Author Update

It’s been a bit since I’ve had a chance to write a blog post. Honestly, I’ve had so many things going on that I had to let go of writing posts for the website and social media. I’m not quite out from under the workload, but I’m hoping I will be soon, and then I can get back to blogging. For now, I thought I’d write a bit about what’s been keeping me busy.

WyoPoets

I joined the WyoPoets’ board in May of 2019 as vice president. WyoPoets is the state poetry society for Wyoming and a member of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS). The first year wasn’t too time-consuming, but when I joined the board I’d only been a member of the group for a year. The learning curve was fairly steep. In July of 2020, I took over as president, and if I thought the learning curve was steep as vice president, well, it was nothing compared to this past year as president. It’s been challenging, even more so due to the things going on in our country and the world over the past year that have impacted how we go about planning events for the organization and deal with concerns of the membership. Challenging doesn’t mean it’s been bad, it’s been hard, but also been great.

One of the reasons I began the Dusty Poems series was due to my busy schedule. It allowed me to know exactly what I was going to post, reflect on the poems, and be a little creative. After the series was completed though, I not only didn’t have a plan on what to post, but I didn’t have time to come up with a plan. I have a tendency of putting my all into jobs and projects. WyoPoets is certainly an organization worthy of getting my all. The presidency only lasts a year, and I was comfortable putting my personal writing and projects aside to focus on the organization. That’s not to say I didn’t get any writing done or work on any other projects. I allowed myself the understanding that I’d put WyoPoets first and work on other projects if I had time. This reduced the pressure I tend to put on myself and didn’t make me feel guilty for spending so much time on WyoPoets and ignoring my own projects.

Contests

At the end of 2020 and the beginning of this year, I entered two poetry contests. I don’t normally enter writing contests, it’s a huge fear that I’m trying to overcome. It’s one thing to submit your work to a literary magazine or a publisher and risk rejection with the understanding that the rejection doesn’t mean your work isn’t good, just that it isn’t the right fit for the magazine. Contests on the other hand are an evaluation of the quality of your writing against others. Though that’s not a fair way to look at contests either since they are subjective based on the judge’s preferences. I’ve managed to talk myself into entering a few by reframing how I think about contests though. First, the submission fee is helping the organization holding the contest. Second, there are a couple of extra eyes on your work — the judge and possibly the contest chair. So you’re not just entering a contest, you’re expanding your audience. One of my poems took first in the WyoPoets’ Members-Only Contest.  The interesting thing is that because some of my poems were tied up in the other contest and submitted to places where they didn’t want simultaneous submissions, I submitted some poems that wouldn’t normally have been at the top of my list for entering a contest. The poem that won was a solid, well-polished poem, which is the only reason I submitted it, but I honestly would never have picked it as a contest-winning poem. I think this taught me how subjective contests really are and that all I can control is putting my best effort into a poem, shaping it to the best of my ability, and letting other people decide whether it’s to their taste. Writing is such an interesting pursuit. Learning the craft is so important, the art of it is the heart of the piece, but one factor we don’t often talk about is the reader’s experience. We have no control over that part and it’s really the third leg of writing. The reader’s life experiences will impact how they interpret the writing and influence their appreciation.

Arts Council

This post is already longer than I intended, so let me limit it to one last item before closing. I was asked by the Wyoming Arts Council (WAC) to serve on the review panel for their Community Support Grant. WAC awarded nearly $800,000 in Community Support Grants to 111 nonprofit organizations, arts and education programs throughout the state for projects, services, and events scheduled from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. Before going into this process, I found grants intimidating. As it turned out, serving on the panel unraveled the mystery of grants and showed me all the amazing things that art organizations throughout the state are doing for their communities. The key to the grant applications for our arts council is answering the questions asked in every part of the application. I was surprised how many applicants failed to answer the specific questions asked. I found an article from one of the county’s in Wyoming that talks about the organizations who were awarded funding in their community and includes information about the grant if anyone would like to read more.

I skipped a lot of things that have been keeping me busy, but I think that gives you all a good idea of what’s been occupying my time. I look forward to coming back to blogging and visiting with all of you. My hope is to get back into blogging in July. There could be more follow-up work than I currently anticipate, so that’s my optimistic timeframe of getting back here. Until then, I hope you’re all doing well, writing a bunch if you’re a writer, and reading. I’d love to hear what projects you’re all working on, let me know in the comments. I’d love to catch up with everyone!