Open Mic Night Guidelines

NOTE: Events may change at the last minute, so check back frequently.

To facilitate event preparations, please pre-register for SLWG workshops, lectures, and Open Mic Nights at Event Registration.

Have you written a great tale, a humorous essay,
or a thought-provoking poem?

Do you like to be read to or told a good story?

Do you crave a fun evening out that
doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

If so, join us each month for a St. Louis Writers Guild's Open Mic Night!.

See the SLWG Calendar or Open Mic Nights page for dates, times, and locations of Open Mic Night events.

Admission is FREE, but please show some gratitude and patronize our venue hosts whenever possible and always purchase plenty of food and drinks during the Guild’s open mic events.

Open mike events are fun. They provide authors an opportunity to test their works in progress on an audience, ideally consisting of plenty of people who are not other writers. You don’t have to read or perform! Attendees at open mike readings can come just to sit back and enjoy the readers—what else do you have to do on a Tuesday night?

To get the most out of OPEN MIC NIGHTS, please observe the following guidelines:

• Arrive at least a half hour before the show begins to sign in, order food and drinks, and get a good seat.
• Please register in advance. Go to Event Registration. Early registration is not required, but it’s highly recommended. If you plan to read, it ensures you get a turn at the mic. It also avoids the rush to sign in when you arrive.
• Limit each prose reading to seven minutes and each poetry reading to five minutes.
• Come prepared to read again if time permits. (Yes, you must add your name to our list again – or we may call for volunteers to read again. It’s first come, first serve).
• Be respectful of the venue’s customers. Some Open Mic venues cater to families and persons of all ages and sensitivities. Others cater to a more mature audience. Please ensure that the subject matter and language in your reading is appropriate for the venue.
• Be courteous and appreciative of the venue host’s staff. Purchase some food and drinks during the event, patronize the establishment whenever you can, and refer your friends to them. After all, they’re supporting St. Louis writers!
• Also, on the night of an open mike event, please clean up after yourself before you leave and be sure to say thank you to the staff.
• Always encourage the readers and performers; be affirming. Open mike readings are intended for entertainment, not cricism.
• Support your local authors by attending St. Louis Writers Guild’s OPEN MIC NIGHTS every month, regardless of whether you read or perform. Strong attendance makes the events worthwhile to our venue hosts.

What to Expect:

Each Open Mic Night will begin with a welcome announcement by the emcee, a member of St. Louis Writers Guild.

After the introduction and a few announcements, the emcee will open the mic to participants who have registered to read or perform, calling up each person who has signed up to read on a "first come, first serve basis." Naturally, those who registered in advance will read before those who signed up at the event. 

Most of our open mic performers are reading their own original poetry or prose, although we welcome a singer, stand-up comic, or other performer, too. Prose readers are allowed up to seven minutes and poetry readers up to five minutes. This means that, after taking into account the emcee’s necessary duties and a short break midway through the event, each event accommodates about 20 readings—give or take.

The time limits are strictly enforced with a timer; however, if time remains after all readers have had a turn at the mic, readers may take another turn and finish reading a piece or offer something new to the audience.

Work of any genre is acceptable, provided that it is suitable for the venue.

Please plan on being a regular at St. Louis Writers Guild’s OPEN MIC NIGHTS. They’re a fun and relatively inexpensive evening out, an excuse to show off, a chance to test your work on an audience, to build your confidence, or hone your reading skills for those national book tours in your future. Attendance of literary entertainment events is also a great way to support your community’s authors!

Besides, this is a St. Louis Writers Guild event—You have friends here!