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2023 S.C. Arts Awards: Ray McManus

Governor's Award: Artist Category

Graphic with white copy on a dark blue background overlaid on granite blocks. The white text reads South Carolina Arts Awards 2023. As the day nears for the 2023 South Carolina Arts Awards, The Hub is focusing on this year's recipients: five receiving the South Carolina Governor's Awards for the Arts from the South Carolina Arts Commission and two receiving the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award, managed jointly by the SCAC and McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.

Born and raised in Lexington County, Ray McManus is frequently active in poetry initiatives across the state.

He serves as the writer-in-residence at the Columbia Museum of Art. McManus founded Split P Soup, a creative writing outreach program that places writers in schools and communities across South Carolina, and former director of the creative writing program at the Tri-District Arts Consortium that serves Columbia area schools. He coedited a collection of writing responding to historical photographs from South Carolina archives. He writes of the Carolinas’ semi-rural and sometimes repressive culture, often including the haunting presence of the imagined Ireland that exists in family stories and immigrant memory. His work explores themes of loss, faith, denial, and rebellion, offering both a narrative of hope and a heroics of failure. His poems and prose have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and StorySouth, as well as anthologies of Southern and Irish-American writers. McManus earned his master’s in poetry and his doctorate in rhetoric and composition from the University of South Carolina. Now an English professor at USC Sumter, he teaches creative writing, Irish literature, and Southern literature. He is division chair of both arts and letters and humanities and social sciences and director of the school’s Center for Oral Narrative. McManus is the author of five collections of poetry. His first was selected for the S.C. Poetry Book Prize and published in 2007. Since, he published three more collections and a fifth, Last Saturday in America, will be published by Hub City Press in 2024.
The South Carolina Arts Awards are coming live to SCETV on Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 8 p.m. ET. South Carolina ETV, the state’s public educational broadcasting network, will broadcast the awards ceremony through its 11-station TV network that spans the state. Viewers can access the broadcast via livestream on the homepage of SCETV.org; by using a digital antenna; or through cable, satellite, and streaming live TV providers. Further information about accessing SCETV is available here.

Jason Rapp

Notes to Nature: Annual haiku competition opens Jan. 9

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 5, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. ET


Originating in Japan, haiku is the shortest form of poetry in the world. In a short descriptive verse, it captures a moment in the poet’s life or simply expresses the beauty of nature.

Since 2014, the Golden Triangle BID in Washington has hosted the Golden Haiku poetry contest to bring pops of warmth, color, and inspiration to the streets of downtown DC during the late winter months. We invited the public to write and submit original, contemporary haiku for this temporary community art project. In 2021, we introduced a youth category, inviting students to explore haiku and perhaps become published poets. Submissions are reviewed by an expert panel of judges; winning poets receive prizes, and winning haiku are displayed on colorful street signs in the tree boxes lining the streets of the Golden Triangle neighborhood. The contest’s popularity has grown each year; it is internationally recognized and beloved by locals and visitors alike. In 2022, we received entries from 71 countries, 49 states, and the District of Columbia. See winning haiku from 2022 here.

Eligibility

The contest is open to all ages, worldwide.

2023 theme

This year’s theme is Notes to Nature. Winning haikus will be displayed on some of the most iconic streets in Washington and winning authors will receive prizes.

Prizes

First Place – $500 Second Place – $200 Third Place – $100 Regional/DC Winner – $200 Youth Category Winners: High School Winner – $150 Elementary/Middle School Winner – $75
For guidelines and additional, complete information, please go here: https://goldentriangledc.com/event/golden-haiku/

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S.C. Arts Awards Spotlight Series: Ed Madden

Governor's Award: Individual Category

As the day nears for the 2022 South Carolina Arts Awards, The Hub is focusing on this year's recipients: four receiving the South Carolina Governor's Awards for the Arts and three receiving the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award, which are managed jointly by the South Carolina Arts Commission and McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina.

Ed Madden is a poet, activist, and a professor of English, with a focus on Irish literature, at the University of South Carolina.

[caption id="attachment_50362" align="alignright" width="265"] Ed Madden (left) received his Governor's Award from SCAC Executive Director David Platts on May 19, 2022. Click image to enlarge. SCAC photo by Jason Rapp.[/caption] There, he is also director of the women’s and gender studies program. His academic areas of specialization include Irish culture; British and Irish poetry; LGBTQ literature, sexuality studies, and history of sexuality; and creative writing and poetry. In 2015, Madden was named Columbia’s first poet laureate, a post he maintains today. His poetry collection Prodigal: Variations was published in 2011. His chapbook, My Father’s House, was runner-up for the 2011 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. His latest books of poetry are Nest (2014) and Ark (2016). Madden is author of several critical articles on modern British and Irish poetry including Tiresian Poetics: Modernism, Sexuality, Voice, 1888-2001, a book on representations of Tiresian liminality in modernist poetry. He co-edited two texts, Irish Studies: Geographies and Genders, and The Emergence of Man into the 21st Century – an anthology of essays and poems on male experience. Finally, he penned “An Open Letter to My Christian Friends,” which makes appearances in various textbooks, including Everything’s an Argument. In addition to his literary criticism, he also publishes on issues involving sexuality and spirituality. He has published “Gospels of Inversion: Literature, Scripture, Sexology” in a collection of essays entitled Divine Aporia: Postmodern Conversation About the Other (edited by John C. Hawley). Another foray into the intersection of religion, literature, and sex came in the essay “The Well of Loneliness, or the Gospel According to Radclyffe Hall,” published in Reclaiming the Sacred: The Bible in Gay and Lesbian Culture. Madden has been a South Carolina Academy of Authors Fellow in poetry twice and was South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow in 2011. In 2019 he was named a Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and a visiting artist fellow at the Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil. He has been writer-in-residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Garden and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston as part of the state’s African American Heritage Corridor project. He also works with the South Carolina Poetry Initiative and was 2006 artist-in-residence for South Carolina State Parks. Madden won the single-poem contest co-sponsored by The State newspaper and the South Carolina Poetry Initiative (with “Prodigal: Variations”) and won the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize, with Signals, published by the UofSC Press. He was selected as one of the top 50 New Poets by Meridian Magazine (which is published by the University of Virginia Press) for his poem, “Sacrifice,” which was included in the Best New Poets of 2007 anthology.
The South Carolina Arts Awards are coming live to SCETV on Monday, June 13, 2022 at 9 p.m. ET. South Carolina ETV, the state’s public educational broadcasting network, will broadcast the awards ceremony through its 11-station TV network that spans the state. Viewers can access the broadcast via livestream on the homepage of SCETV.org; by using a digital antenna; or through cable, satellite, and streaming live TV providers. Further information about accessing SCETV is available here.

Jason Rapp

One Word Poetry Festival returning to Rock Hill this month

Rock Hill Poet Laureate Angelo Geter, in conjunction with the Rock Hill Poet Laureate Committee, Arts Council of York County, and Comporium, is pleased to announce the second annual One Word Poetry Festival, which will take place from March 30-April 2, 2022.

[caption id="attachment_49539" align="alignright" width="250"] Angelo Geter. Provided photo.[/caption] The first festival in 2021 attracted a crowd of approximately 500 people. Many of the events were free and open to the public. Events taking place during this year’s five-day festival will include:
  • a creative writing showcase by Winthrop University students;
  • a Youth Open Mic;
  • Adult Open Mic featuring music by Rock Hill Hall of Fame band, “Mellogroove,” where there will be a food truck and beverages for sale from the Rock Hill Bottle Shop;
  • and various workshops will be offered for free Saturday morning and afternoon for children 12 and under, middle and high school students, and adults.
The festival will also include the announcement of the 2022/2023 Youth Poet Laureate contest winner. Poets from across the country will compete in an epic poetic battle to determine the best of the best at the Saturday night Poetry Slam, with $4000 worth of prizes up for grabs. Capping off the festival will be a Sunday brunch with a keynote reading by the acclaimed poet Rachel McKibbens, and a performance by the toe-tapping musicians of the Jason Poore Trio. The festival’s additional sponsors include: South Carolina Humanities and the South Carolina Arts Commission; Duke Energy; the city of Rock Hill; Old Town Rock Hill; the Women’s Art Initiative; The Mercantile; Winthrop University English Department; York County Library; Barber Therapy & Associates; the Eta Alpha Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; the Rock Hill Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; the Kappa Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.; Harriet & Martin Goode; Slow Play Brewing; and Flipside Restaurant. Some festival events are free. A $50 festival pass that grants free entry into all festival events is available, or guests may pay individually for the events that have a cost. Tickets can be purchased at onewordpoetryfestival.com.
Contact Rock Hill Poet Laureate Angelo Geter with questions: onewordpoetryfestival@gmail.com or 757.870.2497. 

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Greenville student repeats as S.C. Poetry Out Loud champ

Upstate students sweep honors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A Greenville high school student is now two-for-two against her statewide Poetry Out Loud peers after repeating as South Carolina champion over the weekend in the state finals.

[caption id="attachment_49532" align="alignright" width="300"] Emily Allison. Provided photo.[/caption] Emily Allison, now a sophomore and now at the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, made it two in a row Saturday, earning first prize over seven other finalists in a virtual competition. Allison was champion last year in her first experience in a contest that often favors more experienced students. The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) coordinates Poetry Out Loud in South Carolina, partnering with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation to bring the competition to South Carolina 9-12 graders. Each finalist was recorded reciting three poems via a video conference with Poetry Out Loud State Coordinator Bonita Peeples and prompter Thomas Maluck, teen services librarian for Richland Library. The videos were sent to the four judges and an accuracy judge. After two rounds of evaluation, the top three scorers proceeded to the final round. They were: Allison; Harper Scott of Greenville who also attends the Fine Arts Center; and Catherine Wooten, who attends Westgate Christian School in Spartanburg. Allison prevailed in the final round, and Scott was named runner-up. As state winner, Allison will receive a $200 prize and get to represent South Carolina in the national finals competition among a total of 55 state and jurisdictional finalists for the chance to win the $20,000 first prize. The 2022 national finals will also be held virtually. A semifinal round is scheduled for Sunday, May 1 and the national finals will take place Sunday, June 5. Both will stream on arts.gov, website of the National Endowment for the Arts. Al Black, poet and arts advocate; Ray McManus, English professor at UofSC Sumter; Michele Reese, English professor at UofSC Sumter; Kimberly J. Simms, author and educator, served as judges. Each is an accomplished poet residing in South Carolina dedicated to training the next generation of poets. The SCAC’s Kevin Flarisee of Columbia was accuracy judge.

About Poetry Out Loud

A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, and the state and jurisdictional arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. Learn more at PoetryOutLoud.org.

About the South Carolina Arts Commission

The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences. A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in four areas: arts learning, community and traditional arts, artist development, and arts industry. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @scartscomm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content.
South Carolina Arts Commission News Release, Media Contact: Jason L. Rapp, Communications Director. jrapp@arts.sc.gov or 803.734.8899

Jason Rapp

Eight competitors reach S.C. Poetry Out Loud finals

State finals to be held virtually March 5


for immediate release

COLUMBIA, S.C. – From among statewide submissions, judges selected eight finalists who now have a chance to represent South Carolina this spring in the national finals of Poetry Out Loud—an annual, nationwide recitation contest.

The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) coordinates Poetry Out Loud South Carolina (POLSC), partnering with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation to bring the competition to the state’s high schools. The program seeks to foster the next generation of literary readers by capitalizing on the latest trends in poetry—recitation and performance. POLSC Coordinator Bonita Peeples once again arranged a 2021/2022 competition with a virtual structure. The first step, now complete, was inviting students in grades 9-12 to submit videos to twin regional competitions, each with its own set of different judges. Both regionals yielded four finalists to compete in the competition’s next step: virtual state finals on Saturday, March 5, 2022. The eight finalists come from four schools in Charleston, Greenville, and Spartanburg. Students from Region 1, roughly the lower half of the state, all come from Charleston County School of the Arts. They are:
  • Tea Allen
  • Kenneth Carrington
  • Natalie Holland
  • Adam Maierle
Finalists from Region 2, which is roughly the upper half of the state, represent three schools. The students are:
  • Emily Allison, 2021 state champion (Fine Arts Center of Greenville)
  • Harper Scott (Fine Arts Center of Greenville)
  • Catherine Wooten (Westgate Christian School of Spartanburg)
  • Caleb Xiao, 2021 first runner-up (Spartanburg Day School in Boiling Springs)
Adjudicating the virtual finals will be veteran Poetry Out Loud judges Al Black, Dr. Ray McManus, Michelle Reese, and Kimberly J. Simms. Each is an accomplished poet residing in South Carolina dedicated to training the next generation of poets. Each finalist will meet virtually to record three one-take recitations with Peeples and a prompter. The judges will review the recitations and determine a state champion and first runner-up. The state finals champion will receive a $200 prize and get to represent South Carolina in the national finals competition for the chance to win a $20,000 first prize. Cancelled in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national finals returned virtually in 2021 and will be virtual again in 2022. Find out more about the national competition here.
About the South Carolina Arts Commission The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences. A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in four areas: arts learning, community and traditional arts, artist development, and arts industry. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @scartscomm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content.
South Carolina Arts Commission News Release. Media Contact: Jason L. Rapp, Communications Director. jrapp@arts.sc.gov or 803.734.8899.

Jason Rapp

Charleston poet Linda Joy Walder debuts with Free Verse Press

Running Naked in the Snow, the debut collection of poems by Linda Joy Walder, was just released by Free Verse Press.

The poet describes her works as “word paintings,” deeply rooted and inspired by the magical and mournful circumstances of her lifetime. “Six decades in, it is the exact right time to share my poetic journey. We ‘evolve’ throughout our lives, and I hope that my personal achievement inspires others, no matter their age, to fulfill their own dreams,” Walder said. Running Naked in the Snow (ISBN: 978-1734673791, 57 pages, $13.99 U.S.) is available on Amazon and at fine book sellers throughout Charleston and select cities across the U.S. It also will be available as an e-book and audio book in 2022. Evelyn Berry, an award-winning Aiken-based poet, novelist, editor, and podcast host, has worked closely with Walder as a mentor, and is excited about her debut collection of poems. “Linda’s work is deeply invested in not just truth-telling, but truth-sharing. Such radical candor invites the reader to feel and reflect deeply,” she said. Free Verse Press is a new publishing company started by Charleston Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker. In the introduction of Walder’s book, Amaker says that readers will "experience a wildly creative book from a writer who has confidence in what makes her unique. ‘Running Naked in the Snow’ gives you short poems about seasons, rhythm word experiments, gentle pieces about family, and more.”

About Linda Joy Walder

Linda’s creativity blossomed in early childhood, and she began writing poetry in elementary school. Her artistic bent continued throughout her education, studying art, literature, and history. After graduating from Vassar College, Linda thrived in the creative world of art and fashion public relations. Then, after graduating from The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Linda continued her focus on the arts as an attorney for artists. For the past 20 years, she has been a visionary and activist in the field of adult Autism. Her internationally recognized Foundation (The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation) has led the global community in accepting, valuing, and supporting the diversity of adults diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Linda’s own story is one of courage and heart. She is the mother of an adult daughter and a son (who died of an Autism-related seizure at age 9, and in whose memory the foundation is named). She is also a recent widow, navigating the crushing loss of her cherished husband. Linda resides in Charleston with her beloved family of human and furry beings. Her website, LindaJWalderC.com, is sparking a creative revolution, inviting visitors to share her personal journey and to spark their own innate creativity by exploring imaginative new ways to cope with challenging times. Follow Linda on Instagram @lindajwalderc.

Submitted material

Jasper Project announces call for BIPOC poets

The Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer Poetry Chapbook Prize

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Monday, February 28, 2022

In honor of the eponymous 20th century poet, the Jasper Project is delighted to announce a new project: the Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer Poetry Chapbook Prize for South Carolina BIPOC poets.

Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer (1868-1936) was a teacher and social activist in Orangeburg. Born in Pickens, she taught at the Normal and Grammar Schools at Claflin College for 40 years. Her published anthology of poems Prejudice Unveiled and Other Poems (1907) examined the Jim Crow South’s propensity for lynching, racism, and social injustice. Moorer was also an advocate for women’s suffrage in South Carolina, especially in the Methodist Church. The purpose of the Lizelia August Jenkins Moorer Prize, affectionately called the Lizelia Prize, is to offer a first-time BIPOC poet from South Carolina a publishing contract with Muddy Ford Press to publish their debut chapbook under the guidance of an established poet. The brainchild of Dr. Len Lawson, who is a member of the Jasper Project board of directors and the author, editor, or co-editor of four books of poetry, Lawson will also serve as project manager as well as editor of the winner’s chapbook and will collaborate with the winner on the construction of the book. South Carolina BIPOC poets who have yet to publish a book of poetry are invited to submit 30-40 single spaced numbered pages in Times New Roman 12-pt. font and include a cover sheet with your name and manuscript title. Your name should not appear on the manuscript. The winning submission will receive publication via Muddy Ford Press, a cash prize of $250, and ten author copies of the book. Submissions should be in MS Word format and should be sent to lizeliapoetry@gmail.com no later than Monday, February 28, 2022.  

Jason Rapp

S.C. author sees third book published

Artist, writer, and illustrator Janet Kozachek has published her third illustrated book of poetry.

[caption id="attachment_48277" align="alignright" width="250"] Click image to enlarge[/caption] A Rendering of Soliloquies - Figures Painted in Spots of Time marks observations between artist, model and memory through an emblematic juxtaposition of verse and images. It is on sale now through the publisher, Finishing Line Press. It is her second book with them. Poet and professor Dr. Sarah Wyman said in a review, “In Kozachek’s art, cats and quilts, jewels and molecules fragment and scatter like dropped words from the mouths of models. Sketched subjects sit in the artist’s studio and tell their stories as she paints them: the feminine Kinnari birds with tongues like whips, la mente malevola, a migraine like a doomed mouse before the feline paw, memories of a mother who worshiped the mango bone. In poems, paintings, and drawings, the artist captures moments of deep listening, translated to word and image.” Janet Kozachek has an eclectic educational background, having studied arts and languages on three continents. She has worked as a peripatetic artist/educator, teaching Chinese art, drawing, painting, and mosaics to students from grade level through college. Her previously published chapbook, My Women, My Monsters (Finishing Line Press, 2020) won an honorable mention award from Concrete Wolf Press. When not writing, drawing, or painting in her studio in Orangeburg, Kozachek finds joy in cooking, gardening, and making her one of a kind ceramic musical instruments. She is represented by the Artisan’s Center in Walterboro. Finishing Line Press is a poetry publisher based in Georgetown, Kentucky. In addition to the Chapbook Series, it publishes the New Women’s Voices Series and sponsors the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition.

Jason Rapp