Kim Stafford Posts Video of William's "Fifteen"

William Stafford wrote the poem "Fifteen" about an event in Hutchinson, Kansas. Or did it really happen? This 4 min. video by Kim Stafford explores the true reality of a poem. Thanks to Kim and the William Stafford Archives.

Denise Low Will Present Ks. Authors Club Workshop 20 Feb. 2016

The Line-Dance of Poetry: A Workshop. The poetic line is the measure of both lyric and narrative

poetry. Paul Verlaine said, "Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking." TThis workshop explores the biological origin of lyric and epic lines as well as practical guidelines for creating effective breaks. Bring copies (enough to share) of three short poems or one long poem. 

Kansas Authors Club's workshop leader is former Kansas Poet Laureate Denise Low, Sat., Feb. 20:
(Lackman Library, 15345 W 87th Pkwy, Lenexa, 9:30 a.m. to noon. This presentation is limited to 15 people.There will be a small fee for this workshop. Denise Low, will have copies of her book Jackalope available at a discount.

Denise Low, grew up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, descended from British Isles, German, and Native (Delaware and Cherokee) peoples. She was the 2007-2009 Kansas Poet Laureate, with over twenty published books of poetry, personal essays, and scholarship, including Natural Theologies (The Backwaters Press, 2011) and Ghost Stories: Poems (Woodley Press, 2010, a Kansas Notable Book Award winner). For over 25 years she taught at Haskell Indian Nations University. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Kansas and University of Richmond. She has awards from the NEH, Sequoyah National Research Center, Lannan Foundation, The Newberry Library, Academy of American Poets, and Kansas Arts Commission. Denise's numerous books can be found at The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence and online via Small Press Distribution and Amazon. 
For additional information, contact district president Ronda Miller: coachingforliferonda@yahoo.com 
Denise Low website: http://deniselow.net/

The Kansas City Literary Scene Is Diffused throughout the City

As a 30+ year veteran book reviewer for the Kansas City Star, and a writer/publisher myself, I have watched 

the literary arts developments on both side of the Muddy Mo. KC is a very literary city, as well as one populated by musicians and artists.The KC scene is diffused and vibrant, with many foci of interest:

• UMKC, which has an MFA program with Hadara Bar-Nadav and Michelle Boisseau (they co-edit the important text Writing Poetry); novelists Michael Pritchett, Christie Hodgen, and Whitney Terrell; and Robert Stewart, essayist and poet. http://cas.umkc.edu/english/grad-program/mfa.asp
• Robert Stewart also directs the New Letters suite of media: New Letters journal; New Letters on the Air (nationally syndicated); and BkMk Press. A national contest and annual writing conference are also sponsored by NL http://www.newletters.org/
• Rockhurst College sponsors a first-rate poetry reading series, The Midwest Poets Series, that sponsors nationally recognized poets http://www.rockhurst.edu/center-arts-letters/midwest-poets-series/
• The Kansas City Art Institute has distinguished poets and a reading series. Faculty includes Anne Boyer, Cyrus Console, Rush Rankin, Ben Furnish, Jordan Stempleman, Trey Hock, and Phyllis Moore. There is a creative writing degree program. http://kcai.edu/academics/majors/creative-writing/ 
• Other area universities with MFA programs/graduate programs in writing include U. of Ks. (1 hr. away) and other Ks. universities (Pittsburg St. U., K. State, Wichita St. U.); Mo. U. (3 hrs. away); U of Neb.-Omaha (3 hrs. away); Des Moines U. and Drake (3 hrs.), Iowa U. (4 hrs. away), Iowa State, and other Iowa universities; Washington U. in St. Louis (5 hrs. away) and other St. Louis universities.
• Latino Writers Collective is at 3607 Pennsylvania, and they sponsor readings, workshops, and publications. Their website is: http://latinowriterscollective.org/
• The Writers Place is a literary writing center that works actively with school children as well as providing an ambitious slate of adult classes and programming. The WP has meeting rooms and a library of literary prose and poetry. The excellent old mansion is host to ghost explorers on occasion as well as writers. http://www.writersplace.org/
• The Recipe, Spoken Word / Jazz, Hip Hop / Blues, R&B in Kansas City, MO https://www.reverbnation.com/therecipe and the Natasha Ria El-Scari Recipe Poetry Guild   https://www.facebook.com/TRPGLLC?hc_location=ufi  The Black Poetry Collective of KC seems to have disbanded. These organizations are new incarnations.
• The Kansas City MO Public Library hosts many book events—it is 5^th nationally in programming, it is rumored. CSpan records some of their events, and they archive these and many more. They have ten active locations. http://www.kclibrary.org/events/list?type=187.  The Johnson County library system also has active events, including the Thomas Zvi Wilson reading series.
• National Storytelling Network (NSN) has national headquarters at the Woodneath Story Center located in Kansas City North. 33-acre Woodneath Library Campus. Its mission is to “celebrate the art of story and its power to help people communicate more effectively, connect and build community, preserve personal and cultural histories, and develop creativity and self-expression.” http://www.mymcpl.org/_uploaded_resources/NSN.pdf
• Prospero’s Bookstore (several locations) in KC sells new and used literary books plus sponsors a monthly publication series through their own Spartan Press--called Pop Poetry Series. Their events include monthly book launches with $10 admission that includes the book. They are into their third year. The press sells out of the 300-500+ printings of their titles. They have civic grants plus person-power of their own designers and typesetters. https://www.facebook.com/Spartan-Press-572290779485051/
• Rainy Day books is a major sponsor of reading events and book groups http://www.rainydaybooks.com/author-events
• Poetry slam venues in KS/MO include the KC Jazz Museum. More poetry slams are:  Pound SLAM at Uptown Arts Bar (first Wednesday of every month at 9 PM). There is also a non-competitive showcase called Nique, which features Spoken Word artists, that also performs quarterly at the same venue (dates subject to change).Uptown Arts Bar is a performance art venue with a focus on poetry and spoken word; events include: Poetic Underground open mic every Wednesday at 9 pm, Blue Mondays Poetry Open Mic with guest feature every 2nd Monday at 8 pm, and many more literary and poetic events. Contact Art Jones for information.
  

• KC Fringe Festival--KC Fringe is a Missouri-based not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support artists, celebrate expression and engage the community. Spoken word is featured among other performing and visual arts  http://kcfringe.org/

• Many other private and community literary events take place throughout the metro. Kansas. Please add to this list!

Many literary figures spent time in KC or grew up there—but that’s another list. Lawrence, of course, is just a short row up the Kansas River. 

Beatnik Night Inspires Poems by Lindsey Martin-Bowen and Barry R. Barnes

For those in the Baldwin City, KS, area, here's an upcoming poetry event and poems inspired by it: 

Baldwin City Library February 16th at 7:00 p.m. The Library Friends will offer Beatnik Night, and the Activity Room will be transformed into a hip coffee house,  with bongo drums, candle lighting, and refreshments by Jitters. For information contact: Mary Lou Klein marylou.klein@gmail.com Barry Barnes is a Mammoth Publications author and musician. Lindsey Martin-Bowen's latest book of poetry is Inside Virgil's Garage (Chatter House Press). 

BEATNIK NIGHT IN BALDWIN CITY, KANSAS By Lindsey Martin-Bowen

                                     for Denise Low-Weso

They’re all here—those hip ghosts from the past,

Burroughs, Waldrum, Ginsberg, Kerouac—

Ferlinghetti’s riding a Ferris

wheel behind the City Library,

where everyone’s in black, fingers snap

Bohemian drumbeats, and bongos

back up poetry readings ranging

from whispers to shouts and the rhythm

of sticks beating hard as blood pulsing

through arteries after tough swimming

in the Y on a February

day, icy with charcoal smells, when

berets on ears fail to keep them warm.
It’s still a cool way to brave the storm.

                                                 Lindsey Martin-Bowen ©2016

BLACK by Barry R. Barnes

Beret turtleneck sunglasses

Smoky dark room

Slap of bongos

Thump of bass

Feel that beat

Nick

The things I learned

From sixties TV sitcoms

Barry R Barnes © 2016

                Triggered By Lindsey Martin-Bowen

Further details about Beatnik Night: All ages are invited to share poetry readings, their own work or that of others. A five-minute time limit will be enforced by musical intervention. No applause will be allowed, but in true beatnik fashion, appreciative finger snapping is encouraged. While the Friends Board members plan to come in black clothing complete with berets, no costumes are required for participants. Come one, come all, to enjoy a unique experience of literary fun!

Denise Low Reviews Mihku Paul's 20th Century Powwow Playland

                “We speak a strange tongue. / We are ghosts haunting ourselves.” Wow. This is how Mihku Paul ends “Mother Tongue,” part of 20th Century PowWow Playland. This collection of verse concerns itself with histories of displacement—personal and tribal. Mixed-blood Native people are a central topic, and she coins the term “Amerindia” (in the poem of the same name) for the place where “Those hybrids roam from Mexico to Montreal.” Erasure of language is one concern, and physical changes are another as she writes:

In a thousand years, whose captive

face will hover, imprisoned in silvered glass?

What name will you call her,

whose eyes were you own, staring back,

as the mirror shattered and

the tree bore this new fruit? (53)

The North American diaspora aftermath leaves children “honey-dipped, tea-stained” and with “green eyes.” Paul explores what is lost in communities with disrupted narratives as she writes, “We are, all of us, cast on a burning wind.” Such phrases as “Ghosts haunting ourselves,” “captive faces,” and “burning wind” illustrate the strength of the poet’s voice.

                “The Anishinaaabe and other natives have endured in virtual cartography, the certain mete of native sovereignty,” writes Ojibwe author Gerald Vizenor, who comes from a similar Algonquian language tradition as Paul. She re-maps the continent, the shore, the rivers, and the cities. “Acadia” is a love poem to a person and to a place. She asserts personal as well as community sovereignty as she creates a literary work that reimagines form. She selects her own subject matter.

                This book is an act of courage. “Before the ships, nature was our only mirror” is another zinger (from “Bright Colors from the Earth and Sky). The poem continues to catalogue the colors of nature:

A scarlet-feathered cardinal

perched on a spruce tree.

Umber-striated quills on

a grumbling porcupine’s back.

Silver winter’s whiteness, snow and ice.

Black shadow of a bear’s silhouette.

Purple sheen, chokecherries

drooping from a thin branch.

Pale green skunk cabbage

sprouting from the brown earth.

Orange ochre riverbank clay,

indigo night and robin’s egg.

Golden, the morning sun’s eye. (60)

These images reclaim a worldview. The poem continues from mapping land to reconfiguring time into “Beaver Moons.”

                Throughout this collection, Paul is startlingly original. Never does she fall into easy, homogenized lines. Always, her intelligence is at work. She joins other Native poets of the Northeast who revitalize Indigenous traditions.

20th Century PowWow Playland by Mihku Paul (Greenfield Center: Bowman Books, 2012)

ISBN-13: 978-1105786105, Paperback: 82 pages

Mihku Paul is a Maliseet poet, writer, and visual artist with an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. Her poetry appears in Cabildo Quarterly Online, Maine Wabanaki REACH, Native Literature: Generations, and others. Paul’s first multi-media installation “Look Twice: The Waponahki in Image & Verse,” went on exhibit in October 2009 at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. The exhibit is a compilation of twelve panels that combine archival images of Waponahki history and culture with original poems. She is an enrolled member of Kingsclear First Nations, New Brunswick, Canada. She lives in Portland, Maine.  

Jackalope by Denise Low--Good reviews, some copies available!

BUY COPIES THROUGH PAY PAL. link.
Thanks for the good reviews of my short fiction/poetry book JACKALOPE,  by public radio station Wichita Eagle, Mysha Phelps of the UDK, George Martin, and others!

KCUR's Ben Pfieffer, Lisa McClendon of the
The first printing is sold out, and another is on the way. While we wait, I have copies available.Links to reviews, excerpts, details of purchase are on my website Jackalope: Deniselow.net  Thanks for the good sales of the first printing!
The book has been unavailable at Small Press Distribution, the publisher, and Amazon (they have return policies that undercut literary publishers like Jackalope's Red Mountain Press). I have some copies available and can ship in a day or two.

Lisa McClendon of the Wichita Eagle reviews Jackalope by Denise Low

The jackalope of Denise Low’s creation is a friendly, gender-changing, juniper-juice-drinking storyteller but also a bit of a trickster – as rabbits tend to be in Native American lore – whose worldview is tinged with both humor and the occasional world-weariness.. . . See more:

http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/books/article49555830.html#storylink=cpy

DENISE LOW INTERVIEWS DENNIS ETZEL, JR. RE: MEMOIR-BASED POETRY

Dennis Etzel, Junior, agreed to answer a few questions about his new book and his memoir/documentary-based writing projects. He is a fabulous reader and advocate for the arts, if anyone needs a program. He inspires me both with his community contributions and fine work. I recommend his book, available from his website (below) and FaceBook. He is one of the reasons Lawrencians haverespect for our upriver neighbors in Topeka!
 DL: Please list the titles of your books and chapbooks (and where to get them).
DE: My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015); The Sum of Two Mothers (ELJ Publications 2013); My Graphic Novel (Kattywompus Press 2015). Available at The Raven, Prospero’s, and my website
I do like selling them from my website for people who can’t come to readings, as I sign them and include other fun memorabilia. For My Secret Wars of 1984, I include a pack of cards, buttons, Pop Rocks, or other things that are from 1984 or 1984-inspired.

 ​DL: I notice your books have thematic unity. How do these book-length topics come to you?

DE: I enjoy working out of my memoir, writing about topics of survival, LGBT communities, pro-feminism, class, Patriarchy, etc. I often come up with a project and go through with it. For example, My Secret Wars of 1984 is an alphabetized 366-sentence poetry-memoir collage, using texts from

the year 1984 (Lyn Hejinian, Ronald Johnson, bell hooks, Marvel Comics, Dungeons & Dragons, President Reagan, etc.) with sentences of my own—within the context of political and personal struggles of that time (my mother coming out in the midst of living in a conservative neighborhood, America in a recession, daily nuclear bomb threats, etc.).
                My Secret Wars of 1984 developed from the Ronald Johnson Reading Group in Lawrence back in 2011. After thinking about how that was one rough year for me, I thought I could examine that time through documentary poetics strategies. i knew the sentences should have tension, play with words, etc. to describe my personal story. At the same time, I looked for texts from 1984—texts to reflect what I was reading (comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, Orwell, etc.), as well as what inspires me now (bell hooks, Hejinian). As it was an election year, Ronald Reagan had to work his way in, as he scared me! He truly scared me with his talk about nuclear war, as if he was ready to show those Russians!
                Using different texts--the appropriation--along with my sentences to create a collage, I was worried how I could put a stop to my collecting. I figured, 1984 was a leap year, so I would collect 356 sentences. Also, if each sentence was a part of that year, a part of me, then no sentence should be lesser than any other. Based on a poem by Carolyn Forche called "Blue Hour," I realized I could alphabetize the whole thing and that would be that—to mimic what I used to do with my music, comic books, and such.
                It took time to locate and read through the texts after I got home. I also included song titles, movies titles, etc. I placed each sentence in an Excel spreadsheet, along with where I found the sentence, if it was my own, etc. in different columns. This allowed me to alphabetize the sentences within moments, but could return back to the original sequence by source (alphabetizing the column of sources). When I started playing with the idea of stanzas, it truly worked as a book-length piece. What I love about the collection is that it was fun to write, to collect, to create. The surprise of going from one sentence to another sentence creates its own metaphor—placing two unlike things together to say they can be compared or are the same. Prose Poetry seems to work on that level, from sentence to sentence for enjambment.
                Another thing I love about the collection is it does what I set out to accomplish--to pull off a memoir as text as representation, borderlining the confessional mode. It's hard for me to read confessional poetry anymore, but the experimental mode seems the best way to convey true emotions without pointing the finger or dropping a ton of lead onto someone's foot.

DL: What made you want to be a poet?

DE: A young boy told me that people write poetry to say the things they normally wouldn’t say, to share feelings they wouldn’t normally feel. I wanted to do that. During my first years at Washburn University earning a degree in Computer Systems Analysis, Dr. Jorge Nobo from Washburn’s Philosophy Department gave me advice on how to improve my writing: carry a thesaurus and write in a journal daily. I did, and that journal became really personal. It was a way to get my deeper voice on paper, to examine my life and wish to connect with others. The journal held my first poems. I then went to an open-mic poetry night at the Classic Bean and realized poets were alive and well, not only being published around the country, but living in Topeka. I was dedicated from then on.

DL: You have an MFA and other degrees. What helped your writing from your education?

DE: Each degree in English helped me further to realizing I wanted to write out of memoir, to play with what the “I” could do, and to write something past post-Confessionalism. Working with all of my mentors showed me different ways of exploring form based on each person’s preference in her or his own writing.

DL: What did you learn on your own?

DE: I read everything I could—wishing to be as well-read as possible. My own studies of various writers taught me how form and context serves the poem’s intent in different ways.

DL: What do you want to accomplish in your writing?

DE: I am still exploring those things from the past, as well as wanting to explore the Patriarchal, racist, sexist, anti-LGBT, classist culture we are a part of. They are intertwined—the public and the private. If I can write as a form of activism, I want it to be a part of the many other voices speaking now.

DL: What poetic form in your poetry is interesting to you and how/why?

DE: I vary in forms. My chapbooks are lyrical, and I’ve began making those poems into a full-length collection. I also love how My Secret Wars turned out. I have also started experimenting with poems as footnotes to other poems—embedded like Matroyshka dolls.

DL: Please give a sample poem in that form.

DE:

yearbook pages⁵ surveyed

 

 

 

 

 

 

I alienate myself on this planet

 but record as an anthropologist

every name of each lifeform
as this was my world

 

 5

as a closed-off street I walked
sometimes as a clown
to put on a face
recognized with
two outcasts hung out with me
one my best friend I knew
the first and last name
of every last student
the first thing I think about
when looking back
down the blocks of photos
names like house-markers
streets I ran to escape
after the final bell to Comics
& Fantasys [sic], I am sick
of being Orpheus
I look back every time see
your own middle school for details

 ***********************************

Dennis Etzel Jr. lives with Carrie and the boys in Topeka, Kansas where he teaches English at Washburn University. He has an MFA from The University of Kansas, and an MA and Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Kansas State University. He has two chapbooks, The Sum of Two Mothers (ELJ Publications 2013) and My Graphic Novel (Kattywompus Press 2015), and a full-length poetic memoir My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015). His work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, Fact-Simile, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3:AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. He is a TALK Scholar for the Kansas Humanities Council and leads poetry workshops in various Kansas spaces. Please feel free to connect with him at dennisetzeljr.com.

 

 

Kansas Poet Laureate Eric McHenry Explains Poetry

Eric McHenry, the fifth and current Kansas Poet Laureate, recently shared insights about poetry at Kansas City Kansas Community College. He described the unique place of poetry among the arts: ““A poem is composed of words. A song is composed of notes, and a painting is composed of paint. But the historical function of paint is not to mean. The historical function of notes is not to mean,' he said. 'However, the historical function of language is to mean, to communicate, to express, to convey and to make things clearer.'” Here is the article about his visit to KCKCC, with more of his insights about poetry:

                 Eric McHenry, the Poet Laureate of Kansas, visited Kansas City Kansas Community College Oct. 29 to share his talent and love of poetry with students, faculty, staff and community members. “The best poems, for me, are the opposite of page turners, they are page don’t turners,” he said. “When I finish a page of poetry that blows me away, the last thing I want to do is turn the page. I want to stay there with it, re-enter it, and continue digging until I have gotten to the bottom of it. Some of the best poems I know on the surface are the furthest things one can imagine from a page turner.”

Denise Low, Eric McHenry, Wyatt Townley, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

                McHenry was named the 2015-17 Poet Laureate of Kansas by the Kansas Humanities Council in April. As poet laureate, he will work to promote the humanities as a public resource in Kansas through appearances, presentations, public readings and discussions throughout the state. His visit to KCKCC was jointly sponsored by the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Division; Institutional Services; the KCKCC Library and the Intercultural Center.
                One of the poems McHenry recited was “The Bean Eaters” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Born in 1917 in Topeka, Kan., she was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950. McHenry said he had the honor of meeting Brooks in the late 1990s when she visited Washburn University.
                Another poem that he shared was “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost. He described the poem as “an experience. It is a world we can enter and inhabit. The point of the poem, to me, is its existence,” he said. “This is not to say this is a poem without meanings that we can apply to our own lives and experiences. One of the reasons the poem seems so real, so true, is because it speaks to experiences so many of us have had.” . . . .  McHenry said many times when reading poetry, people look to find the meaning. He said looking for that meaning might be an unreasonable to ask of a poem. “A poem is composed of words. A song is composed of notes, and a painting is composed of paint. But the historical function of paint is not to mean. The historical function of notes is not to mean,” he said. “However, the historical function of language is to mean, to communicate, to express, to convey and to make things clearer. It is a natural human reaction to a poem to say what does it mean. What is it trying to say? I think when you ask those questions, you risk restricting what the poem can be a little too much.”

---

Bio: "Known throughout the United States as a poet, McHenry is an associate professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. His work has appeared in a variety of publications including Poetry International and Yale Review. In addition, publications such as the New York Times and Columbia magazine have published his poetry reviews. His third book of poems, Odd Evening, will be published in 2016. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry seven times and is the recipient of the Theodore Roethke Prize. In 2007, he received the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for his first book of poems, Potscrubber Lullabies. It is the largest American prize for a first book of poetry."
LINKS

Eric McHenry named Poet Laureate of Kansas by the Kansas Humanities Council.

McHenry Interview with Miranda Ericsson. Same Interview as a link.

Eric McHenry on Wikipedia

Eric McHenry and his book, Potscrubber Lullabies on Waywiser Press'swebsite

Eric McHenry on Washburn University's website

Potscrubber Lullabies on Powell's Books' website

Nov. 13, 2015, Kansas City Kansas Community College 7250 State Ave. Kansas City, Kan. 66112, press release.

Alarie Tennille Responds to a Writer’s Survey

Thanks to Kansas City poet Alarie Tennille for allowing me to post her responses to my writers’ survey. I created this for several professional workshops. Tennille is a force in the Kansas City literary scene. She recently was runner-up for the prestigious Thorpe Menn Award for her book Running Counterclockwise (Aldrich Press, 2014), which I reviewed for the Kansas City Star-- A quartet of locally rooted poets  She is a thoughtful person; her wise responses are helpful for writers and readers alike.

 Personal Writing Style

1. Where do you do your best writing? Describe the table, chair, keyboard or tablet, and room or place. AT: My best first drafts are usually written somewhere cozy, usually I'm sitting on my sofa with my legs up. I write in long hand in a magic notebook. (It's magic because it seems to expand and never fill up...well, not for years anyway. I favor large sheets of lined paper in a spiral bound book that will lie flat. Cat on lap optional (at cat's discretion). Usually I have a hot mug of tea beside me, sometimes a different beverage. After that I move to my computer in my upstairs study to type it in. The room is red, and I'm surrounded by bookcases.
2. What audio environment works best for your writing? Silence or background chatter? AT: I definitely don't like chatter. I prefer silence or very soft Classical music (nothing with lyrics!). Nature sounds are fine: birds, fountains.
3. What is the feeling you get when you do your best writing? Does this happen often? AT: It doesn't have to be my best writing, just writing that pleases me at that moment. (I sometimes change my mind later.) At times, it's a peacefulness, because I can let go of my guilt about procrastination or writer's block. Other times, it's an adrenalin rush. I almost want to share it with the world right then, though I know that's not a good idea. (The adrenalin rush is typically after I hear my critique group's reaction.) Thankfully, the feeling comes pretty often and never gets old. I wrote professionally for many years and didn't have the luxury of waiting for inspiration. Now I don't pressure myself to write every day, but enough to be ready for my critique group.

Public Writing Experience

1. What kinds of experience do you have with publicly sharing writing (besides this class)? AT: If it's bringing a homework assignment in for a critique, I generally enjoy it. If it's sharing what I just wrote on-the-spot, I don't like feeling pressured to do that. My best writing rarely happens sitting at a table of strangers and working on a tight deadline.
2. What do you enjoy about public situations that involve sharing of writing? What is your favorite type of activity? AT: I love to share my writing at public readings and open mics. However, it took me many years to get over my stage fright. I like hearing and seeing the crowd's reactions. I'm often surprised which poems seem to be the evening's favorites. I can feel shy about sharing in a workshop if I don't feel I've had time to polish my work a little.
3. When you participate in a public activity you like, do you have any feelings similar to your good writing times? AT: YES! The satisfaction of reading my poems to an audience is really the culmination to my original feeling of wanting to share the poem.
4. What can you do to improve your personal satisfaction from writing? From public sharing of writing? AT: The best way to improve both craft and satisfaction is to work at it and repeat the process. If you'd told me 10-11 years ago that I'd one day enjoy giving public readings, I wouldn't have believed you.

 Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia with a genius older brother destined for NASA, a ghost, and a yard full of cats. A Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class that admitted women (B.A. with distinction in English). She met her husband, graphic artist Chris Purcell, in college. She still misses the ocean, but loves the writing community she’s found in Kansas City. After a career ranging from technical editor to greeting card writer, Alarie is retired and has more time to focus on her poetry writing. She serves on the Emeritus Board of The Writers Place. Her poem, “The Quilters of Gee’s Bend” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2010, she published a chapbook, Spiraling into Control (The Lives You Touch Publications). In 2014, Alarie celebrates her first full-length poetry collection, Running Counterclockwise (Kelsay Books: Aldrich Press), a Thorpe Menn Award finalist. Her work appears in The Whirlybird Anthology of Kansas City Writers and in numerous journals including Margie, Poetry East, Coal City Review, I-70 Review, English Journal, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and Southern Women’s Review. Website: http://alariepoet.com/ Reviews

A quartet of locally rooted poets.The Kansas City Star.

Interview: Alarie Tennille . Zingara Poet