Nov. 13 -- Poetry Workshop: Opening the Gates of Imagination

Every fall and late winter I look forward to teaching half-day workshops in the OLLI at CCU program at Litchfield, SC. The next one is less than a month away, and I'm busy working on it now. It's always an engaged, supportive group eager to read, write, and discuss poetry. Here are the details:

Thursday, Nov. 13

OLLI at CCU, Litchfield

Workshop:

"Opening the Gates of Imagination"

Susan Laughter Meyers, instructor

10 a.m - 2 p.m.

$30 (plus $20 OLLI membership)

http://coastal.edu/olli

843-349-6584

_________________________________

Opening the Gates of the Imagination   

"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of the imagination," said John Keats. In this workshop we'll explore how the imagination can evoke emotion in a poem. In-class writing, discussion, class packet. Within two weeks after the workshop, participants have the option of e-mailing a poem to the instructor for feedback. Lunch can be brought or bought nearby.

Nov. 7 - 9 Queens Univ. of Charlotte MFA alumni & students to gather on campus

I'm looking forward to being a part of the inaugural alumni/student-run MFA gathering on the Queens University of Charlotte campus soon. Every other autumn (in odd-numbered years) the MFA program holds an alumni weekend on campus, when it brings in top-notch editors/agents and poets/writers to teach workshops. For the first time, in even-numbered years the alumni/students will be gathering on campus for a weekend of programs that they themselves—we ourselves—have generated and will be offering. So happy to be going and seeing fellow MFAers both familiar and new, as well as taking part in the discussions and readings. Soon!

Nov. 7 - 9

Queens Univ. of Charlotte

MFA alumni & student gathering

Panels & readings by MFAers

1900 Selwyn Avenue

Charlotte, NC

Artist Residency awarded by the SC State Parks System

I am honored to be a recipient of a 2014 SC State Parks System Artist Residency. For a week artists-in-residence have the opportunity to pursue their artistic endeavors staying at one of the state's beautiful state parks. I'll be writing poems, as well as taking field notes while on hikes, at Hickory Knob State Park. My sincere gratitude to the South Carolina State Park System for this opportunity. 

In return, I am to frame a poem I write during the residency and donate it to the Park System for them to display in one of the cabins or elsewhere on the property. As one who loves to write about the natural world, I am looking forward to every moment of my residency!

Week of Oct. 24-31

Hickory Knob State Park

McCormick, SC

Artist residency

Tue., Oct. 21 -- Poems: Bones of the Spirit, a reading in Columbia, SC

Three women poets from the Charleston area will be heading to Columbia, SC, next week to participate in a literary salon founded and facilitated by poet Al Black. Al has long run the weekly Poetry Mind Gravy series, and now he has added this new monthly poetry salon to his schedule. He has named the October 21 event "A Visitation from the Holy City of Charleston." The program offers three poets reading and discussing their work, plus conversation with the poets.Here are the details:

Poems: Bones of the Spirit VI

Barbara G.S. Hagerty, Susan Laughter Meyers, Debbie Lawson Scott

Oct. 21

8 - 10 p.m.

Sun Spirit Yoga Wellness

735 Meeting St., West Columbia, SC 29169

Book signing following the reading

Free & open to the public

• BARBARA G.S. HAGERTY will read from her book Twinzilla (Word Press, 2014), winner of the Hilary Tham Capital Collection. 
• SUSAN LAUGHTER MEYERS will read from My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass (2013), winner of the Cider Press Review Editors' Prize. 
• DEBBIE LAWSON SCOTT is the immediate past-president of The Poetry Society of South Carolina. She'll be reading poems from her manuscript "We'll Go in a Minute." 

Honorable Mention for the Brockman-Campbell Book Award

Congratulations to Charmaine Cadeau, who won this year's Brockman-Campbell Book Award for her collection Placeholder, published by Brick Books. Joseph Bathanti, author of Concertina (Mercer University Press) and I were selected for Honorable Mention. The Brockman-Campbell is awarded by the North Carolina Poetry Society each year to a poet whose book is judged to be the best collection of poetry by a North Carolina resident or native published in the preceding year.This year's judge was Joanna Klink, author of three poetry collections and professor of creative writing at the University of Montana.

On September 20, the winner and finalists were asked to read for the North Carolina Poetry Society at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines, NC. Unfortunately Joseph couldn't be there, but I enjoyed hearing Charmaine read from her winning book, and I was honored to read from My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass (Cider Press Review).