Meetings & Events
To see ALL Austin Poetry Society events, news, and calls for submissions for this month, check out our latest newsletter!
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APS members enjoying the program
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APS Critique Group: Saturday, August 11, 2018, 1:30pm
Bring 10 copies of a poem to share. Email elizabethrebeccakropf@gmail.
Location: Old Quarry Branch Library – 7051 Village Center Dr, Austin, TX 78731
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APS Critique Group: Saturday, September 8, 2018, 1:30pm
Bring 10 copies of a poem to share. Email elizabethrebeccakropf@gmail.
Location: Millwood Branch Library – 12500 Amherst Dr, Austin, TX 78727
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, September 15, 2018, 1:30-3:30pm
Guest Speaker: Brittani Sonnenberg
Topic: In Praise of the “Lazy” Poet: How embracing idleness can take your poetry to profoundly new places. Drawing on insights from poet Matthew Zapruder and the late Brenda Ueland, we will discuss the paradox of “work ethic” in a creative practice.
Bio: Brittani Sonnenberg is a fiction writer, journalist, and poet. She is the author of the novel Home Leave, and her fiction has been published in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2008 as well as Ploughshares, Short Fiction, and Asymptote. Her nonfiction has appeared in Time, Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Austin Monthly, and NPR Berlin. She has two poems forthcoming in the North American Review, and her short poem “Coyote Wedding” was recently made into a short film for the Visual Poetry Project.
* Monthly Contest entries will be due at this meeting. *
Location: Little Walnut Creek Library – 835 W Rundberg Ln, Austin, TX 78758
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APS Critique Group: Saturday, October 13, 2018, 1:30pm
Bring 10 copies of a poem to share. Email elizabethrebeccakropf@gmail.
Location: Old Quarry Branch Library – 7051 Village Center Dr, Austin, TX 78731
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, October 20, 2018, 1:30-3:30pm
Guest Speaker: Agnes Eva Savich
Topic: Haiku
Bio: Agnes Eva Savich was born in Poland and grew up in Chicago. She has a degree in Comparative Literature from Northwestern University. She’s been in Austin since 2004 and currently lives in Pflugerville with her husband and two kids. In addition to writing poetry, she plays the oboe in local ensembles and works at UT Austin. She has a published book of early poetry called The Watcher: Poems. Since 2003, she’s been writing mainly haiku, and has had over 200 published in journals such as Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Acorn, and The Heron’s Nest. She has also received awards and honorable mentions in many haiku contests. Some of the more interesting wins have placed her haiku on display in San Antonio busses, the Holden Arboretum in Ohio, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Golden Triangle garden beds near the White House. She went to her first Haiku North America conference last year in Santa Fe, and was honored to win first prize in the haiku contest among so many masters. She can’t wait for the next HNA conference in 2019 in Winston-Salem, NC.
* Winners of the Monthly Contest will be announced at this meeting. *
Location: Twin Oaks Library – 1800 S 5th St, Austin, TX 78704
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APS Critique Group: Saturday, November 3, 2018, 1:30pm
Bring 10 copies of a poem to share. Email elizabethrebeccakropf@gmail.
Location: Millwood Branch Library – 12500 Amherst Dr, Austin, TX 78727
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, November 17, 2018, 1:30-3:30pm
Guest Speaker: Allyson Whipple
Topic: Hawks Don’t Circle: Accuracy and Specificity in Nature Poetry
Bio: Allyson Whipple holds and MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. She co-edited the Texas Poetry Calendar from 2015-2018, and currently serves as the director of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. She is the author of two chapbooks, most recently Come Into the World Like That (Five Oaks Press, 2016). She teaches technical communication at Austin Community College.
* Monthly Contest entries will be due at this meeting. *
Location: Twin Oaks Library – 1800 S 5th St, Austin, TX 78704
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APS Critique Group: Saturday, December 8, 2018, 1:30pm
Bring 10 copies of a poem to share. Email elizabethrebeccakropf@gmail.
Location: Old Quarry Branch Library – 7051 Village Center Dr, Austin, TX 78731
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, December 15, 2018, 1:30-3:30pm
APS Holiday Party and Open Mic
* Winners of the Monthly Contest will be announced at this meeting. *
Location: Twin Oaks Library – 1800 S 5th St, Austin, TX 78704
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, January 19, 2019, 1:30-3:30pm 12:00PM – 2:15PM (<– Note the earlier time for this meeting!)
Guest Speaker: Tony Burnett
Overview: The January meeting of the Austin Poetry Society will feature Tony Burnett discussing the recent evolution of the publishing industry and how the proliferation of small presses relate to the rise of poetry’s popularity as a literary art form. As the “man behind the curtain” at Kallisto Gaia Press, he will share the secret of how their business model allows the press to publish print journals and simultaneously pay the poets and writers they publish. Hint: It may well include magic!
Bio: Tony Burnett served as Board President of the Writers’ League of Texas from 2013 through 2017. He’s the managing editor of Kallisto Gaia Press . His work has been published in over 50 international literary journals and anthologies. His books include the poetry collection, The Reckless Hope of Scoundrels and the story collection, Southern Gentlemen. He lives in rural central Texas with his trophy wife, Robin, where his hobbies include poking wasp’s nests with a short stick and wandering aimlessly about.
* Monthly Contest entries will be due at this meeting. *
Location: Windsor Park Library – 5833 Westminster Dr, Austin, TX 78723 (<– This is a change from what was originally published.)
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, February 16, 2019, 1:30-3:30pm
Guest Speaker: Lisa Grant Davis and Jennine Krueger
“Spoken Word” has come to refer to a wide range of poetic expression. In African-American communities, its roots are found in the Harlem Renaissance and the style relies heavily on intonation and artful patterns of speech. Join Lisa Grant Davis and Jennine Krueger, spoken word artists who perform under the stage names “maljazur” and “Doc”, respectively, for a discussion of the art form. They will share their experience on the local Spoken Word scene and lead participants in an interactive journey through a Spoken Word open mic session.
Bios:
Lisa Grant Davis is a Training Manager with Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Jennine Krueger is an English Professor at Huston-Tillotson University.
* Winners of the Monthly Contest will be announced at this meeting. *
Location: Twin Oaks Library – 1800 S 5th St, Austin, TX 78704
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, March 16, 2019, 1:00-2:15pm (<– Note time change)
Guest Speaker: Angelique Jamail
Bio: Angélique Jamail’s poetry and essays have appeared in over two dozen anthologies and journals, including New Reader Magazine, Waxwing, Time-Slice, Improbable Worlds, Pluck Magazine, The Milk of Female Kindness––An Anthology of Honest Motherhood, Untameable City: Poems on the Nature of Houston, Femmeliterate, Bayou City Magazine, and The Enchantment of the Ordinary. Her work was selected as a Finalist for the New Letters Prize in Poetry in 2011. Her magic realism novelette Finis. (Odeon Press), first published in 2014, has been praised by fiction writer Ari Marmell as having “some of the most real people I’ve encountered via text in a long time,” and by poet Marie Marshall as “a witty tale of conformity, prejudice, and transformation, in a world that is disturbing as much for its familiarity as for its strangeness.” Her poetry collection The Sharp Edges of Water (Odeon Press) came out in 2019. She teaches Creative Writing and English in Houston. Find her online at her blog Sappho’s Torque (www.SapphosTorque.com).
* Monthly Contest entries will be due at this meeting. *
Location: Carver Branch Library – 1161 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, April 20, 2019, 1:00-3:30pm (<– Note time change)
Guest Speaker: Diana Conces
Are you ready to let your creative energies flow during National Poetry Month? Join us at the April 2018 meeting of the Austin Poetry Society for an interactive workshop led by Diana L. Conces, editor of the APS anthology! Diana will lead you through a poetry game, which will leave you with inspiration–and maybe even a finished poem or two. Following the workshop, we’ll have voting for the March/April monthly contest and an open mic.
* Winners of the Monthly Contest will be announced at this meeting. *
Location: Carver Branch Library – 1161 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702
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APS Monthly Meeting: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 1:30-3:30PM
Annual Awards Ceremony!
Location: Carver Branch Library – 1161 Angelina St, Austin, TX 78702
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