Hessler Street Fair Winners!

The 2017 Hessler Street Fair poetry contest reading was at the Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern tonight.  Some great poems, and great performances.
Congrats to the winners of the 2017 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest:

• First place (tie):
• Vince Robinson, "Star Struck"
• Christine Howey, "I Was a Male Impersonator for 40 Years"
• Second place:
• Devlinbleu Chambers "Environmental Super Nova"
• Third Place:
• Keely Aaliyah, "I Am a Soldier"

The winning poets at Happy Dog: (left to right) Keely Aaliyah, Christine Howey, Devlinbleu Chambers, Vince Robinson (photo by GL)

The winners will perform on the main stage at the Hessler Street Fair June 3-4 2017 11 am to dusk (watch this space for details of the time), and simulcast live on WRUW-FM 91.1. The Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology (published by Writing Knights Press) with the winning poems as well as all the contributed poems for the contest, will be available at the Mac's Backs booth at the fair, or can be purchased for $14.00 from Mac's Backs Books on Coventry or from Writing Knights Press.

• Read Azriel Johnson's review of the reading in The Bard Newsletter

365 Days of Writing at Writing Knights

Azriel Johnson, at Writing Knights, has started a year-long series of exercises for how to write poetry (but also somewhat applicable to other types of creative writing), with a post every day, starting the beginning of May. (The series is also reposted at NEOpoets.org).  So far, the series has gotten to week eight.
If you want to learn poetry-- or if you're already a poet, but might like some exercises as a tune-up-- or if you just like to read about poetry-- check it out.

• Introduction: a Pretentious Attempt at Instruction
• Introduction: Your Own Form
• Week One: Originality
• Week Two: Emotional Content
• Week Three: Habituation
• Week Four: Expression
• Week Five: Form Poetry
• Week Six: Free Verse Poetry
• Week Seven: Enjambment
• Week Eight: Prose Poetry
• Week Nine: Caesura
• Week Ten: Focus and Emphasis
• Week Eleven: Rhyming
• Week Twelve: Alliteration
• Week Thirteen: Assonance
• Week Fourteen: Meter
• Week Fifteen: Showing vs Telling
• Week Sixteen: Using Your Senses
• Week Seventeen: Colors
• Week Eighteen: Actions
• Week Nineteen: Details
• Week Twenty: Using Stronger Words
• Week Twenty-one: Profanity & Slang
• Week Twenty-two: Self-Censorship & Intention
• Week Twenty-three: Metaphor vs Simile
• Week Twenty-four: Academic Poetry
• Week Twenty-five: Nature
• Week Twenty-six: Intellectual Content
• Week Twenty-seven: Internal Editor
• Week Twenty-eight: Underground-Street
• Week Twenty-nine: Lyrics
• Week Thirty: Juxtaposition

Link to the entire series
alternate link (NEOpoets)

Poet's Haven Halloween Jubilee

The Poet's Haven will be holding a Halloween Jubilee on Saturday, October 31st at Oak Knoll Park in Massillon! Doors will open at noon with poetry and music performances starting at 1:00. This will be an all-ages event featuring poetry and music performances from; Steve Brightman, Theresa Göttl Brightman, Nikann Charney, Joshua Gage, Marissa Hyde, Azriel Johnson, KnowEyePoetry Collective (CUPSI team from College of Wooster), Kristen Laine, Lennart Lundh, Nick Mayberry, Jen Pezzo, Vince Robinson, Dan Smith, J.E. Stanley, and The Stetson-Marlowe Project. J.E. Stanley's new book, The Persistence of Night, will be making its debut here. We will also be joined by our friends from Blood Pudding Press, Crisis Chronicles Press, and Writing Knights Press. Food and drinks will be available, with sales in support of the Lake Effect Poetry slam team!

More info on Facebook.

So, Do You Want a Challenge?

I challenge you!

It's National Poetry Month, and poetic challenges are coming thick and fast.

If you want to write a poem a day, you shouldn't complain that nobody's challenging you!

Are you up for it?

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Over on Cuyahoga County Public Library's 30 Days of Poetry site, the first challenge is up:

April 1: Think abou​t opposites:

• If we could make April Fool’s Day into April Sage's Day, how would it be celebrated? Write a poem of decrees for such a day.

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Meanwhile, the Writing Knights have set up their own challenge-a-day for the month of April. Their challenges will all dealing with "vestigal words".  The goal is to use the word in that day's poem:

Writing Knights April 1 challenge:

• Today's word is: Agelast: a person who never laughs. Use the word in today's poem.

--e-mail your poem to Writing Knights, or post your challenge poem to their facebook page.

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And, over at "Poetic Asides," Robert Lee Brewer kicks off another month of April poetry challenges:

PAD Challenge, day 1:

• For today’s prompt, write a resistance poem. There are many forms of resistance, including militant resistance, resistance to new ideas, the resistance in exercise, and maybe even a little resistance to starting a new project. I hope you don’t resist the urge to write a poem today.

(Brewer' also gives a list of Poetic challenge tips-- worth reading even if you aren't doing the challenges,)
--Post your challenge poem to the comments of Poem A Day.

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Page A Day Poetry

Writing Knights just released their anthology of 365 poems: a poem a day for 2015, including eight of mine. Check it out here: https://www.createspace.com/4927522

Poetry Returns to Bela Dubby on 8/25

Writing Knights Press Proudly Presents:

John Burroughs
The Ian Shaw Band
Eva Xanthopoulos
D.L. Woure
Ben Peridol
Jacob Dahlke

MC: Azriel Johnson

Writing Knights Press is a Cleveland Based Publishing Company and Internet Poetry Collective. Writing Knights is always looking for new Writers to help publish.

For more details, check out: http://writingknights.com