Poetry in North Carolina - You don't want to miss this

LOTS OF NEWS FROM THE POETRY COUNCIL OF NORTH CAROLINA



The Poetry Council of NC is keeping quite busy these days, planning for its annual Poetry Day on October 1, 2011 in Salisbury, NC while simultaneously starting up a new cycle of contests whose deadline for entry is November 21.

Poetry Day is a day-long celebration of poetry that will be held this year in the Crystal Peeler Lounge on the campus of Catawba College. Highlights of Poetry Day will include presentation of the 2011 Poetry Council contest winners, readings by those winners, the release of the council’s awards anthology titled Bay Leaves, and a live Poetry Slam competition.

The event is open to anyone, and reservations may be made via the form found on the council’s website: http://www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com/.



In 2012, the Council is moving Poetry Day from October to April to coincide with National Poetry Month.

To facilitate this transition, the Council’s annual contests have already opened for submission and will close on November 21.

The Council coordinates separate competitions for

Elementary School students

Middle School students, and

High School students, as well as

Adult competitions for free verse, traditional form poetry, light verse, and others.



The Oscar Arnold Young Award is given to the best book of poems by a NC poet each year. Information on entering any of the contests is available on the Council’s website or by calling Ed Cockrell at 919-967-5834.

Entry in the youth contests is free, while most of the other categories have a $5 entry fee. First, second, and third place prizes ranging from $10 to $100 are given in most categories, and up to three honorable mentions are commonly named in each.

All prizewinners and honorable mentions are published in Bay Leaves, and the poets are invited to read their poems at Poetry Day.

In 2012, Poetry Day will be held in Hickory NC, in the new Student Center on the campus of Catawba Valley Community College. (This is much closer to our western writers than Weymouth where it has been held in the past.)

Teachers interested in facilitating their students’ participation in the contests can contact Nancy Posey (nposey@embarqmail.com) for high school students or Michael Beadle (beadlepoet@yahoo.com) for elementary and middle school students.

Scott Owens, is available to visit classrooms in his local area to discuss these contests or coordinate workshops to get students started writing poetry. He can be reached at asowens1@yahoo.com.

In south western NC, contact Glenda Beall for information on the contests.


Information for this post comes from Scott Owens who will be in Hayesville, NC for a workshop at Writers Circle on Saturday, October 15.