Tiny Books, Death, & German Ekphrastic - or - Poetry Society Of Virginia Conference
May 20 & 21 the Poetry Society of Virginia held our annual conference at the Richmond Public Library 101 E. Franklin St. It was a packed two days of speakers, panels, and workshops. Our feature poet, Gabriele Glang, traveled all the way from Germany to speak on ekphrastic poetry and collaboration with Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda (former Poet Laureate of Virginia). Joshua Poteat spoke on blackout poetry and I bought a couple of cool broadsides of his and his ex-wife, Allison Titus. Both of the excerpts/poems focus on death (of course I'd be attracted to them!). Greg Donovan, Joan Mazza, and Dorinda Wegener addressed questions on publishing and submitting. Nathan Richardson (see photo on right)
discussed the tradition of oral poetry and Kyle Dargan talked about tension in poems. Robert Arthur kicked the program off with a reading. Maya Stein and Amy Tingle, The Creativity Caravan, brought their Tiny Book Tour (see photo above) and workshop from New Jersey. I bought a book from their youngest participant, Super Banana and the Ginormous Mouth. It was an energized weekend!