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September 2024 with Russell Strauss
Untangling the SOCIETY POETRY CONtEST
Want to better understand how to prepare your poems for entry into contests (especially Poetry Society of Tennessee contests) and how poems are judged? Then this program is for you. Experienced entrant and judge Russell Strauss, who consistently places in contests across many societies, shares his insight and knowledge to help you in your quest for a winning poem.
About the Presenter
RUSSELL H. STRAUSS is a native Tennessean and a graduate of Memphis State University (now University of Memphis). After teaching school for thirteen years, he worked 37 years for the Tennessee Department of Labor. He wrote poetry in his youth and returned to poetry in the 1990’s after the death of his wife, joining PST in 1995. Since then, he has served four separate two-year terms as PST president and a two-year term as president of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. He has entered, won and judged numerous society contests over the years, and his poems appear in many poetry society anthologies.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held September 14, 2024, via Zoom 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern, 1:00-3:00 pm Central. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. During the meeting we will also hold a Tennessee Voices book launch reading!
LEARN MORE
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.
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Tennessee Voices 2023-2024 Available
Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2023-2024, Poetry Society of Tennessee’s anthology of winning and selected poems from the past program year, is now available for purchase.
Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2023-2024: an anthology of winning and other selected poems features Poetry Society of Tennessee members and other poets from across Tennessee and beyond.
About Tennessee Voices
The society publishes Tennessee Voices Anthology annually. This edition features results and winning poems for the 2023-2024 membership year, including monthly members-only contests and Poetry Festival and student competitions.
About our Poets
Discover the work of 23 poets ranging from elementary school children to octagenarians … and points between. The anthology includes first-time published poets as well as award-winning authors and covers a wide variety of subjects and poetic forms.
Other Publications
On their publications page, you can also discover earlier editions of Tennessee Voices Anthology and books by society members. Learn more.
Congrats and Thanks
Poetry Society of Tennessee congratulates winning poets and offers a hearty thank you to contest sponsors, judges, entrants, the anthology board (Howard Carman, Patricia Hope, Kayla Nichols, and Janet Qually) and the communications team (Matthew Gilbert, Adam Lambert, and Kayla Nichols).
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PST Seeks Sponsors for 68th Annual Poetry Festival Contests
Help make our 68th festival one to remember: sponsor a contest. Individuals and organizations may sponsor a contest, and you do not need to be a member to sponsor. Sponsors will be recognized on PSTs website and blog, through PST social media channels and in PSTs 2024-2025 edition of PST’s anthology, Tennessee Voices.
PST will remain open for festival contest sponsorship applications through the earlier of September 4, 2023, or meeting our contest limit.
What Does a Sponsor Do?
Sponsors create their own poetry contest! As a sponsor, you choose the theme or poetic form, note poem length, specify prize award amounts, and provide any other special instructions for entrants or judges. In many cases, sponsors also judge the contest, but that is not a requirement. While we encourage variety in poetic forms and themes, PST does not accept contests or poetry centered on explicitly violent or sexual themes.
In general, individuals and businesses may sponsor one contest. However, PST will also accept memorial contest sponsorships: one per individual or group of individuals being honored.
What Does a Judge Do?
PST’s festival poetry contests are judged blind. The Festival Poetry Contest Coordinator sends entries to the judge. In accordance with contest guidelines, the judge reviews contest entries, selects winners and provides a winners list to the festival contest coordinator.
How Do I Become a Sponsor or Judge?
If you are interested in sponsoring a festival contest, you may apply online or by mail. (Please note: our monthly members-only contests are closed. Please do not select this option on the application.)
If you are unable to judge your sponsored contest and need assistance to find a judge, or if you are unable to sponsor but wish to judge, contact us.
Questions?
Do you have questions? Reach out to Deborah-Zenha Adams, Festival Contest Coordinator, at pstsubmissions@gmail.com. Please use subject line FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP QUESTION.
Guidelines are also available on our website.
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Creating (More) Regional Connections
When Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) eliminated chapters three years ago, a new way to connect poets within regions emerged: the Regional Connections Committee. Members from different regions participate on the committee to serve and represent their region. The committee works to bring poets together and promote poets and poetry within their regions. (Learn more about their mission here.)
Last year, representatives from Knoxville, Memphis and Northeast Tennessee were joined by members in the Kentucky Lakes and Middle Tennessee regions. The committee not only engaged with their communities to create awareness, shared and attended community events, and developed programs, they formulated a way to advance their work moving forward. One of the missing ingredients was a formal delineation of regions to better connect members and offer a more defined focus for representatives.
Introducing PST Regions
PST is pleased to share our official regional designations. Eight regions consist of groupings of Tennessee counties. At least one state university is located within each region. Our at-large region has been formed to support the unique needs of our out-of-state members. While members will be assigned a “home base” region, they are welcome to participate in any region’s activity.
Seeking Representatives
Committee members work with each other and within their region to support members, promote the society within their region, and develop programs for the region. The committee meets monthly to share progress, tips, and discuss broader work of the committee. Learn more about the RCC here.
Members will soon receive information about their home region and opportunities available to get involved with their region and the RCC. If you’d like to become involved or have interest in developing your region’s connections as a regional representative, please reach out via poetrytennessee@gmail.com with the SUBJECT line RCC REGION.
Get in Touch
RCC representatives would love to hear from PST members to identify important areas of growth for the future. Email your ideas to poetrytennessee@gmail.com with the subject line REGIONAL CONNECTIONS, and your message will be forwarded to the appropriate committee member.
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August 2024 with Annie Woodford
POETRY DANCES IN NEGLECT: FINDING INSPIRATION IN THE GREAT AMERICAN STRIP MALL LANDSCAPE
This generative workshop will feature a craft talk about engaging with the landscape (or human-shaped space) outside our front doors. What sort of spaces do you walk into from your front door and how can they inspire your poetry? Who are your neighbors? Where are the graveyards, marked and unmarked? What sort of histories saturate this land, even if it is covered up in strip malls and suburbia? So many of us live in spaces that have not been considered beyond their money-making potential and yet we can find poetry in these neglected, ordinary spaces. NC poet A.R. Ammons wrote, “Poetry dances in neglect, waste, terror, hopelessness—wherever it is hard to come by.” This workshop will examine how to hear that dance tune and to engage with the nature (or lack of nature) where we live, realizing that no matter how mundane, even our backyard can be, “an extraordinary accelerator of consciousness, of thinking, of comprehending the universe,” as Joseph Brodsky put it.
About the Presenter
Annie Woodford is the author of Bootleg (Groundhog Poetry Press, 2019) and Where You Come from Is Gone (Mercer UP, 2022), recipient of the 2022 Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry. Her micro-chapbook, When God Was a Child, was published by Bull City Press in 2023. She has been a Rona Jaffe Poetry Scholar at Bread Loaf and a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She has also been a recipient of the Jean Ritchie Fellowship from Lincoln Memorial University and the Thelma Smallwood Scholarship from the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop. Her work has been published in Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Review, Prairie Schooner, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, The Southern Humanities Review, Cutleaf Journal, and Still: The Journal, among others. In 2024, she was awarded the Guy Owen Prize from Southern Poetry Review. Originally from Henry County, Virginia, she now lives in Deep Gap, NC and teaches at Wilkes Community College. More info. can be found at www.anniewoodfordpoet.com.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held August 10 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.
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PST Full Moon Poetry Contest Offers All Entrants Value
PST is pleased to announce a special members-only contest sponsored by the Full Moon Poetry Group, comprised of members of our middle Tennessee region. The contest is free to enter and will be open for entries August 15-September 1, 2024.
Something for Everyone
As with other members-only contests offered this program year, the first-place winner of the Full Moon Poetry Contest will be published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025. The big twist is that Full Moon Poetry Group is donating time and expertise rather than money: all entrants will receive a minimum of two electronic written evaluations of their entry! (Anyone who has submitted to lit mags knows evaluations like this are rarely offered … and often expensive!)
We thank the Full Moon Poetry Group for sponsoring this contest and for their donation of time and expertise, and we encourage members to take advantage of this unique contest.
Contest Guidelines
The contest theme is the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter), or a combination of seasons, or seasonal transition. Entries must be 10-40 lines. Winners will be announced and evaluations will be returned by mid-November. Unless otherwise noted, this contest follows members-only contest guidelines. Please review closely.
As with our other members-only contests, the judges seek original, previously unpublished poems created without use of AI. No simultaneous submissions. You must be a paid member to participate. (Join or renew here. Unsure of your membership status? Contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com).
This contest accepts email entries only. For email submission subject line, type “Submission for Full Moon Contest-[Last Name].” For more specifics regarding entry format, submission, etc., please see PST Members Only Contest Rules. (If you need help submitting an email entry, please contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com, SUBJECT: Email Entry Help.)
About Entry Evaluation
As with our other contests, entries will be judged blind (ensure your identity does not appear anywhere in your blind copy or its file name). Poems will be judged in 4 areas: diction, figurative language, technique, and theme. Details and criteria weighting are as follows:
- Diction: vocabulary, word choice, syntax (20% of total score)
- Figurative language: imagery, alliteration, metaphor, simile, assonance, and consonance (20%)
- Technique: volta (turns), line breaks, enjambment, visual layout, title, 1st line, last line, foreshadowing (30%)
- Theme: symbolism, message, layers of meaning (30%)
Poems will be evaluated individually and then awards will be agreed upon by the judges collectively. Judges (Cynthia Storrs, Cathy Hollister, Ione Singletary, Nikki Noushin, and Scott Pierce) include experienced published poets and educators along with poets actively studying the practice of poetry evaluation.
More PST Contests
Get details on other PST contests as they develop at our website contest page.
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PST Kicks Off 2024-2025 Members-only Contests
For our 2024-2025 members-only contest season, PST again offers a slate of 11 members-only contests featuring a variety of forms and topics. Enter more contests for more chances to not only try your hand at a poetry form or theme, but also to win and be published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025.
We are still collecting information on a couple of contests and will provide updates as we fill out the details. The season officially begins on July 1, when the first two contests open for entries! You must be a PST member in good standing (dues paid) to participate in members-only contests. (Join or renew here.) Read on for more details!
2024-2025 Contest List
The year will begin and end with duo contests in August and May. Coming up for August: a haiku about animals in the wild, sponsored by Anna’s Pet Sitting, and an American cinquain about flowers, sponsored by William Hill Art and Poetry. Submissions for August contests open July 1 and close July 15. The year’s opportunities follow:
August. **TWO CONTESTS**
Please note clearly on your entry which contest(s) you are entering.
1. Subject: Animals in the Wild / Form: Haiku / Line Limit: per form
Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 / Sponsor: Anna's Pet Sitting / Judge: William Hill
Open for entries: Jul 1-15
2. Subject: Flowers / Form: American cinquain /
Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 / Sponsor: William Hill Art & Poetry / Judge: William Hill
Open for entries: Jul 1-15
September
Subject: Aurora, Eclipse, Sunspots / Form: Cento
Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 / Sponsor: PST-Knox Group / Judge: Ann Long
Open for entries: Aug 1-15October
Subject: any / Form: heroic couplet (iambic tetrameter or pentameter) /
Line Limit: 40
Prizes (1/2/3) $25/$15/$10 / Sponsor and judge: Howard Carman
Open for entries Sep 1-15November
Subject: America the Beautiful (landscapes or landmarks of America) / Form: free verse
Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 / Sponsor and judge: Rose Klix
Open for entries: Oct 1-15December:
Subject: From the Old Family Album Memories, Christmases Past / Form: any Line Limit: 40
Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 . Sponsor: JoAn Howerton / Judges: JoAn Howerton and Jesse Robbins
Open for entries: Nov 1-15January
Subject: the baton Form: any Line limit: 40
Prizes (1/2/3): $30/$20/$10 / Sponsor and judge: Dr. Diane Clark
Open for entries: Dec 1 - 15February *CRAZY FOR CLICHES*
Subject: any / Form: any
Special instructions: Use those trite ideas we've all been warned to avoid. Focus on a poetic cliche.
Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 Sponsor: Sally Boyington / Judge: Claudia Stanek
Open for entries: Jan 1-15March: TBA
May **TWO CONTESTS** Please note clearly on your entry which contest(s) you are entering. 1. Subject: Friends / Form: any / Line Limit: 40 Prizes (1/2/3): $15/$10/$5 / Sponsor and judge: Emory Jones Open for entries: April 1-15 2. Subject: Any humorous subject / Form: rhymed and metered / Line Limit: 5-20 lines Prizes (1/2/3): $25/$15/$10 / Sponsor and Judge Russell H. Strauss Open for entries: April 1-15 NOTE: (If not specified, line limit is the shorter of 40 lines or the form required.)
Get details on forthcoming contests as they develop at our website contest page.
Contest Guidelines
Be sure to follow PST contest guidelines, as failure to follow them may result in your disqualification. Get details. (A special reminder from our contest chair: remember to single-space your entries. Need help with that? Contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.)
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Voices Set Free
April does not have a monopoly on poetry celebrations. June offers boundless poetry, too. Open mic events, educational programs, and craft tips have chased me across the physical and virtual plane. Poetry readings, book offerings, and ideas to enhance daily practice resound. And I continue to collect rejections in pursuit of publication.
I began the month at the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) Convention in Roswell, Georgia. The short trip felt like a trek to a different world—surrounded by poets of diverse ages and interests, discussing and sharing poetry from early morning through, well, early morning! Together, we learned the poetics of tango and explored nature and slam poetry. We were inspired by spoken word phenom Georgia Me, among a host of others. (And I’m just getting started.) We met virtually with Ukrainian poet Ihor Pavlyuk and learned what it’s like to create poetry in a war zone, how Ukrainians are faring, the growing need for prosthetics, and the proliferation of orphanages. We began an important project: Poets for Peace. (You’ll hear more about this and other initiatives through the year.)
We enjoyed top poets competing in the BlackBerry Peach Poetry Slam and selections from manuscript and spoken word contest winners. A youth poetry workshop and slam were also held. While at the convention, I especially enjoyed meeting our members Russell Strauss, Cynthia Storrs, and Cathy Hollister. After meeting with other state society members (another pleasure), I feel even more strongly that our collaboration can advance poetry here in Tennessee and … everywhere.
The convention also featured contest announcements and readings. I want to personally congratulate all our members who entered contests and our 13 members whose work was recognized. (Get details here.) Those placing in contests will have poems published in the upcoming Encore anthology, available soon.
Back home, amidst member renewals, new members continue to join us: welcome (and welcome back)! For those still considering renewal or new membership, we welcome you, too. Join us for our 71st year.
At the heart of June, I find a reminder to set voices free (the theme of the NFSPS convention). Whether putting words to a page to share with a friend or submit for publication or lifting our poems in performance, our voices hold great value. I invite each of you to lift your voice in as many ways as you can imagine in the coming year.
Join us in July for Jim Minick‘s writing workshop. Join an open mic, critique group meeting, or study session. Discover details for these and other opportunities in PST newsletters, on social media, and in meetings. We’ll be launching our monthly members-only contests soon, too!
If you have questions or comments, please reach out. I hope to see you soon at a PST event.
With enthusiasm—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee
PST News
Poetry Society of Tennessee 