-
Celebrating Spring Means Poetry
As spring shifts shades of gray into a mosaic of greens and pastels, poetry erupts into a national celebration here in the United States. Excitement builds in the weeks leading up to April, as readings, activities, prompts, contests and submission opportunities multiply like the awaking landscape into a succession of poetic celebrations.
Our society, too, honors poetry in celebration in April with our 69th Annual Poetry Festival! Free to members, this event will be held virtually on Zoom. Join us for a focused line-up from the comfort of your home or favorite wifi hangout as Lisa Coffman presents Midrash, Myth Making, Myth Breaking: The Collective Meets the Individual, after which we will reveal the winners of our festival contests with a special reading.
In our March member meeting, Shan Overton shared encyclopedic knowledge and an infectious appreciation of haiku, providing attendees an opportunity to pen their own and begin incorporating haiku mindset and technique into their practice. We will not hold a regular member meeting in April. In May our new program year begins under the guidance of incoming program director, Jeffrey Heath. Get ready for another year of amazing monthly programs!
Poets for Peace is now formally affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS), and we have more important news: Sunflowers Rising 2, a Peace Poem Anthology is open for submissions through May 31, 2026. Proceeds benefit a project for a Ukrainian orphanage. Get details. In addition, the 65th annual NFSPS convention will be held in Kansas in late July and is open for registration!
If you haven’t visited our bookstore recently, check out what’s new from our member authors. We love to highlight our member’s books, so if you’re not on our bookstore, let us know and we’ll help you through the process.
Want to help us grow and thrive? Would you like to help us with member communications or social media? contests or the annual festival? connect members in a region? contribute to our blog? support the mission in some other way? Contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com to learn more and get involved.
Curious about PST? Join us at a meeting or other activity. Reach out anytime. Peruse our website, monthly newsletters, social media (@poetrysocietyoftennessee on Facebook and Instagram). Ready to join? Find membership information here (online & mail options available). I hope to see you soon at an event—in person or virtual.
With anticipation and delight—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of TennesseeBooks, call for submissions, celebration, community, Festival, festival contests, Jeffrey Heath, Lisa Coffman, National Federation of State Poetry Societies, news, NFSPS, poem, poems, poet, poetry, Poetry Convention, poetry festival, poetry is alive, Poetry Society of Tennessee, poetrycommunity, poets for peace, Shan Overton, student contests, Tennessee Voices Anthology, volunteer, writing -
March 2026 Program with Shan Overton
Into the Life of Things: A Haiku Workshop
In “Tintern Abbey,” William Wordsworth writes, “While with an eye made quiet by the power / Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, / We see into the life of things.” Writing haiku in community is a wonderful opportunity to see into the life of things together, to pay attention together, and to find out how our shared journey can be an opportunity to magnify our joy and the power of our words. This workshop will include some reflections about the history and form of haiku while providing plenty of time for writing and sharing of our work. Come for the joy of writing and hearing a short form that packs a whole world within its three short lines!
Join Shan Overton in this upcoming workshop!
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Shan Overton hosts a monthly Haiku Workshop for MTSU Write and has also taught poetry and short forms for The Porch in Nashville and The Porch Gathering in North Carolina as well as in junior high, high school, and college classrooms. She has studied poetry and writing with Lori Jakiela, Michelle Stoner, Diane Glancy, Melissa Butler, Jan Beatty, and Ross Gay. Her work has appeared in The Porch Magazine, Belt Magazine, Reading Religion, and Religious Studies News, amongst other publications. Shan currently serves as Dean of Academics at American Baptist College in Nashville, where she lives, writes, walks the dog, and gardens.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held March 14, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
-
Debut Poetry from Kayla Nichols
In her debut poetry collection, Kayla Nichols invites us to explore the complexities of human identity. The Stuff of Stars is now available for purchase.
About The Stuff of Stars
The Stuff of Stars takes readers into the very marrow of what it means to be a person in her debut collection. Exploring those things which make, unmake, and rebirth us from a perspective grounded in Appalachian and queer culture and wrestling with the juxtapositions therein. This debut collection addresses themes of generational trauma, patriarchy, climate change, deconstruction, rebuilding through love and community, and more.
Get your copy of The Stuff of Stars here.
About the Author
Kayla Nichols is a writer, advocate, and community builder with deep roots in Appalachia’s Central Highlands. In her poetry, Kayla explores those things which make and unmake us. She weaves stories that inspire and ignite positive change and deeper connection. The Stuff of Stars is her debut collection, and poems from this collection have appeared in Writerly Magazine, the Stories of the Seasons zine produced by the Women in Food and Ag Network, Tennessee Voices Anthology, These Mosaics from Hindman Settlement School, and Exist Otherwise.
-
February 2026 Program with Jeff Hardin
SIX OR SEVEN STRUCTURES FOR SOUND
Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, slant rhyme, echoing sounds…often the sound of words, not necessarily the meaning behind them, can provide an engine for a poem, tossing up echoing sounds ahead of us as we think toward the next thought. Other times, with no other way out, listening toward a certain sound can provide a way to find the ending of a poem, to reach a surprising conclusion. In this workshop, we will discuss six or seven structures for the use of sound in poems, each one a distinct shape, a different logic, a different hope, an ever-unfolding magic.
Join Jeff Hardin in his upcoming workshop. This session will be suitable for all levels of writers.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Jeff Hardin is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently Coming into an Inheritance, Watermark, and A Clearing Space in the Middle of Being. His work has received the Nicholas Roerich Prize, The Donald Justice Prize, and the X. J. Kennedy Prize. The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, Image, Swing, Bennington Review, The Laurel Review, and Southern Poetry Review have published his poems. A ninth collection, A Right Devotion, is forthcoming. He teaches at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, TN.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held February 14, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
-
Looking Back, Moving Forward
Those early-to-rise bayside days of a temperate Florida gave way in December to the noise and rhythm of machines and medical workers, doctors and nurses sharing a novella of medical terminology, days and nights in hospital rooms, and facing the harsh realities of mortality’s defenselessness against aggressive diseases. The transition of 2025 to 2026 featured my father’s journey to at-home hospice, and the first week of the year set the tone for yet another flavor of Florida days, starting with my father’s passing. I’m so thankful for family, and the way we came together at this time.
I’m thankful for friendship with so many poets, many of whom are society members. To those of you necessarily aware of our situation, I and my family thank you for your expressions of support, prayer, and condolences. I also thank our members who took on the work I had to let go of during this time.
As I write, winter has enveloped swaths of the U.S., including Tennessee. Even this part of Florida has fallen under its cold spell. Our community, however, is spreading warmth. I look forward to returning to our monthly meetings and resuming the Monday evening critique group. As I slowly return to society business, our regular rhythms will catch back. I thank you all for your patience and understanding.
In December, we celebrated your fine voices, and in January, Kory Wells delivered a wonderful workshop! Video replays will be available as soon as possible. Our next meeting will be on Valentine’s Day! I don’t have all the details just yet, but I expect you will love it.
Student contests remain open through February 10, 2026. For members-only contests, sponsor Dr. Diane Clark seeks a poem about “The thing I most regret.” Entries are open February 1 – 15. Winners will be announced in March. In March we take a break from contests. Get contest details here. For our visual artist members: break out your best cover art! We’re working on a call for cover art for our next Tennessee Voices!
If you haven’t visited our bookstore recently, check out what’s new from our member authors (at least one features a debut book from a member!). We love to highlight our member’s books, so if you’re not on our bookstore, let us know and we’ll help you through the process.
We are always looking for volunteers to support our mission. Would you like to … help us with contests or the festival? connect members in a region? write about poetic opportunities? share the latest author to be featured on our bookstore? support the mission in some other way? Contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com to learn more and get involved.
Curious about PST? Join us at a meeting or other activity. Reach out anytime. Peruse our website, monthly newsletters, social media (@poetrysocietyoftennessee on Facebook and Instagram). Ready to join? Find membership information here (online & mail options available). I hope to see you soon at an event—in person or virtual.
With gratitude and anticipation—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee -
Debut Poetry from Jenna Ziegler
The Bones Settling (Walnut Street Publishing) is for those adjusting to the home of their body. It is now available for purchase!
About The Bones Settling
The Bones Settling is a lyrical collection that explores grief and hope, longing and love through the lens of living with chronic illness. It is a companion for seasons of loss, nostalgia, and resilience, inviting an honest, unhurried sitting with it all.
Braiding nature and body together—forest and bone, birdsong and vein—these poems paint the beauty and the ache of what it means to be human. May the space between these pages offer a home to both name the dark and still look toward morning.
Visceral yet steeped in hope, The Bones Settling sits with those holding two opposing things at once, with those caught in that liminal space between loss and expectation.
Get your copy of The Bones Settling here.
About the Author
Jenna Ziegler is a poet from the space between the mountains and the sea of Northern California. Her work explores grief and hope, the solace of nature, and what it means to be human. A member of the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild and the Poetry Society of Tennessee, she also writes science fiction and fantasy novels. When she’s not writing or managing her chronic illnesses, she’s playing sand volleyball, hiking with her husband, Tyler, or reading with her cat, Newbert. Learn more and connect with Jenna at jtzieglerauthor.com.
-
January 2026 Program with Kory Wells
ALWAYS AT ODDS: MINING CONTRASTS FOR EFFECTIVE POEMS
Sometimes as writers we gravitate toward our good memories, or those that we think are somehow beautiful: how sweet the honeysuckle; how brilliant the sky. At other times, we can’t tear our focus from all that feels wrong in the world, whether that’s violence, exploitation of people and the environment, snarky memes, or an untimely death.
No matter what turn a poem ultimately takes, we can create more memorable, less predictable writing by elevating our awareness of contrast and ways to incorporate it into our writing. In this session we’ll read work by a few contemporary poets and use those poems as jumping-off places for our own drafts. You’ll leave this session with a draft or two of new poetry or micro-prose.
Join Kory Wells in her upcoming workshop. This session will be suitable for all levels of writers.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Kory Wells is author of two poetry collections, most recently Sugar Fix from Terrapin Books. A former poet laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, she founded and directs Poetry in the Boro, a reading and open mic series now in its tenth year. Her writing has been featured on The Slowdown from American Public Media, won Blue Earth Review’s Flash Creative Nonfiction Contest, and appears in Cutleaf, Salvation South, The Strategic Poet, and elsewhere. After her first career in software development, Kory nurtures community through storytelling, arts initiatives, and as a mentor to writers through the from-home creative writing program MTSU Write. Find her on Instagram or Facebook as @tnpoet.
Meeting Information
This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held January 10, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
-
Opportunities Abound: December Roundup
This month’s roundup includes various opportunities brought to our attention by various organizations, members, and friends others discovered organically. (Be sure to scroll down to our events section for a great fall line-up!) Grow your skills, find submissions opportunities, and more!
Submission Opportunities
Quartet is an online poetry journal featuring work by women fifty and over.
National Baseball Poetry Festival: All grades 4-12 students are invited to submit poems with a baseball and/or softball theme
National Baseball Poetry Festival: College students and all adults may submit poems “that deal with any aspect of the gamesmanship, nature, and atmosphere of Baseball and/or Softball.”
SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES (from Trish Hopkinson’s newsletter)
Writers Resist (opens in January) seeks “creative expressions of resistance by diverse writers and artists from around the globe.”
The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds.
New Verse News “presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues. “ Note: No simultaneous submissions.
Only Poems is looking for poems “that make us go: ‘God, I wish I had written this!’”
(Generously provided by Jake Lawson)
- The Bluebird Word
- Appalachian Places
- Braided Way
- Sky Island Journal
- Amethyst Review
- Thimble Lit Mag
- Appalachian Free Press
- Pulsebeat Poetry
- Westward Quarterly
- Appalachian Lit
- Shanti Arts
- The City Key
- West Trestle Review
- Lothlorien Poetry Journal
- 2River
- Appalachia Bare
- Ecotone
- Emerson Review
- Greensboro Review
- Smoky Blue Literary & Arts Magazine
Open Through December 31
- Doubly Mad
- Toasted Cheese
- Lost Pilots
- Monterrey Poetry Review
- Spectrum Literary Journal
- Pens & Poison
- Indiana State Poetry Society US250 Persona Contest
Southern Journals
Micromance Magazine “Run by both avid romance readers and passionate romance writers, we know romance, we love romance.” Cookeville, TnThe Cumberland River Review is produced by the department of English at Trevecca Nazarene University, in Nashville, Tennessee. Open for submissions September through April.
Appalachian Review is a respected and proven journal based at Berea College.
Porchlight is a new journal out of Perry County, Tennessee, and is led by Dr. Randy Mackin.
Always Open
Hate deadlines? Here are a few randomly selected literary venues that are always (or almost always) open to submissions:
- BoomerLit Mag
- Centaur Lit (seeks hybrid work up to 400 words)
- Cornice Mag
- Door is a Jar
- January House Literary Journal
- Menace
- Paranoid Tree (prose poetry)
- Porchlight
- Rogue Agent
- Southern Poetry Review
- The Sun
- Your Impossible Voice
More Calls and Contests
- Tennessee Student Poetry Contest. Open through February 10, 2025.
- Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest from WyoPoets opens October 1, 2025
- BlackBerry Peach Spoken and Written Word Contest and 50th Annual NFSPS Poetry Contests (list coming soon) open for submission January 1 through March 15, 2026
Events
Open Mics
Take your poetry off the page at an open mic! You’ll find them across the state and in the virtual realm:
WEST
- Third Saturday of each month 3:00 pm at Coffee Central, 5627 Getwell Rd. Southaven, MS 38672: Bring original poetry or short prose (3 minutes) to share with other poets and poetry lovers. Good listeners are also welcome.To encourage young children, we would like to hear them read anything they write or just read their favorite poem. We do not censor any social, political, religious, or philosophical viewpoint. We do ask, when it comes to graphic content and profanity, remember that Coffee Central is one of our most gracious sponsors and we should not and will not offend other customers or negatively affect business.
MIDDLE
Poetry in the Boro is a monthly open mic and featured reading series hosted in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, currently held at the Dapper Owl Coffee Pub & Bakery and at many other locations when collaborating with other organizations in the community. Often meet the second or third Sunday evening of each month but dates can vary, especially when partnering with other organizations and groups. Get details.
MIDEAST
Sawmill Poetry is a poetry reading and open mic held at the The Plenty Bookstore in Cookeville, Tennessee. Get details.
SOUTHEAST
- Rhyme n Chatt Interactive Poetry Group, based in Chattanooga, hosts an Open Mic at the Edney Innovation Center at 7:00 PM on the third Thursday evening of each month. It is called Fresh Out the Shoebox. The also hold workshops and performance events with a focus on performance poetry. See the website for more information. Get details.
- 7:30 pm last Fridays (except for November and December) at Barnes & Noble at 2100 Hamilton Place Boulevard in Chattanooga.
- The Wandering Poetry Circle meets every other Tuesday Night at WanderLinger Brewing Company, https://www.wanderlinger.com/
EAST *NEW*
- Third Thursdays at The Maker’s Space, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM in Knoxville, TN. Former Knoxville Poet Laureate Rhea Carmon hosts.
NORTHEAST
- First Tuesdays 6:30 pm, PoetTEA open mic is held at The Philosophers House, 117 W. Fairview Ave in Johnson City. Cosponsors are Poetry Writers Workshop and our society. Sign-ups begin 6:15 pm. 4-minute limit.
- Johnson City Poets Collective open mic at The Down Home 300 W. Main Street in Johnson City. Check their Facebook or Instagram for dates and times.
VIRTUAL
Last Monday of the month, 7:00 pm Poetry Pie shares poetry on Zoom (max three poems). Contact the society to get on the email list.
Are we missing an open mic in Tennessee? Let us know!
Workshops
- Haiku Group led by Shan Overton will have an online workshop on December 6. The cost is $25. Please sign up using this link. https://secure.touchnet.com/C20134_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=1757
- The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative offers programs related to literature and creative writing at ETSU
- Shuly Cawood virtual generative and craft-focused writing workshops
- John Davis Jr. “Metacreativity: The Process Behind the Poetry” mail-based tips and insights
- Tennessee Mountain Writers Jumpstart XXVI is open for registration! The event will be held Saturday – Sunday, January 17-18, 2026, in Oak Ridge. Poetry and Fiction tracks available.
On Demand
- “The Emotional Truth of an Experience:” An Interview with Valencia Robin
- Three Questions & a Poem — interviews with poets
- Briar Haus Writes writer interviews on YouTube
- Oceanside Library “Near and Afar” poetry reading replays
- Master Class
- The Plug Poetry Project (from Christian Collier). Collection of video/audio available on Sound Cloud & YouTube. There is also a public group on Facebook.
Find More Opportunities
Introducing a running list of venues to find poetry opportunities. Are we missing a good one? Let us know!
always open for submissions, Books, calling all poets, calls for submission, conference, Connie Jordan Green, Contests, convention, East Tennessee State University, Events, John Davis Jr., Li-Young Lee, literature, Natalie Kimbell, NFSPS, Oceanside Library, poem, poems, poetry, poetry community, poetry contests, PoetrySocietyofTennessee, Shuly Cawood, Spoken word, Tennessee Wesleyan University, workshop, writing -
December 2025: A Celebration of Voices
A Celebration
For our December meeting, we celebrate the voices of our members. Expanding beyond the publication of our annual anthology, Tennessee Voices, 2024-2025, we will feature poems from those appearing in its pages and an expanded collection of poems from our members, showcasing the possibilities of poetry across Tennessee and beyond.
About the PresenterS
Various members will present their work. PST Board members Jake Lawson (Program chair), Lisa Kamolnick (President), and Kayla Nichols (Anthology Board Chair) will facilitate this program.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held December 13 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00 – 3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
PST News
Poetry Society of Tennessee 