Teachers Act Up!

Incredible artwork by Jim Woglom!

I love to take my courses into public life and meaning–this summer, I am a lucky professor who gets to work intensely with creative educators on the craft, practice, and possibilities of poetry! Whether they become a poet or simply immerse themselves in the life of a poet for a week–no matter! What matters is the collective experience of advanced creativity and lyrical meaning making.  How we each translate this experience into our lives as teachers, researchers, poets, and community members will be a creative act of living!

We will culminate our course with a July readings series “Seat in the Shade” with some of the best published poets in Georgia who will share their words and wisdom with us every evening at the Globe July 9-12.  Our course will culminate with a reading from our “collective” of creative poet-educators on Friday July 13.  Please join us in spirit or person this summer! See the line up below…!

Seat in the Shade: A Summer Poetry Readings Series

Hosted by Poetry for Educators founder, Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor (www.teachersactup.com)

July 9-13 in Athens, Georgia

Time: Readings start at 7pm

Place: The Globe

199 North Lumpkin Street, Athens, GA 30601

 (706) 353-4721

Contact information: James F. Woglom,

 jamesfwoglom@gmail.com, (908) 337-9921

Ida Stewart, July 9, 2012

Ida Stewart’s first book, Gloss, won the 2011 Perugia Press Prize. A native of West Virginia, she holds an MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University and is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing here at The University of Georgia. She’s a co-editor of Unsplendid and has also served as an editorial assistant at The Georgia Review.

Ginger Murchinson, Tuesday, July 10

Ginger Murchison, together with Thomas Lux, founded Georgia Tech’s POETRY at TECH, where she served as associate director five years and has been one of its McEver Visiting Chairs in Poetry since 2009. A three-time Pushcart nominee, she is a graduate of Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers and editor of the acclaimed Cortland Review. Her first collection of poems, Out Here, was published by Jeanne Duval Editions in 2008.

Ayodele Heath, Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Born in Atlanta, poet M. Ayodele Heath is a graduate of the MFA program at New England College. His debut poetry collection, Otherness, is available on Brick Road Poetry Press. Heath’s honors include a 2009 Dorothy Rosenberg Prize and a McEver Visiting Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech. He has been awarded fellowships from Cave Canem, Summer Poetry at Idyllwild, and the Caversham Centre for Writers & Artists in South Africa and received a grant in Literary Arts from the Atlanta Bureau for Cultural Affairs.

Alice Friman, Thursday, July 12

Alice Friman’s fifth book of poetry is Vinculum, LSU. Previous books are The Book of the Rotten Daughter and Inverted Fire, BkMk, and Zoo, Arkansas. She has received fellowships from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Bernheim Foundation. Among her prizes are a 2012 Pushcart Prize, the 2001 James Boatwright Prize from Shenandoah, plus three prizes from the Poetry Society of America. Anthologized widely and published in thirteen countries, she was Professor of English and creative writing at the University of Indianapolis from 1973 to 1993 and is now Poet-in-Residence at Georgia College & State University.

Poetry by and for Educators, Friday July 13–Readings from the Collective

A night of readings from University of Georgia educators and poets.