Thur., July 23: Reading at McIntyre's Fine Books

Thursday, July 23, 2009
Reading with Linda Annas Ferguson
7 p.m.
McIntyre's Fine Books
2000 Fearrington Village Center
Pittsboro, NC 27312
(off 15/501 just south of Chapel Hill and north of Pittsboro)
(919) 542-3030
Sponsored by the NC Poetry Society
Book signing to follow the reading.

Linda Annas Ferguson and I are happy to be included in the first year of the North Carolina Poetry Society Reading Series at McIntyre's. It's a monthly event, and our reading is coming up later this month. McIntyre's is a lovely independent bookstore that celebrated its 20th anniversary this past April. Please come to our reading if you're in the area.

Here are the details about our reading and the series:
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Linda Annas Ferguson is the author of five collections of poetry: Dirt Sandwich, (forthcoming Press 53, September, 2009); Bird Missing from One Shoulder, Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk, Last Chance to Be Lost, and It’s Hard to Hate a Broken Thing. She was the 2005 Poetry Fellow for the South Carolina Arts Commission and served as the 2003-04 Poet-in-Residence for the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C. A recipient of the Poetry Fellowship of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, she is a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors and was a featured poet for the Library of Congress Poetry at Noon Series.

Susan Meyers is a past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society and the Poetry Society of South Carolina. Her most recent book of poetry, Keep and Give Away, was the winner of the Brockman Campbell Book Award, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Book Award for Poetry, and was selected by Terrence Hayes for the SC Poetry Book award.

The reading series, featuring poets from the North Carolina Poetry Society, is presented monthly at McIntyre’s Fine Books in Fearrington Village. The event is ongoing, the 4th Thursday of every month except for November and December. Be sure to make a note to attend all of these great events:

July 23- Linda Annas Ferguson & Susan Meyers
August 27- Gail Peck & Barbara Presnell
September 24- Terri Erickson & Scott Owens
October 22- Grey Brown & Rhett Trull

Kakalak anthology is available

The fourth annual edition of Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets has recently been released. Edited by Beth Cagle Burt, Richard Allen Taylor, and Lisa Zerkle, the anthology features poets and artists from North and South Carolina. Congratulations to this year's prize winners. Here's a partial listing:

Poetry Prize Winners
1st: "not the matter" by Heather Dearmon, Pelion, SC
2nd: "Scar" by Kimberly Glanzman, Charlotte, NC
3rd: "The Butcher's Dream" by Paul Fisher, Nags Head, NC

Visual Art Prize Winners
1st: "Country Kitchen" by Susan Fecho, Tarboro, NC
2nd: "Dreaming of Leo" by Karon Luddy, Charlotte, NC
3rd: "Runs in the Family" by Patz Fowle, Hartsville, SC

In addition, there were 16 Honorable Mentions in poetry:
Claire Armstrong, Michael Colonnese, Genie Cotner, Phebe Davidson, Allison Elrod, Alex Grant, Teresa Haskew, Alice Owens Johnson, Steve Lautermilch, Kit Loney, David T. Manning, Jeff Miles, Sally B. Miller, Leslie M. Rupracht, Brian Slusher, Eric A. Weil.

After four years of editing Kakalak, the editors have decided to take a hiatus for a year to rethink the project. I admire all the work they've done and continue to do! This year's anthology contains work by about a hundred or so poets and artists. There will be readings throughout the Carolinas once again this year to give folks a chance to hear the poets and see the art. I was pleased once again to have a poem included (below--the layout is not exactly accurate as posted here). Thanks for all your hard work as editors, Beth, Richard, and Lisa--enjoy your 2010 break!


Morning after the Hailstorm

On the porch floor the scattered green stars
     that fell        from the sweet gums.
Some torn & misshapen
               as if to say       the wish
will never come true.       Pine scent
      in the air,
            the gravel drive littered
with pitched needles & limbs.

In the garden the beans
             beaten down,
the herbs (peppers too)      and, oh, the tattered
      umbrellas of squash leaves.

           It was a wild night of lashing,
a veil of steam       rising. All the pummeling
                & shredding.
All the loose bright green
                  flung
     to the ground,       soon to turn brown.
For a few early hours the tender
                pretense (forget
the havoc) that the heart is cheerful
      as birdsong. Till the sun,        searing
a different truth,       climbs higher.

New website for the SC Poetry Initiative

The South Carolina Poetry Initiative--a statewide organization offering services to poets, schools, and communities--will soon have a new website. There you'll find information about its poetry contests, programs, publications, and various projects. Directed by Kwame Dawes and Charlene Spearen, the Poetry Initiative is an organization with a truly inpired vision. Check back soon for a link to the new web address.

Sunday, Jun. 7: Art of the Farm Closing Celebration

Art of the Farm Closing Celebration
Sunday, June 7, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Riverbanks Zoo Botanical Garden Hosted by The SC Poetry Initiative, USC Arts Institute, and the USC Department of Art and Department of English
Phone: 8037775492
Email: youngce@Mailbox.sc.edu

I'll be reading poems at this event on Sunday evening. Here's the Poetry Initiative's description of the celebration:

This catered event is free and open to the public. The evening will include a poetry reading, a photography exhibit celebrating local farms, and a special guest speaker who will talk about the pleasures and rewards of sustainable farming and gardening in South Carolina. The University of South Carolina Greed Quad, the Agriculture Commission, and several local grocery stores will also have informative displays on this subject. As a part of the closing celebration, poets who participated in the April 7th children's workshop and the June 4th adult workshop will get to see select poems from that workshop published in a commemorative chapbook.

This event is sponsored by the University of South Carolina Arts Institute, the South Carolina Poetry Initiative, and the University of South Carolina's Department of Art and Department of English.

Don't miss this enriching and entertaining evening!

Thursday, April 23: High school class

Thur., Apr. 23
"Writing Letters from Within" poetry workshop
Richland Northeast High
Columbia, SC

On April 23 I enjoyed teaching a poetry workshop for Barbara Thomson's students at Richland Northeast High School. Barbara, the director of PCA Literary Arts, combined three classes of students for our two-and-a-half hour-workshop. I chose "Writing Letters from Within" for our subject, giving us two group assignments and one individual assignment. What an impressive, talented group of student poets!

Post and Courier: The Writer's Corner

The Charleston Post and Courier has begun running interviews with local poets and writers in its Preview section. Here are some of the recent interviews, by reporter Katrina Robinson:

Susan Meyers, March 19

Sean Scapellato, March 12

Barbara Hagerty, February 12

Thanks to Katrina and to Marcus Amaker, editor of Preview, for all they do for the arts.

Apr. 18: Poetry@Paperwhites reading, Edgefield, SC

Poetry @ Paperwhites
Readings by Ray McManus & Susan Meyers
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Paperwhites, 102 Courthouse SquareEdgefield, South Carolina
2 p.m.
Book signing & reception of tea & cakes after the reading
Books available through Happy Bookday at Paperwhites
$5 admission (see below)

This year Edgefield, SC, is home to the inaugural spring poetry reading series Poetry @ Paperwhites, organized by poet Laurel Blossom. The readings, sponsored by Paperwhites and Edgefield Regional Arts, are open to the public. Paperwhites is in the old Mukashy Building, on the north side of the square.

There is a $5 admission for each reading to benefit the Edgefield Regional Arts & Cultural Center (ERA). ERA has obtained an option to purchase the old Edgefield Advertiser Building across the square from Paperwhites. Once acquired, the building will be converted into a theater and arts and cultural center, serving all of Edgefield County and beyond with live theater, movies, dance recitals, choral contests, music programs, school plays, graduations, and many other community activities. Laurel Blossom says, "We are excited about the prospects of the Arts and Cultural Center to continue the vibrant growth and development of Edgefield and our surrounding community."

Last month Poetry @ Paperwhites began its season by featuring poets Quitman Marshall and Carol Peters. On May 16 Linda Lee Harper and Ed Madden will read. I'm pleased to be a part of the series and to read on April 18 with Ray McManus, who won the 2006 SC Poetry Book Prize for Driving through the country before you are born. Please come if you're in the area. I've never been to Edgefield, so I'm looking forward to my first visit there.

Thur., Apr. 2: Two NC poets reading for Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series

Thursday, April 2, 2009
Litchfield Tea & Poetry
Barbara Conrad & Barbara Presnell
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Wilbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
3 p.m.
Book signing & reception to follow
Homemade cookies & confections by Delores Roberts
843-349-4032
Free & open to the public

Cosponsored by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University
and The Poetry Society of South Carolina.


The final reading by featured guest poets for this year's Litchfield TEA & POETRY SERIES is tomorrow, and it's going to be another wonderful program. We've got extremely gifted North Carolina poets coming to read for us: Barbara Conrad, of Charlotte, and Barbara Presnell, of Lexington. I've known both poets for years, and I asked them to participate because I knew that those of you in the area will enjoy getting to know them and their fine poems.

Also, I've asked Barbara Conrad to demonstrate West African drumming for us, since she has been playing the drums for a number of years. Let's hope to hear a sample. A perfect pairing with poetry!

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Barbara Conrad, of Charlotte, NC, is author of The Gravity of Color and editor of Waiting for Soup, an anthology from Charlotte's homeless population. Her poems have been published in Tar River Poetry, Main Street Rag, Icarus, and Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets. She works with the homeless, plays West African drums, and enjoys time with her two grown daughters.

North Carolina poet Barbara Presnell’s collection, Piece Work, won the 2006 Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s First Book Prize and was published by CSU in 2007. Her poems and short stories have been published in many journals, and she’s a recent recipient of the NC Arts Council Fellowship in Writing. Piece Work is the focus of an NC Touring Ensemble program to be performed across North Carolina later this year.

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This is our third year of the series, thanks to Linda Ketron of Coastal Carolina University, who initiated it and directs it. If you're in the area, please come to hear the poems of some of the best poets in the region. And please help us to get the word out.

It has been my pleasure to have the lovely duty of lining up the roster for Litchfield Tea & Poetry for the past three years. We'll be back next January with the 2010 Tea & Poetry Series.

Monday, Mar. 23: Poetry class at Charleston Southern University

On Monday, March 23, I had the pleasure of being the guest instructor for a poetry class at Charleston Southern University of Charleston, SC. Ellen Hyatt, on the faculty in the Department of English there, invited me to come teach the day's class for her poetry-writing course. There are eight students in the course, a perfect size for a workshop.

For the day's session I chose the topic "Writing Letters from Within," on writing epistolary poems. Mainly we read a selection of poems from the class packet I had prepared, wrote a group poem, and then each wrote a postcard poem. I was impressed with the students' talents, interest, and participation. It was a rewarding experience for me.