Join Us at 2026 Gaithersburg Book Festival May 16, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The 2026 Gaithersburg Book Festival is May 16 at Bohrer Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

You can click the image above for the complete master schedule, but for your poetry needs check out the Edgar Allan Poe Tent lineup:

10:15 a.m.: High School Poetry Contest Ceremony & Open Mic Reading

• See who is crowned the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners with Final Judge Majda Gama, and learn who the readers crowned as the Fan Favorite.

• Hear the young poets read their poems that were selected as finalists, as well as from audience members.

11:15 a.m.: moderated by Jessica Simon, hear the following poets:

• Dorian Elizabeth Knapp from Causa Sui

• Christopher Kondrich from Tread Upon

• J.D. Smith from The Place That Is Coming to Us

12:15 p.m.: moderated by Kristin Kowalski Ferragut, hear the following poets:

• Steven Ratiner from Grief’s Apostrophe

• Kelly Catharine Bradley from a gift

1:15 p.m.: moderated by Naomi Thiers, hear the following poets:

• Elizabeth Hazen from The Sky Will Hold

• Majda Gama from In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls

2:15 p.m.: moderated by Sierra Fisher, hear the following poets:

• Iain Haley Pollock from All the Possible Bodies

• Cynthia Manick from No Sweet Without Brine

3:15 p.m.: moderated by Courtney LeBlanc, hear the following poets:

• Chloe Yelena Miller from Perforated

• Megan Leonard from Larkspur Queen

• Michele Evans from purl

4:15 p.m.: moderated by Jona Colson and eve burton, hear the following poets:

• Piérre Ramon Thomas from Capital Queer

• Tony Medina & Kim Roberts Meikle from America’s Future

• Sunayna Pal from Echoes Through the Stacks

• Lisa Couturier & Randall Amster from Convergence