APRIL 9 POETRY HICKORY TO FEATURE JOHN HOPPENTHALER

AWARD WINNING POET FEATURED AT POETRY HICKORY APRIL 9

Award winning poet, John Hoppenthaler, will be the featured writer at the April 9 Poetry Hickory at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in downtown Hickory. The event, sponsored by Lenoir Rhyne University and the Visiting Writers Series will begin at 6:15 and will be followed by an Open Mic.

Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are Night Wing over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, and Lives of Water, all from Carnegie Mellon University Press. He is a winner of the Brockman Campbell Award for the best book of poetry published in NC, and a former Gilbert Chappell Distinguished Poet.

His poetry, essays, interviews, and reviews have been widely published in anthologies, textbooks, newspapers, and journals including Ploughshares and Virginia Quarterly Review. John served as Poetry editor of Kestrel for eleven years and of A Poetry Congeries for ten years. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Backbone Press, specializing in the publication and promotion of marginalized voices.

Hoppenthaler will visit Lenoir Rhyne creative writing classes and provide a craft talk on journal editing and contemporary form in poetry earlier in the day.

Poetry Hickory is in its 17th year and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Scott Owens at 828-234-4266 or at asowens1@yahoo.com

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March Poetry Hickory Open Mic and Reminder

It almost snuck up on me, but next Tuesday, March 9, is the next Poetry Hickory.  Featured writers are Pedestal Magazine Founding Editor, John Amen, and Mike Smith, author of 3 collections of poetry, including the most technically remarkable book of poems I’ve seen in a very, very, very long time.  Both authors will have copies of their books available for purchase and are more than willing to make your copy a bit more special by signing it.

Open Mic readers are Nancy Posey, winner of the Poetic Asides 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, and winner of two top 5 poems in the April 2009 PAD Challenge; John Womack, who has a new book of poems just out; and Justin Ganser.

As always, we’ll start at 6:30, but we will also have the NC Writers’ Network Writers’ Night Out at 5:00. This networking and critiquing group is open to any and all who wish to participate.  Those who usually attend include both beginning writers and well-established writers and journal editors.  It’s a great opportunity to gain insight towards beginning or furthering your occupation as a writer.

Attendance at Poetry Hickory and Writers’ Night Out is always free and is sponsored by Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse, Main Street Rag, and the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

February Open Mic Readers Set

I was already pretty excited about February’s Poetry Hickory.  I mean, you can’t get much better than Joanna Catherine Scott and Felicia Mitchell as featured writers.  If you don’t already know their work, then you could start by reading the reviews I wrote of their recent books for Wild Goose Poetry Review.  Both reviews have been archived on my blog at http://scottowensmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-of-joanna-catherine-scotts-night.html and http://scottowensmusings.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-of-felicia-mitchells-cleft-of.html.

But now, the Open Mic has shaped up to be perhaps the best we’ve ever had.  First there is Jessie Carty, who has already been a featured writer and will be so again soon but is doing the Open Mic now because she has a new book out, The Wait of Atom, a review of which will be in the next Wild Goose Poetry Review.  If you can’t wait for that, you can read a sort of preview here:  http://scottowensmusings.blogspot.com/2010/01/twins-weasleys-and-wait-of-atom-or.html.  You can also read some of her recent work in Wild Goose where she is the Featured Poet in the current issue.

The second Open Mic reader will be one of my favorite people in the world of NC poetry and a repeat Open Mic reader at Poetry Hickory, Tony Ricciardelli.  Tony is the founder and coordinator of the Phi Beat Open Mic Reading Series in Statesville where he teaches at Mitchell Community College.  Poetry Hickory fans will remember his poem “Ryan O.” which he read back in October and is in the current issue of Wild Goose.

The final Open Mic reader is a first-timer at Poetry Hickory, but certainly not in the world of poetry.  Bill Blackley has, in fact, been the President of the NC Poetry Society and is this year’s Chair of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series.  This is his first time at Poetry Hickory simply because he will have to drive all the way from Elkin to participate.  I hope we can make so worth his time that he wants to come back and do it again.

This is definitely one not to miss.  So I hope to see you all at 6:30 on February 9 at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse.  By the way, we’ll also have copies of the new Main Street Rag and several new books from Main Street Rag, available for purchase at the usual incredible Poetry Hickory discount prices.