Sunday, April 23, 2017

April 19: Pints & Poets reading, Spartanburg






































Russell Jackson, Rick Mulkey, Clara Jane Haller
Susan Laughter Meyers, Robert Lee Kendrick, Angela Kelly


Pints & Poets
April 19, 2017
Robert Lee Kendrick & Susan Laughter Meyers
8 p.m.
Hub City Tap House, Spartanburg, SC
Celebrating National Poetry Month
Sponsored by the Converse MFA program

Friday, April 14, 2017

April 7 opening reading for The Poetry Society of SC


It was a pleasure to read a few poems to open the April PSSC program that featured Celeste McMaster. I started out, here, with a poem by Kate Daniels. It's always a joy to be among poet friends at the beautiful Charleston Library Society in downtown Charleston.

Opening reading for The Poetry Society of SC, April 7, 2017

Friday, April 07, 2017

April 7, 2017: Tonight's Poetry Society of SC program -- Celeste McMaster with Susan Laughter Meyers

Tonight at the Poetry Society of SC


I'm happy to be reading a few poems to open tonight's Poetry Society of South Carolina (PSSC) program, which will feature poet CELESTE MCMASTER, who won the inaugural PSSC Summer Scholarship, an annual competition for members. For her selection by judge Lola Haskins, Celeste received full tuition to the 2016 Hub City Writing in Place Conference, a weekend event held every year in mid-July on the campus of Wofford College. While there, she studied with nationally known poet Kate Daniels, of Vanderbilt. Debbie Scott and I, of the PSSC Summer Scholarship Committee, would like to congratulate Celeste again for this honor!

Celeste is an associate professor at Charleston Southern University. She has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals, including The Dos Passos Review, New Delta Review, and Arkansas Review. She is also this year's winner of the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fiction Fellowship of the South Carolina Academy of Authors.

The Poetry Society of SC programs are held at The Charleston Library Society, 164 King Street, Charleston, SC, at 7 p.m. Typically they are on the second Friday of the month (Sept. - May), but this month is being held early because of the Easter weekend holiday next weekend. The readings are followed by a reception and book signing. They are free & open to the public.

Looking back on the 2017 Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series

Here was the schedule for this year's Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series. 
A special thank you to all the poets who read!

_______________________________


2017 Litchfield Tea & Poetry
3 – 4 p.m., first Thursday of the month, Jan. – Apr.
Waccamaw Neck Branch Library
41 Saint Paul Place, Pawleys Island, SC
■     ■     ■
Please join us for our eleventh year of the Series!

Book signing after the reading
Refreshments: tea & homemade confections by Deloris Roberts
Brief reading/writing recommendations in “Poet to Poet”
Free & open to the public
Linda Ketron, series co-founder, linda@classatpawleys.com





January 5 – Brookgreen Gardens: Nights of a Thousand Candles (CLASS, 2016). Editor Linda  Ketron and photographer Anne Swift Malarich will talk about the experience of publishing this beautiful book celebrating Christmas and the winter holiday season at Brookgreen Gardens. Several contributors will read a selection of their poetic responses to the book’s images.

February 2 – Jennifer Bartell; Len Lawson
Jennifer Bartell teaches at Spring Valley High School in Columbia. She has an MFA from the University of South Carolina; and her poetry has appeared in Callaloo, Pluck!, and the museum of americana, among others. 
Len Lawson is the author of the chapbook Before the Night Wakes You (Finishing Line Press) and co-founder of the Poets Respond to Race initiative. Recent honors include a fellowship from Callaloo Creative Writing. He teaches writing at Central Carolina Technical College

March 2 – Jonathan Kevin Rice; open mic
Jonathan KEVIN Rice, of Charlotte, is a poet and visual artist. His most recent poetry collection is Killing Time (Main Street Rag, 2015). He is also the founding editor of Iodine Poetry Journal.
Open mic will follow Jonathan’s reading. All who attend are invited to read one of their own poems. (Please keep your reading to a single poem no longer than a page.) We’ll all look forward to hearing a variety of voices, including yours. Please join in!

April 6 – Kate Daniels; Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry
Nationally known poet KATE DANIELS, professor and Director of Creative Writing at Vanderbilt University, is the author of several poetry collections—the latest, A Walk in Victoria’s Secret. Among her many honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship and Pushcart Prize. She will offer a reading of her poems, including her work in the new anthology Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry (University of South Carolina Press, 2016). Introducing her will be co-editor Daniel Cross Turner, who will also talk about the anthology’s focus. Author George Singleton describes Hard Lines as “a wonderful selection of writers wrestling with, and extolling, the most intricate, beautiful, and perplexing aspects of our South.”


Cosponsored by
Waccamaw Neck Branch Library
&
The Poetry Society of South Carolina
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For further info about the events, contact series facilitators
Susan Laughter Meyers at bardowl2@aol.com

or Libby Bernardin at libbypoet@gmail.com

April 6, 2017: Litchfield Tea & Poetry 2017 grand finale: poet Kate Daniels

What a finale to the 2017 Series, our eleventh year!

Thanks to poet Kate Daniels, of Vanderbilt University, for making our last event of the 2017 Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series a finale that was truly grand. Yesterday she read some of her poems from the new anthology Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry (University of South Carolina Press, 2016), as well as a selection of her other poems. Hard Lines was edited by Daniel Cross Turner and William Wright. This final program of the season was a celebration of the anthology, as well as of Kate's poems.

Please join us in 2018--on the first Thursday of Jan., Feb., Mar., and Apr.--for readings by a roster of talented poets from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Libby Bernardin and I have enjoyed coordinating each event this year. We're delighted to be joined next year by poet Cliff Saunders, who will work with us as a third coordinator. The three of us have lots of ideas for the coming year! Much gratitude to our cosponsors, The Waccamaw Neck Branch Library and The Poetry Society of South Carolina. Thanks, too, to Deloris Roberts for our receptions of delicious homemade confections and tea--and to co-founder Linda Ketron. The events are held at the lovely new library at 41 St. Paul Place, Pawleys Island. We look forward to our twelfth year of tea and poetry!