Go to Winter With the Writers at Rollins College every Thursday in February 2015 for Master Classes and Readings by authors who will inspire you:
5th: Sapphire
12th: Natasha Trethewey
19th: Katie Farris and Malena Morling
26th: Amy Bloom
Category Archives: Celebrations
Central Florida Poetry Events in 2015
Peter Gordon, poet and guru of Orlando’s Chapter of the Florida State Poets Association, has delivered a laundry list of cool poetry events for you to consider in 2015:
Hi, Orlando Area Poets —
Our next meeting is January 15, 2015 at the Maitland Library. I hope you’ll all resolve to spend some time with us.
On Friday, Jan. 30 at 7:00 PM Elaine Person is hosting a Poetry Coffee House at the Maitland Library. This event includes an open mike. Elaine also teaches writing workshops at the Maitland and Winter Park Libraries. Go to their websites to get the dates and times.
The FSPA Spring Fling will take place April 10-11 in Leesburg — a very convenient location for our members. Two days of poetry for a very reasonable price. You received a registration form with your latest newsletter. If you no longer have it you can download a copy from the OPAP newsletter at www. floridastatepoetsassociation.org.
If you haven’t received a newsletter, it may be that you neglected to renew your annual membership with the FSPA. But it’s not too late. Please go to the website, download a membership form, and send it in.
Of course the big event of the year is the National Convention of State Poetry Associations in St. Petersburg June 24-28, 2015, at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel. Poets will visit from all over the country. There are fabulous workshops and events planned, and I hope all of us will take advantage of this event happening in Central Florida. Please go to the website for more information.
Finally, the third edition of the Central Florida Poetry Anthology — Looking Life in the Eye — is soliciting entries through Jan. 15, 2015. Many of our members, including me, had poems published in the first two anthologies. If you did, you know how wonderful it was to see your poems in print. If you haven’t, now is your chance. Each poet can submit up to three poems of no more than 36 lines each. Up to two may be accepted. Send your submissions to Elaine at lnprsn@aol.com or to CHB Media: chbmedia@gmail.com.
Calendars and Gratitude
The quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year’s has always been Calendar Week for me, where I spend time transferring birthdays, holidays and standing appointments from the old year to the new. This year I’m determined to get with the times and go all-electronic, if I can. But on paper or smartphone, as I plan the coming year, I dream of the places I’ll visit, the people I’ll see, and the good times to come. I wonder what surprises – good and bad – the upcoming year will hold.
2015 is the year one grand dream of mine will finally come true – the publication of my novel, Sewing Holes by Twisted Road Publications. Looking back at the writing of it gives the term “twelve years a slave” new meaning to me. Like the day you kiss your children firmly and launch them into the wide world, my only defense is: “I did the best I could,’ and my only hope is: “Go, and be a blessing to others, as you’ve been to me.”
The calendar tells me there are thirteen weeks left until the Sewing Holes launch party at the Jack Kerouac House in College Park on Saturday evening, March 28, 2015. (If you are reading this, you are invited; please save the date. Details to follow.) Twelve writers whose work I respect have kindly read the novel and sent blurbs for my publisher, Joan Leggitt, to include in the printed version; two more missed the deadline due to personal issues, but sent their thoughts anyway, to share on the book’s web page. It’s difficult to express how much their generosity means to me, but I’ll try in the following way:
For the next fourteen weeks, as my schedule allows, I will introduce you to these writers and their works, as well as to their thoughts about Sewing Holes. I hope you will come to love and appreciate them as much as I do.
I’ll start today with Sena Jeter Naslund, who has enlarged my world through her work as a writer; through her MFA program at Spalding University; and as a mentor, friend and guide on trips we’ve shared around the globe.
Then, on January 3rd, I’ll tell you about a special birthday girl, without whom Sewing Holes would not have been finished.
Stay tuned. Don’t make me come get you!
Sena Jeter Naslund
Sena Jeter Naslund has enriched my life through her wonderful books, as well as through her example of how to be a working writer, encouraging mentor, and gracious Southern lady, all at the same time. She makes it look so easy!
When I read Four Spirits, I knew I loved her. When she came to Rollins College as part of Winter With the Writers and critiqued my short story (seeds of which later appeared in my novel, Sewing Holes) I knew I respected her. And when she gave a talk about ekphrastic writing at Spalding University, I knew she inspired me. A writing exercise from that talk on writing from art inspired the title of my book.
I hope you’ll take time to read her work, and come to know and love her, too. Read (or listen to) a bit of her latest novel, The Fountain of St. James Court, or Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman.
Here’s what Sena has to say about Sewing Holes:
“In her debut novel Sewing Holes, Darlyn Finch Kuhn has written an authentic and touching account of growing up in the 1970s that ties life in Jacksonville, Florida, to the national traumas of that era. Despite her tempestuous home environment, young Honey strives to reach adulthood with her honest heart and loving spirit intact. It’s a generous tale of maturation that all young girls and their mothers and fathers should read. Sewing Holes helped me to a greater understanding of my own childhood and youth.”
~Sena Jeter Naslund
Author of Ahab’s Wife, Four Spirits, Abundance, and The Fountain of St. James Court, or, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman, (and others.)