december, 2025
On Wednesday, December 3rd three award-winning poets will be visiting The Wild Detectives to celebrate their new books. Join Carey Salerno, Cecily Parks, and Heidi Seaborn as they read from
On Wednesday, December 3rd three award-winning poets will be visiting The Wild Detectives to celebrate their new books. Join Carey Salerno, Cecily Parks, and Heidi Seaborn as they read from their poetry collections: The Hungriest Stars (Persea Books), The Seeds (Alice James Books), and tic tic tic (Cornerstone Press).
This reading will kick off a new seasonal poetry series First Rodeo, hosted by Hannah Smith and L. A. Johnson.
(Wednesday) 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
The Wild Detectives
314 W 8th St, Oak Cliff, Dallas
ALSO
september
Bienvenidos a nuestro club de lectura en Español. Después de un periodo de pausa, retomamos el ciclo con nuevos títulos y varias sorpresas para quienes os apetezca participar en un
Bienvenidos a nuestro club de lectura en Español. Después de un periodo de pausa, retomamos el ciclo con nuevos títulos y varias sorpresas para quienes os apetezca participar en un espacio de lectura en Español.
Seguimos con Así en el cielo como en la tierra, de Ana María Paula. Una novela que explora los vínculos familiares, la memoria y las relaciones que nos forman, a través de una historia en la que el pasado y el presente se entrelazan y donde las decisiones, los afectos y las ausencias continúan resonando a lo largo del tiempo.
El club se reunirá una vez al mes y estará coordinado por Gabriel Calbosa. Nuestra intención es que cada encuentro cuente con alguna participación especial, ya sea de la autora o autor del libro o a través de mensajes dirigidos a los miembros del club.
¡Ojalá puedas unirte y disfrutar de la literatura en Español!
(Saturday) 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
The Wild Detectives
314 W 8th St, Oak Cliff, Dallas
Inner Moonlight is the monthly poetry series at the Wild Detectives! Curated by poet Logen Cure, the show is the second Wednesday of every month. Meet us in the backyard
Inner Moonlight is the monthly poetry series at the Wild Detectives! Curated by poet Logen Cure, the show is the second Wednesday of every month. Meet us in the backyard at 7:30pm on Wednesday September 9th for a live reading from one featured writer, with a brief open mic to follow. This month, we are proud to present writer Princess McDowell!
Princess McDowell (she/they) is a multi-faceted writer and editor from Dallas, Texas. Their career spans over 20 years in journalism, performance poetry, and copywriting to both tell their unique story as a black queer storyteller and craft stories for global and local organizations.
She is a two-time Pink Door literary fellow, a national and international touring poet, and as a teaching artist has run workshops and collaborated with youth literary groups across the country, producing a book of COVID-related writings with high school students in 2020.
Princess has been a part of Rebellious Magazine since its relaunch in 2016, delivering biting columns and graphic novel reviews in addition to co-hosting the Feminist Erotica podcast. As Special Projects Editor, Princess works behind the scenes to curate diverse voices for Rebellious’ news coverage.
“Follow your inner moonlight, don’t hide the madness.”
(Wednesday) 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The Wild Detectives
314 W 8th St, Oak Cliff, Dallas
First Rodeo is back! Join poets francine j. harris, Adam Clay, Karisma Price, and Greg Brownderville as they read new work. First Rodeo is a seasonal poetry series hosted by Hannah
First Rodeo is back! Join poets francine j. harris, Adam Clay, Karisma Price, and Greg Brownderville as they read new work.
First Rodeo is a seasonal poetry series hosted by Hannah Smith & L. A. Johnson and sponsored by SMU’s Project Poëtica.
About the poets:
francine j. harris is a 2025 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow and author of three poetry collections. Her third collection, Here is the Sweet Hand, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is Professor of English at University of Houston and Consulting Faculty Editor at Gulf Coast.
Adam Clay is the author of five books of poetry, including Circle Back (Milkweed Editions, 2024). His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Mid-American Review, A Public Space, Ninth Letter, TriQuarterly, Denver Quarterly, Tin House, Bennington Review, Black Warrior Review, Georgia Review, Boston Review, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He received a Literary Arts Fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2018. For twenty years, he co-edited Typo Magazine, a journal of poetry and poetics. He is an Associate Professor and Director of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University.
A native New Orleanian, Karisma Price is an assistant professor of English at Tulane University. A poet and screenwriter, she is the author of I’m Always So Serious (Sarabande Books, 2023) which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick. Her work has appeared in publications including Poetry, Indiana Review, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, and elsewhere. Her honors include a 2026 Writing Freedom Fellowship from Haymarket Books and The Mellon Foundation, a 2025 Whiting Award in Poetry, a Cave Canem Fellowship, and the 2023 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from the American Poetry Review. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University.
Greg Brownderville is the author of three books of poetry, the editor-in-chief of Southwest Review, and a professor of English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is also the creator of an online narrative series called Fire Bones.
(Thursday) 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The Wild Detectives
314 W 8th St, Oak Cliff, Dallas
october
Join us for the Dallas launch of Once Wild, the debut short story collection by s b del llano. The evening will feature a reading and conversation with writers Susan
Join us for the Dallas launch of Once Wild, the debut short story collection by s b del llano. The evening will feature a reading and conversation with writers Susan Ayotte Norman and LaToya Watkins, followed by cake and a book signing.
Once Wild, published by High Frequency Press, is a collection of literary fiction exploring identity, survival, and the universal dimensions of humanity. Moving across cultures and landscapes, these stories examine what it means to endure, transform, and remain connected to the wildness within us.
About the participants
s b del llano was raised among Indigenous peoples and multicultural communities in the mountains, foothills, and jungles of Colombia. He moved to the United States at seventeen to pursue his education, earning a BA in literature in Chicago, a Master of Liberal Arts at Southern Methodist University, and a PhD in Humanities and Writing at the University of Texas at Dallas. A writer, poet, and educator, his fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in The New Guard, Sojourn, Hindsight Journal, and Reunion: The Dallas Review. He lives in Dallas and New York City.
Susan Ayotte Norman is a fiction writer from Dallas and holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas in Narrative Theory and American Literature. She teaches Academic Writing and leads the Hilltop Scholars Program at Southern Methodist University. Her short fiction has appeared in TLR: The Literary Review and the anthology Her Texas: Story, Image, and Song, and has been featured in Short Edition’s international short story vending machines.
LaToya Watkins is the award-winning author of two books. Her short story collection, Holler, Child, was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Reading the West Book Award and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award in Fiction. Her debut novel, Perish, was published to great acclaim in 2022. Her writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, and Kenyon Review, among other publications.
This event is free and open to the public.
(Tuesday) 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
The Wild Detectives
314 W 8th St, Oak Cliff, Dallas
Join us for an evening with Dallas artist Brad Ford Smith celebrating Where To Find A Ghost, a collection of local stories of calamity and mayhem paired with Smith’s signature
Join us for an evening with Dallas artist Brad Ford Smith celebrating Where To Find A Ghost, a collection of local stories of calamity and mayhem paired with Smith’s signature India and walnut ink drawings.
Rather than recreating scenes from the past, Smith depicts these Dallas locations as they appear today, inviting us to reflect on time, memory, and how sites of great tragedy can change in perception without losing their significance.
About Brad Ford Smith
Brad Ford Smith is a visual artist and art conservator living in Dallas. His work explores a wide range of subjects, from the influence of dyslexia on visual perception to tongue-in-cheek pseudo-science exhibitions presented under the guise of the Nomadic Fungi Institute. His current practice focuses on drawing local places of historic and cultural significance that have often transformed into urban detritus.
Where To Find A Ghost, published by K.Co Press, is available as a standalone title and as part of Traces, a special set that also includes House Of Giller—drawings made over several years at the home of Smith’s friend, the late Dallas artist Susan Giller—and a new edition of Nine Days With LiHua, which chronicles his time cat-sitting a mysterious feline with a distinct point of view in New York City.
This event is free and open to the public.
Photography by James Khattak.
(Thursday) 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The Wild Detectives - Ideas
321 N Zang Blvd
