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Welcome to the first edition of our new quarterly Emrys Newsletter! We would like to let you know what's been going on with us and what's coming up soon. We wish all of you a healthy and happy holiday season and we're looking forward to seeing you in 2018!
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2017 Emrys Press Chapbook Prize
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Mary B. Moore’s new album sings, though she’s not a singer. Nor is her collection on CD or streaming on online (yet?). She’s a poet, and while some folks may know as much about her as they do about today’s pop stars, the California native’s a rock star in the world of words—and the Emrys Foundation prizes her for it.
Not just any award, either, but a $1,000 cash prize, along with a weeklong stay at the Rensing Center, a gorgeous arts/writing retreat near Greenville. That’s what she won with
Amanda & The Man Soul
, selected from more than 330 entries for the 2017 Emrys Press Chapbook Prize.
“The number of submissions this year means that my book rose to the top among stunning competition,” says the retired English professor who now lives in West Virginia.
“Beyond that, the book the EMRYS staff has created is utterly beautiful, both inside and out, and working with them throughout has been wonderful: the art for the book is inspired, the copy-editing has been careful, and the result is itself a work of art.”
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The Divine Hooey of Great Poetry
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Bet you thought Poetry, with a capital P, was for the ivory-tower set, the snotty literati, pretentious white-wine-and-charcuterie book clubs. But consider this: You hear poetry every day: in music, in songs. Today’s poetry is just that—no more highbrow Byron or impenetrable iambics, but songs captured in fun-to-read and brief chapbooks.
Take D.G. Geis. He’s the winner of Emrys Press Poetry Contest, selected in December 5, 2017. His winning poem, with the very-cool title, “Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals,” will be published in the 35
th
issue of the Emrys Journal.
Okay, so that title admittedly sounds a bit campus-y, but the zippy, 25-line inclusion in the Journal proves that collections like Emrys’s annual publication is a little like brain-snacking on intellectual peanuts: cranial protein.
In Geis’s winning work, our hero, Greg, wonders whether “some “inexplicable act of Divine Hooey” might make a better man out of him.
D.G. Geis—Greg’s pen name—has won too many prizes to list, but the Texan especially prizes his $250 Emrys prize, in part because Emrys helps bring poets into the mainstream
“The real significance of the Emrys award isn’t the recognition,
per se,
” he says, “but the validation you get for having chosen a path that to the outside world seems so quixotic.
“What makes this prize so meaningful is that is coming from an institution committed to balancing the equation between writers and the world. At a time when civility and anything that even remotely passes for a humane perspective seem to be out the window, Emrys is planting seeds and watering roots. More power to them.”
And more power to Geis for winning the Emrys award.
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Two Upstate writers—each a force of nature—proved that ink is stronger than floodwaters when they helped the Emrys Foundation raise $2,000 for the Houston Food Bank, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
Claire Bateman and Scott Gould joined forces in September for a blockbuster fundraiser, Writers Helping Houston, at Chicora Alley, downtown Greenville, to read from their celebrated works. All proceeds, not just from the packed event’s $10 tickets, but also from the authors’ book sales, went to benefit our friends in Texas.
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Meet the two writer heroes:
- With six volumes of poetry, Claire has won coveted fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and two prestigious Pushcart Prizes, among other awards. The Greenville poet has taught at Clemson and Greenville’s Fine Arts Center and conducted workshops at the renowned Bread Loaf writers conference.
- Scott is chair of the creative writing program at Greenville’s Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities and has garnered fellowships from the South Carolina Arts Commission and the S.C. Academy of Authors. His latest work, a highly acclaimed short-story collection, was just published by Hub City Press.
For more about how the Emrys Foundation celebrates words to celebrate our community—and those that need help—visit Emrys’s
website
and contact us at
[email protected]
.
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Check, check … mic check … is this thing on? Yes, in fact,
you’re
on—on Emrys Open Mic’s
two
stages. Twice a month, Open Mic Nights open for anyone with a story to tell, which is everyone: scribblers of all levels and styles and voices and genres, from poets to playwrights, screenwriters to screed writers, novelists to newcomers.
The Open Mic Nights at Chicora Alley have been so successful that Emrys added another one just like it, on Wednesday nights at Joe’s Place, 2 Williams St., Greenville. Pages start turning at 7 p.m.
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Chicora Alley, , 608B S. Main St., plays host the first Tuesday of each month, with Joe’s Place, 2 Williams St., every third Wednesday.
Each reader/writer gets 10 minutes to show off her/his wordsmithing wizardy (with one condition: the material’s respectful to the crowd). And if you’re part of the crowd, out for a rollicking night of free and unique entertainment among old friends and new, sample the venues’ tasty menus and adult beverages, too.
Sign up at
[email protected]
, and visit
Emrys calendar
for dates. Oh, and one more note: Emrys organizers are planning a special contest for participants, so stay tuned!
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The Emrys Foundation | P.O. Box 8813| Greenville, SC 29604
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