Fingers snapped and hands clapped as poets across all majors read their favorite works at the Poetry Coffee House at Win Thompson Hall.

The Oct. 12 event was co-hosted by Vortex Magazine, UCA’s undergraduate fine arts magazine, and SLANT, UCA’s graduate poetry journal. 

Kristina Coggin, Vortex’s editor, and Paul Perroni, SLANT’s editorial assistant, emceed the evening. The duo introduced the readers and in between poem readings entertained the crowd — most of whom were their friends and classmates — with jokes.

Nine readers took to the podium during the night and shared one or more poems of their choosing. The themes of the poems ranged from love letters to nightmares and everything in between.

Allison Toomer, a junior English major, was one of the readers. She read one original poem titled “The Truth and the Past” and another called “Night Swims” written by singer-songwriter Josh Taylor.

“I chose ‘The Truth and the Past’ because it relates to the reality of truth and one’s past and having to come to terms with it,” Toomer said. “I chose the one I didn’t write because I love how the author goes into the illustrative experience of depression in the midst of getting over a breakup and questioning one’s religious beliefs.”

Freshman creative writing major Blaze Robb read two original pieces titled “Notes For Writers Block” and “My Friend Eric.”

“Notes For Writers Block” was a comedic poem that left the audience laughing, while “My Friend Eric” was an ode to Robb’s childhood friend.

Robb shares his poetry at open mic nights at Round Mountain Coffee.

“I use open mics mainly to workshop my work because most of my poetry lends itself to comedy,” Robb said. “If no one laughs when I want people to laugh, I use that for inspiration.”

Graduate student Katie Beth Fly read a poem she wrote called “On the Stoning of Stephen” which took religious inspiration and was told through the perspective of the Apostle Paul.

“I tend to write from the perspective of others,” Fly said. “I try to think as somebody else. I wanted to be able to express the realization but also the suppression of something uncomfortable.”

This is the second Poetry Coffee House at UCA. Professor Michael Blanchard, who is the editor of SLANT, said the event evolved from the Visiting Poets Series last year.

The visiting poets were well-received, and Blanchard and other faculty members realized there should be a way for student poets to share their poetry.

“I thought something that was missing was a venue where students can showcase their work,” he said.

The first Poetry Coffee House was held last spring and was met with a packed house.

“The poets were so excited to have an opportunity,” Blanchard said. “Every one of them said, ‘There’s just not enough venues for us to read our poetry.’ And so I said, ‘Well, we’ll do it every semester.’”

SLANT worked in collaboration with Vortex Magazine to coordinate the event.

Vortex publishes editions each spring and fall semester. Submissions for the Vortex are open until Nov. 1.

Students can submit original poetry, nonfiction and fiction works, art, play scripts and film scripts.

To submit, visit ucavortexmagazine.wordpress.com/submit.