Copy
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@rgaleria?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Ricardo Gomez Angel</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/charlotte-nc-fall?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>
The North Carolina Poetry Society is an inclusive, welcoming community that does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age, political preference, or any other category that has been used to divide human beings from each other and the natural world.  We value diverse voices and varieties of expression.

Nexus Poets'
Third Annual Robert Golden Poetry Contest

Our Third Annual Robert Golden Poetry Contest is now open for submissions! Find the details and the required entry form on our web site. Cash prizes in adult AND student categories. The judge is Ross White, director of Bull City Press and author of the full-length collection Charm Offense (winner of the 2019 Sexton Prize) as well as three chapbooks. Deadline: October 15. https://nexuspoets.com/contest/
 
Poetry in Plain Sight at Reynolda House
by Sam Barbee
On October 9th, I had the pleasure of manning the Poetry In Plain Sight table at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem.

It was their Reynolda Open the House event, and over three hundred art lovers signed up to attend, and I think that number was close to accurate – it was a steady flow of folks and families from 9:30 till 3:00.

I took NC Poetry Society brochures (Thx, Joan Barasovska!) and over 90 PIPS vintage Poetry In Plain Sight posters with me to distribute to visitors at the interactive Poetry Writing workshop set up for children, and adults. Before I went I thought that might be an ambitious number, but I almost ran out!

I have been involved with the Poetry In Plain Sight program since its inception and planning in 2012 and the first posters in 2013. There has never been a more gratifying experience than watching people "connect"; with poetry and decide a poem spoke to them enough to take it home. I dare say, it was magical.

We still have vintage posters for sale so please check out
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fu6hVfu7V5DXVMRRn-Hmmgqma2d3TcX6/edit#gid=1263323111

Look at the NC Poetry Society site for all the details: https://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/pips/
Poetry In Plain Sight (PIPS)
POSTER AVAILABILITY

Thanks to so many North Carolina poets, the NCPS Poetry In Plain Sight project has been successful in reducing our cache of vintage poetry posters.  Our inventory of PIPS posters in January was over a 1000. The reserve is now around 650.  We sell more every month.

Poets and poetry lovers have purchased many posters and we have donated others to public schools in the state.  I have disposed of a few in poor condition so I can assure that you receive posters in good condition, some pristine. Remember, you can purchase any 2 posters for $10.00, plus additional posters (up to 8) for $1.00 each.  Please take a look at the inventory list attached, and contact me at ncps.pips.sb@gmail.com

Here is the current inventory of posters:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fu6hVfu7V5DXVMRRn-Hmmgqma2d3TcX6/edit#gid=1263323111

We thank you for your support of PIPS and the North Carolina Poetry Society.

Sam Barbee
NCPS
POETRY SUBMISSION CALENDAR GRIFFINPOETRY.COM

Wondering where to submit your poems for publication? Bill Griffin invites you to share the latest update of the submissions calendar he has compiled over the past several years: https://griffinpoetry.com/2021/08/23/update-sub-cal-2021-08/

The table lists over 160 journals and contests, with a web address or other contact information, and indicates by month when submissions open and close. It is available as a .PDF for download from GriffinPoetry.com. See link above.

Every week GriffinPoetry.com posts a new microessay, photographs, and poems by featured poets – over 100 poets are indexed on the site’s home page. In the past few weeks featured poets have included:

            Stan Absher
            Jack Coulehan
            Jaki Shelton Green
            Shelby Stephenson
            Joseph Bathanti
            Crystal Simone Smith
            Nathaniel Perry
            Maryann Corbett
            Cathryn Essinger
            
Also featured is a a “how to” post about publishing poetry on a WordPress site.

Bill frequently adds to the submissions calendar and posts an updated version two or three times a year. Bill requests:

If you find any information in the table that has changed or is incorrect please let me know! And please send me your own favored journal information for me to add to the next update!
More New Books from our Members
Down the Grassy Aisles is a collection of prose poems weaving through the richness of life and positivity, where nature knows no bounds, innocence sees no seams. From dripping pink raincoats, to birthing courage, to dipping into the unknown, these poems are a fanciful splash of the tales of travel, joys of infancy, and subtlety of human emotion as the reader jumps over unseen realms of imagination.

Down the Grassy Aislesis an interplay: a tribute to motherhood in "The Embrace” sprinkled with the resplendence of romantic and familial love in "Musings", "Infant's Masterpiece", "Green Bean Mash”, bathed in the reminiscence of travel in "London Bridge" and poured with hope in “The Downpour”. My poems suffuse the reader with a flavor of positive aura and the life that beckons."
 
Joan Barasovska's new book, Carrying Clare, is available for preorder from Main Street Rag at the link below. Joseph Mills writes about Carrying Clare, "...the author takes us into hospitals and bedrooms and kitchens as she examines hard truths about parenting and family, including the fear and despair and difficulties that are sometimes involved. Barasovska is unflinching, and therefore trustworthy. These are not poems of easy sentiment, but ones of attention and honesty and love.”
 
The book, which will be published in early 2022, is available for preorder now at a discount. Please click on the link below to order:
 
Long Rain (Wet Cement, 2021) is an exquisite collection of five-line poems (tanka) and short prose (haibun), organized around the elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Here, Moore expands on the rich history of African-American writers such as Richard Wright, Sonia Sanchez and James Emanuel, creating a masterful transformation of the Japanese tradition into a sharply observant and quietly defiant poetry of the Black experience in America.
"There’s such intimacy and such depth of feeling in Crystal Simone Smith’s remarkable book, Down to Earth (Long Leaf Press), that one could almost overlook the incredible formal rigor that also guides and holds these poems. Where a lesser poet would make an airless box, Smith uses her deep understanding of both human and poetic form to make a world. People live, love, and struggle within the formal confines of a brutal world that is also luminous beyond all our expectations. I aspire to Smith’s mastery of line and clarity of vision. In this book, the past is always rising up to meet us and remind us that the past really isn’t past at all. We are always making and remaking it." -Gaby Calvocoressi
Melinda Thomsen's first full-length collection of poems, Armature, was released in September 2021 from Hermit Feathers Press.  Armature was selected by Allison Joseph for honorable mention in the North Carolina Poetry Society's 2019 Lena Shull Book Award Contest. Please visit Melinda's webpage for more information: https://www.melindathomsen.com/  Thank you to the North Carolina Poetry Society & Angell Caudill for believing in these poems!
Readings, Workshops and Forthcoming Events

TUES., NOV 2 AT 7 PM
Poetry Open Mic with Featured Poet Gideon Young

TUES., DEC 7 AT 7 PM
Poetry Open Mic with Featured Poet Melinda ThomsenNexus Poets - Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of New Bern

To get on mailing list for ZOOM Link and Open Mic, write to:  nexus@nexuspoets.com
 

FORTHCOMING CONFERENCE FOR THE NORTH CAROLINA WRITERS' NETWORK'S FORTHCOMING CONFERENCE Author Daniel Wallace, who directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will lead the session "Adaptation" (all genre) at the North Carolina Writers' Network 2021 Fall Conference, November 19-21, at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham/RTP.

Conference registration open now.  Volunteer opportunities.

Daniel Wallace is the author of six novels, including Big Fish and, most recently, Extraordinary Adventures. He directs the Creative Writing Program at UNC-Chapel Hill

Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series

Deadline November 15, 2021


The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series links established poets in three regions of North Carolina with emerging poets, enabling the poets to develop and perfect their lyric craft.  Students in middle school, high school, and college, and adults not in school may apply to work with and mentor our Distinguished Poet during the winter months.

For 2021-22 our Distinguished Poets are Anna Lena Phillips Bell in the eastern region, Jessica Jacobs in the western region, and Grace Ocasio, our new Distinguished Poet for the central region. Grace replaces Dasan Ahanu, who we thank for his dedicated service these past two years. Grace, an accomplished poet and active participant in the literary community, will serve from 2021-23.

Administering the program are Regional Coordinators Janis Harrington for the central region, Kelly Jones for the eastern region, and Caleb Beissert for the Western region. 

 To apply for the program  https://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/gcdps/gcdps_application/ 
 
The upcoming deadline is November 15, 2021.

All middle school, high school, college or university students and any adult poet not currently enrolled in an academic program may apply. Neither adult nor student poets need to submit instructor recommendations; the application requirements are essentially the same.

2020 Gilbert-Chappell Anthology Now Available
The 2020 Gilbert-Chappell anthology, Witness: Appalachia to Hatteras, is now available, thanks to the dedicated work of Supermensch Kelly Jones, aka Gilbert-Chappell Coordinator of the Eastern Region.  Copies are available at www.lulu.com and at other outlets in coming weeks.  Click here for a direct link to the fine poetry our Gilbert-Chappell poets have created in the past year.  Thanks so much, Kelly, for your efforts.

For brochure go to:  https://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/gcdps/gcdps-brochure/ 

For additional information, contact David Radavich, Administrator of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, at radavich@earthlink.net. 


Noel and Maria Together Again for the Holidays at Booth Playhouse


Celebrate the sounds of the season with world-traveling band leader Noel Freidline and acclaimed actress/vocalist Maria Howell. From traditional Christmas carols to cozy winter favorites sung by the fire, this festive yuletide concert is sure to delight the entire family.

Noel Freidline and Maria Howell define chemistry. Musically they breath as one, communicating almost telepathically as they explore and re-interpret some of the best music of the last 80 years. Always approaching the music from “the left,” Noel and Maria have made a name for themselves as they offer listeners something they have heard, but that they have never heard before. Combine this fresh musical approach with a rapport and witty banter that harkens back to the days of the Rat Pack, and you have Noel and Maria in their element: on stage, thrilling an audience at every turn.
 

Tickets start at $37.50 and may be purchased here: https://blumenthalperformingarts.cmail20.com/t/t-l-ciuhuyd-yhlrihjjkl-y/
NOTEWORTHY POETRY IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Visit this Link for Special Events:
https://netwestwriters.blogspot.com/p/writing-events-groups-workshops.html

4X4CLT Poetry Master Class: The Multitudes of “I”

Taught by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Saturday, December 4, 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Location: Studio Two (in person)

"Poets, essayists, fiction writers have sought lovely affairs with the “I,” and here by lovely I take it to mean Adam Smith’s definition, which is not just being loved, but being worthy of that love. And yet, wanting to be loved frequently becomes wanting to be a hero, or at least not wanting to be the one who was wrong. Of all the forms, fiction permits the writer to more easily duck this dilemma, because when it comes to deciding which character is the writer – there are choices. But the poet and essayist feel deeply entangled with the I. How to still be an artist given this dilemma? How to ensure that everything you write isn’t a desire to be loved?

In this class we’ll rap about that. We’ll talk about some essays, some poems, and a handful of lines from novels that make me believe honesty is an art form that can be delivered with elegance and wit and maybe the sheer astonishment that one person can be so horrible to those they love."

This master class is part of Charlotte Lit’s 4X4CLT Poetry+Art series. Betts reads from his work at the Midwood International & Cultural Center auditorium on December 3 at 6 p.m. Tickets for this event available soon.

Cost: $65 members, $95 non-members • Register:https://www.charlottelit.org/classes/
Writers/South Awards & Journal
Submission Deadline December 1st

Writers/South Awards & Journal from Charlotte Center for Literary Arts ("Charlotte Lit”).
$10,000 in total prizes ($1500 first, $500 second, $250 third) plus publication in four categories: poetry (1-3 poems), fiction (4000 words), nonfiction (4000 words), and flash (500 words).
Open to current/past residents of NC, SC, GA, TN, VA. Submit Sept. 1 to Dec.1.
Poetry judges: Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs. Entry fee $15 includes print journal.
Guidelines and entry: charlottelit.org/writerssouth/awards

Gideon Young is a member of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective and Carrboro Poets Council. Find recent and forthcoming poetry in Acorn, Journal of Black Mountain College Studies, Modern Haiku, and North Carolina Literary Review. His debut haiku collection my hands full of light was published by Backbone Press, April 2021. Prince Rivers: A Leader for Justice, a biography for young readers, and Art for Change, realistic fiction, are forthcoming from Gibbs Smith Education in 2022. Gideon is co-author of One Window’s Light: A Collection of Haiku, published by Unicorn Press, 2017, winner of the Haiku Society of America Merit Award for Best Anthology. In Summer 2021, Gideon created A Curious Honeybee, a multimedia/literacies film with the Arts Education Partnership and the Education Commission of the States. He is a Fellow for A+ Schools of North Carolina, a K-12 Literacy Specialist, and stay-at-home Dad.

Learn more about Gideon at www.gideonyoung.com
 
Join us on Saturday, December 11 at 10:00 AM for a Premier Holiday Poetry Program featuring Gideon Young, one of North Carolina's fine poets on his way up.  Gideon will present a lovely morning of poetry & flute music — including winter poems, holiday songs and a reading from his debut haiku collection my hands full of light, The poet writes that there will be a time for audience participation and moments for personal inspiration.  STAY TUNED!  The ZOOM link will be available with the December 1st eMuse.  Members and friends will be admitted after 9:45 am for welcome and sharing holiday greetings. For further information, e-mail: lyndarushmyers@gmail.com

Tenth Annual Frost Place Chapbook Competition sponsored by Bull City Press.

Currently accepting submissions through January 5, 2022

The Frost Place, a nonprofit center for poetry and the arts at Robert Frost’s old homestead in Franconia, NH, in partnership with Bull City Press, has established a poetry chapbook fellowship. We invite submissions to the Tenth Annual Frost Place Chapbook Competition sponsored by Bull City Press.

In summer 2022, the winner’s chapbook will be published by Bull City Press, and the winner will receive 10 complimentary copies (from a print run of 300), and a $250.00 stipend. The winner will also receive a full fellowship to attend the five-and-a-half-day Poetry Seminar at The Frost Place in August 2022, including room and board (a cash value of approximately $1,500.00), and will give a featured reading from the chapbook at the Seminar. In addition, the chapbook fellow will have the option to spend one week living and writing in The Frost Place House-Museum in September 2022 (peak leaf season in the White Mountains), at a time agreed upon by the fellow and The Frost Place.*

For further details on submission guidelines, visit Bull City Press: https://bullcitypress.com/submissions-top/frost-place-chapbook-competition/?goal=0_ed5bd637db-acd72a448d-95752297&mc_cid=acd72a448d&mc_eid=838976baef

POETRY SUBMISSION CALENDAR – GRIFFINPOETRY.COM

GriffinPoetry.com every week posts a new essay, photography, and poems by featured poets – over 100 poets are indexed on the site’s home page. In the past few months featured poets have included:
    
J.S. Absher
Becky Gould Gibson
Robert Frost
Yusef Komunyakaa
Galway Kinnell
Denise Levertov
Shelby Stephenson 
Ross Gay


Wondering where to submit your poems for publication? Bill Griffin invites you to share the latest update of the submissions calendar he has compiled over the past several years:

http://griffinpoetry.com/2021/02/22/update-submissions-calendar/

The table lists over 130 journals and contests, with a web address or other contact information. It indicates by month when submissions open and close. This helpful resource is available as a .PDF for download from GriffinPoetry.com.

Bill frequently adds to the table and posts an updated version two or three times a year. Bill requests: If you find any information in the table that has changed or is incorrect please let me know! And please send me your own favored journal information for me to add to the next update! 
 
CRAFT TIP for the December issue? - Our new eMuse editor and VP of Communications,  Kasheia Williams, is looking for next month's craft tip.  Will you submit one?  While you consider it, please welcome Kasheia and congratulate her on her new position on the NCPS Board.  Kasheia brings considerable graphic design and social media experience -- and a host of other talents -- with her that will enhance our internal and external communications.  We are so delighted to have her among us!

Vitality. Fellowship. Healing. These are the qualities the arts spark, and they are what North Carolina needs to rebuild its economy and emerge resiliently from the pandemic. This is why the North Carolina Arts Council created Spark the Arts.   Arts organizations of all sorts may download the pdf here:  http://SparkTheArts_Logo_Guide.pdf

SPARK THE ARTS is an awareness campaign designed to inspire public participation in the arts -- includiong poetry events -- across North Carolina by highlighting the unique way the arts lift spirits, bring people together, and heal. Our goal is to ignite the resurgence of North Carolina’s arts sector from the pandemic by connecting residents and visitors to arts experiences and arts stories across our state.

The hashtag #SparkTheArtsNC hashtag promotes in-person arts events now. In-person poetry events, even those that are ZOOMED simultaneously, are invited to use the logos and the hashtag.
If you are an NCPS member in good standing and would like your free copy of Pinesong 2021 with this year's winning poems, write to Joan at msjoan9@gmail.com. No charge for mailing.
NCPS Dues Scholarship Program
A member or potential new member can write to Joan Barasovska, Sr. VP of Membership, at msjoan9@gmail.com to ask about obtaining a dues scholarship. Scholarships are funded by member donations. Confidentiality is central to this program. If you are on a limited income and paying NCPS dues presents a hardship, or you know a poet who would benefit from joining but is held back by tight finances, please write to Joan at msjoan9@gmail.com. If you are interested in being added to the list of dues sponsors, write to Bill Griffin, ewgryphon@aol.com. You would not be asked to pay until a scholarship is requested.
Yearly NCPS Dues Reminder

Quarterly meetings, readings, workshops, contests, fellowships, publications, and collaborations keep the North Carolina poetry community connected and vibrant. We invite you to renew your involvement and take advantage of all that the NCPS offers its members. During this season of online meetings and readings we have continued our quarterly meetings on Zoom, allowing members from all locations to attend virtually.

There are two ways to pay the $30 annual dues ($10 for students): Pay by check (for mailing address click on link below for downloadable form). PayPal, either in a one-time payment (no need for a PayPal account to use your credit card) or the easy option of an automatic annual payment with a PayPal account.

Here is the link to the NCPS website Membership page. Please explore the entire website and see what’s new!

https://www.ncpoetrysociety.org/membership/

While dues were once paid in May, we have converted to a simpler rolling system. The day your payment to renew membership is recorded will become your new due date the following year. 

If you have questions about membership, please write to Joan Barasovska at msjoan9@gmail.com.

THE TOWN CRIER CALLS AT DAWN
TO ANNOUNCE THE FEAST

PUEBLO

All people awake, open your eyes, arise,
Become children of light, vigorous, active, sprightly.
Hasten clouds from the four world quarters;
Come snow in plenty, that water may be abundant when summer comes;
Come ice, cover the fields, that the planting may yield abundance,
Let all hearts be glad!
The knowing ones will assemble in four days;
They will encircle the village dancing and singing songs…
That moisture may come in abundance.

The Path on the Rainbow, edited by George W. Cronyn, [1918], at sacred-texts.com






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
North Carolina Poetry Society · 99 Lakeshore Drive · Durham, NC 27713-9205 · USA

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp