by Stazja McFadyen

Poets love a festival. Poets love Austin. Austin is a festival-loving, arts-friendly city if ever there was one, hosting such festivities as the 1998 National Peotry Slam, Frontera Fest, and most recently, three days of SXSW spoken word programming.

And now we have the 1999 Austin International Poetry Festival [AIPF], which will attract over 200 poets from eleven states and five countries. The festival runs from April 15 through April 18.

AIPF readings begin Thursday, April 15, at 7:30pm at three major bookstores: Book People, Borders Books and Records, and Barnes & Noble on the Drag -- with the release of TrEs Di-Verse-City, the 1999 anthology edited by Scott Wiggerman, containing the works of 74 local, national and international poets.

Unlike "juried" festivals, where participants must be invited to participate, AIPF accepts anyone who pays the nominal registration fee. Audiences will hear some mediocre poems, some really amateurish reads, mostly good work, and some truly great performances.

Programmed readings are scheduled to include all registrants. While offering some themes such as "I'm Every Woman," "Cornerstones -- Gay/Lesbian Poets," and "Poetics with Music and the Avant Garde," programming emphasizes diversity of style and cultural mix.

If the 50 hours of programming isn't enough for the poets, they will prop their eyes open with coffee and sign up for one of the midnight-to-dawn open mikes.

Last year, both nights of "cutting edge performance poetry" at Waterloo Ice House on Lamar drew standing room only audiences. Hoping this year proves twice as successful, the organizers expanded the festival to include four performance cutting edge venues: Friday, April 16 at Ruta Maya Coffee House at 8pm, hosted by Clebo Rainey; and Waterloo Ice House on Lamar at 10pm, co-hosted by Larry Jaffe and Tim Gibbard; Saturday, April 17 at Movements Gallery at 9pm, hosted by Rich Perin and Waterloo Ice House at 26 Doors at 9:30pm, hosted by Larry Cordle. General admission is $5 per venue. All other AIPF readings are free.

Now in its seventh year, AIPF began as a grassroots volunteer festival welcoming anyone, with or without publishing credentials. The only qualification was a willingness to pitch in, run a venue, house a guest, provide transportation around town, whatever it took to create a gathering where all voices would be heard. It was a success. After incorporation as Austin Poets International, Inc. in 1995, the festival became eligible for funding through grants from the City of Austin.

The spirit of community has not been lost. Volunteers still work the venues, provide transportation, and house visiting national and international poets. Support from local businesses, such as City Grill, which donated over 200 gift certificates, creates a welcoming environment for visiting artists.

"I think the festival is an artwork in itself," said Australian poet Jayne Fenton Keane. "I have been amazed at the level of generosity amongst poets and can't wait to meet everyone concerned."

Jayne is among the handful of featured poets who will receive a small fee from AIPF, in exchange for hosting venues, conducting workshops, and participating in community outreach programs. Edward Reilly, a Celtic bard from Geelong, Australia, will do presentations at Anderson High School and at a nursing home. San Francisco poet Alan Kaufman will visit Austin Children's Hospital. Keane, Reilly, Alexandra Krysinki of Yorkshire, L.A. poet Larry Jaffe, Ruth Solomon of Fairhope, Alabama, and Guy LeCharles Gonzales of New York will host venues. Kaufman, Reilly, Jaffe and Virginian Dean Blehert will conduct free workshops.

What inspires poets to travel from Australia, England, Canada, Israel, and both U.S. coasts, largely at their own expense?

College professors, street poets, seasoned professionals, housewives, first time readers, published and non-published -- all come to hear and be heard. Their expectations are rarely commercial. Claiborne Walsh from Montrose, Alabama expects "a long drive with friends, junk food, pit stops, etc. People who are wanting to see, meet and hear new and friendly faces. I expect to meet friends whom I have never seen face to face. I expect to hear quality poetry from quality poets." Walsh will travel with Robin Travis, editor of Poetic Voices, a monthly online publication. Travis has "met" many of the attending poets, but not yet face-to-face. She said, "Whenever poets get together there is a magic, a bonding that goes on that affects our craft and performance. I am looking forward to the magic and to meeting friends I know but have not yet met."

Moshe Benarroch from Jerusalem heard about AIPF only a few months ago, through email. "When I heard the word Austin, I said: I have to go! I have been listening to music from Austin -- from Townes Van Zandt to David Rodriguez -- 25 years now."

Springtime in Austin is an attraction. Returning guest Alex Krysinski said, "There is one other reason that I like coming to Austin. You have sunshine and there isn't a lot of that in Yorkshire."

"Austin is just one of the greatest towns in America and I haven't had a chance to visit for many years. I'm driving from northwest Indiana, which is currently covered with an icy blanket of snow. No matter what T.S. Eliot says about April, I can't wait for it this year," said John Billings.

Guy LeCharles Gonzales, membership coordinator for Academy of American Poets, first heard of AIPF last August when he competed as a member of the winning Nuyorican slam team in the 1998 National Poetry Slam. "At the Nationals, I barely got to see any of Austin. The little bit I saw impressed me and I'm looking forward to soaking in both the community and the poetry this time. I'm expecting to hear a wide range of voices, not only from Texas, but from all over the country and overseas. It is this apparent commitment to diversity that I find most attractive about the Festival."

Alan Kaufman said, "The fee I'm getting to come is roughly ten times lower then the lowest fee I've ever received to travel such a distance, but for some reason, I feel ten times as excited." Kaufman is an veteran of the Spoken Word movement in America and Europe. In 1994 he headlined in Berlin along with Allen Ginsberg. What is so exciting about AIPF? Kaufman said, "The prospect of meeting and hanging out with many poets from different countries. It's an experience that, as a poet, I have often enjoyed in Europe, but have never known in my own country. In the U.S., I've performed with poets from many different regions but never with both regional and international poets! That's pretty wonderful."

Although the gathering of poets is not about fees, many hope to sell their books and CD's while they are here. Thom the World Poet produces "fringefest," booking over a dozen readings in Austin, San Antonio and Temple to promote the score of English and Australian poets arriving in the week preceding AIPF.

Sue Littleton and Dr. Miriam Balboa de Echevarria produce the Hispanic festival in conjunction with AIPF. Book People will host the four-hour Spanish language segment on Saturday, April 17, 7pm to 11pm.

The Austin Younger Poets Award Anthology, edited by festival chairman Frank Pool, will be released on Sunday, April 18, at the LCRA Meeting Hall on Lake Austin Boulevard, followed by AIPF board members reading, then closing ceremonies and awards.