/31/2025

Meet our July readers, and see you all Tonight!

Nicole Zaza has been teaching writing classes in Houston for 20 years. She has published in various journals and magazines and worked as an editor for Gulf Coast and Envy Magazine. She graduated with an MFA in literature and nonfiction from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

Meet our July readers!Jacob Weil is a poet getting his MFA at the University of Houston. He is currently working on a bo...
07/30/2025

Meet our July readers!

Jacob Weil is a poet getting his MFA at the University of Houston. He is currently working on a book of poetry focused on contemporary music, primarily punk, metal, new wave, techno and ambient. You can find his work at Cathexis Northwest, Tinge, and the Write Launch. More work is forthcoming in Abstract Art Magazine. He is very excited for you to hear his poems.

See you at 8:30pm on Thursday!

Meet our July readers!Tyler Darnell is a Houston writer. He annoys his cat by leaning over in his desk chair to write no...
07/29/2025

Meet our July readers!

Tyler Darnell is a Houston writer. He annoys his cat by leaning over in his desk chair to write novels instead of petting her. He focuses on q***r and disabled characters who are often unseen. He writes for children and is pursuing publication of his debut novel.

See you all this Thursday!

Meet our June readers! See you at Poison Girl tonight. (No need to worry, we've already arranged for the rain to end bef...
06/26/2025

Meet our June readers! See you at Poison Girl tonight. (No need to worry, we've already arranged for the rain to end before we get started.)

Glenn Shaheen is the author of four books. He is the President of RAWI and teaches at Prairie View A&M University.

Meet our June readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 6/26. John Michael Ahern is a writer and musician from Lime...
06/25/2025

Meet our June readers! See you at Poison Girl this Thursday, 6/26.

John Michael Ahern is a writer and musician from Limerick, Ireland. He is an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow at the University of Houston and a graduate of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast.

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1641 Westheimer Road
Houston, TX
77006

Opening Hours

8pm - 9:30pm

Telephone

(713) 527-9929

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