League of Minnesota Poets presents:


2024 Spring Conference – April 19th – 21st

with special guests

Janna Knittel and Megan Muthupandiyan

Country Inn & Suites West – Saint Cloud, MN

  • Janna Knittel presents: Recast Risk as Adventure
  • Megan Muthupandiyan presents: Of the Earth and Other Desires, the John Rezmerski Manuscript Prize Winner.
  • Take the Stage: Step into the spotlight with your spoken words in this noncompetitive dinner show in the upstairs Music Bar at Olde Brick House hosted by spoken word artist and rapper, Terrell X aka: Carnage the Executioner
  • League of Minnesota Poets — General Member Meeting & Elections
  • Peter Stein presents: Constantly Risking Poetry
  • Risky Games: A Poetry Writing Experiment
  • Agates IndyBookStore Tour reading at Books Revisited

LEAGUE OF MINNESOTA POETS
2023 Annual Poetry Contest

The Winners are in!

LEAGUE OF MINNESOTA POETS
John Rezmerski Memorial Manuscript Competition

The Winners are in!

FIRST PRIZE: Of the Earth and Other Desires
by Megan Muthupandiyan of Elm Grove, Wisconsin

Congratulations to Megan for winning our second annual John Calvin Rezmerski Memorial Manuscript Competition! This years competition was judged by Shirley Blackwell. This manuscript will be published by the League of Minnesota Poets Press in the Spring of 2024. Along with the first place award, the following awards were also noted by the judge as follows:

1st Honorable Mention: Caliche Road – Budd Mahan, Dallas, Texas

2nd Honorable Mention: Refugee – Erika Michael, Woodway, Washington

3rd Honorable Mention: Hammock – Charles Salmons, Pickering, Ohio

4th Honorable Mention: Xtopias – Raymond Luczak, Minneapolis, Minnesota

5th Honorable Mention: Flowers & Bones – Amy Irish, Lakewood, Colorado

6th Honorable Mention: Southland – Budd Mahan, Dallas, Texas

7th Honorable Mention: Bodies in Transition – G Gazelka, Minneapolis, Minnesota

8th Honorable Mention: Rights of the Dead – Pamela Wynn, New Brighton, Minnesota

Judge: Shirley Blackwell, New Mexico
In retirement after a career in national security where she served as researcher, writer and editor covering topics from Afghan militias to space technology, Shirley Blackwell has focused on her childhood love of poetry. She has published two books of poetry, both finalists in the NM-AZ Book Awards. She has poems in many anthologies, essays on poetry, and wrote a monthly poetry column for her local newspaper from 2008-2011. She is a past president of the New Mexico State Poetry Society and currently serves as chancellor. She chaired the College Undergraduate Poetry competition 2014-2018 for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She is a co-funder of NFSPS BlackBerry Peach Prize (BBP) for spoken/performance poetry and advisor to its offshoot, the NFSPS-sponsored BBP National Slam Competition.

Agates IndyBookStore Tour

Four Pines Books in Bemidji will kick off the start of our statewide Agates IndyBookStore Tour with a reading on October 18th at 6 PM. Featured readers are: Charmaine Pappas Donovan, Marlys Guimaraes, Shawna Bullen-Fairbanks, Ann Marie Newman, and Dawn Loeffler.

Sweet Reads in Austin is next up on October 24th at 6:30 PM with readers: Susan Stevens Chambers, Jana Bouma, Martha Bordwell, Deborah Goschy, Vicky King, Amanda Bailey.

Garden Party Books in Rochester October 26th 6:30 – 8:00 PM with readers: Susan McMillan, Nancy Hengeveld, Steven Vogel, Pam Sinicrope, Jean Prokott, Lisa Higgs, Christina Flaugher.

Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais October 28th 6:00 PM with featured readers: Ruth Schmidt-Bauemler, Jess Morgan, Sarah Royer-Stoll, Emily August and Isadora Gruye will emcee. Readers will be followed by an open mic.

Content Books in Northfield November 9th 7:00 – 8:30 with readers D.E. Green, Becky Boling, Martha Bordwell, Susan McMillan and Christine Ellsworth.

This is the starting line up for our year long, statewide Agates IndyBookStore Tour. If you’re a League member who’d like to read and sell your books in any of the many independent bookstores in Minnesota, click the button below to sign up.
Members’ Agates will be mailed mid-November.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2023

RICHFIELD LAKE PARK POETRY WALK WINNERS!

Thank you to all who participated in our contest! Here are the winners and links to their poems.

Winning poems have been placed on signs at the Richfield Lake Park Preserve. The Poetry Walk is located right behind the Lake Winds Coop off Lyndale and 65th and is a beautiful .8-mile walk, with benches for rest and contemplation. On the stroll around the lake, you can read or listen to the poems on each of ten signs, which include a QR code, so you can hear the poems read in English and in Spanish. You can also read and hear the poems at the links below.

Judged by:  Paula Cisewski

Translator: Sarah Degner Riveros

Narrator: Maggie Gagliardi

 Nature Poetry Walk Winners – 2023-2024

  1. Windblown  – Margit Berman
  2. Walking Alone –  Kelly Westhoff
  3. Translation – Athena Kildegaard
  4. For Autumn  Murray McCartan
  5. Little Prayer – Kait Quinn
  6. Shush – Becky Boling
  7. Urban Wetland – Mary Lux
  8. Look Now – Mary Kay Rummel
  9. To Do Better – Donna Isaac
  10.  Frog – Marsh Muirhead

The Richfield Lake Park Poetry Walk is made possible by sponsors and donors. If you would like to contribute to keep this project running, please donate using the button below