Poetry Society of Tennessee

EST. 1953

PST News

  • A Dec 2 Reading by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood

    On Saturday, Saturday, December 2, 2-3:30 PM, author Shuly Xóchitl Cawood presents Dogs, Confessions, & Dark Chocolate: A Talk & Reading with Shuly Xóchitl Cawood. The event will be held at Fischman Gallery, 133 N. Commerce Street, Johnson City, TN, and is free and open to the public.

    During this event, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood will read from her latest collection,  Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough. Shuly will also talk about why and how a tiny piece can have a large impact on a reader, and she will share some of her go-to tools for writing short works as well as share examples from her own writing.

    About Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough

    In Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s newest collection, she shares moments that matter, “where life took a turn, or a truth was revealed.” Her poems “mine regret and longing, travel through joy and sorrow, and hold on to a vision of the future while trying to let go of the past.”

    Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough is available for purchase.

    About the Author

    Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is an award-winning writer and the author of six books, including Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough: poems (Press 53, 2023) and Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press, 2021), winner of the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. She has an MFA from Queens University, and she loves leading writing workshops, hiking, and eating dark chocolate. Learn more at shulycawood.com. You can sign up for her monthly author newsletter here.

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  • November 2023 Poetry Contest Results

    The Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) formally announced its members-only November 2023 contest results at their November 11 member meeting. Winners receive cash prizes. The first place poem will be published in an upcoming edition of PST’s anthology, Tennessee Voices.

    Many thanks to sponsor and judge JoAn Howerton, who selected the following winners and honorable mentions:

    • 1st: “Thanksgiving After the Prognosis” by KB Ballentine
    • 2nd: “The Perfect Thanksgiving As I Remember It” by William Hill
    • 3rd: “Childhood: Thanksgiving” by Cynthia Storrs
    • 1HM: “Thanksgiving my 9th Year” by Howard S. Carman Jr.
    • 2HM: “Last Thanksgiving in Jonesboro” by Lisa Riley
    • 3HM: “Thanksgiving” by Dr. Emory Jones

    Meeting attendees enjoyed the readings of these winning poems.

    Enter Your Poem

    January’s contest is right around the corner, but you have to enter to win. For January’s contest, sponsor William Hill Art and Poetry seeks a poem about “Memories of a Tennessee city or small town.” Mail and email entries will be accepted. Get contest details.

    A few reminders:

    • January’s contest entries must be emailed or postmarked between December 1 and 15.
    • February’s contest must be postmarked between January 1 and 15.
    • Each contest notes if email entries will be accepted. The email for email entries is pstsubmissions@gmail.com. (Be sure to attach one file with ID and one file without ID.)

    Not a member? It’s not too late to join. Learn more.

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  • November 2023 Program

    Poetry and Place

    Our emotions and histories are intimately connected to the places where we live and work. In this workshop, we’ll examine poems that are primarily driven by a relationship to place. We’ll also generate our own place poems, using the physical locations that mean the most to us as symbols of our emotions and to reveal our true characters.

    About the Presenter

    Denton Loving is the author of the poetry collections Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is also the editor of Seeking Its Own Level: an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks). For over a decade, he co-directed the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival at Lincoln Memorial University where he also co-edited drafthorse: the literary journal of work and no work. He has received scholarships and fellowships from organizations such as the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, the Eckerd College Writers Conference, and the Key West Literary Seminars.  He earned the Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Literature from Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. He is a co-founder and an editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf, and he is a poetry mentor in the MTSU Writes program at Middle Tennessee State University. His writing has appeared in numerous publications including Iron Horse Literary Review, Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, , Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Threepenny Review, and Ecotone.

    MEETING INFORMATION

    This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held November 11 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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  • Warmth of Community

    As I write this, a blaze of fall colors is about to peak in northeast Tennessee. When I enter the slice of calendar I set aside to hike into the chilled beauty of fall’s tapestry, I’ll carry the warmth (and support) of a broad and growing community. This warmth comes from interacting with our members, with other poets and with lovers of language—in Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) working meetings, critique groups, and programs; at community contests, readings, open mics, and poetry circles; and through a host of interactions with poets in friendship and for the sake of poetry. This past week, I had an opportunity to engage in all of the foregoing, and the positive energy of this creative community lingers within.

    Writing is more of a solo activity, but it benefits from community. We benefit from community. And I’m incredibly excited that our PST community is growing. Each month more poets and poetry lovers join us. Because we are spread across the state and beyond, it can be challenging to forge connections, to create a closeness that perhaps comes more easily face-to-face. But with a focused effort, I believe it’s possible. Here are ways we seek (or will be) to create community for you:

    • We will create opportunities for you to interact with each other in our virtual monthly meeting space (and will explore additional touch points).
    • We will support members wishing to create a critique group or similar working group. We welcome members to join existing groups with space available as well.
    • We will work to connect you to on-the-ground and virtual poetic activities in our regions, in bordering states and beyond. If you know of a community activity or poetry-oriented organization, please share with us: email poetrytennessee@gmail.com or share on our Facebook page.
    • We want to feature our members in bios and through brief articles. If you’ve not submitted a bio, it’s not too late. Learn more.

    We are open to ideas from our members, especially those focused on community. Let us know what’s working, what’s not, and what questions you have. This is our society: we were founded by poets for poets, and 70 years later, that has not changed. Let’s create something beautifully meaningful together. 

    Warm wishes—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee
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  • October 2023 Poetry Contest Results

    The Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) formally announced its members-only October 2023 contest results at their October 14 member meeting. Winners receive cash prizes. The first place poem will be published in an upcoming edition of PST’s anthology, Tennessee Voices.

    Many thanks to sponsor and judge Howard Carman, who selected the following winners and honorable mentions:

    • 1st (tie): “Rufous Hummer” by Jerry Buchanan and “To My Mickey Mouse Watch” by Russell H. Strauss
    • 3rd: “Grieving” by Dr. Emory Jones 

    Meeting attendees enjoyed the readings of these winning poems.

    Enter Your Poem

    November’s contest is due October 15. If it’s too late to mail in your entry, you can still submit via email to pstsubmissions@gmail.com through October 15. Be sure to follow submission instructions!

    December’s contest is right around the corner, but you have to enter to win. Sponsor Diane Clark seeks your best poem about “Harmony.” Get contest details.

    REMINDER: for email entries send to pstsubmissions@gmail.com. Be sure to send one file with ID and one file without ID.

    Not a member? It’s not too late to join. Learn more.

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  • 67th Annual Poetry Festival Contests Underway

    67th Annual Poetry Festival Contests Underway

    Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) is excited to announce the kickoff of our 67th Annual Poetry Festival Contests. We offer 17 contests, more than $1,000 in prizes, publication opportunities and a Best of Fest Award. We’re excited about the line-up and hope you will be, too. The contests are made possible by PST and a host of sponsors, to whom we are most grateful.

    About the Contests

    Contests explore a variety of themes and forms, several Tennessee-centered. First place poems will be published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2023-2024. In addition, poems by winners and finalists of the “Tennessee Voices” contest will be published in the anthology. Other winning poems may be published at the discretion of the society. Poets whose poems are published will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology, as will sponsors and judges.

    For a low entry fee of $10 for members or $15 for non-members, poets can enter all contests for which they are eligible (15 contests are open to anyone). PST accepts checks or online payment for fees. Entries may be submitted by email or mail and must be submitted or postmarked by December 15, 2023.

    Prize amounts vary by contest. In addition to individual contest prizes, first place poems will be eligible for the “Best of Fest” award for the top poem of the festival. An outside judge will select the winning poem. The prize is $250.

    Contest winners will be announced at PST’s 67th Annual Poetry Festival to be held spring 2024.

    Get more contest details here. Download a printer-friendly contest packet here.

    About Tennessee Voices Anthology

    Tennessee Voices Anthology is a publication of Poetry Society of Tennessee. It includes winning poems from member contests, student contests, festival contests and more. Get more information, including how to purchase anthology editions, here.

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  • A New Poetry Collection from Shuly Xóchitl Cawood

    Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s second poetry collection, Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough (Press 53), will be released on September 26.

    About Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough

    In Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s newest collection, she shares moments that matter, “where life took a turn, or a truth was revealed.” Her poems “mine regret and longing, travel through joy and sorrow, and hold on to a vision of the future while trying to let go of the past.”

    Praise for Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough

    “Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s personal and human poems lift us into a world where the past—no matter its complexities or tragedies—can be understood and transformed. We read poetry to do the impossible, to live inside another human mind. ‘I want to tell you a story. // A story with no shame,’ Cawood writes. Yes; let her tell you about her mother who doesn’t believe she can cook or about best friends and good friends, holiday parties and soft-boiled eggs and buttermilk rolls. Learn ‘Yes is everywhere—like fireflies and silver-sided leaves and dogs that chase the rain.’ I’m so glad this book exists. Shuly Xóchitl Cawood has a talent for narrative as well as whimsy, for nonce forms—she’s a master of refrain and of riff— and I came away from these poems not only pleased, but happier for having read Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough.” —Laura Lee Washburn, author of The Book of Stolen Images

    Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough is available for pre-order now. Explore Shuly’s website. Learn more about Press 53.

    About the Author

    Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is an award-winning writer and the author of six books, including Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough: poems (Press 53, 2023) and Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press, 2021), winner of the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. She has an MFA from Queens University, and she loves leading writing workshops, hiking, and eating dark chocolate. Learn more at shulycawood.com. You can sign up for her monthly author newsletter here.

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  • Gifts of a Shifting Season

    As fall ushers in Tennessee’s technicolor show and a bountiful harvest, it’s hard to believe we are almost halfway through our program year. Perhaps harder to believe is how much we have already accomplished:

    • welcomed members old and new (We welcome all poets: join us!)
    • celebrated our 70th year as a society
    • modernized operations with digital offerings like online payment
    • gratefully accepted volunteers and contest sponsors
    • launched member and student contests (and soon, festival contests)
    • enjoyed poetry contest entries and winning poems
    • represented our society and state at the national convention
    • published Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2022-2023
    • improved our craft in critique groups
    • joined community open mics and other poetry-related events
    • welcomed speakers who inspired and educated us on diverse topics
    • shared our poetry
    • celebrated our member poets’ achievements
    • supported each other, through both the ease and travails of life
    • and more

    With poet members from beginner to published pro … a colorful array of publications emerged this year: first-time published among the many individual poems published … and a steady stream of book releases! Arch Jones and Jeff Price released inaugural collections. KB Ballentine and Abby Lewis have multiple offerings beyond their current releases. And more member books are coming: at this writing, we know of two. Shuly Cawood and Natalie Kimbell, we’re looking forward to your releases! For a great collection featuring our members (and others), check out our latest edition of Tennessee Voices.

    Beneath the colorful leaves of our published works, our educational programs root us, branching into topics that help us improve in the art and craft of poetry. Thus far, we have explored how to find themes in our poetry for chapbooks, how to craft stellar poems through unexpected word choice, and how to decipher the intricacies of meter. We also dove into several specific forms, including the Dorsimbra, an invention of Poetry Society of Tennessee members! Stay tuned for more interesting programs, like our upcoming ekphrastic poetry program in October, led by prolific poet and past presenter John Mannone. (Denton Loving will join us in November!) Finally, if you miss a program, you’ll find links to member-exclusive videos in your meeting invite and meeting link emails each month.

    If contests are your thing, meander over to our members-only contests. (Be sure to check out our updated guidelines.) If you know a young poet or a K-12 educator, let them know about our student contest! Thanks to our generous sponsors, festival contests will open for submission soon. Whether you enter or not, be part of our 67th annual festival! (Speaking of festival, we could use some help bringing it to life. If interested, email us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.)

    As the season shifts, we have much to look forward to, from more engaging educational programs to crafting, sharing and celebrating our poetry, including PST’s poetry festival in the spring. For now, let’s enjoy the brisk air of our efforts and take in the beauty of fall’s bounty.

    With gratitude and enthusiasm—
Lisa Kamolnick
President, Poetry Society of Tennessee
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  • October 2023 Program

    EKPHRASTIC WORKSHOP: ART GIVING BIRTH TO ART

    This presentation gives one methodology to generate creative writing— photographic images “speaking a thousand words.” Besides the story of our Ekphrastic Workshop, which could template your efforts, this presentation may improve your approach to writing poetry and prose when faced with a blank page. Examples and/or testimonies from some of our members will be shared. The audience will take home a PPT with proven example prompts to create their own work.

     

    About the Presenter

    Professor John C. Mannone has poems in Artemis Journal, Poetry South, North Dakota Quarterly, New England Journal of Medicine, and many others. He’s a Jean Ritchie Fellowship winner in Appalachian literature (2017) and served as Celebrity Judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He has been nominated for Pushcart, Rhysling, Dwarf Stars, and Best of the Net awards. He has four poetry full-length collections and edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and Silver Blade. He’s a professor of physics and chemistry and a nuclear consultant, now living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. http://jcmannone.wordpress.com

    MEETING INFORMATION

    This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held October 14 via Zoom, 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central. 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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  • September 2023 Poetry Contest Results

    The Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) formally announced its members-only September 2023 contest results at their September 9 member meeting. Winners receive cash prizes. The first place poem will be published in an upcoming edition of PST’s anthology, Tennessee Voices.

    Many thanks to sponsor and judge Janet Qually, who selected the following winners and honorable mentions:

    • 1st: “April 17, 1967” by Howard Carman Jr.
    • 2nd: “Sonnet to He Who Did Not Try” by William Hill
    • 3rd: “Moon-fall” by Russell H. Strauss
    • HM1: “Postcard from Paradise” by Danita Dodson

    Meeting attendees enjoyed the readings of these winning ekphrastic poems.

    Enter Your Poem

    November’s contest is right around the corner, but you have to enter to win. Sponsor JoAn Howerton is seeking a free verse poem on the subject “Memories of Childhood Thanksgivings.” (You must include the word “Thanksgiving” in the title.) She will accept both mailed and emailed entries. Entries will be accepted starting October 1. (A quick reminder: October’s contest entry must be postmarked or emailed by September 15.)

    Get contest details.

    Not a member? It’s not too late to join. Learn more.

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