Zoya Abbas
Bio:
Zoya Abbas is the Lexington Youth Poet Laureate and a graduate of Lafayette High School and the SCAPA Literary Arts program. She will be attending American University in the fall to major in Political Science.
Reason for Signing Up:
To work towards creating a chapbook!
Z.Z. Van Tappan
Bio:
Z.Z. is holding on for dear life.
Reason for Signing Up:
At my (great) granddaughter's insistence.
YvoArcher
Bio:
Yvonne loves needlework, nature, and words and is always trying to figure out ways to combine the three.
Reason for Signing Up:
To gain inspiration and share in the gift of words of this community.
wendyjett
Bio:
Wendy tries to do her best everyday. Some days her best is better than other days. But at least she tries her best.
Reason for Signing Up:
Community
Wayne Willis
Bio:
Wayne is a retired professor of education, a painter and art teacher, and a writer who is experimenting with poetry.
Reason for Signing Up:
willis76g@gmail.com
Virginia Lee Alcott
Bio:
Virginia Lee Alcott has served in leadership roles in the field of domestic violence, homelessness, trauma, and social justice. She worked closely with families of domestic violence homicide victims. Virginia is a self-taught artist and a Kentucky Licensed Professional Art Therapist. She has exhibited her art statewide. Her current interest is in photography and capturing images that reflect justice and equity. Virginia tries to capture images in her poetry that relate nature to healing.
Reason for Signing Up:
To challenge myself to write more and to read more poetry.
Violet
Bio:
Kia Rayburn is a writer in Troy, North Carolina and works in the Queen City.
Reason for Signing Up:
The inspiration of poetry month helps me get closer to a finished Chapbook
Victoria Woolf Bailey
Bio:
Victoria Woolf Bailey has been writing poetry since high school She used to buy spiral-bound notebooks by the case at back-to-school sales. Now she composes mostly on a keyboard and has Siri make many strange notes on her phone which occasionally turn into something.
Reason for Signing Up:
I have been feeling very frustrated with my writing lately. I almost decided not to sign up this year but maybe it is what I need to get my brain back in poetry mode.
Victoria Gross
Bio:
Victoria is doing her best for the 29th year in a row. She moonlights as an author and is a little bit y'allternative by day. She is raising 5 kids--four of them have four paws and the other is a teenager. You can find her napping in her favorite chair when she isn't working the graveyard.
victoria cruz-falk
Bio:
Victoria is originally from Washington DC but has spent the last 7 years in Lexington. You can find her bebopping around town at Native Cafe, the Kentucky Theater and the Government Center. She is most proud of her work and contributions to Campus Candor: Students’ Stories Unmasked by Dr. Rosie Moosnick.
Reason for Signing Up:
poetry gauntlet!
Vickie Moriarity
Bio:
Vickie is a middle school English teacher. Her passion is helping her middle school students discover who they are becoming while growing as readers and writers.
Reason for Signing Up:
I signed up because so many other Kentucky Writing Project fellows have joined. If I expect my student to write and publish, then I need to walk the talk.
Tony Wheary
Reason for Signing Up:
Motivation to create a few words in a busy life and enjoy the talent from this group.
Toni Menk
Bio:
As an Air Force Brat, Toni had to move a lot. She was born on Guam and lived in England, Ohio, North Carolina and Massachusetts. She eventually settling in Kentucky. Toni has been writing poems as long as she can remember. In middle school her parents told her that if she wrote 100 poems they would buy her a guitar. She wrote the poems and got her guitar.
Toni attended the University of Kentucky where she earned a BA in Anthropology.
As a sophomore in college, needing a summer job, she hired on as a telephone operator at GTE in Lexington. Thirty years later she retired as an Equipment Technician.
In 1981 she moved to rural Casey County Kentucky where she raised children, blackberries and shiitake mushrooms.
After retiring Toni grew organic vegetables and sold them at the farmers market. Needing a new creative outlet, Toni taught herself the ancient art of Lampwork and eventually started doing craft shows as Cyrilda’s Torch. She is a member of KGAC (Kentucky Guild of Artist and Craftsmen) and the Sheltowee Artisans.
Reason for Signing Up:
Kim Shaver made me do it.
Tom Hunley
Bio:
Tom C. Hunley is the author of eight full-length poetry collections, eight chapbooks, and two textbooks. He has also written and co-directed two short films, and he and Dr. Alexandria Peary co-edited Creative Writing Pedagogies for the Twenty-First Century (Southern Illinois University Press, 2015). Tom holds degrees from University of Washington (BA), Eastern Washington University (MFA), and Florida State University (Ph.D.), where he held the Kingsbury fellowship. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Western Kentucky University, where he has taught since 2003. He has been married to Ralaina since 1996, and they raised four children together.
Reason for Signing Up:
This is my third summer with Lexpomo. It's a great community of writers.
Terry Gabardine
Bio:
Terry Gabardine, using her autocorrect name, will be writing in haiku, senryu, and tanka formats - the least she could do.
Reason for Signing Up:
My brain needs the work.
Ted Higgs
Bio:
Ted Higgs currently teaches Latin, Italian, and literature classes at Maryville College in Tennessee. He is a retired Army officer and linguist. He has published four books of poetry: Archipelago (2016), Plank by Plank (2019), Scoring the Darkness (2022), and A Love Embargo (2023).
Reason for Signing Up:
This was recommended to me by a friend, who is a poet and a mentor to many others.
Taunja
Bio:
t.m. thomson is co-author of Frame & Mount the Sky (2017), a chapbook of ekphrastic poetry, as well the author as Strum and Lull (2019) and The Profusion (2019). She loves walking in autumn rains, feeding wild birds in winter, playing in spring mud, & bat-watching in summer. Her first full-length collection of poems, Plunge, was published by Uncollected Press in 2023.
Reason for Signing Up:
For the encouragement & for the ability to see what other poets are writing
Tania Horne
Bio:
Tania is navigating the life curveballs of middle age and trying to maintain a sense of humor and gratitude.
Reason for Signing Up:
Feels like the thing to do in June every year! I enjoy this group and this challenge.
Tabitha Dial
Bio:
Tabitha interprets the rainbow sprinkles on donuts and does a lot of other silly things LIVE on Tiktok. She is an established Tarot and Tea Leaf Reader.
Reason for Signing Up:
This community is amazing and poetry is good for body, mind, and heart.
I love Lexington. Always.
