Feb. 27 - Mar. 1: South Carolina Book Festival

February 27 - March 1, 2009
South Carolina Book Festival
Convention Center
Columbia, SC

The South Carolina Book Festival is a much-anticipated event each year--a whole weekend of panels, readings, workshops, and presentations at the Convention Center in Columbia, SC.

I'm looking forward to being on a panel about the anthology After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events, published by Sante Lucia Press. Tom Lombardo is the editor, and he'll be moderating the panel. Other participants are Laurel Blossom, Clinton Campbell, Ed Madden, and Marjory Wentworth. The panel is at 12:20 p.m. on Saturday, February 28.

Later that day, at 4:30 p.m., five of us are reading our poetry: Laurel Blossom, Tom Lombardo, Ray McManus, Marjory Wentworth, and I.

On Sunday at 11:30 a.m. I'm moderating a panel called "Poetry: Taking Risks," with panelists Dan Albergotti, Paul Allen, Linda Lee Harper, and Ed Madden. All four are SC teaching poets with new books. Dan's book is The Boatloads (BOA Editions); Paul's is Ground Forces (Salmon); Linda Lee's is Kiss, Kiss (Cleveland Poetry Center); and Ed's is Signals (Univ. of SC Press).

At 4:15 p.m. on Sunday I'll be introducing writers Ken Burger, Clinton Campbell, Lane Filler, and Linda Lee Harper, who will be reading from their latest books.

Check the South Carolina Book Festival website for further information.

Poem featured in Linebreak

My poem "Dear Atamasco Lily" is featured this week at the online journal Linebreak. Every week the site publishes a poem and provides a recording of it, as well as a brief bio of the poet. The poems are then archived at the site.

My thanks to the Linebreak editors for showcasing my work.

Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009: Poetry Writing Workshop--Word by Word

Poetry Writing Workshop: Word by Word
Sat., Feb. 7, 2009
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
OLLI at CCU class
Instructor, Susan Meyers

What could matter more to a poem than the poet’s choice of words? The aim is what critic Helen Vendler calls “arresting linguistic vitality.” This class will explore how a poem’s diction affects its texture, tone, energy—its every aspect, really. Includes writing activities and a resource packet.

Lunch can be purchased at a nearby deli, or bring your own.
Registration, $30: Coastal Carolina University Lifelong Learning,
843-349-4032 or www.coastal.edu/outreach.

Alumni magazine for Queens University of Charlotte

I was pleased to be asked by Queens, the alumni magazine of Queens University of Charlotte, to write a brief piece on why I became a poet. My essay was part of an article about the Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing offered at Queens. Check out the Winter 2009 issue of Queens (below), which includes the article, "The Write Stuff." The cover photo is of Michael Kobre, Queens professor and campus director of the MFA in Creative Writing Program, who wrote "The Write Stuff." Other alumni who contributed to it include Karon Luddy, Ron Stodghill, Peter Reinhart, and Jessica Handler.

Queens alumni magazine

Poem: "For All Anyone Knows"

Thanks to American Poetry Journal and, subsequently, Verse Daily for publishing this poem:


For All Anyone Knows

The wasps congregating on the wind chimes, late August,
mistook them for a cathedral.

Aunt M., missing for years, didn’t drown herself in the river.
My brother, right about her husband after all.

Who says our lives aren’t mere wishes?
So much for heat, for particle and wave.

The last one tagged "It" still roams the neighborhood
calling, Where are you? I give up.

Aunt M.’s name could have been a pass-along plant.
It ended up with me.

The ocean view from the dunes no one is allowed to climb,
a postcard never sent.

Wish you were here: code for
I’m glad you’re not.

Wednesday, Dec. 3: Poetry Club at the Lowcountry Senior Center, James Island, SC

"Poems: The Path of Surprise"
Poetry Club, Lowcountry Senior Center
Wednesday, Dec. 3
1 p.m.
865 Riverland Drive
James Island, SC 29412
(843) 762-9555
Program by Susan Meyers
Monthly programs sponsored by The Poetry Society of South Carolina

I'm looking forward offering the December program for the Poetry Club of the Lowcountry Senior Center. For the past year or so these monthly programs have been sponsored by The Poetry Society of South Carolina, a statewide organization that exists for poets and friends of poetry--offering readings, seminars, workshops, contests, and other special events.


Here is what I've planned for the Poetry Club on December 3:

Poems: The Path of Surprise

Writing poems should be more than telling anecdotes from a life you already know or describing something you’ve seen. It should take you down a path of surprise. “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader,” Robert Frost wisely noted. For this program we’ll use writing activities and handouts of published poems, as well as discussion, to take us farther down that serendipitous path. We’ll study poems that leap, swerve, and follow their particular logic—then we’ll write our own.

Tuesday, Dec. 2: Poetry Out Loud, Charleston County School of the Arts

Poetry Out Loud school competition
Tuesday, December 2
3:30 p.m.
Charleston County School of the Arts
North Charleston, SC

I'm honored to be one of the judges for this year's competition. I know how talented these students are!

Sunday, Nov. 23: Center for Women Holiday Book Signing, Charleston, SC

Center for Women Holiday Book Signing
Sunday, November 23
2 - 5 p.m.
The Citadel Holiday Alumni House
Charleston, SC
$10 admission
Proceeds go to the Center for Women

More than 50 Lowcountry women authors will sign books at the Center for Women Holiday Book Signing. Among them are these authors: Quanta Ahmed, Carol Ann Davis, Nathalie Dupree, Linda Annas Ferguson, Beth Webb Hart, Patti Callahan Henry, Josephine Humphreys, Sue Monk Kidd, Susan Meyers, Mary Alice Monroe, Vinnie Deas Moore, Tracy Lynn Ocean, Anne Rivers Siddons, Terry Ward Tucker, and Marjory Wentworth.