Call for Poetry Submissions from the 2013 Collins Poet-in-Residence Aubrey Jane Ryan

Call for Submissions!  Calling all you poets!  

 

The Midwest Writing Center seeks poems: send us your battle cries and your prayers.  Make us want to go out and fight another day.  Give us a balm for our wounds.  Poetry is medicine, so share some of yours with the people!  Selected poems will appear on the Community Poetry blog, curated by The Midwest Writing Center’s 2013 Collins Writer in Residence, Aubrey Ryan.  We're accepting poems immediately and excitedly.  

 

Send 'em our way at medicinefortherevolution@gmail.com. 

 

Visit the Community Poetry Blog for more information about the residency.

The 2013 Collins poet-in-residence is Aubrey Ryan

Aubrey Ryan has been selected to serve as the 2013 Collins poet-in-residence for the Midwest Writing Center. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets, Anti-, Phantom Limb, Quarterly West, Squat Birth Journal, DIAGRAM, Cellpoems, Pebble Lake Review, and The Iowa Midwives Association's "Born at Home" Calendar. She was also the winner of a Tupelo Press Poetry Project award, and the 2012 Booth Poetry Award. Aubrey serves as poetry editor at Sundog Lit and runs a (very) fledgling broadside press. She lives in Iowa with her sweet husband and sweet kid.

Collins 2013 poet-in-residence
Aubrey Ryan

During the poetry residency that begins in October, Aubrey will facilitate poetry workshops, a community poetry reading, and a poetry ezine. Through the residency, she will encourage community-based poets who are developing their craft outside of a formal academic setting, and to provide a forum to showcase their work through the residency’s online poetry journal and a public reading of their poems. She will also release a limited edition broadside of one of her poems produced by illustrator, Alex Iaccarino. The biannual Collins Poetry Residency is sponsored by 918studio of LeClaire.

READ LOCAL: Salvatore Marici to perform poems June 5 at Bettendorf Library

Salvatore Marici will perform poems from his book Mortals, Nature, and Their Spirits (Ice Cube

Ice Cube Press (2012)

Press), at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 5, at the Bettendorf Public Library, a Read Local event. Via an enchanting array of rhythmic encounters, sensual visions, perceptive reflections of mysteries and magic, he and the audience will dance, drum, mingle with spirits, talk and laugh with deities.

Marici served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala and is a civil servant retiree who worked for the Army, mainly with the job title of agronomist. At both jobs, he managed natural resources.
His poetry has appeared in several publications including Off Channel, Slow Trains, Descant, Sweet Lemons 2: International Writings with a Sicilian Accent, and Toasted Cheese. He was the 2010 MWC poet-in-residence and is a featured poet in the Bucktown Revue.

@MWCResidentPoet



@MWCResidentPoet

 National Poetry Month is coming soon! Follow MWC's Resident Poet, Andrew Ziegler, on Twitter @MWCResidentPoet throughout the month of April...

Also, listen to his recent interview with Bruce Carter on ArtTalks [click to listen]

Poetry residence events include:

Performance Poetry Jam Bettendorf Public Library Tuesday, April 3, 6:30-8:30 pm
This performance poetry jam will focus on the spoken word and performance in performance poetry. Various techniques to modulate voice to convey tone and emotion will be explored. Verbal techniques will include inflection, pace, volume, and inference as derived from the sound of a performance. Gestures and other nonverbal presentation will also be explored. Poets will be encouraged to simply get up and put feeling into their words. Those interested in the spoken word, whether it be performance poetry, theatre, debate, forensics, or other public speaking are encouraged to participate.

Performance Poetry Jam Black Hawk College Outreach Wednesday, April 4, 9:30-11:30 am

Performance Poetry Seminar
Bettendorf Public Library Tuesday, April 17, 6:30-8:30 pm
This performance poetry seminar will focus on poetry writing for performance. Although a performance can make a poem intriguing, all great poems start with great writing. The writing influences the content of a performance poem and how that content conveys or detracts from a poem’s clarity and impact. Sound techniques such as assonance, alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm will also be touched on, with the primary focus on the concept of a poem within a performance style.

Community Poetry Reading
Midwest Writing Center
Wednesday, April 25, 7 p.m.
All poets published in the online poetry journal throughout the 2012 Collins Poetry Residency are invited to participate in a public reading of their poems. There is no charge for this event and the public is welcome.

Poetry Slam (venue pending)
Sunday, April 29, 5 p.m.

Performance poet Andrew Ziegler to serve in residence during April’s National Poetry Month

The Midwest Writing Center has announced that Andrew Ziegler has been selected as the poet-in-residence for the 2012 Collins Poetry Residency. Ziegler will serve as the resident poet at the MWC throughout National Poetry Month in April and will facilitate a series of events including area poetry workshops, a community poetry reading, and an online poetry journal. Through the residency, Ziegler will encourage community-based poets who are developing their craft outside of a formal academic setting, and to provide a forum to showcase their work through the residency’s online poetry journal and a public reading of their poems April 25 at 7 p.m. at the MWC in Davenport.

Ziegler said, “Poetry is inspired by the pulse of the human heart and is made to reflect the pulse of the moment during which it was conceived. Nothing is off limits in poetry because it’s all experimentation. Poetry is simply an essay on life.”

Over the month of April, Ziegler will engage the community in a variety of poetry events that will inspire others to share poetry related to “the echo.” Ziegler will share poems from the community in an online poetry journal that facilitates a dialogue of poems that speak to the larger influence of sound in poetry and the reverberation of the echo. More information and the call for submissions to the online poetry journal are available at http://www.communitypoetry2012.blogspot.com/. Poems may be submitted to echoes.poetry.blog@gmail.com and must be original and previously unpublished.

Ziegler is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s degree in English. He is a volunteer for the MWC, facilitates Slam poetry competitions and poetry workshops, and is an active participant in Out Loud and other events. In his college experience, Andrew served as a poetry club member who organized and promoted workshops, slams, readings, and road trips. As a performance poet, he has been known to accentuate the end of a poem with a back flip because he believes that poetry is integral to the celebration of life—poetry that is alive, speaks to the human condition, and one of the best ways to tell a story.

The Deadline for the 2012 Collins Poetry Residency is August 31st!

The deadline to apply for the April 2012 Collins Poetry Residency is fast approaching – poets interested in this unique opportunity should postmark or deliver their application to the Midwest Writing Center by August 31st.

The Collins Poetry Residency was established in honor of Richard, Susan, and Ryan Collins whose ongoing support of poets and poetry is an invaluable asset to the writing community of the Quad Cities. The Residency is designed to support community-based poetry and a regional poet. Any poet who has not yet published a chapbook or book length collection of poetry and who lives in any of the six counties of the Quad City area (Rock Island, Henry or Mercer in Illinois or Scott, Clinton or Muscatine in Iowa) is eligible for this residency.

The poet who is chosen to be the April 2012 Collins Poet- in- Residence, with mentor, Ellen Tsegaris, will be responsible for facilitating one public reading, workshop, and online poetry forum, launch a limited edition broadside poem, and work to bring forth disparate voices from the Quad Cities Community.



In order to apply, poets must submit a cover letter, a writing resume, five representative poems, a purpose statement detailing what they would do as resident and their availability during April 2012. For more details pertaining to the submission requirements, visit the MWC Residency website page. 

Time is running out so submit your application today!

The Midwest Writing Center will begin accepting applications for the 2012 Collins Poetry Residency May 1st

The Midwest Writing Center will begin accepting applications on May 1st for the month-long Collins Poetry Residency that will take place in April 2012. The Collins Poetry Residency was established in honor of Richard, Susan and Ryan Collins for their contributions to and encouragement of local poets.

The resident poet will facilitate at least one public reading, workshop, online poetry forum, and launch a limited edition broadside publication. The resident poet will be selected based on their writing resume, five representative poems, and their purpose statement.  Applicants must be residents in one of the following counties: Illinois’ Henry, Mercer, or Rock Island counties, or Iowa’s Clinton, Muscatine, or Scott counties. Applications will be accepted from May 1 until August 31.

The chosen poet will work under the guidance of poet Dr. Ellen Tsagaris. Tsagaris is a college professor and an advocate for community based poetry. She has written poetry since childhood and her poetry has appeared in several periodicals. Her chapbook of poetry “Sappho, I Should Have Listened” was released in April 2011 by 918studio. If you have questions abou the residency, please call or email the MWC at 563-324-1410 or mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org