June 23 Poetry Workshop with Scott Owens

The “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing Poetry” workshop is now set.  It will be Saturday, June 23, from 10 to 3 at Working Title Farm, 4694 South Depot St. in Claremont.  I met with Shari Smith at the “farm” yesterday, and everything looks great.  She has a large back deck that we will use if the weather is nice, and a large dining room table we’ll use if it’s not.  She also has a great barn space we might take advantage of for part of the workshop and plenty of trails if we feel like walking a bit.  We will work through lunch, so you can either bring a bag lunch with you or we will order take out from the Boxcar Grill.

The exact content of the workshop will be determined by those in attendance, but I’m prepared to cover invention strategies, revision, publication, etc.  The cost will be $50 per person (that’s just $10 an hour), half of which will go to support the Russell & Mary Boggs Center for the Arts in Claremont.  To register or find out more, email me at asowens1@yahoo.com or call at 828-234-4266.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you’d like to participate.  I want to keep the class down to no more than 15 people.

I’m including a bio in case you want to share this information with someone who doesn’t know me all that well.  Let me know if you need any further information.

BIO:

Scott Owens’ 8th collection of poetry, Something Knows the Moment, is a Finalist for this year’s Next Generation Indie Award in Poetry.  His ninth book, For One Who Knows How to Own Land, was released in March from Future Cycle Press, and his tenth collection, Shadows Trail Them Home, a collaboration with Pris Campbell, is due out from Clemson University Press this fall.  His prior work has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the NC Writers Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC.  His more than 1100 published poems have been in Georgia Review, North American Review, Chattahoochee Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Poetry East among others.  He is the founder of Poetry Hickory, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and 234, regional representative of the NC Writers’ Network, and vice president of the Poetry Council of NC and the NC Poetry Society.  Born and raised in Greenwood, SC, he teaches at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC.

Crime Thriller Competition

from Ann Chandonnet

STYLIST CRIME FICTION COMPETITION
http://www.stylist.co.uk/books/get-published/crime-fiction-competition
—
NO ENTRY FEE
In Stylist’s most exciting competition yet, we team up with
powerhouse publishers Faber and Faber to find, and publish, a
debut crime writer. Deadline July 12, 2012. Submit the first
6,000 words of your original crime thriller or novel which MUST
feature a female protagonist. Send an outline, no longer than 300
words, to show how the story will develop but that doesn’t reveal
the ending. Include a 250-word biography of the central character.
Submit a signed copy of the entry form.

Poetry Contest Link from Bill Mills

http://www.charlottewritersclub.org/deane_lomax_poetry

Poetry Giveaway Link from Bill Mills

http://www.ofkells.blogspot.com/2012/03/big-poetry-giveaway-2012are-you-ready.html

Book Release Party

Helen Losse’s New Book Info

Mansion of Memory, my new chapbook of poems from Rank Stranger Press, sells for $11 (plus $2 postage).  Proceeds go to Bright Futures Joplin Tornado Fund to help with rebuilding costs in Joplin, MO, my hometown.

Please order a copy.  Send a check to 2569 Wood Valley Road, Winston-Salem, NC 2706 or get one when I read at Poetry Hickory on May 8.  Thank you in advance.

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Praise for Mansion of Memory

“Of course it all begins in innocence.  A child’s fascination with her own ability to twirl a washcloth over water, a sense of power from mastering the climbing of a mulberry tree, images of life before the storm.  Even that early, though, one can’t help but feel the ominous presence of power looming in things, power that enchants and moves, but also endangers, and sometimes destroys. ” —Scott Owens, author of Something Knows the Moment and other collections

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“These poems of memory also move forward.  The poems/prayers (you can really use them interchangeably) speak to the pull of the past, the eye that looks toward the future and the power we all have because, as Losse puts it, “happiness is a choice.” “  —Jessie Carty, author of Paper House and Fat Girl

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“This chapbook takes me back to my childhood in the best way possible; it fills the gaps that time has erased and warms me. Helen Losse says it best in one of her poems, ‘there’s nothing like life in the firefly shadows.’ “  —Pris Campbell, author of five poetry collections

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“Helen Losse’s unique talent explores the most important elements of life’s journey. When I read her poems and connect spiritually with her vision, it gives me a deeper understanding and appreciation of what it means to be here, in the present day, with a look back at what created our current reality.  Gifted poets help us paint emotional passageways that enable us to create our own personal roadmaps through the twists and turns of our universal experiences.”  —Val MacEwan, editor/publisher of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

Helen Losse
2569 Wood Valley Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27106
(336) 760-2370
hlosse@triad.rr.com

Creativity Workshop

Event Announcement

From Helen

WORDS AWAKE! | March 23 – March 25, 2012

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

WORDS AWAKE! champions and celebrates generations of Wake Forest writers who return to their alma mater to engage the campus, alumni, public schools, and broader Forsyth county and regional communities.

WORDS AWAKE! attendees will look back to Wake Forest writers of the past; hear the work of current writers; debate the nature of writing today and tomorrow; inspire Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school students and Wake Forest students; and honor writers important to the heritage of writing at our University. Come join poets, screenwriters, novelists, journalists, critics, and prose non-fiction authors who share and shape that legacy. We welcome all Wake Forest students, alumni/ae, faculty and staff; public school students and teachers; and area writers, readers, and residents.

For more information or to register, please visit the Words Awake! website.

Lovers of the written word, unite!

Songwriting Contest

Here are details about a songwriting contest some of you might be interested in.

2011-10-25 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest Now Accepting Entries

Ekphrastic Opportunity

GET YOUR POEM ON FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Hickory area writers and would-be writers are again invited to participate in this year’s Aroma of Art Fundraiser to benefit ALFA (AIDS Leadership Foothills-area Alliance), the Flynn Home of Hickory, and the Women’s Resource Center.

 

Aroma of Art consists of a month-long exhibit of works of art donated by local artists and auctioned off at the event’s Grand Finale on March 1 from 5:30 to 8:30 at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse on the lower floor of the Hickory Furniture Mart.  Poets can participate by writing poems based on or inspired by the donated works of art which will be on display at the Furniture Mart beginning February 2.  A Kick-Off Party will be held that day from 6 to 8 at the Mart.

 

To be eligible, poems must be submitted to CVCC creative writing instructor and Founder of Poetry Hickory, Scott Owens, no later than 5:00 PM, February 14.  Poems can be submitted by email to asowens1@yahoo.com or dropped off at Taste Full Beans in downtown Hickory.  Poems must fit on one side of a 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper, and the submission should include the writer’s name, email address, and phone number, as well as the work of art on which the poem is based.

 

Entries will be judged by a panel of local writers.  Up to 10 poems will be selected to be framed and hung as part of the exhibit for the rest of the month.  Of those, 3 will be selected to be read aloud by the authors at the Grand Finale.  Selected poems may also be published in a local newspaper.  At the Grand Finale, the poems selected for display will be presented along with the matching work of art to the winning bidder.