04/26/2017
Last weekend (April 21-22) New River Poets co-hosted (with Sunshine Poets) the 2017 FSPA Young-as-Spring Fling at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Tampa. Featured speakers were our 3 honorary chancellors-- Fla. Poet Laureate Peter Meinke, poet Lola Haskins, and keynote speaker Lee Bennett Hopkins, the first poet to be inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
We shared workshops and particularly enjoyed a panel with six talented students from the 12 Chairs Advanced Poetry Course and two educators-- Gianna Russo of Saint Leo University and Diane McKee of the Hillsborough County School District, who was Florida's 2016 Teacher-of-the-Year. The panelists assured us that poetry is flourishing among young people, and the future looks promising......We wish you could have been there!
The next meeting of New River Poets will be on May 27th, a week later than our usual third Saturday of the month. On May 20th many of our members will be attending the Sandhill Writers Retreat at Saint Leo University. So come on the 27th, at 1pm, to Atonement Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel. New River Poets always welcome guests and lovers-of-poetry to our meetings..
