Sunday, Sept. 21: Porter Fleming Writing Competition Awards Ceremony, Augusta, GA

15th Annual Porter Fleming Writing Competition
Competition Awards Ceremony
Sunday, September 21, 2008
1:30 p.m.
Morris Museum
1 Tenth Street, Augusta, GA

I was thrilled to be among the winners of this year's Porter Fleming Writing Competition and to read with the other winners of the contest. The reading was held in the auditorium of the Morris Museum in Augusta, GA, as a part of the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival. Below are the winners of all four categories:

FICTION:
1st prize -- Michael Leslie, "Marathons, Mercurys, and Orphans"
2nd prize -- Angela Aaron, "The Tale of Tapanga"
3rd prize -- Dot Jackson, "Boy Lost"

NONFICTION:
1st prize -- Marina Brown, "Pieta"
2nd prize -- Elizabeth Estes, "How I Lost Fourteen Warts by Just Holding Hands"
3rd prize -- Marina Brown, "The Sweetness of Red Cabbage"

POETRY:
1st prize -- Allan Ryder-Cook, "Scapula"
2nd prize -- Gilbert Allen, "My Mother Teaches Me to Type"
3rd prize -- Susan Meyers, "Namesake"

PLAYWRITING:
1st prize -- Amy Richerson, "The Ex-Box"
2nd prize -- Thomas McConnell, "Colliding with Andromeda"
3rd prize -- Joseph Barry, "Bait and Switch"

This year's final judge for the poetry division was Stephen Corey, poet and editor of The Georgia Review. For more information, see Arts in the Heart of Augusta.

Friday, Sept. 19: Visit to Furman University class

I was recently invited to visit the undergraduate poetry workshop of Gil Allen, professor and poet at Furman University in Greenville, SC. The purposes of the visit was to give the students a chance to hold a small-group conversation with a working poet. What a pleasure! After I started our session by reading a poem, the twelve students in the class each told me about what for them seemed hard, and in turn what seemed easy, about writing poems. We also talked about such issues as where our poems come from, how we get started, and how much revising we do. I tried to emphasize the fact that my poems rarely begin with an idea; they're much more likely to begin with a line that comes to me. Typically I keep laying down one line after another, not really knowing where I'm headed. The more I write, the more I like the mystery of where the developing poem is taking me, its surprises and turns along the way. It's probably apparent, too, that I like to sit and talk about writing.

The students were eager for the exchange, which made my whole trip worthwhile. Thanks for inviting me, Gil. And thanks to the students--James, Christan, Rachel, Duncan, Drew, Sarah, Gwendolyn, Scott, Stephen, Keegan, Ait, and Helen--for voicing your concerns and ideas about the writing process. I was happy to be there for our conversation on poetry.