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General Information
All programs, except as noted, are held monthly in downtown Charleston at:
Second Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall
342 Meeting Street (at Ashmead)
[map]
Charleston, SC
7:00 p.m.
Readings are free and open to the public. A book signing and reception follow the program.
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September 11
Lynne Thompson and Debra A. Daniel
Los Angeles poet
Lynne Thompson’s first full-length manuscript,
Beg No Pardon, was the winner of the 2007 Perugia Press First Book Award as well as the 2008 Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Thompson’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in
Indiana Review, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry International, Spillway and the online zine
Chaparral Poetry, among others.
Debra A. Daniel’s chapbook,
As Is, was published by Main Street Rag (2009). Twice named SC Arts Commission Poetry Fellow, she has won the 2002 Guy Owen Prize, and the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared journals including:
Smokelong Quarterly, Kakalak, Emrys Journal, Inkwell, Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Gargoyle, and
The PSSC Yearbook.
September 12
Seminar with Lynne Thompson, “The Business of Poetry”
How do we best approach compiling and submitting work for publication in print and online journals? How is this process different from the submission of full-length manuscripts to contests and other publishers? And once we have our book in print, how do we promote the work through readings and other activities in the poetry community? Time permitting, participants will also be led in exercises designed to generate new work.
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October 9
Bryan Penberthy and Lauren Hester
A former AWP Intro Award winner,
Bryan Penberthy lives in Charleston. He holds an MFA from Purdue University, where he was poetry editor for
Sycamore Review. His poems have appeared in
Crazyhorse, West Branch, Bat City Review, River Styx, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. His debut collection,
Lucktown (2007)
, was awarded the National Poetry Review Book Prize.
Born in Laurens, SC, Lauren Hester currently resides in Charleston and attends the College of Charleston, where she is an English major. Her first collection of poetry,
Scales like Feathers, was published in 2008.
October 10
Seminar with Bryan Penberthy, “The Poetic Sequence”
In contemporary poetry we are witnessing a resurgence of the poet as storyteller, crafting extended narratives to articulate the world through poetic sequences: linked series of poems in the service of a larger story. In this seminar we will explore the craft of sequence with a guided discussion of effective poems and techniques along with exercises designed to engage our imaginations and skills in a fresh way.
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November 13
Doug Van Gundy and Libby Bernardin
Doug Van Gundy's poems and essays have appeared in
The Oxford American, Ecotone, Waccamaw, and other journals. His first book of poems,
A Life Above Water, came out in 2007 with Red Hen Press. He has read at various venues from New York to Los Angeles. Doug plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, and mandolin in the old-time duo, Born Old. He lives in Elkins, WV, and teaches at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Libby Bernardin has published in journals and anthologies, most recently in
Kakalak and
Southern Poetry Review. Her chapbook,
The Book of Myth (Stone Press), is a winner of the 2009 South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook contest. She currently serves on the board of the SC Academy of Authors.
November 14
Seminar with Doug Van Gundy, “Chinrests and Anapests:
at the Convergence of Appalachian Poetry and Music”
In this presentation, Doug Van Gundy will explore the rhythmic and thematic connections between the early traditional music and the subsequent poetry of the Appalachian region. The program will offer a mixture of lecture, reading, discussion and musical performance with fiddle, banjo and voice.
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Click here to download the registration form.
December 11
Christmas Party for PSSC members.
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January 8
Open Mic at the Library Society, Jack Tracey, emcee
Library Society, 164 King Street, just north of Queen, 7:00.
Free and open to the public. Only PSSC members may read, but anyone may join PSSC that evening and sign up.
Click here to join PSSC now.
Jack Tracey, long-time resident of the Isle of Palms, is an erstwhile emcee of Monday Night Blues, and also a broadcast producer, old school radio announcer and no stranger to the microphone.
Click here to join PSSC and participate in the most festive open mic ever, as PSSC returns to the Library Society!
February 12
Eric Nelson and Barbara G. S. Hagerty
Eric Nelson has published four collections of poetry, including
Terrestrials, winner of the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Award (2004), and
The Interpretation of Waking Life, winner of the Arkansas Poetry Award (1991). He coordinates the Department of Writing and Linguistics’ creative writing concentration at Georgia Southern University.
Barbara G. S. Hagerty is a Charleston native whose essays and poems have appeared in national and regional periodicals. She has worked as a curator, photographer, and teacher of poetry and creative non-fiction, and has two nonfiction books,
Purse Universe (Crane Hill Publishers) and
Handbags (Running Press), and a chapbook of poems with Finishing Line Press,
Guest House.
February 13
Seminar with Eric Nelson, “The Love Poem”
In honor of Valentine's Day, we'll read and discuss a few examples of
classic and contemporary love poetry. In the process, we'll try to
figure out what makes a memorable love poem and we'll generate a rough
draft of a love poem. Please bring a favorite love poem with you to
share.
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Click here to download the registration form.
March 12
Malena Mörling and Marcus Amaker
Malena Mörling grew up in southern Sweden. Her books are
Ocean Avenue, (New Issues Press Poetry Prize, 1998) and
Astoria, (Pittsburgh Press, 2006). Her poems have appeared in
The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Washington Post Book World and numerous other periodicals
. A 2007 Guggenheim Fellow, she teaches Creative Writing at UNC, Wilmington and the Low Residency MFA program at New England College.
Marcus Amaker has created three poetry books,
listening to static and
poems for augustine (2005) and
the soft paper cut (2007), seven self-released home studio albums, and countless web sites, posters and art projects. He has performed spoken word around the country and for national television, and is editor of the Post and Courier's weekly
Preview magazine.
March 13
Seminar with Malena Mörling, “On Translation”
Details to be announced.
Click here to sign up.
April 9
Dennis Ward Stiles
Dennis Ward Stiles grew up on a small dairy farm in northern Illinois. He served thirty years in the Air Force as a pilot and military diplomat. He has published widely in journals, has five chapbooks,
Saigon Tea (2000),
Black Mirrors (2003),
Spit (2004),
A Strange Wind Rises (2006), and
Humdinger (2007), and a full-length collection,
The Fire in Which We Burn (2009). He lives in Charleston with his wife Mary Jane.
May 8
Annual Forum with
Critic to Be Announced
May or June
Workshop at Debordieu
Details to be announced
