 |
ANGELS WITHOUT WINGS FDN. P. O. Box 1821, Monterey, CA 93942-1821 USA | 
|
|
topowl1936@gmail.com |
amykitchenerfdn@hotmail.com | |
| |||||||||
|
ANGELS WITHOUT WINGS FDN. P. O. Box 1821, Monterey, CA 93942-1821 USA |
|
|
topowl1936@gmail.com |
amykitchenerfdn@hotmail.com | |
| |||||||||
HOLIDAY NEWS & NOTES . . . This is a short newsletter to wish you a happy holiday season and update you on the status of our Senior Poets Laureate competition for American poets age 50 and older. I am running late getting out the winners to the press of all the states, but it will be completed before the sun sets for the last time in year 2010! I am getting reports that the editors of local papers have contacted a number of our Senior Poets Laureate for interviews, so stay tuned. You might be next. Now to business news:
First, Albert L. Baker, our wonderful webmaster since the inception of the organization, has decided not to retire after all, so he rejoined the team to publish GOLDEN WORDS online and do all the other work at which I flopped and he is so expert. In fact, another computer burned up, so I am now learning laptopese.
Second,
Vera-Jane Goodin Schultz, co-founder of the original Senior Poet
Laureate Contest, returned as co-sponsor of the 2010 Senior Poets
Laureate Poetry Competition for American poets age 50 and older. I served as
Contest Administrator; however, because of a family crisis she was
unable to publish GOLDEN WORDS, our anthology, so Al did it for us online. Alas, Vera-Jane 
had to resign, so your 2011 SPL team is just the two of us: Al and
Wanda. My plan is to do it through 2012 and then retire, which will give
me twenty years and twenty contests to add to my memories. Al has been
with SPL as webmaster since I took it over in 1994. We have talked of
taking a trip to see live polar bears, and
just might make it a reality.
Third, Bill Kiene, member of the Meeting the Muse board, and regular participant on the panel of judges since the inception of the Senior Poets Laureate contest, died of lung cancer in October at age 78. He was greatly loved and will be deeply missed.
Fourth, Bill’s passing raises the issue of the perpetuity of SPL after we elders are gone. Please get back to me with your thoughts and ideas about how we can work, as a team of Senior Poets of America, to keep the contest from dying when we do. Does anyone want to be on the panel of judges, form a non-profit corporation, or make SPL a chapter of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies? All holders of Senior Poet Laureate awards are members of the Meeting the Muse section of SPL, otherwise known as the “think tank.” Is anyone an attorney who could help us get set up? I am willing if you are able, and Vera-Jane, who has turned the whole thing back to me, gives her blessing! Where do we go from here? I turn 76 in February. The clock ticketh… My e-address is: amykitchenerfdn@hotmail.com
I thought you might enjoy seeing this photo of me getting the 2010 
IRWIN Award for best visionary book in October. IRWIN stands for
Industry Recognition of Writers in the News. It is an annual award given
by Book Publicists of Southern California. Patricia Hamilton, at left,
won in 2008. I received it for my poetry book The Last Indian on
the Trail of Tears ($10 payable to WSP, P. O. Box 1821, Monterey, CA
93942-1821). Proceeds will go toward the 2nd Annual White Buffalo Native
American Poet Laureate Contest, rules for which appear in the link to
our web site below or under WHITE BUFFALO at www.amykitchenerfdn.org .
Happy holidays, and may the muse be with you, Wanda Sue Parrott, Editor
A beautiful full-color softcover edition of the commemorative book that resulted from the 2010 contest has been published by CreateSpace and information about it is now available at the links below. It will one day be a collector's item, as it is the first such publication of the first White Buffalo Native American Poet Laureate Contest, and many of our SPL family of poets participated. The beautiful book would make a great gift. There is no other like it. It contains impressions by readers of The Diploemat about who was the elderly woman in the photo taken in 1910 by Edward S. Curtis. Fascinating answers came as a result of the meditation exercise that produced a wide variety of impressions! We plan a second such challenge to be announced in June 2011.
In the 2010 contest, there were 57 entries, a great response for the first open competition! It was a challenge to pick the winning entries from so many great poems, but the contest judges finally arrived at a conclusion for the winner, judging first for compliance with the contest rules, and second, for the impact perceived from the Great Spirit. Finally, a top choice was unanimously chosen: The 2010 White Buffalo Native American Poet Laureate was Dr. Carl B. Reed, Cherokee chiropractor of Altus, Oklahoma, for his poem, "The Poet and I." Additionally, two 2010 White Buffalo Calf Awards were given to the runners-up:
(1) Barbara Youngblood Carr, Austin, TX, for her poem entitled "Dreamdancing Back to Kituwha, Holy Birth Place of the Cherokee," and (2) Dr. Charles A. Stone, Austin, TX, for his poem, "Maiden Rock."
All three poems were featured in the Unknown Namesake keepsake chapbook and e-book, Gifts of the Great Spirit, as well as published in The Diploemat, the official newsletter of Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation, whose founder and editor Wanda Sue Parrott (aka Prairie Flower) was co-sponsor of the 2010 contest.
Thanks and appreciation also go to the judges of the contest, Yvonne Londres, aka Dances with Poetry, and Barbara Quin, aka LittleCrow WalkingEagle.
This beautiful, full-color collection honoring the Native American Spirit of the Unknown Namesake and recognizing the White Buffalo Native American Poet Laureate and Calf Award winners in the 2010 poetry contest, features poetry and prose that will inspire the Native Spirit within you, no matter what your race or creed.
|
2011 SENIOR POETS LAUREATE POETRY COMPETITION for American Poets 50 and older
(click here) |