Susan Meyers

Prime Number Editors' Selections, Vol. 1

2012-01-10T08:02:00.001-05:00

A new print anthology of literary work chosen from the online magazine Prime Number has just been released by Press 53: Prime Number Editors' Selections, Vol. 1 -- edited by Cliff Garstang, Valerie Nieman, and Tracy Crow. I'm pleased to have poems included in it.

Contributors:
Nonfiction by Maris Venia, Stephen J. West, and Faye Rapoport DesPres;
Fiction by Kevin Wilson, Scott Loring Sanders, Susan Tepper, Anne Leigh Parrish, Jon Trobaugh, Richard Wiley, Meagan Ciesla, Dennis Ginoza, Virginia Pye, John Flynn, Dan Moreau, Daniel Meltzer, Linda Stewart-Oaten, Paul Hetzler, and David Meischen;
Poetry by James Harms, Sarah Lindsay, Jake Adam York, Susan Laughter Meyers, Mark Smith-Soto, Lola Haskins, Timothy Black, Robert Hill Long, Theodore Worozbyt, Rachel Hadas, Erica Dawson, Barry Spacks, Ruth Foley, Emilie Lindeman, Catherine Staples, M.A. Schaffner, and William Reichard.

To order: Press 53

Poem published by The Pedestal Magazine

2011-12-22T20:16:00.000-05:00

Pedestal 67, celebrating 11 years of the magazine, includes my poem "Why I Am Not a Tightrope Walker."

Thanks to The Pedestal for including my work, along with poets Sara Backer, Esvie Coemish, Jeanpaul Ferro, James Grabill, Lois Marie, Harrod, klipschutz, Sandra Kohler, Simon Perchik, Eric Paul Shaffer, Judith Skillman, and Jared Smith.

Sat., Dec. 10: Writers Paradise, Summerville, SC, Library

2011-11-27T22:30:00.001-05:00

Friends of the Summerville Library present a special literary event
Writers Paradise: A Six Pack of Authors
Saturday, December 10, 2011
2 - 4 pm
Summerville Library
76 Old Trolley Road, Summerville, SC

This is a perfect opportunity to meet six authors who will describe their works, conduct readings, and sign books. The authors cover a wide range of genres:

• Cleo Scott Brown (author of Witness to the Truth, My Struggle for Human Rights in Louisiana)
• Susan Hudson Chellis (author of The Kitchen Table)
• Henry Hixon (author of The Adventures of Thomas Pilgrim and Barney High Tail)
• Harriet McLeod (author of Good Morning, Lowcountry!)
• Susan Laughter Meyers (poet/author of Keep and Give Away)
• Valerie Perry (author of Upper King Street)

A reception will be held at 3 p.m. during the book signing. Open to the public. Contact information: 873-6624, rmfosl@sc.rr.com

Poems published in Australian journal Rabbit

2011-11-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

Two of my poems--"Dear Broccoli Battered by Hail" and "Dear Bearded Carrot"--have been published in an Australian journal called Rabbit. You can visit Rabbit's blog here.

Book review published in Pirene's Fountain

2011-11-27T22:12:00.000-05:00

My review of poet Tim Peeler's Checking Out, published in 2010 by Hub City Press, is in the current issue of the online journal Pirene's Fountain. You can read the review here

Monday, Nov. 21: Reading at Monday Night Poetry & Music

2011-11-16T20:51:00.000-05:00

Monday, November 21, 2011
Monday Night Poetry & Music (formerly Monday Night Blues)
East Bay Meeting House
160 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC
8 p.m.
Featured poet: Susan Laughter Meyers
Open mic to follow

I'm especially excited about reading at East Bay Meeting House next Monday, because I've got lots of new poems I haven't had a chance to read before an audience yet. After taking a month-long poetry workshop course at the College of Charleston with Carol Ann Davis last June and then spending two weeks in August at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts--doing nothing but writing--I've completed more poems than I usually manage over the course of a busy summer and fall. So I'm gathering up a bunch of them and heading into Charleston on Monday night for the whole evening. This time I'll have a chance to stay till the very end--to sit back and enjoy all the open-mic readers. Yes!

Poetry Out Loud at Charleston County School of the Arts (SOA)

2011-11-16T20:32:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, November 10, 2011, eighteen students of Charleston County School of the Arts (SOA) participated in the Lowcountry's individual-school level of Poetry Out Loud (POL), a nationally sponsored recitation competition. The winners from each competing high school in the Lowcountry will vie for the regional title, and that winner will go to the state level. Next spring at the national competition, winners from each state will compete to determine the national champion.

I happily served as one of three judges for last Thursday's event, along with Beth Webb Hart and James Lundy. What a difficult task, determining the top competitors among such talent. After two rounds of recitations, we chose a winner, a second-place finalist, and tied finalists for third place. Creative writing instructor Rene Miles was the director of the competition. I'll hold off announcing the SOA winners, in case the school has not released that information to the public yet. Thanks to SOA and all its dedicated, talented POL participants for making this such a truly stunning afternoon of poetry!

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

2011-10-06T13:44:00.000-04:00

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:
____________________

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
_____________________

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

2011-10-01T18:10:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-01T17:37:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-01T17:14:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-11T18:02:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-11T17:14:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-13T11:23:00.049-04:00

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

2011-05-18T20:32:00.000-04:00

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.

May 2011: Featured poet on "Living above the Frost Line" blog

2011-05-08T09:34:00.004-04:00

This month I am the featured poet on "Living above the Frost Line," a blog by Nancy Simpson. Many thanks to Nancy for this honor! She has posted my poem "Hat of Many Goldfinches" and will be posting other poems of mine several times throughout the month.

Nancy is a poet living in the mountains of North Carolina, my native state; and although we haven't met, I have long known of her poetry and all the work she does there for the poetry community.

Please visit Nancy's blog: Living Above the Frost Line

Apr. 21, 2011: Artist residency at Ridgeland Northeast High, Columbia, SC

2011-04-23T14:08:00.000-04:00

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Ridgeland Northeast High School
7500 Brookfield Road
Columbia, SC
ARTIST RESIDENCY
Classes of Barbara Thomson

Barbara Thomson invited me for an artist residency in two of her poetry classes held this past Thursday, one a class of seniors and the other of first-year students. As I usually do in my workshops, we started out writing a group poem. That was followed by a writing assignment for which each of us wrote a poem. It was such a pleasure to hear the students read their poems. To help them prepare for their public reading, which is scheduled for next Thursday at 7 p.m., we worked with the theme that they have been studying recently in their classes: "My Story, Your Story, Our Story." What a focused and talented group of young poets!

VCCA Verna Ubben Fellowship

2011-04-16T18:04:00.001-04:00

I am happy to announce that I have been awarded the VCCA Verna Ubben Fellowship, a two-week residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA). The fellowship is sponsored by Don Ubben, in honor of his mother Verna Ubben, and The Poetry Society of South Carolina, in celebration of their 90th anniversary. Thank you to both! I plan to go to VCCA in August, and by then I hope to be working on a new book manuscript. Already I am preparing for the residency by writing, writing, writing.

Thur., Mar. 31: Edward Hirsch to read at Coastal Carolina University

2011-03-28T16:42:00.001-04:00

I'm looking forward to hearing Edward Hirsch read his poetry at Coastal Carolina University on Thursday, Mar. 31, at 4:30 p.m. I'll be going with some poet friends from the Charleston area to that, as well as to his discussion on "My Pace Provokes My Thoughts: Poetry and Walking" at 2 p.m. on Friday.

A great opportunity for poets and friends of poetry: Edward Hirsch

Wed., Mar. 9 Poetry Reading -- Ant, Bear, Crow: The Poem Inhabited

2011-03-02T12:35:00.002-05:00

Ant, Bear, Crow: The Poem Inhabited
A poetry reading by Barbara G.S. Hagerty and Susan Laughter Meyers
Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m.
The Charleston Library Society, 164 King Street
Charleston, SC
Free & open to the public
Sponsored by The Sophia Institute

Enter the wild and peaceable kingdom of poetry to celebrate the animal spirit. A reading by Barbara G.S. Hagerty and Susan Laughter Meyers.

Barbara G.S. Hagerty is a native of Charleston, South Carolina. Her essays, columns, and poems have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional periodicals. She has written two books, plus a collection of poetry, The Guest House (Finishing Line Press, 2009). She currently holds the Fellowship in Poetry from the South Carolina Arts Commission. She has also worked as a photographer, curator, and teacher of poetry and creative nonfiction.

Susan Laughter Meyers, of Givhans, SC, is the author of Keep and Give Away (University of South Carolina Press) and the chapbook Lessons in Leaving (Persephone Press). Her poetry, which has appeared in a broad range of journals, has won numerous awards and has been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. A long-time writing instructor, Meyers has also served as president of the poetry societies of both North and South Carolina.

Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011 -- Workshop: The Poet as Seeker

2011-02-17T05:35:00.000-05:00

Poetry Workshop: The Poet as Seeker
Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Susan Meyers, instructor
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Registration, $30
OLLI at Coastal Carolina University
Register at 843-234-3422 or www.coastal.edu/olli

All good poems are more than the result of mere writing exercise; they seek a truth. Poets, in turn, set out with yearning and questions, often ones that have no answers. “Teach yourself to work in uncertainty,” said author Bernard Malamud. We’ll do just that as we read sample poems in the class packet and generate new work of our own. Bring a poem draft that you’re working on in an attempt to reach a deeper level in some way. Lunch can be brought or bought nearby.

NOTE: As an added feature for this class, participants will have the option of having one class-related draft critiqued by the instructor through e-mail after the class.

Featured at r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal

2011-01-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal is a favorite of mine, and I'm happy to have been featured recently on their blog:

Feature

Pushcart nomination

2010-12-05T19:10:00.001-05:00

Much gratitude to the online literary journal Prime Number for nominating my work for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. I'm humbled and honored.

Please visit their website to become acquainted with them and to read their offerings of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, interviews, and reviews. The journal is published by Press 53:

To go to Prime Number, click here.

Fri., Dec. 3, 2010 -- Leading the literary life: women authors thrive in Lowcountry

2010-12-03T16:44:00.003-05:00

Today the Post and Courier, of Charleston, SC, featured an article in its Moxie section that I was happy to be interviewed for, along with authors Mary Alice Monroe and Cleo Scott Brown. The article was written by staff reporter Kristen Hankla. It includes information about tomorrow's book signing by area women authors, a fundraiser for the Center for Women in Charleston. Check it out here:

Leading the literary life: women authors thrive in Lowcountry.

Sat., Dec. 4: Women Authors Holiday Book Signing

2010-11-30T16:15:00.005-05:00

Women Authors Holiday Book Signing & Tea
Saturday, December 4
2 - 5 p.m.
South Carolina Thrift & Resale
1670 Hwy 17 N, Mt Pleasant (next to new CVS)
$10 at the door
Free giftwrapping, Readings, Tea & refreshments
Center for Women
With Barnes & Noble (use your Barnes & Noble discount card)
Special Thanks to Kaminsky's

2010 Authors
Michelle Adams * Sarah Boone * Ida Becker * Sharon Becker * Cleo Brown * Nina Bruhns * Jan DiRuzzo * MaryAnn Dunham * Nathalie Dupree * Peg Eastman * Dixie Fanning * Linda Annas Ferguson * Jayne Jaudon Ferrer * Mary Edna Fraser * Rebecca Godwin * Pattie Welek Hall * The Hat Ladies * Holly Herrick * Maggie Hoybach & Joan Brown * Trish Hutchinson * Ann Ipock * Marcie Jacobs * Charlotte Jenkins * Kate Boehm Jerome * Kieran Kramer * Ann Kulze * CJ Lyons * Susan Laughter Meyers * Dianne Miley * Sheila Mills * Mary Alice Monroe * Signe Pike * Margot Theis Raven * Maryann Reid * Lisa D. Robinson & Lori Robinson * Terry Ward Tucker * Lily Herndon Weaks * Marjory Wentworth

Readings
2:00 p.m. -- Signe Pike
2:30 p.m. -- Mary Ann Reid
3:00 p.m. -- Mary Alice Monroe
3:30 p.m. -- Charlottte Jenkins
4:00 p.m. -- Ann Ipock
4:30 p.m. -- CJ Lyons

Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011 -- Workshop: The Poet as Seeker

2010-11-26T09:04:00.003-05:00

2011 Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series

2010-11-26T08:54:00.003-05:00

Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series
First Thursday, Jan. – Apr.
3 - 4 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Boulevard
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Book signing after the reading
Refreshments: homemade confections by Deloris Roberts
Free & open to the public
843-234-3422

Please join us for these four free events, our fifth year featuring a whole slate of talented poets.

Jan. 6
Launch of Poetry Anthology – Kickoff reading for OLLI at CCU anthology
Join us for a reading by contributors of the new OLLI at CCU poetry anthology to be released in early winter. A wide range of poems written by students from recent classes and workshops taught by Libby Bernardin and Susan Meyers. Good reason to celebrate!

Feb. 3 Ken Autrey, Debra A. Daniel
Ken Autrey, of Columbia, is the author of the chapbook Pilgrims (Main Street Rag). His poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Cimarron Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere, including various anthologies. He teaches English at Francis Marion University. Previously, he served as a Peace Corps teacher in Ghana and a visiting professor at Hiroshima University in Japan.
Debra A. Daniel is the author of As Is (Main Street Rag, 2009). She was twice SC Arts Commission’s Poetry Fellow. She has also won the Guy Owen Prize and awards from The Poetry Society of SC and has been a Pushcart nominee. Her work has appeared in Smokelong, Kakalak, Emrys, Pequin.org, Inkwell, Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, and The Poetry Society of SC Yearbook.

Mar. 3 Ann Herlong-Bodman, Richard Allen Taylor
Ann Herlong-Bodman, of Mt. Pleasant, is the author of the chapbook Pulled Out of Sleep (Pudding House Press, 2010). She taught journalism and composition at USC and Lander University. She has also taught ESL in East Europe for the U.S. State Department, and she currently volunteers as an ESL teacher when she is not traveling and writing.
Richard Allen Taylor, of Charlotte, NC, is the author of Punching Through the Egg of Space (2010) and Something to Read on the Plane (2004), both from Main Street Rag Publishing Company. His poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies. He is a former co-editor of Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets.

Apr. 7 Scott Owens, Susan Finch Stevens
Author of six collections of poetry, Scott Owens is editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Vice President of the Poetry Council of NC, and recipient of awards from the Pushcart Prize Anthology and the Academy of American Poets, among others. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro and teaches at Catawba Valley Community College.
Susan Finch Stevens, of the Isle of Palms, is the author of the chapbook Lettered Bones, a winner in the 2008 Poetry Initiative of South Carolina Competition. She has been awarded The Poetry Society of South Carolina’s Marjorie E. Peale Prize and Kinloch Rivers Memorial Prize. Her poems have appeared in several anthologies.

Cosponsored by
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University
&
The Poetry Society of South Carolina
___________________________________

Check out the Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series group on Facebook.

Release of Solo Cafe 8 & 9 by Solo Press

2010-11-15T18:12:00.001-05:00

Solo Cafe Issues 8 & 9: Teachers & Students
Solo Press
Publisher, Glenna Luschei
Guest Editor, Lenard D. Moore

CONTRIBUTORS:
Laura Boss * John Bradley * Earl Sherman Braggs * Sally Buckner * George Burns * Mary Ann Cain * Alvaro Cardona-Hine * Kelly Cherry * Joseph Gastiger * Ray Gonzalez * Michael S. Harper * Shayla Hawkins * George Kalamaras * Patrick Lawler * Carol Lem * Gerald Locklin * Perie Longo * Kevin Lucia * Teddy Macker * * Michael McFee * Karen McKinnon * Maria Melendez * Susan Meyers * Lenard D. Moore * Terre Ouwehand * Randy W. Pait * David Rigsbee * Nancy Simpson * Barry Spacks * Shelby Stephenson * Lamont Steptoe * Gina Streaty * John Tritica * Jerry W. Ward, Jr. * Bruce Weigl * Mel Weisburd * Jackson Wheeler * Carolyn Beard Whitlow

Congratulations to the editors of Solo Cafe on the publication of this new double issue of poems, essays, and reviews pertaining to the theme of teachers and students. I'm pleased that my poems "First Grade" and "Student of Busyness" are included. Copies of the journal are available through Solo Press at this address: Solo Press, 5146 Foothill Road, Carpinteria, CA 93013 or berrypress@aol.com.

Release of Cooking Up South, a book of recipes, poems & remembrances

2010-11-15T17:33:00.001-05:00

Cooking Up South: Entertaining with Soulful Recipes, Poems & Remembrances
Recipes by Sylvia Dianne Beverly
Photography by Jason Miccolo Johnson
Published by Word of Mouth for Capital BookFest
Kwame Alexander, Founding Producer

CONTRIBUTORS:
Shirley J. Brewer * Barbara Crooker * Tinesha Davis * Gretchen Fletcher * Van G. Garrett * Nikki Giovanni * Judy Lee Green * Le Hinton * Pamela Lewis * Christina Lovin * Susan Laughter Meyers * Deanna Nikaido * Kim Roberts * Natasha Ria El-Scari * Kory Wells * Marjory Heath Wentworth

Cooking Up South was published earlier this fall in conjunction with the Capital BookFest events held in Largo (MD), Harrisburg, (PA), and Charleston (SC). I'm so pleased that my poem "The Music of Apples" (first published in Cairn) is included.

You can buy the book at Amazon.com.

Thursday, Nov. 11: Visiting two poetry classes

2010-11-10T11:41:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow I'm pleased to be visiting two classes at Furman University, near Greenville, SC. Gilbert Allen, Bennette E. Geer Professor of Literature, has invited me to join his classes to read some poems, as well as talk with his students about the writing process. I've worked with his students before, and they are always a delight--serious about their writing and eager to hear what other poets are up to.

Not only will the classes themselves be a joy, but I always feel inspired by the time alone in the car on a roadtrip, a chance to quiet my mind and think about the things I don't ordinarily take the time to ponder. Got my car gassed up, and I'm ready to go.

Capital BookFest Charleston was a huge success!

2010-11-10T11:27:00.000-05:00

Capital BookFest Charleston drew 4000-5000 people to its inaugural event last Saturday, November 6, and plans are in the works to make it an annual festival after the mayor declared the first Saturday in November as Capital BookFest Day. A large part of that draw was the inimitable poet Nikki Giovanni, loved by all ages--children and adults alike. The mission of the festival is "strengthening families through reading"--and with that in mind, it was a wonderful sight to see so many teenagers and children at the festival.

Which reminds me, I'd like to give a shoutout to the North Charleston High School students who published the poetry anthology Find Me Beyond Statistics Inside Teardrops through the Book-in-a-Day program directed by Kwame Alexander, the founder of Capital BookFest. The students gave a terrific reading from their book at Saturday's BookFest, captivating the audience and electrifying the whole room. Congratulations!

I had a wonderful time attending the whole day at the downtown library and Blue Bicycle Books on King Street. It was great fun in a morning session to read with poets Tinesha Davis, Le Hinton, Deanna Nikaido, and Marjory Wentworth from the book Cooking Up South, recently published for BookFest, and later to read at Blue Bicycle Books with Linda Annas Ferguson.

I'm already looking forward to next year's event! This year's festival was one of three offered, the other two being in Largo (MD) and Harrisburg (PA). Much gratitude to Kwame Alexander and the Capital BookFest staff for bringing the festival to Charleston.

Saturday, Nov. 6: Capital BookFest Charleston

2010-11-03T10:38:00.002-04:00

Saturday, November 6, 2010
Capital BookFest Charleston
Blue Bicycle Books Courtyard
King St., Charleston, SC
Poetry Reading
Linda Annas Ferguson & Susan Laughter Meyers
5:20 - 6:00 p.m.
Host Kwame Alexander
Free & open to the public

I'm pleased to be reading at this all-day event, which is being held at the Charleston County Public Library and Blue Bicycle Books. Check out the day's schedule of events.
Visiting authors include Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Coleman Barks, and Lisa Starr.

Last week I enjoyed reading new work at Monday Night Poetry & Music, so this week I'm looking forward to reading a different set of poems, mostly those from my book Keep and Give Away.

Prime Number Magazine: Issue No. 3 contains four of my poems

2010-10-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

The online journal Prime Number has just released its Issue No. 3, containing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, and a book review. I'm pleased to have work there alongside that of Lola Haskins, Mark Smith-Soto, and Nick Ripatrazone.

Check it out: Prime Number

r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal's latest issue

2010-10-21T11:22:00.001-04:00

The latest issue of the online journal r.kv.r.y. contains a poem of mine entitled "That Year," as well as poems by Isabel Dixon, Jericho Brown, Kirsten Hemmy, and Clinton B. Campbell. The journal is all about the subject of recovery--with poems, essays, fiction, and a section called "shorts on survival": r.kv.r.y.

Congratulations to its new editor, Mary Akers.

Saturday, Oct. 23: Poetry Workshop -- The Song of Syntax

2010-09-12T18:42:00.000-04:00

Poetry Workshop: The Song of Syntax
Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Susan Meyers, instructor
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Registration, $30
OLLI at Coastal Carolina University
Register at 843-234-3422 or www.coastal.edu/olli

A poem’s syntax, its word order, is crucial to its music, as well as its meaning. Syntax affects pacing, tension, tone—almost every aspect of the poem. The class (open to all levels of experience) will discuss numerous syntactical approaches, read sample published poems, and generate new work. Bring a poem draft you’re working on. A class packet is included. Lunch can be brought or bought nearby.

Review of The Sound of Poets Cooking

2010-08-06T15:31:00.002-04:00

Scott Owens, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, has reviewed the new anthology The Sound of Poets Cooking, recently published by Jacar Press and edited by Richard Krawiec.

To read the review and learn more about the anthology, go to Wild Goose Poetry Review.

Release of anthology: The Sound of Poets Cooking, Jacar Press

2010-08-06T15:23:00.000-04:00

Jacar Press, of Durham, NC, has recently released its anthology The Sound of Poets Cooking. It's a diverse and eclectic collection of poems by nationally celebrated writers, alongside recipes created by poets and their friends. Proceeds from the sales of this book will go to fund writing workshops in underserved communities.

The anthology features work by five dozen poets, including NC Poet Laureates Fred Chappell and Kathryn Stripling Byer, and dozens of other nationally celebrated writers. The poems alternate with recipes written by the poets, their family members, lovers and friends. The writing is at turns sensuous, hilarious, elegant, and playful. The recipes range from Asian, through European, to Middle Eastern dishes, as well as regional favorites from across the U.S.--tiramisu, homemade curry, vegetarian meals, exotic seafood, some simple, some complex. There is something here for every palate, literary and culinary.

To order, go to Jacar Press

Malaika King Albrecht * Leila Allen * Anne Clinard Barnhill * Coyla Barry * Joseph Bathanti * Michael Beadle * Roberta Beary * Amy Knox Brown * Grey Brown * Sally Buckner * Kathryn Stripling Byer * Fred Chappell * Kelly Cherry * Jim Clark * Sara Claytor * Patty Cole * Ellen Compton * Debra A. Daniel * Susan Delphine Delaney * M. Scott Douglass * Sally Ann Drucker * Allison Elrod * Terri Kirby Erickson * Cathryn Essinger * Deborah Finkelstein * Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda * Peggy Gambill * Jaki Shelton Green * Cordelia Hanemann * John Hoppenthaler * Alice Owens Johnson * Paul Jones * Steven B. Katz * Debra Kaufman * Deborah P. Kolodji * Bruce Lader * Sarah Lindsay * Susan Ludvigson * Al Maginnes * Susan Meyers * Lenard D. Moore * Florence Nash * Valerie Nieman * Scott Owens * Randy W. Pait * Gail Peck * Carol Peters * Diana Pinckney * Barbara Presnell * Tony Reevy * Chad Lee Robinson * Lynn Veach Sadler * Joanna Catherine Scott * Pat Riviere-Seel * Andrea Selch * Maureen Sherbondy * Rie Shontel * Marty Silverthorne * Mark Smith-Soto * Shelby Stephenson * Myrna Stone * Julie Suk * Jo Barbara Taylor

Monday, Jul. 19, 2010: Launch party for new issue of Undefined Magazine

2010-07-19T14:25:00.000-04:00

undefined magazine's 1st annual Summer Reader Release Party:

Readings by the winners of undefined magazine's 1st annual Creative Writing Competition and contributors to Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio, food, music, happy hour prices, and your very own issue of undefined magazine's 1st annual Summer Reader, while the ink is still wet -- all for 5 bucks.

Today · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

The White Mule Pub and Eatery
1530 Main Street
Columbia, SC

____________________________

I'm looking forward to attending and reading my poem "No more than the bird with piercing note," which won first place in poetry.

A poem of mine has won first place in poetry in undefined Magazine's inaugural Creative Writing Competition

2010-07-13T17:10:00.002-04:00

Undefined Magazine , an arts magazine out of Columbia, South Carolina, congratulates the winners of its first annual Creative Writing Competition. The winning poems and fiction will be published in the Summer Reading issue, which will be released on July 14, 2010.

Here are the winners:

For poetry:
1st place - Susan Laughter Meyers
2nd place - Gilbert Allen
3rd place - Julia Koets

For flash fiction:
1st place - Paul Bowers
2nd place - Phebe Davidson
3rd place - John Purvis

For short story:
1st place - Leslie Haynsworth
2nd place - Gilbert Allen
3rd place - Leslie Dennis

______________________________

I'm excited about this news. My poem that won is called "No more than the bird with piercing note," which borrows its title from a line by Sappho. The judge for poetry was Ed Madden, undefined's new poetry editor.

Jun.20-24: Poetry instructor for SWA workshop, St. Simons Island, GA

2010-06-11T14:33:00.002-04:00

JUNE 20-24, 2010
St. Simons Island, GA
Southeastern Writers Association
2010 Writers Workshop -- 35th annual workshop

The time is fast approaching for this gathering of writers, the opportunity to immerse ourselves in writing and talk/classes about writing. The daily schedule includes workshops pertaining to numerous subjects/genres, as well as nightly readings and activities. I'll be teaching a daily one-hour poetry workshop entitled "Which Words, What Order: Diction and Syntax." The first two days we'll work with diction, the last two with syntax.

Here is this year's faculty:

David Robbins, Advanced Fiction
Katharine Sands, Agent in Residence
Susan Meyers, Poetry
Gail Karwoski, Writing for Young Readers
Berta Platas, Beginning Novel Writing
J. M. Lacey, Writing for Business
Ricki Schultz, Writing Journalism
Darrell Huckabee, Humor
Louis H. (Bud) Hern, III, Inspirational Writing
Sheila Hudson & Amy Munnell, Bright Ideas
Charlotte Babb, Science Fiction

St. Simons Island, here we come!

For further info: 2010 SWA Writers Workshop

May 17-24: Artist residency at Oconee State Park

2010-05-15T20:24:00.000-04:00

I leave for Oconee State Park this coming Monday, after being awarded a week's residency in the South Carolina State Park 2010 Artist-in-Residence Program. I'll have the opportunity to hike and explore the park, take field notes, and write some poems about the natural surroundings there. After the residency my main responsibility is to send the park a framed poem that resulted from the experience. Am I ever looking forward to the week--my chance to retreat from the busy world for a few days!

Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry Column 267

2010-05-03T17:31:00.001-04:00

American Life in Poetry: Column 267

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Here’s a poem by Susan Meyers, of South Carolina, about the most ordinary of activities, washing the dishes, but in this instance remembering this ordinary routine provides an opportunity for speculation about the private pleasures of a lost parent.

Mother, Washing Dishes

She rarely made us do it—
we’d clear the table instead—so my sister and I teased
that some day we’d train our children right
and not end up like her, after every meal stuck
with red knuckles, a bleached rag to wipe and wring.
The one chore she spared us: gummy plates
in water greasy and swirling with sloughed peas,
globs of egg and gravy.

Or did she guard her place
at the window? Not wanting to give up the gloss
of the magnolia, the school traffic humming.
Sunset, finches at the feeder. First sightings
of the mail truck at the curb, just after noon,
delivering a note, a card, the least bit of news.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2009 by the Univ. of So. Carolina Press. Susan Meyers’ most recent book of poems is Keep and Give Away, Univ. of So. Carolina Press, 2006. Poem reprinted from Tar River Poetry, Vol. 48, no. 1, Fall 2008, by permission of the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

----------------

American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here [at the Web site] and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.

The poem in each column is brief and will be enjoyable and enlightening to readers of newspapers and online publications. Each week, a new column will be posted. Registered publications will receive new columns by email. Our archive of previous columns is also available for publication.

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Susan's note: After the week of May 3, 2010, Column 267 can be located in the archives of American Life in Poetry. Many thanks to Ted Kooser and his staff for recognizing this poem!

Saturday, May 1: Poetry Workshop, The Song of Syntax -- Jacksonville, NC

2010-04-27T07:22:00.001-04:00

Saturday, May 1
Poetry Workshop: The Song of Syntax
Susan Meyers, instructor
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Comfort Suites, 130 Workshop Ln. US 17 N.
Jacksonville, NC 28546
Registration $25 ($20 for Coastal Poets Consortium members)
Bring your own lunch.
For registration and further details: Coastal Poets Consortium

Crucial to the art of a poem is its syntax, how the words are put together for the sake of ideal phrasing. In this workshop we’ll focus on the role of syntax in orchestrating a poem’s music—how it affects pacing, tension, and tone. We’ll pay attention to not only what the poem says but also how it goes about saying it. The class (open to poets of all levels of experience) will discuss numerous syntactical approaches, read sample poems, and generate new work. Participants may bring a poem, with SASE, to turn in for critique.

Sunday, Apr. 25: Georgetown, SC, Reading

2010-04-24T09:15:00.007-04:00

Reading by Susan Meyers, Ray McManus & Worthy Evans
Sun., Apr. 25
2 - 4 p.m.
Goudelock's, 711 Front St.
Georgetown, SC
Sponsored by Harborwalk Books
Free & open to the public

Three of the winners of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize will read poems, followed by a brief Q&A session and book signing. Refreshments provided. Featuring the books Keep and Give Away (2006), Driving through the Country before You Are Born (2007), and the newly released Green Revolver (2010).

The book prize is sponsored annually by the SC Poetry Initiative, in conjunction with the University of South Carolina Press.

Friday, Apr. 23: Classes at Richland Northeast High in Columbia, SC

2010-04-24T08:50:00.001-04:00

What a pleasure it was yesterday to meet with young poets in Barbara Thomson's classes at Richland Northeast High. We circled up and read a number of poems rich with concrete details--list poems, poems of advice/instruction, poems in the voice of an inanimate object, and others. Then we spent time writing lines of a group poem, plus poems of our own. A talented group!

Monday, April 19: Hub City Master Craft Series workshop

2010-04-04T20:47:00.004-04:00

HUB CITY, Spartanburg, SC
Master Craft Series workshop
Poetry Workshop with Susan Meyers
Mon., Apr. 19, 2010
7 - 9 p.m.
Subject: Syntax

Crucial to the art of a poem is its syntax, how the words are put together for the sake of ideal phrasing. In this workshop we'll focus on the role of syntax in orchestrating a poem's music-how it affects pacing, tension, and tone. We'll pay attention to not only what the poem says but also how it goes about saying it. The class (open to poets of all levels of experience) will discuss numerous syntactical approaches, read sample poems, and generate new work. Susan Meyers is the author of Keep and Give Away, winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize, the SIBA Book Award for Poetry, and the Brockman-Campbell Book Award. Her poems have also been published in The Southern Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, jubilat, and other journals, as well as Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. A long-time writing instructor, she has an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte.

Location:
The Showroom at HUB-BUB
149 S. Daniel Morgan Ave
Spartanburg, SC 29306
(864) 577-9349

$25 ($20 for college students and Hub City members)
Register here

April 16-17: University of Central Florida Book Festival

2010-04-04T19:30:00.001-04:00

University of Central Florida Inaugural Book Festival
Saturday, Apr. 17, 2010
9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
UCF Arena in Orlando, FL
Morgridge International Reading Center
Friday events by invitation
Saturday, free & open to the public
National/local authors, exhibits, book appraisals, children's activities

I'll be participating on a panel based on the anthology After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events. I'll be on it with After Shocks editor Tom Lombardo, of Atlanta; London poet Satyendra Srivastava; and Marjory Wentworth, Poet Laureate of SC. The panel is scheduled on Saturday from 3:30 to 4:20 p.m. Other featured authors in the Festival include former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, novelists Ann Hood and Carl Hiassen, and NC poet Laura Hope Gill.

UCF Book Festival

Thur., Apr. 1: Litchfield Tea & Poetry

2010-03-23T13:17:00.001-04:00

Two fine poets will be featured on Thursday, April 1, in the Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series. JIM LUNDY, of Charleston, is new on our schedule this month. We're lucky to have this chance to hear him! He has a wry sense of humor and a delightfully quirky take on his many and varied subjects. He and PAT RIVIERE-SEEL are a perfect pairing. Pat will keep the emotional tenor high with poems about a serial killer and her daughter, inspired by the true story of NC murderer Velma Barfield.

What a broad range of poetry we're in for--from wit to murder and mayhem, and more. It's spring--what a grand time to come out to a poetry reading. Hope to see you there!

Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series
Reading by Jim Lundy & Pat Riviere-Seel
Thursday, April 1
3 - 4 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Wilbrook Boulevard
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Book signing after the reading
Refreshments: homemade confections by Deloris Roberts
Free & open to the public
843-349-4032
Co-sponored by OLLI at CCU & The Poetry Society of SC

Jim Lundy, current president of the Poetry Society of South Carolina, whiles away his time as a poet, songwriter, and longtime emcee of Monday Night Blues, a weekly literary and music event in Charleston. He is the author of two chapbooks: All I Can Be is Myself (2006) and Funny, in the Trenchant Way of Brilliant Men (2009). He uses humor and storytelling in his work to explore the human condition.

Pat Riviere-Seel is the author of The Serial Killer’s Daughter (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2009), which won the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, and No Turning Back Now (Finishing Line Press, 2004). A former political reporter for The Fayetteville Observer, she received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She and her husband live in Asheville, NC.

Mar. 15: Monday Night Blues reading by the Long Table Poets

2010-03-13T15:57:00.003-05:00

Monday Night Blues
Mar. 15, 2010
8 - 10 p.m.
Reading by Long Table Poets
East Bay Meeting House
160 East Bay St.
Charleston, SC

The following members of Richard Garcia's Long Table Poets group will read:
Richard Garcia, Mary Harris, Kit Loney, Susan Meyers, Carol Peters, Katherine Williams, and Joe Zealburg. Jim Lundy, emcee. Open mic to follow the reading. Free & open to the public.

Monday Night Blues

Poem meets photo: Melons

2010-03-08T09:55:00.002-05:00

How nice to have my prose poem "Melons," which first appeared in qarrtsiluni online journal, paired with a photo on Flicker:

Lynn Morag's Flicker page

"Ovals and balls,

Bright green and thumpable
Laced over with stripes

Of turtle-dark green."

~ Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963 ~
From "Fiesta Melons"

"Two melons on the kitchen counter are reading yesterday’s newspaper. One of them would like to turn the page but the other is a slow reader, mouthing inimitable and acerbic as if they were frozen spoonfuls. The smallest melon doesn’t want to get an ice cream headache. What she wants is the companionship of ginger ale. What the larger one wants is good lighting on a paid vacation. Who can blame each for this one dream? I once knew a girl who loved a melon. For two years her parents refused to claim her as theirs. This is not our daughter, our daughter is gone, they’d say, naming a country she was lost in. One time, Yemen; the next, Nepal. To them, the daughter was better suited to yogurt. They were sure the melon had spoiled her, but who’s to say? I’m told she eventually eloped, that the noticeable change in her — some called it a ripening — was a matter of time and temperature, a tender story, a happenstance of seed."

Feb. 27-28, 2010: South Carolina Book Festival

2010-02-22T20:52:00.002-05:00

South Carolina Book Festival
Saturday & Sunday
February 27 & 28
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center
Columbia, SC

There are several sessions at this year's SC Book Festival that I'm looking forward to being a part of:

Saturday, Feb. 27
4:30 - 6 p.m.
Special tribute to the late Stephen Gardner
A reading by poet friends that will include poems by the much-loved poet Stephen Gardner who passed away last fall.

Sunday, Feb. 28
11:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Poetry Panel
Linda Annas Ferguson, Linda Lee Harper, Susan Meyers, and Marjory Wentworth
Each poet will read a few poems and talk about what particular passion fuels her poetry.

Sunday, Feb. 28
2 - 2:50 p.m.
USC Poetry Initiative Book Prize Winners
Susan Meyers, Ray McManus, DeLana R.A. Dameron
Each winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize will read a few poems and talk about the writing life, as well as specifics about the Book Prize.

Book signings to follow these last two events.

Saturday, Feb. 20 -- Workshop: The Usefulness of Silence in a Poem

2010-02-07T09:12:00.000-05:00

Workshop: The Usefulness of Silence in a Poem
Saturday, February 20, 2010
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Wilbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
OLLI at Coastal Carolina University
Instructor: Susan Meyers

A poem’s silences fulfill a purpose just as the words do. Thus, poets need to know how to use white space, punctuation, elliptical syntax, the unspoken—and the many other ways to be silent in a poem. In this workshop we’ll read sample published poems, discuss how they manage their silences, and write poems of our own.

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.

Thur., Feb. 4: Litchfield Tea & Poetry with Barbara G. S. Hagerty & Ray McManus

2010-02-02T19:46:00.004-05:00

Join us in Litchfield/Pawleys Island, SC, for the second event of the 2010 Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series. Charleston poet BARBARA G. S. HAGERTY and Columbia poet RAY MCMANUS will be featured:

Thursday, Feb. 4
3 - 4 p.m.
Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Wilbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island / Litchfield
Book signing after the reading
Refreshments: homemade confections by Deloris Roberts
Free & open to the public
843-349-4032
Co-sponsored by OLLI at CCU & The Poetry Society of SC

Barbara G.S. Hagerty is author of The Guest House (Finishing Line Press, 2009). Her poems, essays, and columns have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications. A member of Richard Garcia's Long Table Poets workshop in Charleston, she holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from The Johns Hopkins University.

Ray McManus is the author of two collections of poetry: Left Behind (Stepping Stones Press) and Driving through the country before you are born (USC Press, 2007), winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize. His poetry has appeared in many journals throughout the United Sates and Canada. He is an Assistant Professor of English at USC Sumter.

Finalist for the Cider Press Review Book Award

2010-01-19T17:41:00.003-05:00

Cider Press Review has announced the results of its 2009 book award, and I am pleased that my manuscript was a finalist. David St. John, the judge, selected Second-Skin Rhinestone-Spangled Nude Soufflé Chiffon Gown, by Landon Godfrey, for the award. The winning book will be published in January 2011.

Cider Press also publishes the journal Cider Press Review, which appears annually. The press's reading periods are April-August for the journal, September-November for the book award.

See Cider Press Review for a complete list of the 2009 book award finalists and further info about the award, journal, and press.

SC state parks Artist-in-Residence Program

2009-12-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

The South Carolina State Parks system notified me earlier this week that I've been selected for their 2010 Artist-in-Residence program. Very exciting news! My week-long residency will be at Oconee State Park, Mountain Rest, the third week in May. After living in a cabin there for the week--exploring the park and spending time writing about its flora and fauna--I'll turn in a framed poem to be hung somewhere in one of the cabins or other facility on their grounds. I was told that only one poet was selected for 2010, and I'm honored to be that poet.

Pushcart Prize nomination

2009-12-05T15:13:00.001-05:00

The editors of Cave Wall, a literary journal of poetry and art, notified me this week that they have nominated my poem "Landmark Inn" for a Pushcart Prize. I am truly honored and grateful. The poem appeared in the fifth issue of the journal, along with poems by Christopher Buckley, J. P. Dancing Bear, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, and other poets I'm proud to be published with. Here is the table of contents of that issue, with a link to my poem:

Cave Wall, issue 5

2010 Litchfield (SC) Tea & Poetry Series

2009-11-10T17:54:00.010-05:00

2010 Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series

Cosponsors:
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University
&
The Poetry Society of South Carolina

______________________________________

Please join us for these five free events, our fourth year
featuring a whole slate of talented poets.

Litchfield Tea & Poetry Series
First Thursday, Jan. - May
3 - 4 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Wilbrook Boulevard
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
Book signing after the reading
Refreshments: homemade confections by Deloris Roberts
Free & open to the public
843-349-4032

____________

Jan. 7: Kurtis Lamkin – Kickoff reading with music

Kurtis Lamkin—a poet who plays the Kora, a beautiful 21-string West African instrument—has performed internationally at festivals, concerts halls, prisons, and universities. He has also performed on many radio and television shows and was one of the featured poets on Bill Moyers’ Fooling with Words television special, as well as the children‘s show, Deputy Billy. His animated poem “The Foxes Manifesto” aired for two years on PBS. His poems have been published in numerous anthologies, such as Elements of Literature, The Paterson Review, and New City Voices. He is currently touring with his latest CD, “Magic Yams.” We feel very lucky to have Kurtis with us to kick off our 2010 series!
____________

Feb. 4: Barbara G. S. Hagerty, Ray McManus

Barbara G.S. Hagerty is author of The Guest House (Finishing Line Press, 2009). Her poems, essays, and columns have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications. A member of Richard Garcia's Long Table Poets workshop in Charleston, she holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from The Johns Hopkins University.

Ray McManus is the author of two collections of poetry: Left Behind (Stepping Stones Press) and Driving through the country before you are born (USC Press, 2007), winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize. His poetry has appeared in many journals throughout the United Sates and Canada. He is an Assistant Professor of English at USC Sumter.
____________

Mar. 4: Libby Bernardin & Local Poets

Libby Bernardin conducts four poetry workshops a year for OLLI. She is the author of The Book of Myth (Stepping Stones Press, 2009), and her work appears in Notre Dame Review, Kakalak, and other journals. She is retired from teaching English at the University of South Carolina and serves on the board of the South Carolina Academy of Authors. Reading with her are colleagues and members of the OLLI poetry workshops: Nancy Jean Hill, Susan Scheno, George Sharwell, Bob Jones, Charlotte Hedler, Michelle Ott, Susan Clancy, and Anne Pott.
____________

Apr. 1: Pat Riviere-Seel, Al Maginnes

Pat Riviere-Seel is the author of The Serial Killer’s Daughter (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2009), which won the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, and No Turning Back Now (Finishing Line Press, 2004). A former political reporter for The Fayetteville Observer, she received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She and her husband live in Asheville, NC.

Al Maginnes is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Ghost Alphabet, which won the 2007 White Pine Poetry Prize; Dry Glass Blues (Pudding House, 2007); and Film History (Word Tech Editions, 2005). His poems have also appeared in many national and regional journals. He lives in Raleigh, NC, where he teaches at Wake Technical Community College.
___________

May 6: Sheridan Hough, Daniel Nathan Terry

Sheridan Hough is the author of The Hide (Inleaf Press, 2007). Her poetry has also appeared in Kakalak 2009: Anthology of Carolina Poets and many literary magazines. In 1983 she won a poetry scholarship from the National Society of Arts and Letters. She is Professor of Philosophy at the College of Charleston.

Daniel Nathan Terry is the author of Capturing the Dead (NFSPS Press, 2008), winner of the Stevens Poetry Prize. His poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The MacGuffin, Weber: The Contemporary West, The Adirondack Review, Kakalak, and Oberon. He is enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing at UNC-Wilmington, where he also teaches.

____________________________________________

For further info about the featured poets,
contact Susan Meyers, BardOwl2@aol.com

Check out the Tea & Poetry Series group on Facebook.

Yesterday's poetry workshop

2009-10-25T12:54:00.000-04:00

Thanks to those who attended yesterday's workshop at the CCU Waccamaw Center on "Writing toward a Poem's Mystery." Our discussion and close reading of the poems in the class packet has left me with much to think about, and I hope it has for the others in the class, too. Plus, I enjoyed hearing everyone read the new poems started in class yesterday--not to mention the pleasure that our group poem brought us all.

The workshop I'll be teaching in the spring semester will be "The Usefulness of Silence," which will include some of these considerations: A poem’s silences fulfill a purpose just as the words do. Thus, poets need to know how to use white space, punctuation, elliptical syntax, the unspoken—and the many other ways to be silent in a poem. We’ll read sample published poems, discuss how they manage their silences, and write poems of our own.

I'm already looking forward to it.

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009 -- Workshop: Writing toward a Poem's Mystery

2009-09-23T16:46:00.011-04:00

Workshop: Writing toward a Poem's Mystery
Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Wilbrook Boulevard
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
OLLI at Coastal Carolina University
Instructor, Susan Meyers

Some of the most enduring poems, those that bear repeated readings, can claim both clarity and mystery. A poem’s mystery is partly what accounts for its leaps, when some of the work of connecting—of getting from here to there—is left to the reader. The class will include 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.

Aug. 18-25, 2009: Poem featured at Linebreak

2009-08-18T12:17:00.006-04:00

I love having a poem on Linebreak, partly because each week the online journal offers an audio of the featured poem. This week I'm happy that my poem "Dear Happenstance" is featured there, read by Josh Brown.

This poem is included in my book manuscript "My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass," now being circulated.

Jul. 31-Aug. 1, 2009: NC Writers Conference

2009-08-05T19:54:00.008-04:00

July 31 - August 1, 2009
North Carolina Writers Conference
Little River Golf & Resort
Carthage / Pinehurst, NC
"Our 60th Splendid Summer"
Ruth Moose, Honoree

What a pleasure it was for Sally Logan, Pat Riviere-Seel, and me to plan this year's NC Writers Conference honoring Ruth Moose, of Pittsboro. Each year at the end of July, Conference members and their guests meet at a different location across North Carolina to hold programs and honor a North Carolina writer or literary leader at the Saturday night banquet.

Ruth Moose—highly regarded writer, editor, critic, and teacher—was chosen for her talents as a writer and long-time teacher and leader in the literary community. She is the author of numerous books of fiction and poetry. Her short story collections include Rules and Secrets (Pure Heart Press, Main Street Rag Publisher), a reissue of stories from the earlier books The Wreath Ribbon Quilt and Other Stories and Dreaming in Color. Her poetry collections include Making the Bed (Sandstone Publishing), Smith Grove (Sow’s Ear Press), Finding Things in the Dark (Briarpatch Press), To Survive (Book Mark Press, Univ. of Missouri), as well as her just-released collection The Librarian and Other Poems (Main Street Rag Publishing).

Ruth is on the Creative Writing Faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, a position she has held since 1996. Her work has been published in Atlantic Monthly, New Delta Review, Yankee, The Nation, Christian Century, Southern Poetry Review, and numerous other magazines and literary journals. It has also frequently been anthologized and taught in classes. Her honors include several PEN Awards for Syndicated Fiction, a Robert Ruark Award for Short Story, North Carolina Writers Fellowship, MacDowell Fellowship, and Oscar Arnold Young Book Award for Poetry.

Friday night's Conference program offered an abbreviated performance of "A Thousand Things Time Will Never Let Us Say: The Correspondence of James & Katharine Boyd and Friends," a readers' theater performance based on years of research done by author Stephen Smith. It was performed by Stephen Smith, Shelby Stephenson, Marsha Warren, and friends. Afterward Ruth read from The Librarian. Mostly she chose humorous poems for her reading--and kept the audience bent double with laughter.

Saturday's program, planned by Sally Logan, consisted of two morning panels. The first was "On Readings, Reviews, and Interviews," by Kay Grismer, The Country Bookshop; Faye Dasen, Features Editor, The Pilot; and D. G. Martin, host of NC Bookwatch. The second panel on "Writing for Children and Young Adults" was offered by authors Eleanora E. Tate, Lisa Williams Kline, and Joyce Moyer Hostetter.

The Saturday afternoon program, presented by Georgann Eubanks, was a virtual literary tour of the Piedmont region of North Carolina, focusing on writers' houses. Her program was based on the second volume of her three-part series, North Carolina Literary Trails. Each volume features numerous trails mapped out for either the mountains, Piedmont, or coast.

At the Saturday night banquet--emceed by Joy Acey--Sally Buckner, Bland Simpson, John York, and Valerie Yow paid tribute to Ruth. Also, letters of tribute from Mignon Ballard, Joseph Bathanti, Doris Betts, Marianne Gingher, Johnsie Markham, Dannye Romine Powell, and Dartha Whitis were read.

The NCWC, begun in 1950, celebrated its theme of “Our 60th Splendid Summer” this year. Chairing this event was a huge task, but it brought me great satisfaction to see about a hundred members and guests coming together to enjoy the programs, visit with fellow authors and friends, honor Ruth Moose, and look back with fondness at the organization's past. Next year's Conference, chaired by Sally Logan, will honor author and musician Bland Simpson.

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

2009-07-04T16:58:00.011-04:00

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:
___________________________________________________

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

2009-06-17T11:43:00.022-04:00

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

2009-06-17T10:35:00.016-04:00

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

2009-06-05T15:21:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-24T15:01:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-05T10:00:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-01T11:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-01T10:33:00.010-04:00

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!

____________

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.

_____________

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

2009-03-31T18:10:00.004-04:00

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.

Feb. 27 - Mar. 1: SC Book Festival

2009-02-22T13:34:00.031-05:00

Books

from the panels

& readings

I'm working with

at the

SC Book Festival.

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

2009-02-17T21:56:00.016-05:00

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

2009-02-10T19:17:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-31T09:30:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-19T20:05:00.011-05:00

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"

2008-12-02T09:27:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-28T09:12:00.011-05:00

"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

2008-11-28T09:07:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-18T09:29:00.010-05:00

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.

Saturday, Nov. 15: SC Young Poets Prize awards ceremony, Columbia, SC

2008-11-18T09:22:00.004-05:00

SC Young Poets Prize
Saturday, November 15
10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Columbia Museum of Art
Hampton & Main Sts., Columbia, SC

What a pleasure it was to judge this year's South Carolina Young Poets Prize competition, sponsored by the Split P Soup: Poetry for the Community and by the SC Poetry Initiative. There were 155 poems entered by 50 poets, whose ages ranged from 14 to 19. A difficult competition to judge indeed! The awards ceremony was held at the Columbia Museum of Art, with a morning workshop led by Jonathan Butler. In the afternoon the students held an open mic, and I was pleased to read and announce the five prize winners.

Sunday, Nov. 9: After Shocks anthology reading by 11 poets, Charlotte, NC

2008-11-18T09:11:00.004-05:00

After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery
Anthology reading by 11 poets
Sun., Nov. 9
Joseph Beth Booksellers
Charlotte, NC

One of the most moving readings I've ever participated in was this one by eleven of the 115 poets in the anthology After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events. Each poet read his or her own poem in the anthology, plus one by a poet who was not able to attend. After Shocks was compiled, edited, and published by Tom Lombardo, of Atlanta. It includes work by poets from all over the world. There are sections on death, divorce, abuse, and so forth--even one on "the stresses of living." Yet, despite the weight of these subjects, there is humor and much hope within its pages. I highly recommend this book.

Sunday, Nov. 9: After Shocks anthology reading, Charlotte, NC

2008-11-06T14:39:00.003-05:00

After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events
Anthology reading with other poets
Sunday, Nov. 9
2 - 3:30 p.m.
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Charlotte, NC
Free & open to the public

Introduced and emceed by Tom Lombardo, who lives in Atlanta and is the editor of After Shocks. Other poets participating:

Anthony Abbott (Davidson, NC)
Cathy Smith Bowers (Tryon, NC)
Genie Cotner (Charlotte, NC)
Val Nieman (Greensboro, NC)
Gail Peck (Charlotte, NC)
Barbara Presnell (Lexington, NC)
Rhett Iseman Trull (Greensboro, NC)
Terri Wolfe (Charlotte, NC)
Susan Meyers (Summerville, SC, a native of Albemarle, NC)
Linda Ferguson (Charleston, SC, a native of Rhode Hiss, NC)
Ed Madden (Charleston, SC)

Nov. 1: Kakalak reading, Charleston, SC

2008-11-04T09:45:00.007-05:00

Kakalak anthology reading
Sat., Nov. 1
4 p.m.
Blue Bicycle Books
420 King Street
Charleston, SC

Some of the area contributors--poets and artists--published in the 2008 Kakalak anthology read at Blue Bicycle Books on Saturday. Editors Richard Taylor and Beth Cagle Burt, of Charlotte, NC, were there to emcee the event, which gave the contributors a chance to celebrate the new anthology. The event included a lovely reception, and luckily the weather was warm enough to allow the reading to take place outside in a courtyard by the building. Poets reading included Libby Bernardin, Susan Fecho, Barbara Hagerty, Ann Herlong-Bodman, Sheridan Hough, Kit Loney, Michael Lucas, Susan Meyers, Dennis Ward Stiles, and Deborah Scott. Hosts were Jonathan and Lauren Sanchez, owners of Blue Bicycle Books.

Saturday, Nov. 1: Poetry Writing Workshop -- Mastering the Line

2008-10-12T20:22:00.006-04:00

Poetry Writing Workshop: Mastering the Line
Sat., Nov. 1, 2008
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Waccamaw Higher Education Center
160 Willbrook Blvd.
Pawleys Island, SC 29585
OLLI at CCU class
Instructor, Susan Meyers

How do you know where to begin and end the lines of your poems? This workshop will look at how lineation affects a poem, how various poets have upheld the integrity of the line—whether lines are short, long, or a combination of the two. Includes writing activities and a resource packet. Please bring a copy of 2-3 of your in-progress poems.

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.

Wednesday, October 15: Poetry program for Florence, SC, book club

2008-10-12T20:17:00.005-04:00

Florence, SC, local book club program
Wed., Oct. 15
11 a.m.
Florence Public Library
Free & open to the public

Reading from Keep and Give Away, plus poetry discussion

Sunday, Sept. 21: Porter Fleming Writing Competition Awards Ceremony, Augusta, GA

2008-09-23T16:53:00.007-04:00

15th Annual Porter Fleming Writing Competition
Competition Awards Ceremony
Sunday, September 21, 2008
1:30 p.m.
Morris Museum
1 Tenth Street, Augusta, GA

I was thrilled to be among the winners of this year's Porter Fleming Writing Competition and to read with the other winners of the contest. The reading was held in the auditorium of the Morris Museum in Augusta, GA, as a part of the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival. Below are the winners of all four categories:

FICTION:
1st prize -- Michael Leslie, "Marathons, Mercurys, and Orphans"
2nd prize -- Angela Aaron, "The Tale of Tapanga"
3rd prize -- Dot Jackson, "Boy Lost"

NONFICTION:
1st prize -- Marina Brown, "Pieta"
2nd prize -- Elizabeth Estes, "How I Lost Fourteen Warts by Just Holding Hands"
3rd prize -- Marina Brown, "The Sweetness of Red Cabbage"

POETRY:
1st prize -- Allan Ryder-Cook, "Scapula"
2nd prize -- Gilbert Allen, "My Mother Teaches Me to Type"
3rd prize -- Susan Meyers, "Namesake"

PLAYWRITING:
1st prize -- Amy Richerson, "The Ex-Box"
2nd prize -- Thomas McConnell, "Colliding with Andromeda"
3rd prize -- Joseph Barry, "Bait and Switch"

This year's final judge for the poetry division was Stephen Corey, poet and editor of The Georgia Review. For more information, see Arts in the Heart of Augusta.

Friday, Sept. 19: Visit to Furman University class

2008-09-23T15:24:00.006-04:00

I was recently invited to visit the undergraduate poetry workshop of Gil Allen, professor and poet at Furman University in Greenville, SC. The purposes of the visit was to give the students a chance to hold a small-group conversation with a working poet. What a pleasure! After I started our session by reading a poem, the twelve students in the class each told me about what for them seemed hard, and in turn what seemed easy, about writing poems. We also talked about such issues as where our poems come from, how we get started, and how much revising we do. I tried to emphasize the fact that my poems rarely begin with an idea; they're much more likely to begin with a line that comes to me. Typically I keep laying down one line after another, not really knowing where I'm headed. The more I write, the more I like the mystery of where the developing poem is taking me, its surprises and turns along the way. It's probably apparent, too, that I like to sit and talk about writing.

The students were eager for the exchange, which made my whole trip worthwhile. Thanks for inviting me, Gil. And thanks to the students--James, Christan, Rachel, Duncan, Drew, Sarah, Gwendolyn, Scott, Stephen, Keegan, Ait, and Helen--for voicing your concerns and ideas about the writing process. I was happy to be there for our conversation on poetry.

Thursday, September 18: After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery, a reading by area anthology contributors, Charleston (SC) County Public Library

2008-08-25T14:55:00.019-04:00

After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery from Life-Shattering Events
Thursday, Sept. 18
Charleston County Library
68 Calhoun Street
Charleston, SC
7 p.m.
Book signing and reception will follow the reading.
Anthologies will be available for purchase.

Area poets included in the anthology who will read:
Paul Allen, of Charleston
Linda Ferguson, of Charleston
Richard Garcia, of Charleston
Barbara G.S. Hagerty, of Charleston
Kurtis Lamkin, of Charleston
Susan Meyers, of Summerville
Gail Peck, of Charlotte
Marjory Wentworth, of Mt. Pleasant
Tom Lombardo, editor, of Atlanta

MORE ABOUT AFTER SHOCKS:

Sante Lucia Books is pleased to announce publication of a ground-breaking anthology, entitled After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events, edited by Tom Lombardo. The anthology comprises 152 poems by 115 poets from 15 nations, including: 3 U.S. Poets Laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, 2 Whitbread Prize winners, and many others. Chapters cover stories of recovery from Grief, War, Exile, Abuse, Divorce, Bigotry, Illness, Injury, Addiction, and Loss of Innocence.

The anthology grew out of the editor’s personal experience surviving the death of his spouse when he was in his early 30s. “I was a young widower, and over the years since then, I've spoken with others going through similar trauma, trying to come to terms with my own grief and what it meant for my continuing life. After receiving my MFA in Creative Writing, and turning my writing more toward poetry, I came to realize that poetry could help express the hope and the will to live that eventually springs from these life-shattering events,” said Tom Lombardo.

Early Praise for After Shocks:

This anthology is of national and international significance. It is a collection that crosses and embraces all boundaries—culture, class, gender, and race. It takes us into the hardest places human beings have to go—the failures of personal relationships, loss of loved ones, genocide, racial oppression, addiction, loss of innocence, marginalization, and more. And, yet, each section moves, finally, toward a place of hope and dignity and resilience.
—Cathy Smith Bowers, Author, The Candle I Hold Up To See You

This wonderful and important anthology…is a solid act of generosity…a gift of testimony from poets across a broad range of experience and language, poems that tell us we can gather ourselves from the shock of upset and loss in life and continue…After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery is a book that seeks to stand up and walk among us as a living thing, a force to activate the good and prepare us to weather the bad.
—Afaa Michael Weaver, Author, The Plum Flower Dance

The sum of these poems is to tell the truth and by the telling to find relief and sometimes healing. The ones who read and hear these poems can share the loss that is so common among us, and perhaps also share the healing that comes through bold voice.
—Walter Brueggemann, Ph.D. Author of Finally Comes the Poet, Biblical Scholar, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia

In this collection of poetry, recovery…speaks to transformation and hope…Many of these poems can help individuals acknowledge the reality of their losses and develop an understanding that helps them continue on their life's journey…This international collection of poetry can serve as an aid in promoting compassion and courage. We draw courage from those on a similar path.
—Nicholas D. Mazza, Ph.D., editor of Journal of Poetry Therapy

Complete List of Poets Included:

Rita Dove Simon Armitage Carol Dine Douglas Dunn Cathy Smith Bowers Patricia Wellingham-Jones Donald Hall Carol Ann Duffy Molly Gloss Thomas Lux Pam Bernard Elizabeth Bernardin Sandor Kányádi Stellasue Lee Doug Anderson Jim McGarrah Sonja Besford Martha Collins Rachel Tzvia Back Brian Turner Nazand Begikhani Liu Hongbin Paul Sohar Satyendra Srivastava Marjorie Wentworth Diana Woodcock Majid Naficy Shelley Davidow J. P. Dancing Bear Margaret Chula Major Jackson Lisha Adela Garcia Ron Rash Annie Finch Barbara Mitchell Roseann Lloyd Joy Helsing Nehassaiu deGannes Peter Cooley Paul Allen R.G. Evans Barbara G.S. Hagerty Clinton B. Campbell Iain Haley Pollock Laurel Blossom Willie James King Georgia Ann Banks-Martin Kevin Young Tolu Ogunlesi Meir Wieseltier Randall Horton Richard Garcia György Faludy Bette Lynch Husted William Stafford Terri Wolfe J. Stephen Rhodes Gail Rudd Entrekin Anthony S. Abbott Faye J. Hoops Farideh Hassanzadeh Rebecca McClanahan Sister Lou Ella Hickman Anna Rabinowitz David Bottoms Janet Winans Alexa Selph Dennis Ward Stiles Renée Michele Breeden Ellen Doré Watson Joseph Mills Liesl Jobson Deborah P. Kolodji Aimee Nezhukumatathil Kurtis Lamkin C.C. Thomas Barbara Presnell Naomi Ruth Lowinsky Jericho Brown Therése Halscheid Becky Thompson John McAllister J.E.Pitts William Greenway Susan Varon Shaindel Beers Genie Cotner Marcia Slatkin Barbara Mitchell Joan Houlihan Jenni Meredith Rhett Iseman Trull Pramila Venkateswaran Diane Holland Valerie Nieman Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda Susan Meyers Joseph Enzweiler Jane Gentry Rachel Eliza Griffiths Gail Peck Jennifer Barber Ilya Kaminsky Allison Hedge Coke Steven Cramer Linda Annas Ferguson Kevin Simmonds Nancy Tupper Ling Carole Baldock Deema Shehabi Kate Gale Jeffrey Levine Bernardo Atxaga

After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events
Edited by Tom Lombardo, 388 pages
Available August 29, 2008
Sante Lucia Books
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9816354-0-8

For further information or to order copies in advance,
please go to The Poetry of Recovery.
Also visit the press's blog.

Fri., Aug. 22: Celebration for Ed Madden's book Signals

2008-08-21T23:25:00.012-04:00

Signals: Celebrating the Art of Ed Madden
Friends of Ed Madden Book Launch
Friday, August 22nd
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Columbia Museum of Art
Corner of Hampton and Main
Free and Open to the Public

Join the South Carolina Poetry Initiative for a celebration of Ed
Madden’s Signals, a work already acclaimed by award-winning poets: "Signals calls us to consciousness in a natural world that is at once quietly witness to our loves and losses and yet always as urgently and insistently alive as we are. Ed Madden, as with any of our most necessary poets, locates us plainly in this conflicted Eden, this garden of the reverent imagination…" — Rafael Campo

Signals was selected by Afaa Weaver as the winner of the 2007 South Carolina Poetry Initiative’s Book Contest, and on August 22 the Initiative is going to toast the book, celebrate Ed Madden’s journey, and maybe roast the poet a bit! Hear Madden read from the book as well as hear readings from some of Ed’s friends, who happen to be among South Carolina’s finest poets. Vera Gomez, Ray McManus, Kevin Lewis, and Susan Meyers are a few of the folks who will take to the stage to toast this gifted poet. The evening will include a reception, music, and a superb display of photography that maps many of the landscapes Madden brings to life in this stunning collection. Join us as we celebrate friendship, the written word, and art that addresses the legacies and landscapes of our region.

Ed Madden is an associate professor of English and associate director of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina as well as writer in residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina. Madden is the author of Tiresian Poetics and coeditor of Geographies and Genders in Irish Studies. His essays on politics and Southern culture have appeared in many newspapers and journals and been featured on NPR. He was selected by editor Natasha Trethewey for inclusion in the anthology Best New Poets 2007. For information contact Charlene Spearen at cmspeare@mailbox.sc.edu or call (803)777-5492.

Kakalak 2008 is now available

2008-07-05T15:40:00.019-04:00

Congratulations to 2008 KAKALAK editors Beth Cagle Burt, Lisa Zerkle, and Richard Allen Taylor on the release of this year's anthology, the third in the series of Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets. Each year the editors hold a poetry and art contest--putting out a call for poetry and art submissions from North and South Carolina poets/artists, and from other poets/artists with work about the Carolinas. Poet Colette Inez served as judge for the poetry competition this year. 2008 Kakalak includes the results of this year's contests, as well as a special section of work by poet and photographer Steve Lautermilch, winner of both contests last year.

This year's cover art, Watertrees, is by Patz Fowle; and, as always, the anthology is a beautiful book. It contains the work of more than a hundred poets and about twenty visual artists. Copies can be ordered at the anthology's website: Kakalak

I'm extremely pleased to be included again in the new edition, doubly pleased that my poem received an honorable mention in the poetry contest:

Whistling through My Hands

Until today, the dove's cry hasn't come
from so deep inside itself since that summer
Emily stepped from the curb into the night's traffic.
She, the troubled bright wonder in our class.

This moment, straight through me because out here
I'm closer, my ear a vessel of sorrow?
I want to carry that sound into fall. No, winter.
The morning I read her obituary

I went to Paul, our teacher.
Found him in his office and sat there numb
while he cried, that big man at his desk,
his plastic black cat clock behind him on the wall.

Now Paul gone too. I have to remind myself.
If I hollow my hands, clasped together
into the shape of the church
without the steeple, or the people,

line up my thumbs just so,
I can blow on them to make that long, low call
I practiced and practiced as a child, till finally
when it came to me, it came to me by heart.

for Paul Rice

Thur., June 12: Reading & signing at The Happy Bookseller, Columbia, SC

2008-05-10T14:50:00.008-04:00

Thursday, June 12
Reading & book signing
The Happy Bookseller
4525 Forest Dr. Columbia, SC 29206
6 p.m.
Phone: 803.782.2665; Toll Free: 800.787.1503

Linda Annas Ferguson -- Bird Missing from One Shoulder
Ray McManus -- Driving through the Country before You Are Born
Susan Meyers -- Keep and Give Away
Marjory Wentworth, Poet Laureate of SC -- Despite Gravity

Apr. 28 Reading at the Greensboro Public Library

2008-05-10T14:41:00.004-04:00

Thanks to those who came to the Greensboro (NC) Public Library on Monday, April 28, when Mark Smith-Soto and I read. Despite an all-day rain storm (that cleared up just in time for the reading), we had a good turnout. For the "Two Views, Two Poets" billing, we each chose to read a poem by another poet. Mark read a poem by Seamus Heaney, and I chose one by Li-Young Lee. I was honored to read with Mark, whose work I greatly admire.

Sat., Apr. 26: SC Poetry Initiative's Awards Celebration, Columbia, SC

2008-04-21T22:42:00.009-04:00

2008 South Carolina Poetry Initiative’s
Single-Poem and Book Contest Awards Celebration

Date: Saturday, April 26
Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
Place: Columbia Museum of Art
Corner of Hampton & Main
Columbia, SC
Free & open to the public

This year’s 2008 South Carolina Poetry Initiative’s Single-Poem and Book Awards Ceremony is definitely an event worth raving about. Enjoy a tour of the Columbia Museum’s Excavating Egypt Exhibit, some music, a bit of food, and POETRY. Here are further details about the day's happenings and features:

* Announcement of this year’s SINGLE-POEM CONTEST winners…the short list (top placement winners) and the long list to include the naming of the top twenty winners. Co-Sponsored by The State Newspaper, judged by Gabeba Baderoon. Awards include $400 for 1st place, $300 for 2nd place, $200 for 3rd place, and $100 for People’s Choice.

* Announcement of this year’s SC POETRY BOOK PRIZE winner.

* FEATURED READING by this year’s Book Contest judge, poet ELIZABETH ALEXANDER, and the winners of the three previous year’s SC Poetry Initiative's SC Poetry Book Prize: Susan Meyers, Keep and Give Away (2005 Winner, USC Press, 2006), Ray McManus, Driving through the Country before You Are Born (2006 Winner, USC Press, 2006), and Ed Madden, Signals (2007 Winner, USC Press, 2008).

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher. She is the author of four books of poems, The Venus Hottentot, Body of Life, Antebellum Dream Book, and American Sublime, which was one of three finalists for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. She is also a scholar of African-American literature and culture and recently published a collection of essays, The Black Interior. She has read her work across the U.S. and in Europe, the Caribbean, and South America, and her poetry, short stories, and critical prose have been published in dozens of periodicals and anthologies. Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Chicago, the George Kent Award, given by Gwendolyn Brooks, and a Guggenheim fellowship.

Her most-recent honors are the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work that "contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954," and the 2007 Jackson Prize for Poetry, awarded by Poets and Writers. She is a professor at Yale University, and for the academic year 2007-2008 she is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

SC Poetry Initiative

Thur., Apr. 24: SC Center for the Book reading

2008-04-19T23:55:00.004-04:00

National Poetry Month Program
South Carolina Center for the Book
1430 Senate Street,
Columbia, SC
Thursday, April 24
12 noon - 1 p.m.
Reading & discussion by Susan Meyers, Ray McManus & Ed Madden
Winners of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize
www.sccenterforthebook.org
Free and open to the public
Attendees are welcome to bring bag lunches
Books will be for sale on site.

A major poet selects one poet per year to receive the SC Poetry Book Prize, which began in 2006 and is sponsored by the South Carolina Poetry Initiative and the University of South Carolina Press.

Keep and Give Away, by Susan Meyers (2006)
Selected by Terrance Hayes. Meyers guides us through her examination of life's ordinary moments and the seemingly ordinary images that abide in them to reveal the extraordinary. From minutiae to marriage, crumbs to crows, nothing is too commonplace to escape her attention as she traverses terrains of childhood, loss, relationships, and death.

Driving through the Country before You Are Born, by Ray McManus (2007)
Selected by Kate Daniels. The speaker in these poems searches for redemption and solace while navigating from a traumatic loss in the past to a present fraught with violence and self-destruction. Here we witness family stories without happy endings, landscapes on the verge of collapse, and prophetic visions of horrors yet to come. From these haunting visions, salvation is rooted in hope that, out of the ruins, there remains the possibility of a fresh beginning.

Signals, by Ed Madden (2008)
Selected by Afaa Weaver. Deeply rooted in the recognizable landscapes and legacies of the American South, these lyric poems couple daring engagements in topics of race and sexuality with tender reflections on personal and cultural histories. Madden's adopted home of South Carolina rises to the surface in poems set at Folly Beach, Fort Moultrie, Lake Keowee, and Middleton PLace. His interrogations of social oppression conjure the ubiquitous iconography of the bygone Confederacy, a first encounter with the miniseries Roots, and a cameo appearance by Strom Thurmond.

Monday, April 14: Reading for Hub City Writers Project

2008-04-08T14:41:00.004-04:00

Hub City Writers Project reading
Mon., Apr. 14
7:30 p.m.
Showroom at Hub-Bub
149 S. Daniel Morgan Ave.
Spartanburg, SC

I'm delighted to be reading in Spartanburg for the Hub City Writers Project. Betsy Teter, and all those at Hub City, have done a fine job of leading, supporting, and showcasing the Spartanburg literary community--as well as publishing books that help to document Spartanburg's cultural history.

Please visit their website to learn more about them:
Hub City Writers Project

Sunday, April 13: Four poets reading & signing in Mt. Pleasant, SC

2008-04-08T14:35:00.004-04:00

Barnes & Noble reading & signing
Town Centre, Mt. Pleasant, SC
Sun., Apr. 13
2 - 4 p.m.
Reading at 2 p.m.

Marjory Wentworth, Poet Laureate of SC -- Despite Gravity
Susan Meyers -- Keep and Give Away
Linda Annas Ferguson -- Bird Missing from One Shoulder
Carol Ann Davis -- Psalm

Sat., Apr. 12: Seven poets reading/signing in Columbia, SC

2008-04-08T14:18:00.006-04:00

Saturday, April 12
Barnes & Noble
278 Harbison Blvd.
Columbia, SC 29212
2 - 5 p.m.
Reading at 2 p.m.
In the shopping center on the south side of Harbison Boulevard, 1/4 mile west of I-26 (exit 103)

Poets reading & signing:
Kwame Dawes
Fred Dings
Linda Annas Ferguson
Ed Madden
Ray McManus
Susan Meyers
Charlene Spearen

We're all looking forward to a brief reading--and a chance to relax & visit with friends (and strangers too).

Friday, April 11: Moveable Feast

2008-04-05T15:59:00.006-04:00

Moveable Feast / Litchfield Books
Friday, Apr. 11
11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
DeBordieu Beach Club
$25 preregistration
Reading by Ed Madden, Ray McManus & Susan Meyers
Three SC Poetry Book Prize winners
Signing at Litchfield Books
2 - 4 p.m.
Pawleys Island, SC
e-mail: linda@classatpawleys.com
or call 843-235-9600

From the CLASS at Pawleys website: "Celebrating the return of spring and National Poetry Month, three marvelous poets will share the podium and excerpts from their recent published works ~ Susan Meyers (Keep and Give Away), Ray McManus (Driving Through the Country Before You Are Born), and Ed Madden (Signals) ~ as well as the trials and tribulations of the poet's life in a particularly unpoetic era of American life."

Keep and Give Away: A review at the Luna blog

2008-03-23T11:09:00.011-04:00

Luna: a journal of poetry and translation has reviewed my book Keep and Give Away on their blog. The review, by Gaganpreet Kaur, was posted on March 17, 2008. I'm grateful for the praise and the close attention the poems received. Click on the title above for a link to Lunapoetry.

An earlier review at Main Street Rag (scroll down) is also posted online. The review, also much appreciated, is by Phebe Davidson.

Tue., Apr. 1: Richland County Library, Columbia, SC, hosts poets from across the state

2008-03-22T16:43:00.004-04:00

A Cabaret of Words
Tue., April 1
Richland County Public Library
6:30 p.m.
Main Branch, 1431 Assembly St., Columbia, SC
Co-sponsored by the SC Poetry Initiative
Music, reception & book signing
Free & open to the public

Reading by Susan Meyers, Laurel Blossom, Steve Gardner, Sarah Newman and Bhavin Tailor. Final evening of this four-part series.