Member News Digest

We love hearing about, passing on news about, and reading about our OPA members having poems published in literary journals, in zines, on web sites, and as a consequence of winning a contest. Please let us know where we can find your most recent publications, and use this page as a guide to the publications where OPA member’s poems appear!

Do you wish to find the poetry books by OPA members? List of Members’ Books.

To add information about poem publication, please send information using the Submit Member News form.

 OPA Member News

  • Diane Corson and Dale Champlin in Squid

    January 26, 2018

    Diane Corson and Dale Champlin both have poems coming out in Squid, published by the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita.

  • Free Range Poetry

    January 26, 2018

    OPA Membership Co-chair Diane Corson and OPA member John Miller host Free Range Poetry February 5, 5:45 PM – 7:30 PM.   Free Range Poetry is a monthly, first-Monday event held at the NW Multnomah County Library, 2300 NW Thurman St. in Portland. Free Range Poetry is committed to provide poetry readings that inspire and yet are accessible to the public. Signups will open at 5:45 PM, and the open mic will last until 7:30 PM.

  • Premiere of opera with music and libretto by Christopher M. Wicks

    December 20, 2017

    “Love Is Strong As Death,” a concise opera with music and libretto by Silvertonian Christopher M. Wicks, will be premiered at 2 PM on February 3, 2018 at the Mount Angel Abbey Library Auditorium at One Abbey Drive, St. Benedict, Ore. A repeat performance will take place on February 10, also at 2 PM. The opera is based on the Celtic legends of Tristam and Iseult, with quotes from the Biblical Song of Solomon. The event will open with violinist Stephanie Barth playing two sonatas by Wicks. Freewill offerings much appreciated.

    Update:

    YouTube link for Part One of this performance of the opera:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOVWZXP8tU4
    YouTube link for Part Two:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGJrUsVaPG4

  • God of the Beetle by veRONIca Jackson

    December 7, 2017

    veRONIca Jackson’s poem God of the Beetle won 3rd place in the Humorous category of the Fall 2017 Ina Coolbrith Circle, (California) poetry contest in November. Other poems published in November issue of Brevities A Mini-Mag of Minimalist Poems, editor Joyce Odam, 2432 48th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95822-3809, where short poems contributions are welcome. Poem Sunflower was published in Modesto, Ca. Fall, 2017 issue of Song of the San Joaquin quarterly.

  • Poetry and Medicine article by Lois Leveen

    December 5, 2017

    OPA members may be interested in “Finding Purpose: Honing the Practice of Making Meaning in Medicine,” an article about using poetry to facilitate discussions among physicians, among “interprofessional health care teams,” and between healthcare practitioners and patients. It’s just been published by The Permanente Journal (Permanente is a medical journal akin to JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine, so this article appears alongside ones about cutting edge research in medicine.) Here’s the abstract:

    Despite decades of advances in diagnosing and treating a broad range of illnesses, many changes in our health care system impede true caregiving, leaving patients and practitioners dissatisfied and creating an emotional burden for practitioners that contributes to the staggering rates of physician burnout. Given this dissatisfaction and disconnection, practitioners and patients alike can benefit from structured opportunities to explore the expectations, assumptions, and emotions that shape our understanding of health and illness, and thus our experiences within the health care system. This article demonstrates how group discussions of poetry—something that might seem irrelevant to medical practice or physical wellness—can foster communication, connection, and collective reflection for physicians, interprofessional health care teams, and groups that include practitioners, patients, and families, allowing participants to once again find meaning in medicine.

    You can download the PDF here: http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/files/2017/17-048.pdf It’s free, and written in an accessible style, and I am hoping it will do good work in the world, so please share it widely.

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