News About Our July 2021 Meeting
The GPS Board met recently and concluded that our next quarterly meeting–our 170th quarterly–would be held online. Unfortunately, no venues are open yet for public gatherings for our usual gatherings. The Board and I instead are aiming at a F2F October meeting. The Zoom invitation link will be emailed to members early in July. The meeting is still scheduled for Saturday, July 24, 2021. We hope to see you then!
The 2020 Member Excellence Contest Results
The Georgia Poetry Society announces the winners of our annual Member Excellence Contest, judged this year by Atlanta poet Rupert Fike:
1st: Michael Diebert, “Three Mushroom Tart, Dayton, Oregon”
2nd: Lynn Farmer, “The Hours and the God”
3rd: Dianna Eden, “The Scent of a Man”
HM: Jill Jennings, “Pity the Children”
HM: Randy Mazie, “Draining Lake Nottely”
All entries will be published in the next volume of The Reach of Song 2021, in production now and expected by the July quarterly meeting. Congratulations to the winners and our thanks to the entrants!
Reach of Song 2021: Our annual anthology will include the winners of all our various 2020 contests, including the Member Excellence Prize. Members who submitted two poems during the open submission period were evaluated by judge Rupert Fike, who chose the stronger of the two for inclusion in the member section of the volume. Proofs to the authors are expected in mid-to-late June for approval.
In case you missed our spring quarterly meeting, we welcomed former GPS President Sandy Hokanson and her latest book The Surprising Language of Doves Held Up to the Light at our most recent quarterly meeting on Saturday, April 24. You can still see Sandy’s reading on our YouTube channel, or follow this link.
The winner of our inaugural Ron Self Chapbook Contest, former GPS VP Trish Percival, also read from her chapbook, Awake with Low Slung Moon. Her reading is to be found here.
We say a sad farewell to GPS Board member, Newsletter editor, and Bookstore Manager Ann Willis soon, as Ann is returning to her native England. Please welcome our new newsletter editor Laurie Jones. Any news should be directed to her at Newsletter@georgiapoetrysociety.org. Thanks also to Trish Percival, who has agreed to become our new Bookstore Manager. Reach her at bookstore@georgiapoetrysociety.org.
