Today and Saturday, Slash Pine Press will sponsor a poetry festival in Tuscaloosa that is free and open to the public.

The Slash Pine Press “produces limited-run chapbooks of poetry and mixed-genre” writing, according to its website. The press also hosts several readings throughout the year in interesting places. Some locations of these readings have been on poetry-hikes and at GreenCup book co-op.

According to the site, Slash Pine sees itself as a space that can help writers bring out the best in their work by looking into “the dimensions of place.” By helping to foster broader thinking and creativity “concerned with but not limited to the map,” the press seeks to inspire authors to look inside themselves to find words, even if they’re somewhat non-traditional.

Joseph Wood, an organizer of the Slash Pine event and an instructor in the English department at the University, said the press is important because “it’s one sliver of a growing movement of chapbook presses and independent series that is democratizing poetry and art.”

In spring 2010, the Slash Pine Press introduced a new undergraduate internship program to the University. The interns get to design chapbooks (small pamphlets or books), help with grant writing and plan events.

Slash Pine’s Web site explains, “In short, Slash Pine not only offers undergraduates at the University of Alabama an experience of immersion learning: Slash Pine itself is immersed in and formed by the expertise, energy and creativity of its own interns.”

Wood said that the program doesn’t just focus on creative writing majors, though there are some in the program. They look for any student who has a passion or interest in writing of any kind and give them a space to “bring their own expertise and ideas to fruition.”

The poetry festival will be located in locations around the Tuscaloosa/Northport area. It will bring over 40 regional and national poets to spots ranging from the Woods Quad behind Clark Hall to Little Willie’s on Fourth Street. Including undergraduate readings, there will be over 17 hours of readings.

“It is utterly exhausting,” Wood said about hosting the festival, “but there’s some point where if some person attends the whole thing, it becomes an otherworldly experience.”

Wood went on to emphasize that one must take in not only the poets themselves, but also the crowds and locations.

“Each reading brings and element of randomness and unpredictability into play,” Wood said.

There are various readings both indoor and outdoor, and some will provide free food and music.

Friday at 3 p.m. there will be free pie and a reading at the Gorgas House lawn, while Saturday at 6:30 p.m. the festival will be serving a free BBQ dinner with music by the Alabama Blues Project, with poetry starting at 10 p.m.

For more information about the events including times, poets, and inclement weather locations, see the Slash Pine website at slashpinepress.com.