Meet the judges!
January 31, 2011
The Contest committee is enormously pleased and honored to introduce the two judges for this year’s Contest: Maria McLeod and Stan Tag.
Maria McLeod, principal and partner of How Loud Media, is a media specialist. She uses her skills as an in-depth interviewer and creative director to produce documentaries, oral histories, biographies and executive profiles. As a media specialist, she also produces multimedia projects and dynamic marketing materials for businesses and nonprofits.
McLeod received a bachelor’s degree in Written Professional Communications, Public Relations and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Poetry. In 2008, she participated in the Documentary Video Certification program through Western Washington University.
She also has served as an instructor and academic administrator for leading institutions of higher learning, including Western Washington University, the University of Pittsburgh and Bennington College. In addition to her professional writing life, McLeod writes and publishes poetry and short fiction. Her honors include three Pushcart Prize nominations and the Indiana Review Poetry Prize.
Stan Tag lived his earliest years near the confluences of the Blackfoot, the Clark Fork and the Bitterroot Rivers, in a valley ringed with mountains marked by a succession of ancient lakeshores. He spent his youth living on the urban edges of the fire-charred, mud-sliding, smog-filled, dry and verdant hills of northeast L.A. He explored creative writing and literature at Whitworth College under a canopy of ponderosa pines. At the University of Iowa, Stan studied American literature and culture and completed a dissertation on 19th-century Maine Woods narratives. Before coming to Fairhaven College in 1997, he taught at St. Olaf College and Albertson College. Stan enjoys living on the edge of Sehome Hill, a short walk from the bay, in the shadow and watchful snowy eye of a volcano. At Fairhaven he teaches courses in American literature and culture, poetry, creative writing, punctuation, natural history, animal studies, maps and walking.
workshopped!
January 30, 2011
Huge thanks to Jeremy Voigt and Nancy Lou Canyon for so capably and enjoyably leading yesterday’s poetry workshops!
Two more poetry workshops coming up on Saturday, February 26: Lana Hechtman Ayers on Persona Poems and Rena Priest on Ecstatic Poems.
Don’t miss ’em. Details on the Events page.
delicious, amusing, poetic…
January 29, 2011
Are you a fan of poetry in Whatcom County?
Please mark your calendar and plan to join a choice group of Sue Boynton Poetry Contest fans on
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
for the second annual Taste for Poetry fundraising dinner
in the kitchen at Ciao Thyme.
In addition to sensational food and great company, our guest poet/reader will be multi-talented, engaging, amusing Kevin Murphy, cast member of the Chuckanut Radio Hour and author of A Beautiful Chaos Demands Energy. Have a look at Kevin’s recent profile in the Bellingham Herald.
More details soon!
Indian Plum*
January 28, 2011
By Esme Dutcher
2009 Walk Award
I measure the coming of spring
by the size of the Indian Plum buds,
appearing even before the crocuses,
I can almost see them grow.
In the afternoon sun
the small leaves on austere branches are
luminous, slightly transparent like
dabs of electric paint in the air or
chartreuse flames.
*Copyright 2009 by Esme Dutcher. This poem appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Info: Book! Placard design by Egress Studio.
a lot of poems!
January 27, 2011
The poems submitted to last year’s contest on display at the 2010 awards ceremony.
Photo by Cyndi Bennett
Poetry workshops this Saturday!
January 26, 2011
Hey poets (or poets-to-be)! We still have a couple of seats open for the two poetry workshops this Saturday, January 29. All the details are here, so have a look and sign up now. Your participation benefits you, your poetry AND the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest!
I Remember*
January 25, 2011
By Luke Reinschmidt, 6th grade
2010 Merit Award
*Copyright 2010 by Luke Reinschmidt. This poem, which can also be read here, appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Info: Book! Placard design by Egress Studio.
poetry reading
January 24, 2011
Anita K. Boyle, a prolific poet and artist and designer of the Sue Boynton Contest placards, will read from her brand-new book of poems, What the Alder Told Me, at 7:00pm, Friday, January 28, 2011, at Village Books in Bellingham, WA. Poet Belle Randall will also read. The reading is free.
as the poets say…
January 23, 2011
“I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.” Marianne Moore
The Sweet, Sweet Smell of Success*
January 22, 2011
By Skyler Jones, 8th grade
2008 Merit Award
And there, where I slumped in the trash dumpster’s swill,
I told them they never would find me, but still …
The hours bore long
Man, something was wrong
The way a fish flops and chokes air through its gill
The other kid counts at the tree, “Eight, nine, ten!”
He dashes away to find me … to no end
Whether I’m ready
Or not, here he came
At least, there he went … missing me just the same!
But I was in no rush to stop him, no how
Thought “I want to win, that’s what matters right now.”
Pinched my nose, in the air,
Thus fulfilling my duty
Sat straight in the muck, soaking through to my booty
Oh, I’ll put it into perspective, alright!
But heck, no harm done
The game has been won!
I told them I’d win, and, again, had been right
And just for posterity’s sake, that and such
A night dumpster-sitting’s a little bit much
But take a deep whiff
I’m sure you’ll agree
That sweet, sweet smell of success is all over me!
*Copyright 2008 by Skyler Jones. This poem is included in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Info: Book! Placard design by Egress Studio.
The Poetry Department . . . aka The Boynton Blog 