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2012 Annual AWP Conference - Chicago

2/26/2012

This week I'm traveling with two other SMSU professors, Jim Zarzana and Neil Smith, and 12 English majors and Creative Writing students to Chicago for the 2012 AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair, Feb. 29-March 3 (Association of Writers and Writing Programs).

In past years, SMSU faculty and students have attended AWP Conferences in Austin, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Denver. Although graduate students typically attend this conference along with Creative Writing faculty, it's unusual for undergraduates to get this opportunity. But the SMSU Creative Writing Program faculty believe first-hand exposure to internationally acclaimed writers is one of the best ways to connect our students with the tribe of writers and motivate them to do their best work. And our English majors work hard on fund-raisers to make the trip happen.

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, spent a lot of time in the city, and I love Chicago--the lakefront, the architecture, the Art Institute, the restaurants, and the parks. This trip I'm hoping to make time to tour the new home of the Poetry Foundation, which opened last June.

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J. Patrick Lewis to Serve as Children's Poet Laureate

5/13/2011

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The Poetry Foundation announced yesterday that poet J. Patrick Lewis will serve as the nation’s third Children’s Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children’s Poetry to the Poetry Foundation for a two-year tenure. The award, which includes a $25,000 cash prize, aims to raise awareness that children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.

As a child, I fell in love with the music and magic of the countless poems my parents read to me. Some of my favorites, just to name a few, were: "The Village Blacksmith" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear," "The Land of Counterpane" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and "The Raggedy Man" by James Whitcomb Riley.

What were some of your favorite poems as a child? What poems do you like to read today to your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or godchildren?

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"Somebody Loves Us All"

5/2/2011

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Poetry Foundation has posted an interview with this year's 2011 Poetry Out Loud winner Youssef Biaz. He read his favorite poem (and one of mine), "Filling Station," by Elizabeth Bishop [click on title to hear Bishop's wonderful reading of it], one of the most highly revered American poets of the last 50 years.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:
What would you tell students interested in Poetry Out Loud who may not have participated?
I would encourage them even if they don’t have an interest in poetry. Public speaking is a wonderful skill, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to communicate a message to an audience.

According to the website, "Biaz was introduced to poetry through his English teacher, Davis Thompson, who brought the Poetry Out Loud program to students at Auburn High School in Auburn, Alabama last year—the first year that Biaz served as Alabama State Champion and became a national finalist."

I hope the Poetry Out Loud program keeps flourishing in the years ahead. It takes dedicated high school English teachers like Thompson to nurture talented students like Youssef and make it happen. I like this video, "What Teachers Make," by Taylor Mali, that one of my writing students shared with me last year. Mali captures the impact of a good teacher with skill and humor.

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Poetry Out Loud - National Finals in Washington, DC on April 29

4/29/2011

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Check out the Poetry Out Loud website hosted by the Poetry Foundation. Here's what's going on:

"From Fairbanks, Alaska, to Knoxville, Tennessee, 53 students from across the country will converge on Washington, DC on April 28-29, 2011 to compete in the National Finals of Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, the nation's largest youth poetry recitation competition. These young competitors advanced from a field of more than 365,000 students who tested their skills in poetry recitation in more than 2,000 schools nationwide. The top finalists and their schools will receive $50,000 in awards."

On this website, they'll be posting videos of the top three winners reciting their poems. I've had the opportunity to judge and to serve as master of ceremonies when the regional competition has been held at Southwest Minnesota State University. I've been amazed at the talented students who memorized and recited poems by heart.

Do you know poems by heart? If so, which ones? Your own? Other poets?

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Poetry Foundation Newsletter

4/18/2011

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Check out Poetry Foundation Newsletter--a great source for what's going on in the poetry world. Sign up to receive it by email. A good way to stay plugged in.

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David Ferry Awarded 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

4/12/2011

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Here's a press release sent by the Poetry Foundation today. If you're not already familiar with Ferry's work, it's easy to find online. One of my favorites is "The Soldier."

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce that poet David Ferry has won the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

Presented annually to a living US poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets. At $100,000, it is also one of the nation’s largest literary prizes. Established in 1986, the prize is sponsored and administered by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. The prize will be presented at the Pegasus Awards ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Wednesday, May 11; the next Children’s Poet Laureate will also be announced at the ceremony.

In making the announcement, Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine, noted the quiet power in Ferry’s verse.

“David Ferry is probably best known as a translator—and his achievements in that regard are extraordinary—but I think in the end it will be his poems that last,” said Wiman. “In a time when most poetry relies on intense surface energy, Ferry’s effects are muted and subterranean—but then, in their cumulative effect, seismic. For 50 years he has practiced poetry as if it truly matters to our lives and to our souls—and now his poems have that rare power to wake us up to both.”

Ferry has authored, edited, or translated more than a dozen books. His collections of poetry and translations include On the Way to the Island (1960); A Letter, and Some Photographs (1981); Strangers: A Book of Poems (1984); Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse (1992), a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award; Dwelling Places: Poems and Translations (1993); and Of No Country I Know: New and Selected Poems and Translations (1999). Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations will be published in fall 2012.

The emeritus Sophie Chantal Hart Professor of English at Wellesley College, Ferry is currently serving as a visiting lecturer in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Boston University and is a distinguished visiting scholar at Suffolk University. Over the course of his long career Ferry has received many awards and fellowships, including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress, and an Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

“Now in its 26th year, the Lilly Prize celebrates at once our finest living poets and Ruth Lilly, poetry’s greatest benefactor,” said Poetry Foundation president John Barr. “This year’s winner, David Ferry, continues that grand tradition.”

Previous recipients of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize are Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Anthony Hecht, Mona Van Duyn, Hayden Carruth, David Wagoner, John Ashbery, Charles Wright, Donald Hall, A.R. Ammons, Gerald Stern, William Matthews, W.S. Merwin, Maxine Kumin, Carl Dennis, Yusef Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Linda Pastan, Kay Ryan, C.K. Williams, Richard Wilbur, Lucille Clifton, Gary Snyder, Fanny Howe, and Eleanor Ross Taylor.

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Poetry Nominated for National Magazine Award

4/5/2011

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Today I received this press release (below) by email from the Poetry Foundation. I like subscribing (free) to their email newsletter and keeping up to date on news in the poetry world. I've been a subscriber to Poetry magazine for a long time and always look forward to seeing it arrive in my mailbox in its clear plastic envelope.

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is proud to announce that the magazine is a finalist for a National Magazine Award in the category of “General Excellence, Print.” Poetry shares distinguished company with fellow finalists Lapham’s Quarterly, The Paris Review, The Sun, and Virginia Quarterly Review in the “Literary, Political and Professional Magazines” category. This is the third Ellie nomination for the Poetry Foundation, but the first for the print magazine—the Chicago Poetry Tour and Poetry Magazine podcast were nominated for Digital Ellies in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and the Poetry Magazine podcast won the National Magazine Award for Digital Media in the “Podcasting” category in March 2011.

The American Society of Magazine Editors’ awards for print journalism have been presented each year since 1966. The awards, sponsored by ASME in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, are regarded as the “most prestigious in the magazine industry,” according to the New York Times.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized for our work in print, especially so soon after ASME awarded our efforts in digital media,” said magazine editor Christian Wiman. “Poetry will be turning 100 next year, and with each issue the magazine has stayed true to its original mission to discover and celebrate the best poetry. We’re so grateful for this nomination and proud to be included in such fine company.”

Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Poetry’s editorial mission is to discover new voices, present new work by internationally recognized poets, and enliven discussion about and readership for contemporary poetry. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H. D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In recent years, more than a third of the authors published in the magazine have been writers appearing for the first time.

By showcasing both established and emerging poets alongside provocative reviews, essays, and criticism, Poetry sparks conversation and brings new readers to the art form. And it does so in innovative ways. The April and December issues featured questions and answers with both established poets—2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout, H.L. Hix, and Jane Hirshfield—and newer talents—Sina Queyras, Cathy Park Hong, and Spencer Reece. The September issue presented new work by Wisława Szymborska and Yusef Komunyakaa. And the October issue offered a collection of poems from 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Eleanor Ross Taylor and the late Rachel Wetzsteon, a conversation between critic Ange Mlinko and Iain McGilchrist about poetry and neuroscience, and Fanny Howe’s look at an unearthed poetry manuscript from the Holocaust.

“A month at a time, for a century now, Poetry magazine has made a home for the best in poetry and criticism,” said Poetry Foundation.

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2012 Annual AWP Conference - Chicago

J. Patrick Lewis to Serve as Children's Poet Laureate

"Somebody Loves Us All"

Poetry Out Loud - National Finals in Washington, DC on April 29

Poetry Foundation Newsletter

David Ferry Awarded 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Poetry Nominated for National Magazine Award

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Categories

2012 Annual AWP Conference - Chicago

J. Patrick Lewis to Serve as Children's Poet Laureate

"Somebody Loves Us All"

Poetry Out Loud - National Finals in Washington, DC on April 29

Poetry Foundation Newsletter

David Ferry Awarded 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Poetry Nominated for National Magazine Award

Author

Archives

BlogrollArts BeatA Year of Being HereBearded VeganBecky's BlogBetter World BooksBirth Breasts and BeyondCarrie EtterChristine Stewart-NunezDana YostHeroic Yes! ProductionsJames A. ZarzanaLanding on Cloudy WaterNicole HelgetNo Ideas But in ThingsStory GuruThe Marsco SagaWrite Right

Categories

Blogroll
Arts Beat
A Year of Being Here
Bearded Vegan
Becky's Blog
Better World Books
Birth Breasts and Beyond
Carrie Etter
Christine Stewart-Nunez
Dana Yost
Heroic Yes! Productions
James A. Zarzana
Landing on Cloudy Water
Nicole Helget
No Ideas But in Things
Story Guru
The Marsco Saga
Write Right