Poetry workshops ~ Saturday, October 22, 2011

Here are additional details on the two Sue Boynton Poetry Contest workshops on Saturday, October 22, 2011.

10:30am to 12:30pm
Altered Book Art
Instructor: Cindi Williamson

Using a hardcover book, a mounting board and additional found objects, each participant will make an altered book display. No two pieces are alike! All materials and equipment will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring additional objects, such as small stones, phrases on paper, bones, feathers, photos, etc.
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Cindi Williamson is a bookseller at Village Books, a poet, an artist in mixed media (especially altered books) and a creative writer. View Cindi’s blog here.

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1:30 to 3:30pm
To Dwell in Possibility: How to Find the Story Next Door and Capture It as a Poem
Instructor: Sheila Nickerson

Even the most commonplace objects hold inner worlds to explore. Houses are everywhere, but each one holds a secret, or many secrets. When imagination knocks on a door, poetry opens. Who knows what will happen when you cross the threshold? Using exercises and examples, participants will observe, write and discover the keys to the house “fairer than prose.”

Sheila Nickerson, a former Alaska Poet Laureate and Writer-in-Residence to the Alaska State Library, has published widely in magazines, chapbooks and anthologies and won two Pushcart Prizes for poetry. Her most recent poetry title is Along the Alaska Highway. Her prose works include Disappearance: A Map; Midnight to the North: The Untold Story of the Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition; and Writers in the Public Library. She is currently at work on a history of the sledge dogs serving American explorers of the Arctic in the 19th century.

Both workshops will be held at Mindport Exhibits, 210 W. Holly in downtown Bellingham.

Take one workshop for $32 or take both for $52. Fees benefit the Sue C. Boynton Poetry contest (a program of Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization) and include admission to Mindport Exhibits. You may pay at the workshop, but advance registration is required.

To register, please e-mail boyntonpoetrycontest AT hotmail DOT com.

Click for flyer: October 2011 workshops (PDF format, Adobe Reader required).

poets get ready!

Yes, it’s still September, but it’s never too early to start thinking about your Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest submission for 2012! The 2012 guidelines are now posted on the 2012 contest page (click on 2012 contest near the top of this page) along with important dates — including the fabulous Taste for Poetry fundraising dinner at Ciao Thyme.

Watch this page for more details. Better yet, SUBSCRIBE! We look forward to reading your poems!

Northwest Bookfest!

This weekend, October 1 and 2, 2011, Kirkland will be buzzing with books, authors, workshops, panels, interviews, music, film, prizes, exhibits, readings, theatre, acrobatics (!) and much more, when Northwest Bookfest gets under way at various venues around Peter Kirk Park. And it’s all free! See the full listing of events and workshops, author profiles, plus maps and more on the Northwest Bookfest website.

what’s write now and local…

There’s plenty of opportunity for getting your poetry published in the Northwest. Here’s a selection. For submission guidelines, click on the publication name.

Bellingham Review is now open for submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, author interviews and black-and-white photography (through Dec. 15, 2011).

Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater invites submissions for a collaborative writing/dance performance, Phrasings (through Nov. 30, 2011).

Concrete Wolf is running a poetry chapbook contest (through Nov. 30, 2011).

Crab Creek Review is now accepting submissions of poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction (through Mar. 31, 2012). The publication’s fiction contest is also underway (through Dec. 15, 2011).

Drash: Northwest Mosaic invites submissions of unpublished poetry, essays and prose (through Dec. 15, 2011).

Gribble Press has a poetry chapbook contest underway (through Oct. 31, 2011).

Poetry Northwest is open for poetry submissions on the theme of science (through March 15, 2012).

Seattle Review will open on October 1 for submissions of long poems, novellas and long essays (through May 31, 2012).

Willow Springs is accepting submissions of fiction, nonfiction and poetry (through May 31, 2012).
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on poetry…

“Poetry is… a kind of leaving of notes for another to find, and a willingness to have them fall into the wrong hands.” Matthew Hollis

poem for a stormy day…

2009 Merit Award
By Christine M. Kendall

With wind gusting to 45 knots, waves on Bellingham Bay
roil grey-green and formidable, they slap
over the breakwater, in a white, foaming froth.
Spindrift shoots southeast out of Hale’s Pass dousing
the Lummi shoreline, obscuring Eliza in a veiled mist.
This is a day to be inside, onshore and cozy,
sipping coffee, keeping a weather eye out of curiosity,
not out of necessity, feeling solid footing,
instead of riding the swells. A stout, green and white
Foss tugboat with a bone in her teeth
hastens towards Fairhaven on a mission
to retrieve a barge broken free of its moorings.
Watching the tug’s determined course in such a
tempest, I think of the crew and speculate whether
they sip coffee, and talk of sports, or other storms,
and if for them this is all in a day’s work?

*Copyright 2009 by Christine M. Kendall. This poem appears in POETRY WALK: Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest – The First Five Years. Placard design by Egress Studio.

Workshops — mark your calendar!

Several times each year, the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest presents poetry-related workshops in Bellingham. Instructors generously donate their time so workshop fees benefit the Contest.

The four instructors for this fall’s workshops are published poets and past Boynton winners.

Additional details will be forthcoming soon, but for the moment, please mark your calendar for the following two dates and four workshops:

Saturday, October 22, 2011
10:30 to 12:30: Cindi Williamson – Altered Book Art
1:30 to 3:30: Sheila Nickerson – To Dwell in Possibility: How to Find the Story Next Door and Capture It as a Poem

Saturday, November 12, 2011
10:30 to 12:30: Luther Allen – Intergenerational Poetry
1:30 to 3:30: Paul Piper – Poetry and the Spiritual

Saturday, September 24, 2011

This Saturday, poets all over the world will get together, in person and online, to promote change. What does that mean? Organizers Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion say,

“The first order of change is for poets, writers, artists, anybody, to actually get together to create and perform, educate and demonstrate, simultaneously, with other communities around the world. This will change how we see our local community and the global community. We have all become incredibly alienated in recent years. We hardly know our neighbors down the street let alone our creative allies who live and share our concerns in other countries….”

So far, 100 Thousand Poets for Change (100TPfC) lists more than 600 poetry events taking place in 500 cities in 95 countries. Regional events are planned for Portland (OR)/Vancouver (WA), Spokane, Olympia, Seattle, Vashon Island, Whidbey Island and Port Townsend.

You can read more on the 100TPfC website and the 100TPfC Facebook page.

Join in! Wave your poetry flag. Make poems. Make change.

Deaf Jam, the movie

Mark your calendar: Thursday, October 27, 2011, 5:30pm, for the free screening of “Deaf Jam” as part of Doctober at the Pickford Film Center in Bellingham. Poetry meets American Sign Language as the documentary follows Aneta Brodski, a deaf teen living in New York City, preparing to be one of the first deaf poets to compete in a youth slam.

Learn more and watch clips at the Deaf Jam website.

poetry prompts…11

Here are a few more ideas to rev up your poetry machine, plus links to our previous ten poetry prompt posts.

Ardor is a book-length poem by Karen Ah-hwei Lee. The publisher, Tupelo Press, has posted a selection of writing prompts from those that are included in the book’s Reader’s Companion.

Writer’s Digest offers a long series of prompts. Here’s a link to the first of eight pages.

Even Oprah has some suggestions for how to write a poem!

Want more poetry prompts? Check out our earlier posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.