Georgia Poetry Society News

Steven Shields Poem Places in Sonnet Competition

2009-10-02T05:08:00.001-07:00

Steven Shields writes:

Just a word to let you know a poem of mine placed as an honorable mention in this year's sonnet competition of the New England Shakespeare Festival (see www.newenglandshakespeare.org/sonnet_contest.htm). If you're wondering how I found out about it to begin with, here's an interesting site for those of us who sometimes work in forms: http://www.ramblingrose.com/poetry/formalpubs.html.

If you go there, you'll probably notice I supplied them with a link to our Edgar Bowers Contest. Anybody who favors the sonnet might also want to observe the Nov 15th deadline for the Nemerov Award, worth $1,000 to the winner.

Loss of Mother Anthology

2009-09-29T08:04:00.000-07:00

GPS Member, Emery Campbell writes:

Enclosed below is a call for submissions for an interesting anthology that a friend of mine is putting together. I'd like to ask y'all to do your best to spread the word among your fellow poets verbally or through a mention in your respective publications, meetings, or websites. I'd much appreciate your help in assuring the success of this venture.

Warm regards,

Emery

Has your mother died? An anthology about remembering our mothers after they have died seeks emotionally honest and compelling submissions that will resonate with the reader. Desired poems will cover the initial raw grief through time to poems that are more uplifting. The intent is not to dwell on death itself but rather to place it in loving perspective. From sad to angry, from tender to humorous, all will be considered. Content will deal with your mother's life and/or your relationship with her. Through the writers' varied experiences, readers will recognize themselves and be encouraged in knowing they are not alone. Prose poems and poetry max 100 lines. Short prose max 750 words. If previously published, please include reprint permission and literary credit. Send up to 5 submissions and brief bio. Payment: 1 free copy if accepted. Submit by Dec 1, 2009 in a 12-point, double spaced Word doc. to motherlosspoetry@gmail.com or mail to Mother Loss/Details, 8663 River Crossing Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46240.

Announcing Clela Reed's new book Bloodline

2009-09-28T11:17:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

My small book of poetry Bloodline is now available at eveningstreetpress.com on the Publications tab. Thanks for the interest many of you have shown in my poetry publications. Dancing on the Rim is still available at the Borders Bookstore in Athens and through the publisher's website www.brickroadpoetrypress.com and through amazon.com.

I'm pasting below comments made about Bloodline.

Peace,
Clela

"These are powerful and lucid poems, alive with true sentiment, but never sentimental, about that inexhaustible, that each-one-different but each-one-the-same subject: family."

Thomas Lux, winner of Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, author of God Particles (2008)

"The warm bloodline in these twenty-six uncommonly refined poems flows from Clela Reed's wise and tempered heart, extending not only to family -- pioneer ancestors, ailing parents, siblings, husband and sons -- but also to her Southern homeland, victims of Pompeii, characters from Little Women, trees and flowers and birds. Readers, too, will feel welcomed by these gracious poems, each one conversing in measured tones, each one honoring the joys or sorrows of ordinary life. Open this love-affirming chapbook made by skillful hands: be touched, be embraced, be 'taken actually under someone's wing.'"

Therese L. Broderick, prize-winning poet, workshop leader, author of Within View

"Clela Reed has so many stories—folksy, sensuous, arresting. Over the years they have grown more taut, more deft and fluent, without losing the poignancy and arrest of how we meet or do not meet and know each other: Her father, listening to clouds, her mother in dementia where 'within her walls all seasons blur.' Such moments come with a vivid context of the physical world. Domestic or wild, this space is shot with unexpected wonder, as Reed bears tough witness to the stark and fragile links that make us whole."

Linda Taylor, poet and professor of English, Oglethorpe University

National Day on Writing at Columbus State

2009-09-22T11:38:00.001-07:00

Join us for a Celebration of the National Day on Writing at Columbus State University at the Sara D. Spencer Event Hall, October 20, 2009, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Georgia Fiction Writers Jamie Iredell, author of Prose: Poems, a Novel, and Man Martin, author of Days of the Endless Corvette, will read from their recent publications and discuss the archival research process that makes their writing come alive for readers. Students, Faculty, Staff, and their friends, are invited to engage with these award winning authors and educators and celebrate writing and research in our community.

Mr. Martin's Days of the Endless Corvette earned him the Georgia Author of the Year in 2008. His short work has appeared in Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and McSweeney's Online. His radio commentaries can be heard on GPB's Georgia Gazette.

Mr. Iredell's Prose: Poems, a Novel interweaves the chapbooks Before I Moved to Nevada, When I Moved to Nevada, and Atlanta. His writing has appeared in many literary magazines, including The Chattahoochee Review, The Literary Review, and The Cortland Review. He was a founding editor of New South literary magazine, and he designs books for C & R Press.

For more information, contact
Eliot Rendleman, Director of the Writing Center
706-565-4135
rendleman_eliot@colstate.edu

Meet the 2009 Inklings this Thursday at the Book Tavern

2009-09-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

Emery Campbell Named 2009 Senior Poet Laureate

2009-09-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Emery Campbell writes:

I have been named 2009 Senior Poet Laureate for Georgia. This resulted from my poem "Frogs in Earnest" having won this honor in the 2009 SPL contest sponsored by the Angels Without Wings Foundation whose director is Wanda Parrott. This annual contest is for poets aged fifty years and older. A winner is chosen by a qualified judge for each participating state. Then an overall 2009 National Senior Poet Laureate is chosen from the individual state winners.

Due to an inexplicable aberration in the selection process I did not arrive at the top of the national SPL pile this year. Very sad.