Write Now: Poet Steve Bellin-Oka
Join us for an evening of topical discussion and creative writing while engaging with works of art from the Crystal Bridges collection.
Led by guest instructor and poet Steve Bellin-Oka, this month we’ll explore poetry inspired by works in our Contemporary Galleries. All writing materials will be provided, so all you need to bring is a love of language and art!
Free, registration required. Register online or by calling Guest Services at 479.657.2335.
Per the CDC’s updated guidelines, we are now requiring all guests ages 2 and up and staff to wear a face covering indoors and while attending outdoor programs, except while eating or drinking. Masks will be available upon entry for those who do not have one. We will observe social distancing during this program.
About the Artist
Steve Bellin-Oka earned his M.F.A. from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers. He is the author of two chapbooks, Dead Letter Office at North Atlantic Station (Seven Kitchens Press, 2017) and Out of the Frame (Walls Divide Press, 2019). His first book of poems, Instructions for Seeing a Ghost, was chosen by Peter Balakian as the winner of the 2019 Vassar Miller Prize and was published in February 2020 by the University of North Texas Press. His next two chapbooks both won prizes–Tell Me Exactly What You Saw and What You Think It Means won the 2021 Blue Mountain Review LGBQT+ Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from SCE Press and Proviso, a text/image collaboration with the painter Kristen Tomecek, won the Antenna Chapbook Prize from Paper Machine Press and is forthcoming in 2020.
The recipient of a 2019-2021 Tulsa Artists Fellowship from the George Kaiser Family Foundation for public engagement with the arts, he has previously taught creative writing, literature, and film studies at the University of Mississippi, St. Norbert College, and Eastern New Mexico University. His other honors include fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He is the poetry editor of The Bookends Review and a contributing editor for Nimrod International Journal and Seven Kitchens Press. He currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he is a teaching artist. Steve is also currently the founding director of Tulsa Glitterary, an LGBQT+ writers’ organization sponsoring a yearly conference and a monthly LGBQT+ reading series.