Sarasota’s springtime Poetry in Paradise Festival from PoetryLife gets a special winter edition this Saturday with two events featuring Marie Howe, New York State Poet Laureate 2012-14, and the return of superstar poet Billy Collins, US Poet Laureate 2001-03. Beginning with a Poetry Power Luncheon and panel discussion at Florida Studio Theatre, Collins and Howe will speak and answer questions on the importance of poetry education through adolescence, followed by an evening event seeing both poets presenting their work before engaging the audience for a more freewheeling discussion.

“There’s all sorts of activity, but not much of the poetry is getting out to the broader audience,” said Collins in a phone interview, speaking to the democratization of a self-publishing world. Next to regular concerns about the inconstant quality, the greater issue seemed to be the lack of impact despite poetry’s growing ubiquity. The main readership for poetry remains other poets. But that’s why readings are important. “It brings out often the hidden community of poetry readers,” said Collins, “but it’s also a dramatization of the work that’s usually silent on the page. And there’s a power to hearing it.”

Last Spring, Howe and Collins were scheduled to read together at PoetryLife but last-minute events conspired to make that an impossibility, and Collins looks forward to collaborating this year. “We have a lot in common in that we’re both poets of clarity,” said Collins. “We’re not hiding behind the language; we’re using it in a very up-front way.”

Having just sent his latest manuscript to his publishers this week, Collins fans can look forward to his next work, entitled The Rain in Portugal, arriving in October. It has nothing to do with Portugal, said Collins, and the title is more “an admission that I’m not a rhymer.”

The Poetry Power Luncheon begins Saturday at noon at FST, and tickets cost $35. The evening readings begin at 7pm at the Mildred Sainer Pavilion on the New College Campus. Tickets cost $25 and may also be purchased through the FST box office.