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PST Seeks Sponsors for 2023-2024
Members, poets and poetry lovers: as our 2023-2024 program year begins, we are seeking sponsors for our monthly members-only poetry contests. If you are interested in supporting our organization and promoting poetry in Tennessee and beyond, this is a great opportunity.
We currently have eight contest sponsorship openings. Get contest details here. Get sponsorship form here.
Got questions? Reach out to poetrytennessee@gmail.com with subject line SPONSORSHIP.
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2023-2024 Leadership
In its March meeting, Poetry Society of Tennessee members ratified Board nominations for the 2023-2024 membership year. The new membership year takes effect on May 1, 2023, and runs through April 30, 2024.
Members interested in joining a committee may contact PST at poetrytennessee@gmail.com. In addition to the open committee positions, PST is also looking for someone interested in a future Treasurer role as well as additional Regional Connections representatives in regions currently lacking representation.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
- Lisa Kamolnick, President
- Howard Carman, Treasurer/Membership Chair
- Erika Perez, Secretary
- Patricia Hope, Director
- Russell Strauss, Director
COMMITTEES
Anthology Editorial Board
- Howard Carman, Chair
- Janet Qually
- Lacy Snapp
- Connie Green
- Maria Zoccola
Communications
- Matthew Gilbert, Chair
- Michael Ramey, Web Master
- Lisa Kamolnick, Publicity
Regional Connections
- Patricia Hope, Chair (Knoxville)
- Ruby Jones (Memphis)
- Fred Tudiver (Northeast TN)
Contests
- Russell Strauss, Monthly Member Contest Chair
- Seth Grindstaff, Student Contest Chair
- TBD, Festival Contest Chair
Festival (67th Annual)
- TBD, Festival Coordinator
70th Anniversary
- TBD, Event Coordinator
- TBD, Historian
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ONWARD AND UPWARD
PST’s 2022-23 year is drawing to a close. Membership has been responsive. Regional chapters have been merged into a unified state society. Our core identity—so vital for stability and growth—is now defined by three platforms: contests, monthly educational presentations, and regional nurture. (See January 2023 PST newsletter, “The Beauty of a Triangle.”)
About contests—a zenith was reached by Samuel Smith’s poem “ROYGBIV” which won first place over 188 national entries in the senior category, from 25 states. Samuel is a student at West Ridge HS, Blountville, TN. His writing teacher is Seth Grindstaff, who served as PST’s statewide student contest coordinator.
About educational programs and regional nurture—I marvel at the splendid presentations arranged each month by Lacy Snapp. I salute the impressive, area achievements of Jerry Buchanan’s Regional Connections’ Committee.
It’s been an honor to serve as co-president with Bill Hill and with dedicated and talented directors: Lisa Kamolnick, Claire Webb, Howard Carman, Jerry Buchanan, and Russell Strauss. Under Lisa’s capable leadership, her presidency will sparkle, and our poetry society will glisten with delights.
As I leave the presidential office, I rise to toast PST’s future. I raise high my glass and confidently say, “The best wine is yet to be served.”
Onward and Upward,
Calvin Ross
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66th 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 15, from 2:00 – 5:00 pm Eastern via Zoom. PST members and guests will be provided a link.
The event will feature a workshop and poetry reading.
Festival Workshop
Rick Hilles will present a workshop for attendees, entitled, “A Writer’s Life: Getting Started, Keeping Going, Getting Started Again.”
About the Presenter
Rick Hilles is the author of several poetry collections, including Brother Salvage, winner of the 2005 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize and named 2006 Poetry Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine, and A Map of the Lost World, a finalist for the Ohioana Poetry Prize, and, most recently, My Roberto Clemente. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Harper’s, Literary Imagination, Poetry, Narrative, The Nation, New Letters, The New Republic, Paris Review, Salmagundi, Smartish Pace, Southern Review, and Tar River Poetry. He teaches in the English department and MFA program at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, TN and in Carrboro, NC.
Festival Reading
The event will also feature a poetry reading of poetry submitted to PST in response to a recent call for submissions or an earlier contest.
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FAREWELLS AND FESTIVALS
Dear PST friends,
As we near the close of my second term as PST president, I want to take a moment to thank you for the honor you have shown me. These two years have been hectic at times because of events beyond anyone’s control. I have been left tired at times but always fulfilled. It has been a double portion of honor to have served this last year along side of Calvin Ross as co-president. It is with bright hope that I pass the leadership of PST in to the competent hands of Lisa Kamolnick this May.
Now on to the important stuff. In a little over a month we will again celebrate our annual Tennessee Poetry Festival. This is a great opportunity for all in so many ways. I want to encourage everyone to take part in this. Also, it is a good way to reach out to potential members. Very few state poetry festivals are free to everyone, and while we miss our in-person festival, let’s take this opportunity to get as many people involved as we can. April is a busy month for poets. National Poetry Month always brings opportunities for us to present our work and I want that for everyone but we all need to stay anchored in our society.
So, sign up as soon as you can and bless other with your presence.
Thank you once again for the honors you have shown me. I’m not leaving PST, but I am getting out of your hair as leader for a while.
YIC
Bill
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March 2023 Program
CREATING VIBRATIONAL BUOYANCY: CALLING IN THE SENSORY IN POETRY
While we are familiar with the five senses, how does contemporary poetry expand the reach of where sense can take us energetically in a poem? How do unexpected juxtapositions of language and image contribute to how a poem heightens and reveals? Join Julie E. Bloemeke for a discussion of poetry that is in conversation with the sensory; we will follow with a prompt to rev and subvert your own sensibility with the sensory. While we will look at elements of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell, we will also look at lesser identified senses including proprioception and balance. Be sure to bring a notebook and pen for analog exercises. A take home packet of poems referenced in discussion will also be provided.
About the Presenter
Julie E. Bloemeke (she/her) is the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Finalist for Poetry. Her debut full-length collection Slide to Unlock (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) was also chosen as a 2021 Book All Georgians Should Read. Co-editor of Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology (Madville Publishing, 2023) she has also served as co-editor for the Dolly Parton tribute issue of Limp Wrist magazine. Winner of the 2022 Third Coast Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2020 Fischer Poetry Prize, her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including Writer’s Chronicle, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Cortland Review, Gulf Coast, EcoTheo Review, and others. An associate editor for South Carolina Review and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow, she is also a freelance writer and editor. She holds her MA in American Literature from the University of South Carolina and her MFA in poetry from the Bennington Writing Seminars. A proud native of Toledo, she currently lives in Atlanta. Visit her online at www.jebloemeke.com
PST News
Poetry Society of Tennessee 