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May 2024 Program: Honoring, Gathering, & Writing
As PST’s program year kicks off, we will begin the year with a celebration of volunteers from the 2023-2024 year. Afterward, members will meet in breakout rooms to socialize and discuss highlights and challenges for poets in their regions. Participants will also be invited to write to a prompt.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held May 11 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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67th Annual Festival Features Writing Perspectives and Winning Poems
On April 13, 2024, attendees from across Tennessee and beyond came together on Zoom for PST’s 67th Annual Poetry Festival. Attendees explored writing perspectives in a workshop. Following the workshop, PST announced contest results and poets read winning poems that will be published in PST’s forthcoming Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2023-2024.
Workshop
Following opening remarks by Festival Coordinator Howard Carman and President Lisa Kamolnick, workshop leader and guest judge William G. Wright gave a candid talk about the challenges of writing poetry as he discussed invoking the senses, embracing Socratic ignorance to power your poetry and how to use perspective to improve poetic revisions. He also offered a method he uses to create and submit poetry through the year and provided members a prompt for later use. Members will be sent a replay link in an upcoming meeting notice.
Contest Winners
Following a brief intermission, Deborah Adams announced festival contest results, and a group of poets read poems selected for inclusion in Tennessee Voices, 2023-2024. Howard Carman announced the Best of Fest winner along with monthly and student contest results. First place poems from festival, member, and student contests along with Tennessee Voices contest finalists will be published in the anthology. See a full list of festival contest winners here, monthly contests winners here, and student contest winners here.
Best of Fest Goes to ….
Best of the Fest is an award presented to the top poem among winning festival poems. Workshop presenter William G. Wright, the guest judge for this special award, selected the Best of Fest winner. Danita Dodson won Best of Fest for her poem “Bits and Pieces.” Look for “Bits and Pieces” and other winning poems in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2023-2024 this summer.
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PST Announces 2023-2024 Student Contest Results
Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) is pleased to announce the winners of our 2023-2024 student contests.
About the Contest
The contest divisions were as follows:
High School Division (Grades 9-12) Free Verse Poem
Middle School Division (Grades 6-8) Free Verse Poem
Elementary Division (Grades 2-5) Any Poem FormThe competition was open all Tennessee students in grades 2-12 (public, private, and home school students and to PST student members from any state. Student submitted a single poem for consideration.
Contest awards for each division are as follows: 1st place $25, 2nd $20, 3rd $15, 4th $10, and 5th $5. In addition, top winning poems will be published in a forthcoming edition of PST’s anthology, Tennessee Voices.
High School Division Results
Prizes
1st Place: Miriam Manna for “Court House on a Thursday Afternoon” West Ridge High School, Blountville TN, student of Mr Seth Grindstaff 2nd Place: Aimee Segoviano for “Benedictions" East High School, Memphis TN, student of Ms Maria Scudder Walters 3rd Place: Kaiowa Hatfield for “Fire Isn’t a Thing, It’s Just a Circumstance of Temperature” West Ridge High School, Blountville TN, student of Mr. Seth Grindstaff 4th Place: Lillian Bates for “February” West Ridge High School, Blountville TN, student of Mr. Seth Grindstaff 5th Place: Piper Keene for “Peace and the Absence of Chaos” Daniel Boone High School, Johnson City TN, student of Ms. Karin Orchard No honorable mentions were selected for this division.
Middle School Division Results
Prizes
1st Place: Kaydence Davis for "Your Melody"
White Station Middle School, Memphis TN, student of Mrs. Karla Varriano
2nd Place: John Nguyen for "Fork in the Road"
White Station Middle, Memphis TN, student of Mrs. Karla Varriano
3rd Place: Erin Goggans for "Spider Lilies"
White Station Middle School, student of Mrs. Karla Varriano
4th Place: Draven Baggett for "Nature's Rest"
Colonial Middle School, Memphis TN, student of Mrs. Amber Smith
5th Place: Adaira Davis for "Focus"
William James Middle School, White Bluff TN, student of Ms. Samantha EnglandHonorable Mentions
Mycah Arnold for "Fleeting"
White Station Middle School, Memphis TN, student of Mrs. Karla Varriano
Elizabeth DeBlasis for "Somewhere over the Rainbow"
Holy Trinity Montessori, Nashville TN, student of Ms. Margaret Sauers
Vincent Cubberley for "Summer Day"
Lenoir City Christian Academy, Lenoir City TN, student of Ms. Terri Walden
Braylon Robinson for "Ode to Nature"
Colonial Middle School, Memphis TN, student of Mrs. Amber Smith
Yixuan Chen for "Dreaming"
White Station Middle School, Memphis TN, student of Mrs. Karla VarrianoElementary Division Results
Prizes
1st Place: Luke Pyron for “The Geyser”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
2nd Place: Martha Manire for “The Little Brown Snake”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
3rd Place: Vivian Sweeney for “Pink”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
4th Place: Finn Grindstaff for “Apples”
Providence Academy, Johnson City TN, student of Mrs. Singleton
5th Place: Marcus Hardin for “The Puppy”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn PhillipsHonorable Mentions
Samuel Bolton for “The Koala”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
Lola Loveless for “Me”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
Evelyn Johnson for “Blue Sky”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
Wren Carmona for “Draw”
Holy Trinity Montessori, Nashville TN, student of Mrs. Margaret Sauers
Hayes Ledbetter for “The Flood”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
Garrett Thomley for “The Attack on Omaha”
Columbia Academy, Columbia TN, student of Mrs. Kathryn Phillips
Ivy Janovitz for “Callen”
Holy Trinity Montessori, Nashville TN, student of Mrs. Margaret SauersAbout Our Judges
Many thanks to the judges for their review of entries and selection of contest winners. Scott Honeycutt served as judge for the High School Division, Jeff Price served as judge for the Middle School Division and Micah McCrotty served as judge for the Elementary Division.
Scott Honeycutt is currently an assistant professor of English at East Tennessee State University. His first chapbook, This Diet of Flesh, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2016. When he is not teaching, Scott enjoys walking the hills of Appalachia and spending time with his family.
Jeff Price is an English teacher at Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee. He just completed thirty-eight years coaching wrestling on the high school, college, and middle school levels. His career earned him a spot in the Tennessee Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He currently resides in Johnson City with his wife Julie, as well as a trio of cats—Merlyn, Mister, and Cleo, and his boon companion, Dewman “Buddy” Doggs, the rescue dog who rescued him. His first poetry collection, One Steady Glance, was published by Red Hawk Publications in 2023.
Micah Daniel McCrotty lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife Katherine. His poetry has previously appeared in Louisiana Literature, Storm Cellar, Still: The Journal, Sycamore Review, and the James Dickey Review among others, including Appalachian Places, a digital magazine published by the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University.
PST Student Membership
Know a high school student interested in poetry? Give the gift of membership in Poetry Society of Tennessee! At just $10 a year, it’s an incredible value.Students may attend educational programs and participate in critique groups and monthly members-onlycontests. Get membership information.
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67th Annual Poetry Festival
Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) holds an annual poetry festival for members and guests. Join us for a celebration of poets and poetry from Tennessee and beyond.
Festival Details
This free event will be held April 13, from 2:00 – 5:00 pm Eastern via Zoom. PST members and guests will be provided a link.
The festival will include a workshop presented by William G. Wright, announcement of contest winners and a reading of winning poems.
Festival Workshop
William G. Wright will present “The 8 Senses, Socratic Ignorance, Perspective: How to Approach Revision”. In this workshop, William will explain the eight senses, Socratic ignorance (learning more to understand that one will always need to learn), and how to use perspective to create more interesting writing in poetry.
William G. Wright is the author or editor of twenty-three nationally and internationally distributed books, including Grass Chapels: New & Selected Poems (Mercer University Press, 2021) and four chapbooks, including April Creatures (Blue Horse Press, 2016). Wright is series editor and volume co-editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology (Texas Review Press), a multivolume celebration of contemporary Southern writers. He is co-editor (with Daniel Cross Turner) of the critically acclaimed Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry (The University of South Carolina Press); and Wright co-edited (with Daniel Westover) an anthology of poems centered on the Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins (Clemson University Press & University of Liverpool Press). His work has won the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, the Georgia Author of the Year Award, the Georgia Editor of the Year Award, the Terrain.org Grand Prize, the Porter Fleming Prize in Literature, the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, and many other honors.
Wright has taught creative writing and literature at Oxford College of Emory University, Emory University, The University of Tennessee Knoxville (as Writer-in-Residence), Reinhardt University, and directed masterclasses at over twenty universities throughout the United States. He earned a Ph.D. in Creative Writing (Poetry) and American Literature (while studying British Literature independently) at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers, where he was selected as a Center for Writers Excellence in Teaching Fellow.
A lover of surrealist visual art, British comedy, and the study of cosmology, he is a devotee of the music of J. S. Bach, as well as other music of the Baroque era.
Festival Contest and Readings
Learn who won the 67th Annual Festival contests and enjoy a reading of winning poems, including an announcement of the Best of the Fest, selected by presenter William Wright.
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Inaugural Poetry Chapbook from Natalie Kimbell
Natalie Kimbell’s first poetry chapbook, On Phillips Creek (Finishing Line Press), will be released on July 12, 2024, and is available for pre-order now through May 17, 2024.
About On Phillips Creek
In her chapbook, Natalie explores a place in Wise County, Virginia, guiding the reader along a river of stories and memories of this place and its people—gone, yet forever alive. It is a testament to the strength of women, the lasting nature of family, and the sustenance of memory.
Praise for On Phillips Creek
“The poems from On Phillips Creek are born from a place that no longer exists except in the writer’s heart, and perhaps they are made stronger for being so well kept within that private landscape. And yet, On Phillips Creek is utterly familiar, especially to those of us in Appalachia who know how coal can be valued more than life, and how a family is built on generations of women who have always had to make hard choices. And how sometimes we look back at loss with gratitude.” —Denton Loving, author of Tamp
On Phillips Creek (Finishing Line Press) is available for pre-order now through May 17, 2024. Learn more about Finishing Line Press.
About the Author
Natalie Kimbell grew up in Sequatchie County, Tennessee. She has spent forty-one years teaching English and theater arts at Sequatchie County High School. She is a mother, grandmother and lover of all things that sparkle. Her work appears in Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Mildred Haun Review, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Artemis, Tennessee Voices, 23 Tales: Appalachian Ghost Stories, Legends and Other Mysteries, and Women Speak . Her first poetry chapbook, On Phillips Creek, is available with Finishing Line Press.
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The Promise of Renewal
As I write, the vernal equinox invites spring into our lives. This time of renewal promises the lift of color into our landscape as flowers, shrubs and trees come back to life. Early blooming daffodils give way to redbuds and dogwoods, iris and trillium. Sonnets of birdsong, squirrel chatter, and peepers wake the season. It is somehow odd, yet fitting, that just as Tennessee comes back into bloom, our society bursts into the last blooms of its season.
In April we will celebrate our society and poetry at our 67th Annual Poetry Festival! In William G. Wright’s workshop we will explore ways to enhance our poetry and approach revision. Festival contest entries this year were fierce, and we can’t wait to share the winning poems. A giant THANK YOU to our sponsors and judges, with special recognition to guest judges Matthew Wimberley, Tom Holmes, Susan Chamberlain, Aime Whittemore and Crystal Robbins. Many thanks also to Deborah Adams, for her tireless effort as contest coordinator.
Results are also starting to come in for our student contests. THANK YOU to student contest chair Seth Grindstaff and judges Scott Honeycutt (High School) and Jeff Price (Middle School). Elementary contest judging will be underway soon.
We are already planning programs for the coming year, and our critique groups continue. We continue to make inroads into communities across the state to help you find opportunities in yours. Soon, we will elect next year’s leaders and begin our own cycle of renewal. (I will be sharing our proposed Board for vote in the next few weeks, along with a listing of our extended leadership team.)
Reflecting on the past 10 and a half months, we’ve seen exponential membership growth, and we want to find ways to better connect members to each other in the coming year. (To that end, we invite interested members to consider working on member-connecting projects with our Regional Connections Committee or Membership Chair.) We’ve undertaken new ways of doing business, like accepting online payments, applications and contest entries. We will apply learnings to the coming year. As we look ahead, we seek to solidify and expand upon ideas and programs for members that nurture and promote poets and poetry across our state.
I invite all of our members to reflect on the past year and let us know about your experience. Share the highlights and lowlights with us. Tell us what you’d like to see happen for members. As a society for poets, by poets, we want to be sure we are meeting your needs. We need to understand where we are getting things right and where we can improve. Your message matters. Email us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.
I also invite you to renew your membership in the coming month. Same low fee, continuing focus on poets and poetry. Since 1953, we’ve worked to create a community for poets to grow, flourish, and gain recognition. Let’s do this again next year. Even better.
With gratitude and excitement—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee -
A New Poetry Collection from Richard Spisak
Richard (Rick) Spisak’s poetry collection, Stone Poetry (Read Green Press), was released October 2023. The book features poetry recently performed in international settings such as Hong Kong, Singapore, London and San Francisco.
Stone Poetry is available for order now. Learn more about Read or Green Books.
About the Author
Richard W. Spisak Jr. has performed as a light artist in Planetariums and toured as a laser artist in both North and South Americas. He has been a Writer/Producer/Director in live theatre, TV, radio, and the web. His political and anti-war essays have been published in volumes for three decades.
Richard has published two short story collections. The first, Two Small Windows, in a Pair of Mirror Doors, features stories about Aliens, Ashrams, and Gurus. His second collection, Between the Silences, includes both fiction and non-fiction and has been lauded from Asia to the Americas.
In 2022 Richard published the poetry he has been performing for the last decade in a volume entitled 7370 Allen Drive. Since 2022 he has produced an international literary webcast, Poets of the East, featuring poets from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It has just wrapped up its fifth season.
Richard now lives in the mountains of Tennessee.
More
- Contact Rick at rick@averyvoice.com
- POETS OF THE EAST
- Two Small Windows in a pair of mirror doors A short story collection with a series of adventures with aliens, ashrams and artifacts.
- Between the Silences A second selection of short stories with a smattering of non-fiction as well as dream-time and alternative reality tales.
- 7370 Allen Drive A collection of 30 years of competitive, spoken word, humorous, thought-provoking and scientific poetry. Performed across the globe.
- Multimedia Art Work PNN- Progressive News Network – Produced by News Director Rick Spisak (newmercurymedia.com)
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Holding Space for Poets
This winter, two tiny miracles entered this world and my inner circle: lovely grand nieces, born to first-time parents. Alongside my unwavering love for my nephews, their wives, and these sweet baby girls arose a thought planted by Ed Mabrey at last year’s National Federation of State Poetry Society’s (NFSPS) convention: each of us is a poem. Like us, these newborn girls are already poems … and poets.
In a recent NFSPS President’s meeting, member Russell Strauss remarked how important it is to plant seeds in young people to propagate a healthy future for poetry and poetry societies. As I consider our society, I see founders, leaders, volunteers, and members who forged a 70-year legacy; the people who tend our garden today; and those who will create our future. I wonder if seeds of poetry were (or will be) planted in us (a poetry class, student poetry contest, a book….) or if we poets are the seeds, immersed in nurturing soil. As William Stafford said, “Everyone is born a poet – a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words.”
Stafford continues, “I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is: Why did other people stop?” But what if we just pause? What if a community keeps our place warm for when we return? Isn’t Poetry Society of Tennessee such a place, where each of us can jump in and take part in society offerings that serve our unique journeys? I invite you to take part in activities that support you and to share ideas you may have to help us improve.
Our program year will end in April. We await results for student contests, festival contests, and members-only contests (only one open contest left!). In March, Jake Lawson explores the sonnet (including the free-wheeling American version) and in April William Garrett Wright leads the workshop for our 67th poetry festival. Critique groups, regional activities and other community events continue. We poets collect rejections and publish poems and collections. We read. We write. We learn. We grow.
As we look ahead, our leadership team seeks to ensure our society’s continuity. To that end, we ask you to consider leadership and other volunteer roles or projects. Look for a communication in the near future about positions and opportunities becoming available short term and in future years. Help us keep a space warm for future poets and returning members alike.
This June, the NFSPS convention will be held in Roswell, Georgia, just north of Atlanta (virtual option also available). Meet fellow poets from across the country in between workshops, poetry readings, and other events. Our poetry communities, large and small, hold space for you.
With gratitude and wonder—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee -
March 2024 Program
THE HEARTBEAT OF THE LINE: AN EXPLORATION OF THE POWER IN SONNETS
Traditional forms can influence poetry in ways that affect us physiologically. By subtly influencing our breathing, a poem can regulate our heartbeat and develop a musicality that deepens its meaning. By observing how a sonnet’s form complements its subject, Jake’s presentation will guide participants through the nuances of metric poetry and discuss how it can enrich one’s writing, regardless of form. By writing an American sonnet (which has no strict rules), we will use the advice from Mary Oliver’s Rules of the Dance and consider how it can influence our own writing.
About the Presenter
Jake Lawson is a graduate student at ETSU, co-editor-in-chief for The Mockingbird, and a carpenter from Mooresburg, TN. He is a writer of both poetry and fiction, and his recent work focuses on the threatened and endangered bird species of East Tennessee. His work has been featured in Evoxe magazine for the Arts, Town Creek Poetry, Appalachian Places, and Tennessee Voices.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held (date and time) 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 