MOST RECENT OPA NEWS

• OPA Annual Conference, “Bearing Witness”, October 9

  OPA Fall Conference 2021: Bearing Witness
  Saturday, October 9, 2021

  9 a.m. Opening(Welcome, introductions, keynote (Emmett Wheatfall), Banta Awards
  10 – 11 a.m. Workshop Session 1
  11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Workshop Session 2
  LUNCH 12:15 – 1:15 p.m.
  1:15 – 2:15 p.m. Workshop Session 3
  2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Workshop Session 4
  3:45 – 4:45 p.m. Closing & Annual Meeting of OPA

  Register here: https://opa1.wildapricot.org/event-4486054

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MEMBER NEWS

• Posted: September 8, 2021
  

  NEW BOOK by LAURA LEHEW: DEAR JOHN—

  The Poetry Box is happy to announce the forthcoming release of Laura LeHew’s new poetry collection, Dear John—, which is available for PREORDER at a discount NOW thru Oct 15, 2021.

  https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/dear-john

  Dear John— is a collection of poems that investigate explore the multi-facets of love by using diverse points of view ...

  

LATEST BOOK REVIEW (EXCERPT)

• OPA reviews Grim Honey, by Jessica Barksdale, reviewed by Alicia Hoffman

  Reviewed by Alicia Hoffman
  Grim Honey by Jessica Barksdale
  Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2021
  ISBN: 978-1-7354002-1-1
  Available at https://sheilanagigblog.com/sheila-na-gig-editions-quick-shopping/jessica-barksdale/

  Exigence and Apocalypse
  The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
  – William Faulkner

  Like the horrific tragedy of 9/11, everyone will remember where they were when Covid19 shut down the globe. In early March 2020, days before nation-wide school closures, I was standing in a room full of maskless high schoolers, reviewing for the upcoming AP Language exams. We were studying the rhetorical concept of exigence, the idea that writers often come up against a situation that demands action or remedy. It is this impulse, this urgency, that often calls us to act, that prompts utterance, that begs us to better understand our place in the world’s vast and complicated chess game.

  When the pandemic came ...

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MOST RECENT POET’S SPOTLIGHT

• 2020 Spring Contest Winners: Poet’s Choice: 1st Place Winner

  June 3, 2020

  Baby, It’s Cold Outside

  (a Vivianne sonnet variation)

  Barbara Blanks

  As embryos we each explore the wall

  of womb that holds us. It’s the first place joy

  is felt—mom’s heartbeat like a lullaby.  

  Cocooned in touch, that’s how we interact.

  We’re chastised just as soon as we can crawl

  or walk. Just look! Hands off! That’s not a toy.

  We’re told to view, to listen, smell that, try

  a taste of this—but touch … and hands are smacked.

  And so begins our isolation. All

  those inhibitions finally destroy

  instinctive comfort found in touch, deny

  the core of who we are. Our lives contract.