MOST RECENT OPA NEWS
OPA 2018 Conference – Registration Opens
Calling all Poets: Register now for the 2018 Oregon Poetry Association Conference!
September 29-30, 2018
Valley River Inn, Eugene, ORUpdate: Tentative Conference Schedule (click on “Read all of this item” below to view schedule)
OPA will do its best to stick to this schedule– however, occasionally circumstances intervene in the lives of these presenters. Watch this space for updates.
A schedule with room names and workshop descriptions will be provided at registration time.
Saturday 9 a.m. keynote opens the conference
Kim Stafford, Oregon Poet Laureate: “The Flavor of Unity”Poetry Workshops, Book Room
Buffet lunch and OPA annual membership meeting
Readings by OPA contest winners and Open Mic
Early Risers Coffee and Poetry Art WalkSpecial Event on September 28th at 4 p.m.
The University of Oregon’s Knight Library, current home of the Oregon Poetry Collection, hosts an award ceremony for undergraduate poetry.1501 Kincaid St. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon campus
Early Bird Registration: $85 for members before ... Read all of this item.
MEMBER NEWS
- Posted: July 13, 2018
Passing of Edward van Aelstyn, by Alan Contreras
I note the passing of Edward van Aelstyn of Newport. I’m not sure that is mentioned anywhere else on OPA. He died May 23, 2018. He was the editor of Northwest Review at the UO when it was shut down over complaints about the content of poetry by Philip Whalen ...
LATEST BOOK REVIEW (EXCERPT)
Before Dreaming: Poems by Arn Strasser, reviewed by Gigi Cooper
Before Dreaming
by Arn Strasser
Budding Branch Books, an imprint of Asher & Merriman Publishers
ISBN# 978-0-9841874-1-6
2015, 89 pp., $19.95
www.buddingbranchbooks.com
Before Dreaming almost is correct; Between Dreaming would be accurate. Arn Strasser’s collection investigates the interaction between the dream state and wakefulness. He approaches the enigma of the dream world with both wonder and dread, exploring the boundaries between living and dead, youth and age, adventure and solace. Without magniloquence, he takes the reader on a journey from as close as the dining room and sofa to the markets and shores of Sardinia.
For Strasser, sleep is not a separate condition, but a way to access both memories and the future. Dream and memory inextricably intertwine in the book, most literally in the penultimate set of poems
called “The Wanderers.”
- Night
… so we may wander
the landscapes
of our dreams … .
these constellations of our
desires, a twilight of
remembrances.
- Awakening
… Do you hear
voices
of the dead,
who speak in memory … .
In ... Read all of this item.
MOST RECENT POET’S SPOTLIGHT
2018 Spring Contest Winner: 1st Place, Theme–Borders and Boundaries
June 2, 2018Cross-Country Bus
by Charlotte Abernathy
Miles beyond midnight, beyond another state line,
past service station signs glaring from high pylons,
beyond remnants of a weary town, one last overhead
reading light clicks off. In the dark, drowsy voices
merge with the droning motor, the roaring tires.
Cold window glass rumbles hard against my forehead
as I watch moonlit hills rise and fall like ocean swells.
Distant farmhouses appear and disappear like small
boats afloat in a heaving sea. Fleeting images of shelter
comfort me all through the long unwinding night.
Judge’s comments
I was drawn to the category, Borders and Boundaries, because it is a subject that I ponder often and I often have lived in between places: countries, regions, cultures. These poems didn’t disappoint. The poets explored a lot of ground, figuratively and literally. And it was fun to explore with them. The poems that really stuck with me were those that took me someplace. The first-place poem reminded me of many ... Read all of this item.