Scarritt Bennett Center | Conference, Retreat and Educational Center in Nashville, TN | Programs | Education






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	@ SCARRITT-BENNETT The 4th Thursday of every month 7 - 8P FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Join fellow poetry enthusiasts for a monthly reading by a featured local poet. The environment is informal and conversation between the poet and audience is encouraged. Fondren Building at Scarritt-Bennett (2nd Floor) 1008 19th Ave. S. 37212 Most convenient parking is in SBC Parking Lot A which is accessible from 18th Ave. S. More info: Call 615.340.7540 or email jsohl@scarrittbennett.org 2013 POET’S CORNER CALENDAR Check back for more for poet bios and updates as they become available. JANUARY 24 - KATE BUCKLEY FEBRUARY 28 - DAVID HARRIS MARCH 28 - BRENDA BUTKA APRIL 25 - LISA DORDAL MAY 23 - JAMIE COLLINS JUNE 27 - CHRISTINA STODDARD JULY 25 - AMANDA OLIVER AUGUST 22 - BRENDA MCCLEAREN SEPTEMBER 26 - GEORGANNE HARMON OCTOBER 24 - TJ JARRETT NOVEMBER 21 - GAYLORD BREWER DECEMBER 19 - RICK HILLES JANUARY 24 - KATE BUCKLEY Kate Buckley's poems have appeared in Bellingham Review, the Cafe Review, North American Review, Shenandoah, Slipstream and numerous anthologies. She earned an MFA from Spalding University, and she is the author of A Wild Region (Moon Tide Press, 2008) and Follow Me Down (Tebot Bach, 2009). A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her awards include a Gabeheart Prize and the North American Review's James Hearst Poetry Prize. View a sample of Kate's poetry here. TOP FEBRUARY 28 - DAVID HARRIS David M. Harris is a native New Yorker translated to Middle Tennessee in 2003. He has worked in book and magazine publishing, film production, education, and journalism. His most colorful job was working in an ice cream freezer. Although his MFA is in fiction, he writes mostly poetry, which has been published by Pirene's Fountain, Gargoyle, The Labletter, and other journals. Some of his fiction has been published, too, most notably the novel Bill, the Galactic Hero: The Final Incoherent Adventure, which he wrote with Harry Harrison. He lives with his wife and daughter, two cats, four dogs, and a lot of chickens. The chickens have not yet found their way into his work. He is also the host of Difficult Listening (WRFN-LP, 107.1, www.radiofreenashville.org, Sundays 10-noon), Middle Tennessee's oldest and probably best radio show about poetry. Some of David's poetry can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3ebm4nk TOP MARCH 28 - BRENDA BUTKA Brenda Butka is a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt Medical Center, has traveled widely, and has written poetry since childhood. Her poems have been published in Spectrum, Insight, and The Cumberland Review, and she was awarded a Summer Hopwood Award for Poetry by the University of Michigan. Her paintings and drawings have been featured in shows in Nashville and in North Carolina. She notes that she and her husband have all the usual Middle Tennessee accessories: an organic farm, three daughters, two dogs, two cats, a finch, a dozen koi, sixteen cows, and two tractors. View Brenda's poetry here. TOP APRIL 25 - LISA DORDAL Lisa Dordal holds a Master of Divinity and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry, both from Vanderbilt University, and currently teaches in the English Department at Vanderbilt. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, and her chapbook, Commemoration, was released in 2012 from Finishing Line Press. She lives in Nashville with her partner, Laurie, and their two retired greyhounds. View Lisa's poetry here. TOP MAY 23 - JAMIE COLLINS James C. Collins has earned a wide variety of writing credits. Having several poems published, he was an artist-in-education who taught poetry in the school systems of Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida. He wrote plays, musicals and adapted books to theater as a cultural arts specialist for the City of Largo, Florida. Collins also co wrote and produced some audio support for the Bill of Rights Project that was nationally distributed. Using the arts as a basis, he also wrote a non-violent curriculum for schools in North Carolina for a national client. In addition, he has worked as a copywriter in advertising with national print, radio and TV ads, and he ran his own small writing business, The Write Touch. As a freelancer, he has written articles for the St. Petersburg Times and other publications. Since living in Nashville, TN, Jamie has written and published five books for children as well as his current book of poetry, Discarded Wings. View Jamie's poetry here. TOP JUNE 27 - CHRISTINA STODDARD Christina Stoddardâ€™s poems have appeared in DIAGRAM, Spoon River Poetry Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Slipstream, and Two Weeks: A Digital Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (Linebreak). Her work has received awards from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund and The Pinch Literary Awards in Poetry. Christina received her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She lives in Nashville, where she is the Managing Editor of a scholarly journal in economics and decision theory called The Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. She volunteers with the Nashville Adult Literacy Council and is a Contributing Editor at Cave Wall. View Christina's poetry at http://www.christinastoddard.com/pubs.html TOP JULY 25 - AMANDA OLIVER Amanda Gayle Oliver is a Southern Belle by birth and a New Englander by heart. Born and raised in Alabama, Oliver was first published in the Birmingham News at the age of 16. She graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a BA in Literature and Creative Writing. Most recently published in the San Diego Poetry Annual, Torrid Literary Journal, and for Steady Moon Press. Her work has also appeared in the Boston Literary Magazine, Emerge Literary Magazine, Barefoot Review, Lamplighter Review and for the Canadian Alzheimer's Society. Her poetry and prose concentrate on taking what the world sees as ugly and making it beautiful, giving a voice to the voiceless, and human connection. She craves ferris wheels, always has change for the juke box, and never misses a chance to twinkle her toes in the nearest body of water. Oliver has had three plays ("Stuck," "Elevator Music," and "Lines") produced in Alabama. She currently resides with her husband in Nashville, TN where she reads monthly with DNR Publishing group at Cafe Coco and Logue's Black Raven Emporium. View Amanda's poetry here. TOP SEPTEMBER 26 - GEORGANNE HARMON Georganne Harmon grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, where she now makes her home. Her poems have appeared in various journals, and she has been the recipient of six Tennessee Writers Alliance and Tennessee Mountain Writers awards. A longtime teacher, she currently conducts writing workshops for young people and adults. Italy, a second homeland to which she returns often, forms a part of her landscape. We Will Have Ghosts is her first book of poems. View Georganne's poetry at: http://www.chapter16.org/rhythm-workers-house http://www.alimentumjournal.com/recipe-poems#.UW1pcb-UBPM http://fractad.wordpress.com/tag/georganne-harmon https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/tabularasa/2013 TOP OCTOBER 24 - TJ JARRETT TJ Jarrett is a writer and software developer in Nashville, Tennessee. Her recent work has been published or is forthcoming in African American Review, Boston Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Boxcar Poetry Review, Callaloo, DIAGRAM, Ninth Letter, Linebreak, Rattle, Southern Poetry Anthology, Third Coast, West Branch and others. She has earned scholarships from the Colrain Manuscript Conference, Vermont Studio Center, a fellowship from the Summer Literary Seminars 2012, a runner up for the 2012 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize, a runner up for the 2012 New Issues Poetry Prize and her collection The Moon Looks Down and Laughs was selected as a finalist for the 2010 Tampa Review Prize for poetry. Her debut collection Ain’t No Grave will be published with New Issues Press in the fall of 2013. Her second collection Zion (winner of the Crab Orchard Open Competition 2013) will be published by Southern Illinois University Press in the fall of 2014. View TJ's poetry here. NOVEMBER 21 - GAYLORD BREWER Gaylord Brewer holds a BA from the University of Louisvilleâ€”his native cityâ€”and an MA and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Give Over, Graymalkin and The Martini Diet (winner of the 2006 Orphic Prize for Poetry), as well as the comic novella Octavius the 1st. Brewer has published over 800 poems in journals and anthologies, such as Best American Poetry and the Bedford Introduction to Literature, and his plays have been staged in Chicago, Columbus, Nashville, New York, and Valdez, Alaska. He is a professor at Middle Tennessee State University, where he has edited the journal Poems & Plays and taught since 1993. In 2009, Brewer was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission. He has also taught in London, Russia and Kenya (for the Summer Literary Seminars), and the 2010 Prague Summer Program. View Brewer’s poetry at http://www.gaylordbrewer.com/poems.html.		CONTACTS Joyce Sohl 615-340-7540 jsohl@scarrittbennett.org