Saturday, Nov. 15 poetry workshop: Fishing for Poems

POETRY WORKSHOP: FISHING FOR POEMS
Susan Meyers, instructor
November 15, 2012

Thurs.,10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd., Litchfield, SC

 

In this writing workshop we’ll be casting for poems, our method somewhat like throwing out a fishing line in first one spot and then another. By the end of the workshop, participants will have several poem drafts to take home for revision, as well as new strategies for filling the poetry pail. Class packet included. Within two weeks after the workshop concludes, participants have the option of emailing a poem to the instructor for feedback.

Lunch can be brought or bought nearby.

XWRIT 524 W03      
$30, plus one-time-per-semester $20 OLLI membership fee
To register: 843-349-6584

2013 Poet's Market

At the end of last May, editor Robert Lee Brewer put out a call for submissions of unpublished poems, with plans to select 20 and publish them in the 2013 Poet's Market. In the fall he announced the 20 poems selected, and my poem "Wind Chimes, Minus the Wind" was one of them. How exciting for me to have a poem published in Poet's Market! Thank you, Robert Lee Brewer.



Here's a list of the 20 poets and their poem titles. Congratulations to all the other poets:

• Kelli Russell Agodon, "On Some Other Planet We're Newlyweds"
• Nin Andres, "Ghosts"
• Pris Campbell, "Sackcloth"
• Jessie Carty, "The Painter's Pantoum"
• Sage Cohen, "Dear Fritz Guest House"
• Iris Jamahl Dunkle, "Photography Lesson, Pt. Reyes"
• Terri Kirby Erickson, "At the Bowling Alley"
• Patricia Fargnoli, "When I Re-Read His Letters"
• Jen Karetnick, "Arrival: A Love Villanelle for Haiti"
• Jeffrey H. MacLachlan, "Sea Ghost, Fire of the Sea"
• Susan Laughter Meyers, "Wind Chimes, Minus the Wind"
• Heather M. Moore Niver, "Flinging the Unsaid into the Surf or Seeing You Again . . . "
• Shann Palmer, "Occluded"
• Nancy Posey, "Follow the Leader"
• Nate Pritts, "Frost at Midmorning"
• Karen Rigby, "Echolocation"
• Rebecca Givens Rolland,
• Linda Simoni-Wastila, "Greetings from Motel 6"
• Kelli Simpson, "Hands to"
• Joannie Stangeland, "As a Beginning"

You can go to the Writer's Digest website for more information about this newly released edition of Poet's Market, as well as information for ordering a copy.

Mark Smith-Soto has won this year's James Applewhite Poetry Prize

Congratulations to Mark Smith-Soto, winner of the 2012 James Applewhite Poetry Prize for his poem "Last Retreat to Topsail Beach." The winning poem and those of the finalists will be published in the North Carolina Literary Review (NCLR). Mark's poem was selected by poet James Applewhite from the work of six finalists chosen by NCLR Poetry Editor Jeffrey Franklin. Almost fifty poets submitted to the competition.

Here are the finalists:

• 2nd place: Laurence G. Avery’s poem “Only Yonaguska”
• Honorable mention: Grace Cloris Ocasio’s “Little Girlfriend”
• Other finalists:
• Richard Betz’s “Picking Blackberries on Yellow Mountain Road” 
• Samantha Lee Deal’s “North Carolina, This Will Be The Last Poem”
• Susan Laughter Meyers’s “Banding Hummingbirds” and “Beggar’s-Lice”

NCLR has further details at its website.

Poems published by Poemeleon

Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry
has just posted its newest issue called The Epistolary Issue, and I'm pleased to have two poems in it: "Dear Heavy Traffic" and "Dear Yellow Speed Bump." There are thirty-five poets whose epistolary poems are published in this issue:

Scott Beal

Deborah Bogen

Allen Braden

Robin Chapman

Laura Chalar

William Cordeiro

Barbara Lydecker Crane

Anthony Frame

Lucia Galloway

Lené Gary

Karen Greenbaum-Maya

Maryanne Hannan

Dolores Hayden

Lowell Jaeger

Kathleen Kirk

Ellen Kombiyil

W.F. Lantry

Kathleen Lynch

Leigh Mackelvey

Frances Ruhlen McConnel

Richard Merelman

Susan Laughter Meyers

Ann E. Michael

Leah Mooney

Robbi Nester

Shelley Puhak

Greg Rappleye

Susan Rooke

Maurya Simon

Julie Stuckey

Jennifer Tamayo

Judith Terzi

Karrie Waarala

Karen J. Weyant

Ellen Wright

 

Congratulations to these poets and to the editors: Cati Porter, Ren Powell, Maureen Alsop, Tom C. Hunley, Judy Kronenfeld, Charlotte Davidson, and Lalanii Grant.

Cider Press Review Editor's Prize

I'm pleased to announce--no, actually I'm ecstatic--that my manuscript "My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass" will be published by Cider Press Review after winning their inaugural Editor's Prize. The day that Ruth Foley, managing editor of the press, called me with the news I was speechless, stunned with joy. And I'm still celebrating.

Congratulations, too, to the runner-up and honorable mentions:

      Runner-Up:
           Snow White, When No One Was Looking, Donna Prinzmetal

      Honorable Mentions:
           The Green Cup, V. P. Loggins
           The Principle of Flickering, Laura Donnelly
           Planetary Nights, Jeanne J. LeVasseur

My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass will be released in the fall of 2013.

I've followed the recent history of the press and admire so much the work that they're doing, the authors that they are publishing. I had the pleasure of hearing Landon Godfrey, author of Second-Skin Rhinestone-Spangled Nude Souffle Choffon Gown, read last fall; I've enjoyed reading Liz Robbins's Play Button; and I fell for the poetry of Joseph Fasano, author of Fugue for Other Hands, when he won the Rattle Poetry Prize a few years ago. Landon, Liz, and Joseph are all past winners of the Cider Press Book Award.

If you're not familiar with this press, please do check it out:

Cider Press Review website

Finalists for the Cider Press Review Editor's Prize

For the inaugural Cider Press Review Editor's Prize, eight finalists were selected in August from the hundreds of manuscripts submitted. Here is the list, alphabetically, and I'm pleased that my manuscript My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass was included:

     After Jay
     The Green Cup
     My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass
     On the Desire to Levitate
     Planetary Nights
     The Principle of Flickering
     Significant Others
     Snow White, When No One Was Looking


I'm grateful, too, that my manuscript has been a finalist in several other book contests during the three years that I've circulated it. During that time it has also been a semifinalist for The Washington Prize (Word Works) and the Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award, as well as a finalist for these:

     The National Poetry Series
     Prairie Schooner Prize in Poetry
     Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry
     Cider Press Book Award

Circulating a manuscript is hard work, and I want to thank these presses/contests for their encouragement along the way.

The rewards of working with poets on their manuscripts

Congratulations to North Dakota poet Madelyn Camrud, whose poetry book manuscript was recently accepted for publication. Oddly Beautiful will be released in the fall of 2013. (I'll wait to name the press, so I won't steal its thunder.) I had the pleasure of working with Madelyn this past spring, when she hired me to help with the editing and sequencing of her manuscript. A talented poet, she's the author of This House Is Filled With Cracks, as well as the chapbook The Light We Go After.

Keep and Give Away -- now on Kindle

My book of poems Keep and Give Away is now on Kindle, good news--and yet news that leaves me with an odd mix of feelings. Joy, of course, for its new life in a different format. But what this news also says to me, in a mocking tone, is that I'm old fashioned. I don't own a Kindle. Or an iPad or any kind of tablet. So it feels as if Keep and Give Away has moved to another planet. 

Yes, this Kindle news is good news. It's also encouragement to catch up--so I can read the electronic version of my own book, so I can visit it on Mars. Somehow, though, I think I'll still prefer holding the old-fashioned print book in my hands, turning one paper page after another. Pure nostalgia--for paper.