George Venn’s new book, Lichen Songs (Kelsay Books), is in the running for a 2018 Pulitzer Prize. Winners and finalists will be announced in April 2018. Watch this space for more! George Venn was formerly Writer in Residence at Eastern Oregon University. He has served on the editorial boards of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Oregon […]
Oregon poet George Venn in running for Pulitzer Prize Read More »
Painted Thrush Press, 2015, 65 pages, $12 ISBN 978-1508484356 Available via Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Cascade-Siskiyou-Poems-Pepper-Trail/dp/150848435X The Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California are what writers of stories of the west, both historic and fictional, call “rough country.” It is in fact about as rough as anyone might ask for in the lower 48 states,
Cascade-Siskiyou: Poems by Pepper Trail, reviewed by Alan Contreras Read More »
November 19, 2017 Oregon Poetry Association board meeting (done by SKYPE) participating: Lisa Baldwin, Lynn Otto, Shirley Marc, Joy McDowell, Erik Muller, Charles Castle, Stella Jeng Guillory, Bruce Parker, Diane Corson, Dale Champlin ELECTION OF OFFICERS (2017-18): Lisa Baldwin elected president of board. Joy McDowell elected as secretary. Lynn Otto elected treasurer. Shirley
Board Minutes November 19th 2017 Read More »
Cosmonaut’s Lament Above her head the stars, bleary in their watchfulness Under her feet black offal, of metal tang and smoke and char Contrails unspool like strands of hair in zero G and the cosmonaut thinks of earthbound tidepools little pockets of life where there should be no life Of
2017 Fall Contest Winner: 2nd Place, New Poets Read More »
Disturbance Theory at HJ Andrews Experimental Forest [gview file=”https://oregonpoets.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DisturbanceTheoryCorrected.pdf”] Judge’s comments I thought a lot about meaning as I read these poems. I thought about how language creates meaning, how humans create language, and how, despite how frail the letters words are made of, how inadequate the sounds of words are to represent the wide
2017 Fall Contest Winner: 1st Place, New Poets Read More »
Honorable mentions: 1st Honorable Mention: “Who Will Be Sent” by Laurel Benjamin, Albany, CA 2nd Honorable Mention: “A Thousand Resting Stars” by Alan Contreras, Eugene, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “A Commanding Position in the World” by Susan Whitney, Eugene, OR —Shaindel Beers
2017 Fall Contest: Theme, Current Events: Honorable Mentions Read More »
The Greatest Show on Earth Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1919–2017 Grandma said the circus came to town by train, paraded through the streets to the fairgrounds tigers in horse-drawn cages, clowns, a man on stilts, a brass band, acrobats in spangled costumes; the children tugged at their parents’ hands to
2017 Fall Contest Winner: 3rd Place, Theme–Current Events Read More »
Off Old Hwy. 99 Old men fill the donut shop this morning, every morning, talking politics in matched pairs; they agree about the state of things, which is much worse than it used to be when they were as young as the girl at the glass case deciding on which donut she
2017 Fall Contest Winner: 2nd Place, Theme–Current Events Read More »
Another Perspective on the Nuclear Codes Imagine looking down from the space station as the blue-green earth turns beneath and the mushrooms bloom silently along the Florida panhandle, the ox head shape of France, the teardrop of Africa; bloom like gray mums along the Nev, follow the Rhine (obliterate the Rhine), rise silently from
2017 Fall Contest Winner: 1st Place, Theme–Current Events Read More »
Honorable mentions: 1st Honorable Mention: “Creation Story” by Toni Hanner, Eugene, OR 2nd Honorable Mention: “Salt-and-Pepper Villanelle” by Danny Earl Simmons, Lebanon, OR 3rd Honorable Mention: “Detective Chief Inspectors” by Dan Kaufman, Central Point, OR Judge’s comments To prepare, I read villanelles by Bishop, Dunn, Kees, and Levertov. Then I looked in
2017 Fall Contest Traditional Form, Villanelle: Honorable Mentions and Judges’ Comments Read More »
