Ekphrasis: Live Reading
November 19 - November 19, 2025 AdmissionNOTICE: This event has been rescheduled for the Spring semester! There will be no live reading on November 19!
In collaboration with the SFCC Creative Writing Club, the Daum Museum is hosting a writing event in the Freed Gallery, inspired by the art of The Patrons: Unreliable Narrator.
We are seeking original pieces of ekphrastic poetry or short character vignettes (no longer than 500 words) based on the exhibition which features the artwork of Bryce Holt, who creates story-driven pop surrealism. Holt writes in his artist statement, “Each painting is an invitation to explore, to bring out each person’s internal storyteller through vibrant hues and unexpected juxtapositions… I encourage viewers to embrace their own interpretations and to allow their imaginations to travel wherever the art may lead them.”
Ekphrastic poetry focuses on vivid description and themes of a piece of art. John Keat’s Ode on a Grecian Urn is a famous example of an ekphrastic poem.
Character vignettes focus on vividly capturing a small moment or brief glimpse of a character’s experience in their everyday lives. Description and perspective, rather than plot, drive a vignette. Ernest Hemingway’s collection In Our Time is a series of vignettes.
Submitted pieces may be selected for a spoken word reading event hosted at the Daum Museum on Wednesday, November 19. Submissions are due by Friday, November 7 to submissionsroadwriters@sfccmo.edu.