Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011: Poetry Workshop: Closure, Ways to End a Poem

My fall poetry workshop for OLLI at Coastal Carolina University is coming up soon, and as always I'm looking forward to it. Here are the particulars:
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Poetry Workshop: Closure, Ways to End a Poem
Sat., Nov. 5
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd., Pawleys Island, SC
Susan Laughter Meyers, instructor

Much advice about ending a poem, though helpful, is general:
trust your reader; trust the poem; it should be as long as it
needs to be. So what, exactly, do you do? When is the poem
over? This workshop will explore answers to those questions
through discussion and writing activities. A class packet is included.
Bring an in-progress poem of yours. Within two weeks
after the workshop concludes, you have the option of emailing
a poem to the instructor for feedback. Lunch can be brought
or bought nearby.
Registration, $30 -- call 843-349-6584
Class code: –XWRIT 524 W03
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This subject is one that has interested me for a long time. In fact, it was the topic of my MFA craft seminar at Queens University of Charlotte. I've kept adding resources to my class materials since then, and it's a treat for me to have a chance to teach a workshop on closure.

Oct. 20 & 21: Queens Univ. of Charlotte -- Readings & Writers Symposium

Queens University of Charlotte
Thursday, Oct. 20
8:30 p.m.
Sykes Auditorium
Reading in celebration of the 10th anniversary
of the Queens MFA Program in Creative Writing:
     Faculty -- Jonathan Dee, Rebecca McClanahan, Morri Creech
     Alumni -- Jessica Handler, Susan Laughter Meyers, Susan Woodring

Friday, Oct. 21
Writers Symposium
8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sykes Auditorium
Morning session: Keynote speakers Fred Leebron & Rebecca McClanahan, panel on publishing
Afternoon master classes:
     Fiction -- Ashley Warlick
     Poetry -- Susan Laughter Meyers
     Young adult & children -- Karon Luddy

The Writers Symposium is sponsored by Queens' Hayworth College for Adult Studies in collaboration with the MFA Program. For more information about the anniversary reading & the Writers Symposium:
Queens Reading & Writers Symposium

Friday, October 14: The Poetry Society of SC

The Poetry Society of South Carolina
Friday, Oct. 14
7 p.m.
The Charleston Library Society
164 King St., Charleston, SC
Free & open to the public
Reception & book signing after the program

Featured poet: Landon Godfrey, reading from her book Second-Skin Rhinestone-Spangled Nude Soufflé Chiffon Gown, winner of the Cider Press Review Book Award

Preliminary talk: Susan Laughter Meyers, on her residency at VCCA, made possible by the Verna Ubben Fellowship -- highlights & a poem or two

Note: Landon Godfrey will teach a seminar at the same location on Saturday, Oct. 15, 10 a.m. - noon.
Subject: "Imaginative Acts of Attention: Ekphrastic Poetry"
Fee: $10 for PSSC members, $15 for others

2011 James Applewhite Poetry Prize

John Thomas York, of Greensboro, is the winner of the 2011 James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition for his poem "Lamp." York will receive a prize of $250, and his poem will be published in the North Carolina Literary Review’s 2012 issue.

Renowned North Carolina poet James Applewhite selected York’s poem from several finalists whose work had been selected for publication in NCLR 2012 by NCLR Poetry Editor Jeffrey Franklin. York read his winning poem at the 2011 Eastern North Carolina Literary Homecoming at East Carolina University on September 23. The inaugural James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition was funded by the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

Other writers from the 2011 competition to be published in the 2012 issue include Debra Kaufman, Susan Laughter Meyers, Valerie Nieman, Glenis Gale Redmond, Mark Smith-Soto, and Cindy Thompson. The issue will also feature poetry by James Applewhite.

Click here to read the complete press release from NC Literary Review and to obtain information about submitting to the James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition and about subscribing to NCLR:

News of James Applewhite Poetry Prize, with photo

Sunday, Sept. 18: Center for Women book signing

The Center for Women will host its Annual Lowcountry Women Authors Book Signing on Sunday, Sept. 18 from 2 to 5 p.m. The event will feature 60 area authors and will include scheduled readings throughout the afternoon. Admission is $10. Read the full scoop here:
Center for Women Book Signing

Authors:
Ida Becker * Pat Branning * Cleo Scott Brown * Nina Bruhns * Susan Hudson Chellis * Alicia Chisholm * Maurita Corcoran * Mary Clark Coy * Julie Dash * Carol Ann Davis * Becky DeWitt * Jan DiRuzzzo * Carol James Drolet * Nathalie Dupree & Cynthia Graubart * Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman * Carolyn Evans * Dixie Fanning * Lissa D'Aquisto Felzer * Linda Annas Ferguson * Laura Fogarty * Lisa Foster with Mary Lou Murray Coombs * Dorothea Benton Frank * Mary Edna Fraser * Nathalie Gregg * Pattie Welek Hall * Patti Calahan Henry * Holly Herrick * Tricia Hutchison * Charlotte Jenkins * Nadine Johnson * River Jordan * Corinne Koonz-Pushman * Kieran Kramer * Suzette Latsko * Kellie Lawless * Amy McCandless * Terri McCrea * Dorothy McFalls / Dorothy St. James * Harriet McLeod * Jacqueline Maduneme * Susan Laughter Meyers * Jennifer E. Michaels * Dianne Miley * Mary Alice Monroe * Kathy Murphy * Carol Oropallo * Lisa Patton * Jane Perdue * Valerie Perry * Signe Pike * Mary Caroline Rhea * Emily Rosko * Nicole Seitz * Heather Solos * Shari Stauch * Ileana & Katina Strauch * Terry Ward Tucker * Marjory Wentworth * Karen Spears Zacharias

My August VCCA residency

Thanks to the Verna Ubben Fellowship, sponsored by Don Ubben and The Poetry Society of South Carolina, I had a wonderful two-week residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts from Aug. 15 until Aug. 29. There were a number of visual artists from NYC there at the same time, as well as a few writers and a composer or two--and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them. Most of my time, though, was spent in my lovely studio--the Nancy Hale Studio, W-3--writing and revising all day, every day. It had a large corner desk where I worked and looked out the window at a field of grasses and mountains along the horizon. Daily I would tack new work up on the bulletin board beside my desk, accumulating poems day by day. That helped me keep up the momentum. VCCA is in a rural area and has horses and a herd of cows. The weather was beautiful, so each morning I'd raise the windows in my studio to hear the nearby crickets, crows, jays, and trains. Plus an occasional rufus-sided towhee.

While I was there, several of the artists--Scott, Fiona, Cynthia, Amy, and Patte--opened their visual arts studios to us for an hour or so, and it was inspiring to see their work in progress. So much talent! Also, Erika and Michael gave a poetry/musical program one evening. Later the next week, Michael Paul Thomas and I got together to give a poetry reading. Sharing our work was an important part of the residency for some of us.

Here's the link to VCCA for further information. It's a wonderful place!

Boomtown anthology: Queens University of Charlotte

In May the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program in Creative Writing released an anthology of work by faculty and alumni from the first ten years of the program, and I'm excited to have my work included. The title of the book is Boomtown: Explosive Writing from Ten Years of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program. It's published by Press 53; Fred Leebron and Michael Kobre, directors of the MFA program at Queens, wrote the introduction.

The anthology is available from Press 53, independent bookstores, and Amazon.com.

MFA faculty included:
Hal Ackerman * Jane Allison * Geoffrey Becker * Pinckney Benedict * Cathy Smith Bowers * Morri Creech * Ann Cummins * Jonathan Dee * Elizabeth Evans * Cathy Park Hong * Michael Kobre * Fred Leebron * Sebastian Matthews * Rebecca McClanahan * Katherine Min * Dan Mueller * Jenny Offill * Alan Michael Parker * David Payne * Susan Perabo * Jon Pineda* Robert Polito * Nathaniel Rich * Steven Rinehart * Elisa Schapell * Margot Singer * Peter Stitt * Elizabeth Strout *

Students/alums included:
Elena Arosemena * Amy Bagwell * Rosetta Benson * Martha F. Brenner * Amber Clark * Cindy Droege * Stephen G. Eoannou * B. J. Epstein * Loubna Freih * Clifford Garstang * Annette Gendler * Kathleen Godfrey * Pauletta Hansel * Martha-Mac Harris * Jay Irvin * Anne Jay * Kevin C. Jones * Julie King * Lisa Williams Kline * Mel Lewis * Abby Lipscomb * Tom Lombardo * Linera Lucas * Robert Martin Evans * Laura Hart McKinney * Sarah Meinel * Amy Stockwell Mercer * Susan Laughter Meyers * Gwynyth Mislin * Steven A. Patten * Carol Peters * Ginger Pinholster * Erin Pushman * Mary Beth Ray * Pat Riviere-Seel * Louise Rockwell * Deborah Lawson Scott * Martin Seay * Robert Stofel * Terri Wolfe *

May 2011: "Living above the Frost Line" blog features more of my poems

Once again, thanks to Nancy Simpson for featuring my poems this month. "Guitar" and "That Year" have been added to her blog "Living above the Frost Line." Each poem is accompanied by colorful photos or artwork.