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Opportunities Abound: February Roundup
Several organizations have reached out to the society this month to share opportunities, from calls for submissions to contests, conventions and conferences.
James Agee Conference
This FREE one day conference will be held February 22, 2025, at the Strawberry Plains Campus of Pellissippi State Community College. Get details.
Submission Closing Soon!
Poets for Peace Call for Submissions through March 31, 2025. Enter soon: submissions will close once 150 poets have submitted.
Red Hawk Publications Aims Anthology at Helene Flood Relief
Red Hawk Publications seeks poetry from Appalachian Poets for an anthology to help with Hurricane Helene Flood Relief. The working title for the anthology is The Unnatural Disaster of Hurricane Helene Flood: Appalachian Poets Holler from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Both published and unpublished poetry is welcome. Submissions are open through April 1, 2025. Get submission requirements.
Tennessee Mountain Writers’ Conference
The Tennessee Mountain Writers’ 36th Annual Conference, “Appalachian Ink,” is coming up April 3-5, 2025, at the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Ridge, TN. Early conference registration ends March 1, 2025. Get details at https://tmwi.org/2025-annual-conference-appalachian-ink/
From NFSPS
CONTESTS: The National Federation of State Poetry Societies’ Annual Poetry Contests are open to eligible members for entry through March 15, 2025. Learn more. Two of three BlackBerry Peach Spoken Word Contests & Events are also underway! The BlackBerry Peach Spoken & Written Contest is open for submissions through March 16, 2025. The BlackBerry Peach National Poetry Slam is open for registration (winner will represent the United States in international competition!).
CONVENTION: NFSPS announced their annual convention will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from July 23-28, 2025. Naomi Shihab Nye will be their keynote speaker! Details on the BlackBerry Peach Youth Mini-Festival to be held July 25, 2025, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will also become available in the coming months.
Dancing Poetry Contest
Artists Embassy International offers the 32nd Annual Dancing Poetry Contest. Grand Prize winners will win $100 and have their poems read and danced at the festival. Other winners will have the opportunity to read their poems. Winning poems will be featured on YouTube. Submissions close April 15, 2025. Get details.
Oceanside Library “Near and Afar” Zoom Poetry
From Oceanside Library in Oceanside NY enjoy their “Near and Afar” nights of poetry featuring poets from near and far away, held first and third Mondays. Get details here. See prior event replays here. (If any members would like to participate, please contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.)
New Writing Program from John Davis Jr.
Like the idea of getting insights and tips from a poet by mail? Award-winning Florida-based author John Davis Jr. is offering a new program, Metacreativity: The Process Behind the Poetry, where he offers insights on the creation of his poems and provides insider tips on the craft. Learn more about the program. Learn more about John.
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Opportunities Abound: January Roundup
Several organizations have reached out to the society this month to share opportunities, from calls for submissions to contests, conventions and conferences (one even has scholarship offerings!).
Submission Closing Soon!
Highland Park Poetry’s 2025 Poetry Challenge submission deadline is deadline is Monday, January 27, 2025 at 11:59PM. They offer three challenge options:
- The Roaring Twenties – in honor of the 100th publication anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
- Ode to a Geographic Place – inspired by Diane L. Redleaf’s Odes to the States: Poems Inspired By the 50 States and the District of Columbia)
- Dodoitsu (any subject written as a dodoitsu, Japanese form of four lines where first three lines have 7 syllables and the last line has 5; usually concerning topics of work or love; see attached description and examples)
It’s free to submit one poem, and previously published poems are accepted (include the appropriate acknowledgment).
Learn more about this and other opportunities from Highland Park Poetry at www.HighlandParkPoetry.org.
Tennessee Mountain Writers Competition and Conference
FESTIVAL INFORMATION: The Tennessee Mountain Writers’ 36th Annual Conference, “Appalachian Ink,” is coming up April 3-5, 2025, at the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Ridge, TN. More info coming soon.
For more information, please contact us at scholarships@tmwi.org.
From NFSPS
CONTESTS: The National Federation of State Poetry Societies’ Annual Poetry Contests are open to eligible members for entry through March 15, 2025. Learn more. Two of three BlackBerry Peach Spoken Word Contests & Events are also underway! The BlackBerry Peach Spoken & Written Contest is open for submissions through March 16, 2025. The BlackBerry Peach National Poetry Slam is open for registration (winner will represent the United States in international competition!).
CONVENTION: NFSPS announced their annual convention will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico from July 23-28, 2025. Naomi Shihab Nye will be their keynote speaker! Details on the BlackBerry Peach Youth Mini-Festival to be held July 25, 2025, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will also become available in the coming months.POETS FOR PEACE Call for Submissions
Poets for Peace has a call for submissions open now through March 31, 2025. Please note submissions will close once 150 poets have submitted.
From North Carolina Poetry Society
This society offers 11 poetry contests for adults, with a deadline of February 1, 2025. Learn more.
Title Writing Workshop
Poetry Society of Tennessee member Shuly Cawood is once again offering her popular “Let Your Titles Do More of the Heavy Lifting” workshop in partnership with Press 53 on February 13, 2025. Learn more.
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February 2025 with Cathy Hollister
LET’S GUZZLE A GHAZAL
The ghazal (rhymes with muzzle) is an ancient form of poetry from 14th Century Arabia. Originally used to profess love or express the pain of unrequited love, modern poets use the unique structure of the ghazal for a variety of topics. In this generative workshop we will explore the history of the form, identify the most common elements, read excerpts from classic and contemporary ghazals, and draft a few lines on a topic of your choice.
About the Presenter
Cathy Hollister is the author of Seasoned Women, A Collection of Poems published by Poet’s Choice. A 2024 Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has been in Eclectica Magazine, Burningword Literary Journal, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, and others. Cathy is a retired public health professional and fills her days with dance, church choir, hiking and lots of family time.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held February 8 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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January 2025 with Adam Lambert
CONFESSIONAL POETRY
Confessional poetry is dominated by themes of intimacy, self-revelation, and tragedy. But not everyone is Sylvia Plath. This workshop aims to generate “seeds” for confessional poems, and give you direction on how to write confessionally without airing your dirty laundry, word-for-word.
About the Presenter
Adam Lambert is a writer and marketing professional living in Johnson City, TN. He’s written Super Bowl commercials, launched global marketing campaigns, and published dozens of poems. Adam was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his confessional poetry at age 20, and continues to write intimate poems about place and people.
MEETING INFORMATION
This program will be presented during our upcoming PST member meeting, to be held January 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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December 2024 Poetry Contest Results
The Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) formally announced its members-only December 2024 contest results at their December 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 JoAn Howerton and co-judge Crystal Robbins Czerwinski, who selected the following winners:
- 1st: “A Christmas Card from the Ghost of Christmas Future” Kayla Nichols
- 2nd: ” Paper Windows” Laura Gunnels Miller
- 3rd: ” Even the Lights Rejoiced” Cynthia Storrs
- 1HM: ” Ode to Snow Cream” Pat Hope
- 2HM: ” Christmas Haiku” Cathy Hollister
- 3HM: ” Rocking Chair Snow Day” Chrissie Anderson Peters
Enter Your Poem
Meeting attendees enjoyed the readings of these winning poems.
February’s contest is open for submissions January 1-15. “Crazy for Cliches” Any form or subject, but use those trite ideas we’ve all been warned to avoid. Focus on a poetic cliche. Many thanks to sponsor PST-Knox (East TN study group) from member Sally Boyington and judge Claudia Stanek.
March’s contest is open for submissions February 1-15. An ekphrastic poem in response to the picture shown below. Many thanks to sponsor and judge Janet Qually.
Entrants may mail or email entries. Mailed entries must be postmarked within the open submission period. Get contest details.
Not a member? It’s not too late to join. Learn more.
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Tennessee Collegiate Poetry Contest Winners Announced
In September, Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) announced a new poetry contest for college students of all levels enrolled in a college or university located in Tennessee: the Tennessee Collegiate Poetry Contest. Poets were invited to enter one original, unpublished poem. Today, we are pleased to announced the winners of this contest:
- 1st Place: “Still” by by Tate Haugen, Tusculum, Greeneville
- 2nd Place: “East TN Autumn” by Kelsey Ann Guy, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), Johnson City
- 3rd Place: “Thistle’s Crime” by Kiersten Paxton, Tusculum, Greeneville
- Honorable Mentions
- “Citico” by Major Joshua Frerich II , Tennessee Wesleyan University, Athens
- “Chipped Front Tooth” by Erika Perez Cortazar, ETSU, Johnson City
Winners receive $100 for 1st prize, $50 for 2nd, and $25 for third and their poems will be published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025. PST is grateful to Northeast Tennessee Regional Representative Fred Tudiver, whose donation funded prizes for this contest.
Many thanks to our readers Jake Lawson and Fred Tudiver, to entry coordinator Sean Kyte, and to our esteemed contest judge, Linda Parsons.
Standout Poems
Judge Linda Parsons had the following comments about the winning poems and honorable mentions:
- “Still” stands tall among the rest with its many surprises and mastery of craft. The conceit of stillness takes several shapes and turns and holds the reader to the end. I also admire the forbidding edges in this poem. These edges attract rather than repel, a fine balance.
- “East TN Autumn” contains surprising language and imagery while being full of inventive contradictions (sweet autumn/her chaos). A beautifully longing homage to fall in Tennessee without a note of sentimentality.
- “Thistle’s Crime” is a masterful use of rhyme and language in the Romantic tradition, with the well-constructed metaphor of thorns/vulnerability. The musicality here is wonderful!
- I love the specific details and narratives in the honorable mentions, both fine and humorous meditations on change.
About Linda Parsons
A poet, playwright, essayist, and editor, Linda Parsons is the poetry editor for Madville Publishing and the copy editor for Chapter 16, the literary website of Humanities Tennessee. She is published in such journals as The Georgia Review, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review, Terrain, The Chattahoochee Review, Shenandoah, and many others. Her sixth collection is Valediction: Poems and Prose. Five of her plays have been produced by Flying Anvil Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is an eighth-generation Tennessean.
About Tate Haugen
Tate Haugen is a Wisconsin born writer who moved to Appalachia for college. His free time is spent exploring nature and what it means to be a hunter. He is an avid outdoorsman which his writing shows.
About Kelsey Ann Guy
Kelsey Ann Guy is a junior at East Tennessee State University studying Media & Communications with minors in Creative Writing, Fine & Performing Arts, and French. She is a scholar of the Honors College at ETSU for poetry. She hopes to pursue a career in public relations and continue creative writing after graduation.
About Kiersten Paxton
Kiersten Paxton Kiersten Paxton was born and raised in Bristol, TN and is currently an English major at Tusculum University. She’s worked as the Assistant Fiction Editor for the international journal The Tusculum Review. Her poem “Take Longer” was published in Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2022-2023. In 2023, she won the Curtis Owens Literary awards for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Drama. She enjoys music, books, and experimenting with different writing styles and genres. She’d like to become a full-time writer after her graduation.
About Major Frerichs
Major Frerichs is a creative writing student in the BFA English program at Tennessee Wesleyan University. He lives in Vonore, Tennessee.
About Erika Perez Cortazar
Erika Perez Cortazar is a graduate student at East Tennessee State University. She is currently serving as one of the executive editors of the 52nd edition of the student literary magazine, The Mockingbird.
PST News
Poetry Society of Tennessee 