Poets' Roundtable of Arkansas

Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas’s 2019 Poetry Day Conference is scheduled for October 19 at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 401 President Clinton Avenue, Little Rock. The Center is located on the Central Arkansas Library’s main campus in the River Market next door to the Cox Building where many PRA meetings have been. The first floor has a gift shop and the meeting room is located at the rear of the shop. Registration will begin at 9:15 am. There is no registration fee and lunch will be on your own. There are a number of eateries located across the street at the River Market.

John McPherson of the PRA Gin Creek Branch will serve as Poetry Day Chair. Marie Allison of Roundtable Poets of Hot Springs will serve as Poetry Day Contest Chair. Contest guidelines are posted on PRA’s website.

Pat Couch Laster, an Arkansas native, is the featured speaker. She earned a B.A. from Hendrix College, and a M.Music.Ed from U of A in Fayetteville. She did graduate work at San Diego State College. She’s been schooled in “lucid” poetry, under the tutelage of Ted O. Badger, long-time editor and publisher of The Lucidity Journal. She was mentored by the late Robert Speiss, long-time editor of Modern Haiku, who published the first poem she sent him. For many years, she has been a workshop leader at the annual Lucidity Poetry Retreat held in Eureka Springs. She has served as poetry editor for CALLIOPE: A Writers Workshop by Mail since 2013. Her collection of short stories and long poems, Hiding Myself into Safety, followed the publication of a novel and a sequel. She published a year’s haiku flip calendar with Dorothy McLaughlin of New Jersey and has produced myriad monthly haiku booklets. Blogs: pittypatter.blogspot.com–poetry and pittypatter-pittypatter.blogspot.com—prose. Her website is www.PatLaster.com.

Poetry Day is the main poetry event in Arkansas. Each year this conference honors Arkansas Poet Laureate Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni (1953-1970). As a result of her efforts to promote poetry in Arkansas, Governor Ben Laney proclaimed October 15, 1948, the first annual Poetry Day in Arkansas. For conference questions contact Frieda Patton at patton.frieda@gmail.com or 501-847-5328.

(Use of Central Arkansas Library System meeting facilities does not constitute endorsement of the beliefs, viewpoints, policies or affiliations of the user by the library board or staff.)