How to Read Your Work Aloud to an Audience

Shortly before Halloween this year, at a Loveland Poet Laureate sponsored workshop, two local poets with performance expertise guided participants through exercises to improve their reading of their own work.

Here are a few tips from the workshop leaders, Courtney Collins and “Booger” (and one of my own):

1. Never, never, never, apologize on behalf of your work. Stand proudly behind it! The audience understands that improvement is always possible.

2. Make eye contact with those in the room. It helps if you have memorized your work, but if that is beyond your skill set, make a point to lift your eyes and look out, to a couple different parts of the room.

3. Don’t drop the “punch line.” Voices often drift off on the last line of a poem, yet we know that the last line is often very important: give it the emphasis it deserves.

Anticipating a reading of your work? Believe in yourself. Writing is often a solitary part of the arc; sharing your work completes the circle.

-Beth Lechleitner