LexPoMo Participants

Total poets:
196
.
A. A. Kate
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Bio:
a. a. kate lives with her family in a normal urban neighborhood. With chickens, honey bees, a geriatric parrot, cockatiel, and two dogs she spends most of her time tending to the animals and caring for her large backyard garden. Her growing interest in the environment is the spark for the majority of her writing.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up for LexPoMo because I wanted to try something new. I really need to start opening up about my writing and find fresh ways to create ideas, plus it will be a great experience for me, and will help fuel my writing interests.
A. E. Bryant
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Bio:
Anna Bryant has been writing in journals, scraps of paper, notepads, and sometimes just directly on her hand. She uses words to make sense of the world around and the vast worlds of her imagination. Every mark on a page has a story to tell.
Reason for signing up:
One of my dear friends encouraged me to take the time and take an adventure! Thank you S. Waterbury.
A.M. Wagers
A.S. Hook
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Bio:
Annette lives with her husband in Lexington and enjoys creating and enjoying all forms of creative arts. She is celebrating 60 years of life by participating in many new adventures including Lexington Poetry Month
Reason for signing up:
A new adventure, a new challenge, a new reason to create.
Aidan Ziliak
Almighty Yesenia The Poet
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Bio:
Her names Yesenia Ramos
She has the diagnosis of Friedreich’s Ataxia
She uses her poetry to cope with her diagnosis as well as depression and anxiety.
Yesenia is homebound due to Friedreich’s Ataxia and shes also an introvert.
She is a bilingual Mexican.
Reason for signing up:
I’m into poetry, it has saved me from really dark times. Jude Lally recommended me to LexPoMo and I decided to sign up.
Alyxandria N. Richard
Bio:
Alyxandria (she/her/hers) is a transfemme writer and desperately wishes she'd been around for the 80s. She likes twinkly emo music from the midwest and tries hard to remember that we don't make mistakes; we have happy accidents.
Reason for signing up:
I love poems!
Amanda Holt
Amanda Corbin
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Bio:
Amanda Kelley Corbin holds an MFA in Fiction from UK and a BFA from Morehead State. Her work has appeared in Kentucky Monthly's Writers' Showcase, JMWW, Eunoia Review, Fried Chicken and Coffee, and Madcap Review, among others. She lives in Lexington with her husband and sons.
Reason for signing up:
Fourth year and counting!
Amy Camuglia
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Bio:
Amy Camuglia considers herself a folk poet. “Unschooled”, she enjoys the freedom poetry allows. Anything from short and silly rap to heartfelt truths..... she writes it all down...uncapitalized.
Reason for signing up:
Poetry.... the writing, and the reading.
Amy Cunningham
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Bio:
Amy Cunningham likes literary works in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.
Reason for signing up:
fun
Andrea Lawler
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Bio:
Lover of life, literature, art, & travel // Wife & mom of F I V E. Teacher // Librarian // Constantly changing and growing // Saved by grace — thankful
Reason for signing up:
Because I need to write more!!!!
Andrew Depew
Bio:
Andrew Depew has been writing for various sundry reasons for more than a decade. He's had poetry and prose published. This is maybe his third lexpomo. He doesn't keep good records.
Reason for signing up:
Habit and bugs
Andrew Depew
Bio:
Andrew Depew has been writing for various asundry reasons for more than a decade. Hes had poetry and prise published. This is maybe his third lexpomo. He doesnt keep good records.
Reason for signing up:
Habit
Andrew Wilson
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Bio:
Andrew Wilson is a Native Kentuckian and Eternal Oregonian, convinced he’s the Luckiest Man Alive.
Reason for signing up:
Meadow made me.
Anne Hayden
Bio:
Classically trained NYC actress- She currently helps children prepare for auditions - singing (She was a singer) acting, speech, 'how to basics' of auditions - Also, teaches piano. She too has cats - 3
Reason for signing up:
Did this last year - it's like falling into a different world - No one 'on the outside' can get in! I've so missed it!
Arianna McCurry
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Reason for signing up:
Two words; Chris McCurry
Ash
Ashley M. Smith
Bio:
Ashley Marie is from Lexington Kentucky. She is 25 years old,currently works at saint Joseph east in dietary and has a 6month old son with her fiancé Michael.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because in my spare time I enjoy writing whatever is on my mind or writing small pieces over the years that have crossed my mind,some are unfinished, some are yet to come. My mother in law does this every year and I asked about it, she recommended that I sign up so here I am!
atmospherique
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Bio:
i am mostly misery, flowers and stories that have already been told elsewhere, topped with anxiety and a bad diet, and i have no pets. female, 20s, every bad thing you ever heard about a Pisces
Reason for signing up:
Bronson sent me here
Austin Rathbone
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Bio:
Austin is a Kentuckian by way of Western North Carolina. He enjoys board games, sports and Kanye West albums.
Reason for signing up:
I swear, one of these years I will finish 30 poems. Will it be this year...stay tuned to find out!
Autumn Hines
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Bio:
Autumn Hines is a senior at Lafayette High School. She has been a member of SCAPA's Literary Arts program for the past eight years.
Reason for signing up:
Last year I signed up because my teacher offered extra credit if we submitted at least five poems. This year, however, I am doing it purely as a challenge to myself. Last year I did the bare minimum, but this LexPoMo, I would like to push myself to my full potential and see what I can really accomplish.
B. Sweet
Bio:
A displaced Kentuckian currently living in Missouri, Beatrice dabbles in all genres of writing, although poetry is her first love. She is also a vegetarian, a crafter, a linguist, and a traveler.
Reason for signing up:
Challenges are great to get the creative juices flowing. I also love writing with such a wonderful and supportive group of poets every year.
Website:
Bernard Deville
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Bio:
Bernie Deville teaches at Providence Montessori Middle School. He also can occasionally channel chaos.
Reason for signing up:
Must write more!
Betsie Phillips
Bio:
Betsie is a small town writer. She is an activist and teacher. Betsie loves her friends and cat. She writes to keep breathing.
Reason for signing up:
I love the challenge to make time for writing.
Bianca Bargo
Bio:
Bianca Bargo is an Appalachian logophile whose day job is in public education. Her chapbook, “How I Became an Angry Woman”, was published by Accents Publishing in 2015. She lives in Lexington with her husband and pets and writes when inspiration strikes.
Reason for signing up:
1) Christopher McCurry 2) Living my best life
Bill Verble
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Bio:
Lexington resident. Long time reader, first time writer.
Reason for signing up:
I'm here for the challenge of writing everyday and connecting with other writers.
Bobby Steve Baker
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Bio:
Bobby Steve Baker is a writer in Lexington Kentucky who grew-up on the Canadian side of Lake Huron and he still craves the Big Water. However, by the time you read this he will probably be calling Orlando Florida home (I miss you already). His work has appeared in Cold Mountain Review, Cloudbank, Picaroon, Prick of the Spindle, Into the Void, and many others.
Reason for signing up:
obsessive-compulsive narcissistic procrastinator looking for community of like minded
Bree
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Bio:
Bree is a poet and author of memoirs and biographies who published poets and artists of the very small press having founded Green Panda Press in 2001. In 2016 she was awarded an Artist Enrichment Grant from KFW and has since focused primarily on poetry and visual art.
Reason for signing up:
to meet others, engage, read, write.
Bronson O'Quinn
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Bio:
Fiction writer, web developer, father of an awesome 2-year-old who just wants to read Astro Boy and watch Charlie’s Colorform Cities, and husband to the coolest dork in the whole world.
Reason for signing up:
I once heard Robert E Howard kept writing Conan books because he sincerely believed Conan the Barbarian was a real person who threatened to keep writing them or else he'd lob off his head. That's not how I feel, but man isn't that a fun story?
Caden
Bio:
Caden is a jaded sophomore in the SCAPA Lit. Arts program. Is in need of a publishing credit
Reason for signing up:
teacher made me
Caden Pearson
Bio:
Caden is a jaded junior in the SCAPA Lit. Arts program. Is in need of a publishing credit
Reason for signing up:
teacher made me
Callie Budrick
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Bio:
Lives with three cats and usually has chipped nail polish. Senior editor at HOW + Print.
Reason for signing up:
Looking for some summertime inspiration!
the bluegrass warbler
Bio:
native of Eastern Kentucky, Candace studied poetry at UK with Kentucky Poets Laureate Jane Vance and Gurney Norman before launching a career spanning arts journalism, academic book publishing, and non-profit leadership roles. She continues to freelance write for area publications like the Lexington Herald-Leader and Smiley Pete Publishing and plans to pursue an MFA in creative writing. She is currently the Katerina Stoykova scholarship recipient for The Gauntlet, an intensive, year-long generative workshop in which poets commit to writing 100 poems in a year. She is a frequent creative collaborator with Bolivar Gallery director Becky Alley and is also the founder of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference Prize for Women Playwrights. She is an excellent roller skater and bad cook.
Reason for signing up:
Because I sign up every year and fail but every year I fail better and that's what old Sam Beckett said to do.
Carole Johnston
Bio:
Carole Johnston is obsessed with Japanese short form poetry, Labrador Retrievers, grandchildren and teaching.Her latest book of poems is, “Purple Ink: A Childhood in Tanka.”
Reason for signing up:
It’s always fun.
Cassidy
Bio:
Fallible human
Reason for signing up:
Because I miss who I use to be when I was me
Chappy Chapuk
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Bio:
ex-furniture mover turned blind blues singer. Favorite poets in order of preference: W.B. Yeats, W.S. Merwin, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Emily Dickinson.
Reason for signing up:
because I am the best living english language poet in the continental United States (W.S. Merwin lives in Hawaii) and the world needs to know
Hat
Christina Bowman
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Bio:
Christina Bowman is currently living in Georgetown, Ky. In her spare time she likes to take naps.
Reason for signing up:
I wanted to.
Christopher McCurry
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Bio:
Christopher McCurry is a high school English teacher and father.
Reason for signing up:
I like to write poems and Lexington Poetry Month is the best place to write those poems.
cl kirby
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Bio:
RPCV. Social worker. Therapist. Writer.
Reason for signing up:
To push myself back into writing.
Claire Qian
catherine perkins
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Bio:
Catherine Perkins, a high school graduate with one year of college, devoted her entire working life to horses and the Thoroughbred Racing Industry. She began to get serious about her writing when she found and started taking classes at, The Carnegie Center For Literacy and Learning, in Lexington, KY. She has a few published poems, thanks in part to LexPoMo anthologies, &Grace and This Wretched Vessel (Accents Publishing), she has one poem in Circe's Lament (Accents Publishing, 2016) and most recently, My Post Inaugural Speech in killjoylitmag.
Reason for signing up:
I like being a part of the Lexington poets and writer's community. I would have done this last year but there was a glich that did not allow me to log in.
Colette Crown
Reason for signing up:
Incentive to write.
Dangerfield Yella
Dani Kokochak
Reason for signing up:
poetry reminds me
DawnG
Bio:
LaDawn Garvin started off journaling her thoughts as she went through life starting in the early 80’s and wrote poems for others as encouragement. She did not know she had the talent of writing until a very close friend encouraged her to share her writings with other. In July of 2017, her first book was written and published; The Rose in the Mirror: The Reflection of a Woman; Reflection of You. From that point on, she continued to write and put her writings together to get ready to publish her second book and has already started on the third book.
LaDawn is passionate about writing and is attending the University of Kentucky to earn her Bachelor degree in Writing. She wants to share her passion with others rather it is writing books or speaking to an audience about her journey in life that has brought her to this point. LaDawn was born in a small town of Jeannette, PA and moved to Louisville, KY when she was a young girl. It wasn’t until she moved to Lexington, KY in 2016 that she began to work on her first published book. She needed away from the chaos in Louisville to begin a new beginning.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because i like to write and write poetry and wanted to meet others in the community that have the same passion as i do.
Deanna Mascle
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Bio:
A writing evangelist who believes everyone is a writer and everyone should be a writer, Deanna teaches writers and writing teachers both in person and online, directs the Morehead Writing Project, and runs the Writing Studio at Morehead State University. She blogs about writing, teaching, and stories.
Reason for signing up:
I need more poetry in my life.
Debbie Adams Cooper
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Bio:
Debbie Adams Cooper delivering poetic creations groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Reason for signing up:
Masochistic tendencies.
Dennis Preston
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Bio:
Dennis J. Preston lives in Owensboro, Kentucky. He taught elementary school language arts for twenty-five years, but now enjoys being semi-retired. He is a pastor, and enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with his family. His most recent book is Cloaked Moon: Women of the Bible.
Reason for signing up:
I love to write, but I work better with challenges and deadlines. LexPoMo provides both!
Devan Watson
Devyn Fleming
Donelle Dreese
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Bio:
Donelle Dreese is a Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Sophrosyne (Aldrich Press), A Wild Turn (Finishing Line) and Looking for A Sunday Afternoon (Pudding House). She recently co-authored a collaborative chapbook titled Frame and Mount the Sky (Finishing Line). Donelle is also the author of the YA novella Dragonflies in the Cowburbs (Anaphora Literary), and the ecofiction novels Deep River Burning (WiDo Publishing) and Cave Walker (Moon Willow Press). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals including Blue Lyra Review, Roanoke Review, Louisville Review, and Potomac Review.
Reason for signing up:
I love reading and writing poetry.
dorito dude
Douglas Self
Bio:
Non existent
Reason for signing up:
Poetry, duh.
Eeyore Andronicus
Bio:
Father and Mentalist, I write Mech Warrior fanfic themed around all the Winnie the Pooh characters, both deeply accurate and robotic.
I also run a small Waltons family themed breakfast diner in the Midland on Yelp as "Waltons Mountain." Come out and try our John Boy!
Reason for signing up:
Shit like this is for the masses and I really want to be a part of something bigger.
Elizabeth Beck
Bio:
Elizabeth Beck is a teacher, writer and artist who lives with her family on a pond in Lexington, Kentucky.
Reason for signing up:
So grateful for this June challenge~ perfect for a school teacher to get her write on to launch summer.
Ella Helmuth
Erin Mathews
Bio:
Erin Mathews is a Lexington native and graduate from the University of Cincinnati. A reluctant poet and surefire storyteller, she writes for herself, family and friends.
Reason for signing up:
Lexington Poetry Month keeps keeps me tied to my home town and pushes my poetry every year.
Gaby Bedetti
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Bio:
Gaby Bedetti married a poet she met at a literature conference in Louisville, and together they raised a couple of kids. When she is not teaching at Eastern Kentucky University, she hikes, takes photos, plants trees, and sings in a folk choir.
Reason for signing up:
I love to get up in June to find new poems on lexpomo and then discover the poem I want to write.
Ginny
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Bio:
Ginny is a journalism professor and a proud mom of two teenagers.
Reason for signing up:
My friend Susan said it was a great idea.
HAROLD SHERMAN
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Bio:
Harold Sherman was born and raised in Lexington. He went to Henry Clay High School. After 11 years of being on the road as a musician and living in New York, he returned to Lexington and got his Masters in Composition at the University of Kentucky School of Music. He is now a Donovan Scholar at UK, majoring in English Creative Writing. Harold is married to Marianne. They have 2 dogs, Zara and Charlie.
Reason for signing up:
Bronson O'Quinn told us about LexPomo in Writing Practice at Carnegie Center.
HB Elam
Bio:
HB Elam is just another loop.
Reason for signing up:
"The real world is chaos. An accident. But in here every detail adds up to something."
Website:
Heather Dent
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Bio:
Heather is passionate about teaching children (and adults) to love the earth and inspire a sense of wonder for the outdoors. She enjoys birding, walking barefoot on the grass, and collecting acorns, feathers, and cool looking rocks.
Reason for signing up:
Because I've done Lexington Poetry Month in the past and it is such a great writing community! Also it motivates me to write more.
Hugg
Bio:
A person bound by nature
Reason for signing up:
Heard from a friend of a friend and wanted a motive to keep writing more
Queso
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Bio:
Lexington native, and a wannabe philosopher. Gotta keep up somehow, right?
Reason for signing up:
Never done poetry month before. Figured it was about time.
K Ka`imilani
Bio:
Ka'imilani is a Literary Arts teacher at SCAPA Bluegrass, School for the Creative and Performing Arts. She is originally from Hawaii where she taught high school Language Arts.
Reason for signing up:
Because I can. And want to challenge myself once again.
J. L. Brown
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Bio:
J. L. Brown studied creative writing at Ohio University under the direction of Dan Chaon. She lives and works in Maysville, KY.
Reason for signing up:
For the challenge!
J. Wise
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Bio:
J. Wise teaches children about literature for money. In her spare time, she hangs out with communists and anxiously awaits the apocalyptic fruits of the Anthropocene. If she could have dinner with anyone at all, living or dead, she probably wouldn’t.
Reason for signing up:
To write poems in a less anti-social way than usual.
j.l taylor
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Bio:
m.a arts leadership student who is trying really hard right now to do it all.
Reason for signing up:
writing needs to be a daily thing in my life again.
J.A Caswell
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Bio:
I just want to write all of my pain away
Reason for signing up:
Trying to improve. Trying to get back into what I love the most
Jamie Mann
Jamin Waite
Reason for signing up:
How to act like this English major a state away was worth it.
J McCoy
Jay St. Orts
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Bio:
Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Uncle, Cousin, Friend, Musician, DJ, Homebrewer, Cook, Editor, Writer. Not necessarily in that order. Sometimes exactly in that order.
Jennifer Curtis
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Bio:
Jennifer lives with her husband Ryan and son Kyle in Owensboro, Ky. She enjoys reading, writing, crafting, and traveling.
Reason for signing up:
I enjoy reading and writing poetry. This challenges me and pushes me out of my comfort zone.
Jennifer Barricklow
Bio:
Jennifer Barricklow is a poet and freelance editor in Lexington KY. She attends local writers' groups and occasionally leads writing workshops. She also studies tarot, putters in the garden, and makes stuff out of yarn.
Reason for signing up:
LexPoMo has become the center of my writing universe. I would be lost without it.
Jennifer Beckett
Bio:
Jennifer Beckett is a teacher and writer who graduated with a B.A. from Georgetown College and an M.A. from the University of Kentucky. She teaches English and French. She has been published in The Heartland Review, Accents Publishing’s anthology Bigger Than They Appear, Still: the Journal, Kentucky Monthly, Her Limestone Bones, and more.
Reason for signing up:
I enjoy being part of the LexPoMo community. I am also participating in The Gauntlet this year, which I recommend to anyone who wants to focus on writing. Now I have double motivation to write!
Jennifer Standard
Jennifer (Stricklett) Dobson
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Bio:
Jennifer is a mother of two daughters. She has taught elementary school for 21 years, focusing on Language Arts and struggling readers. She has a passion for words. She is an avid reader and writer and loves to play word games, when she can get people to play with her!
Reason for signing up:
I am excited to get the chance to share my work with others, as well as, read the works and perspectives of others. After joining the Old Washington Wordsmiths and learning about this site, I couldn't wait to join!
Jeremy Paden
Bio:
I, like you, have more than biography.
Reason for signing up:
Because Bronson and Christopher and all y'all poets are lovely
Jessica Swafford
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Bio:
Jessica Swafford is a writer from Georgetown, KY.
Reason for signing up:
It is a productive challenge. I have participated every year and enjoy the many voices that come together.
Jim Lally
Joan Dark
Jesus is Victory
Bio:
there he goes
Reason for signing up:
“... Like having to be able to say to yourself, ‘I am pretending to sit here reading Albert Camus’s The Fall for the Literature of Alienation midterm, but actually I’m really concentrating on listening to Steve try to impress this girl over the phone, and I am feeling embarrassment and contempt for him, and am thinking he’s a poser, and at the same time I am also uncomfortably aware of times that I’ve also tried to project the idea of myself as hip and cynical so as to impress someone, meaning that not only do I sort of dislike Steve, which in all honesty I do, but part of the reason I dislike him is that when I listen to him on the phone it makes me see similarities and realize things about myself that embarrass me, but I don’t know how to quit doing them—like, if I quit trying to seem nihilistic, even just to myself, then what would happen, what would I be like?”
Joe Schmidt
Bio:
Joe Schmidt is a poet, teacher, and worker. In 2011 he hiked the Appalachian trail from Georgia to Maine. He married Sevdagul Z. Schmidt in her native Gaziantep, Turkey in 2017. They have a daughter together.
Reason for signing up:
I enjoy sharing my poems.
John McCurry
Jordan Quinn
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Bio:
Jordan is a UK graduate, vintage enthusiast and working poet. She’s thrilled to be participating in her fourth year of LexPoMo.
Reason for signing up:
I haven’t written enough since last June, so I’m hoping to break free of the dreaded writer’s block!
Jo Manczyk
Joseph Nichols
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Bio:
"Everything I write I have lived... Everything I write is an implication I have not..." - Pyra Malfleur
Reason for signing up:
I adore LexPoMo and LexPoMoers.
Josey Bryant
Bio:
Josey Bryant wrote his first work, in high school. Since then, he has written every day, and is interested in getting his work out into the world. He went to Maysville Community and Technical College. He received an associates in Arts degree. He will soon start classes at the University of Kentucky.
Reason for signing up:
I am a young writer, who is anxious to get my work read by others.
Justin Littrell
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Bio:
Justin has a degree in German from the University of Kentucky. He likes to travel as much as he can, in search of both solitude and the good people between stretches of nothingness. He loves his friends and family, and he can't stop himself from telling a good, or bad, joke.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because I enjoy writing poetry, and I need to do it more often. This should inspire me to force words on paper when they don't come easy, and to let them pour out when they do. If someone enjoys it as much as I enjoy writing it, that's a win for sure!
K. Bruce Florence
Bio:
A person who writes for pleasure.
Reason for signing up:
It is an excellent exercise plus you get published. What a deal. Thank you, Bronson, Chris and others who afford us this opportunity.
Kimber Gray
K. Nicole Wilson
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Bio:
a lightning bolt.
punctuated by thunder.
Reason for signing up:
the gods demanded it.
Karah Stokes
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Bio:
Lives and gardens in Frankfort. Teaches college writing.
Reason for signing up:
I'm a hopeful masochist.
Karen George
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Bio:
Karen George, a native Kentuckian, has published a full-length poetry collection, Swim Your Way Back, and a second forthcoming, A Map and One Year, and five chapbooks, most recently an ekphrastic collaborative chapbook, Frame and Mount the Sky. She reviews poetry at Poetry Matters blog: http://readwritepoetry.blogspot.com/, and is co-founder and fiction editor of the online journal, Waypoints: http://www.waypointsmag.com/. She enjoys taking photographs and visiting museums, cemeteries, gardens and parks, the woods, mountains, and historic river towns—particularly any place near a body of water.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because this will be my sixth year of writing a poem-a-day with other LEXPOMO poets in June, and I've always found it inspiring. Also, for me, having a daily deadline is a good thing. I work well under pressure.
Kari Burchfield
Kate Fadick
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Bio:
Almost 3 years into my 8th decade... Two chapbooks: SLIPSTREAM (Finishing Line Press, 2013) and SELF-PORTRAIT AS HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (Glass Poetry Press, 2017.... Can be found in Still: The Journal, Wind’97, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Kudzu, and a handful of other journals ... Living the good life in Cincinnati with their partner of 27 years.
Reason for signing up:
Wanting to see the work of and take up this kind of challenge with writers from the other side of the river as I begin giving shape to a new project. Writing in community always motivates me.
Katerina Stoykova
Katherine
Bio:
Katherine is a student at Lafayette High school. She is currently a sophomore and is in SCAPA for Literary Arts. And is also in the pre-engineering program.
Reason for signing up:
Publishing Credits
Kathleen Crosmer
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Bio:
Kathleen is a writer of fiction, poetry, and memoir, struggling daily to see things not just as they are, but as they could be in a poem.
Reason for signing up:
A friend invited me and it seems like a good challenge.
Kathleen Gregg
Bio:
Kathleen Gregg has found a literary home within the vibrant writing community of Lexington, where she regularly takes poetry writing classes at Carnegie Center and participates in a writing group. She is proud to have graduated from the inaugural Author Academy program at Carnegie.
Reason for signing up:
It's a month long poetry fest!!
Katie Cross Gibson
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Bio:
Katie Cross is a ginger who likes reading graphic novels, playing video games, and writing(/trying to write) poetry. She grew up in southeastern Kentucky on the outskirts of Appalachia, but has called Lexington her home for almost seven years now. Her favorite Beatle is Paul.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because I need to work on my craft more--don't we all?--but also because I have more free time (and energy) for an endeavor such as this one in the summer.
Katrin Flores
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Bio:
prison documentaries, ghost hunting reality TV, and becoming Tina Belcher
Reason for signing up:
first venture into the real world without a high school writing class to keep me writing!
Kelley Tennille
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Bio:
Kelley Tennille is a writer & poet, a solitary witch, and a dog mom living on a small farm in Leesburg, Kentucky. She has recently completed her first chapbook of poetry, called Dead Nettle.
Reason for signing up:
Bc challenge accepted
kelly casey
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Bio:
kelly is just a person looking to start writing poetry again.
Reason for signing up:
because i’m afraid i didn’t use it and i lost it.
Kerfoot
Bio:
Kerfoot is a freshly graduated English Educator from Eastern Kentucky University. He also plays drums in a pop-punk band called "When Autumn Calls"
Kevin McCray
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Bio:
A lost soul finding his way with the help of his best friend.
Reason for signing up:
Because poetry ain't dead.
Kimi Hardesty
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Bio:
Kimi Hardesty loves reading, writing and all things nature. She recently moved to Lexington after living in Dallas and Seattle. She will hold an MFA in Creative Writing upon graduation from Goddard College in July.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because I want to be serious about my writing and because Chris encouraged his Gauntlet class to do so.
Koru
Reason for signing up:
I needed a place where I could express myself and not be afraid. This site makes me feel welcome and I hope to become less timid through it. Art not shared is thought.
Kris Gillis
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Bio:
I live a few blocks from the Ohio River and teach high school English.
Reason for signing up:
I like the discipline of writing a poem a day, even if I choose not to post. Plus, the community that develops over this month is fantastic.
Lauren Myfelt
Bio:
Lauren likes writing, loves poetry, and would die for a California redwood, chainsaw to the chest and all.
Reason for signing up:
Because "nothing focuses the mind like the last minute," or, in the less sanitized words of Samuel Johnson, "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
Larry Wheeler
Bio:
Larry Wheeler is a political agnostic and occasional psychonaut living in Lexington. He is mostly Over It.
Reason for signing up:
It's Jim Lally's fault.
Laura Foley
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Bio:
I was never any good at Bio. I hated dissecting the frogs--gross! I did like my Geometry teacher. He had an almost full head of hair!
Reason for signing up:
I like signing up for things. It makes me feel productive. I rarely do much after signing up, but, boy, it sure feels good at the time!
Lauren Hobson
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Bio:
Born and raised in Richmond, KY. A recent graduate of American Public University, with a degree in Sport Management
Reason for signing up:
Poetry heals open wounds
Len Lundh
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Bio:
Lennart Lundh is a poet, short-fictionist, historian, and photographer. His work has appeared internationally since 1965.
Reason for signing up:
Because the words will come.
Linda Caldwell
Bio:
Linda has been writing poetry for a long time. This is her 4th year with Lexpomo.
Reason for signing up:
I enjoy participating in Lexpomo
L.M.H.
Bio:
Lisa Miller Henry is a high school English teacher in Lexington, Kentucky. When she’s not in the classroom, she spends time her time writing, hiking, and cheering her son on at soccer games.
Reason for signing up:
LexPoMo creates an amazing community of writers. Starting each summer with this community is a blessing.
Liz Prather
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Bio:
Liz Prather teaches writing at Lafayette High School.
Reason for signing up:
It's June.
Lori Taylor
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Reason for signing up:
I enjoy word play, a good challenge, and accountability not to mention the delight of reading others’ work.
M J Eaton
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Bio:
M J Eaton was a Poet-in-the-Schools due to Grant's awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts from 1972 until 1987. She worked in TN, VA, KY, IA, AR, and MO. Her books include GRAB ME A BUS, FOR POETS, and FEELING MY WAY. She has taught writing at THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, DRAKE UNIVERSITY, and THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI, as well as several community colleges where she was a PITS. She presently is working on her next book while living in Missouri.
Reason for signing up:
Having lived and worked in Appalachia, I am still very much at home there. I enjoy the challenge of writing at least a poem a day.
M. Wells
Bio:
Maggie is a third time participant (at least) in Lex Po Mo. She is also a teacher, an environmentalist, and a passionate writer.
Reason for signing up:
To write more.
Mad Dog Mike
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Bio:
The idea of writing a short biography in third person was, to be brief, terrifically unappealing to Edward Michael Naish.
Reason for signing up:
Mr. McCurry hosts board game club, and I enjoy board game club a lot.
Madeleine Hamilton
Madison Miller
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Bio:
Madison is a psychology major in Lexington, KY. Her writing focuses on social issues, mental illness, and this strange human condition. She drinks much less coffee now than when she did LexPoMo last.
Reason for signing up:
I need accountability to get back into writing. Balancing work and school has distracted me from creating art.
Maggie Brewer
Bio:
A native of Ohio, Maggie Brewer is a high school social studies teacher in central Kentucky. She is working hard to use fewer disposable straws and wishes she has seen more of the world at this point in her life.
Reason for signing up:
Benjamin Franklin said, "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about." Since teachers take the summer off I guess I'll have to write.
Maggie Rue Hess
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Bio:
Stubborn on both sides of her family, Maggie is an English teacher who travels mainly to try different cuisines. Coffee and ice cream are her staples, and she wouldn't be the writer she is without Mary Oliver or David Swerdlow.
Reason for signing up:
Chris "the Jerk" McCurry suggested it to me, and I was sold on the idea of joining a humble literary community.
Malinda O’Quinn
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Bio:
Malinda O’Quinn is an artist, wife, mom-to-be, crazy cat lady and general weirdo.
Reason for signing up:
Bronson. The answer is Bronson.
Margaret Ricketts
Bio:
Margaret wants to keep the game afoo
Reason for signing up:
Reading and writing new poems is a enliving thing
Mark Walz, Jr.
Reason for signing up:
I love writing and reading poetry!
Mary Alice MacDonald
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Bio:
Mary Alice MacDonald is a poet living and writing in Raleigh, NC. Her work can most recently be seen in Rust + Moth and Rising Phoenix Review. She misses driving through Kentucky in the summer and smelling the perfume of bourbon distilleries heavy in the air.
Reason for signing up:
I love my people and my poets in KY and I miss them and I need to get myself into gear writing these poems!
Mary Allen
Mary Grace Boyle
M L Stephens
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Bio:
Mary Lou is a mother, grandmother and hospital chaplain.
Reason for signing up:
The invitation and challenge to write poetry offered me the nudge I needed to find a new means of personal reflection and expression. Thank you, Susan.
Maya Pemble
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Bio:
Maya is currently a junior at Sayre School. She loves travel, music, spicy food and is constantly lost in thought.
meadow dawn
Photo of meadow dawn
Bio:
Since moving back home to Kentucky, Meadow has found a great comfort in sharing particularly arranged words with friends who do the same.
Reason for signing up:
Something about the interactive nature of lexpomo pulls me in each year.
Megan Gieske
Bio:
Artist, activist, and advocate, Megan Gieske, is a writer and photographer. A recent creative writing graduate from Asbury University, she studied abroad in over twelve countries on scholarship with Semester at Sea. Most recently, she lived in Cape Town, South Africa after winning a travel grant.
Megan’s poetry may be found in numerous journals and anthologies. She has been shortlisted for the Live Canon first collection contest and a finalist for the 2017 Dan Veach Prize for Younger Poets, and her writing was the recipient of the She Is Noble Award from Aspiration Media that gave $10,000 to feed inner-city kids in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Melva Sue Priddy
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Bio:
Melva Sue Priddy, born in central Kentucky, continues to live in central KY. She reads, she writes, she gardens, she Mammaw Mellys. She wasn't born yesterday however she still delights in friendship, laughter and living.
Reason for signing up:
I enjoy the challenge, and the lack of competition--just writers writing together.
michelle johnson
Michelle Knickerbocker
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Bio:
I'm a quirky professional cook. Sometimes I write poems. I live with my wife and our dogs and cats in Frankfort, Ky.
Reason for signing up:
I'm trying to keep up with my amazing wife.
Mike Wilson
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Bio:
Mike Wilson, a writer in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, has had stories and poetry published in small magazines and anthologies including Appalachian Heritage, The Seventh Wave, killjoylit, and Chicago Literati.
Reason for signing up:
I forgot to take my medication.
Missy Brownson
Misty Skaggs
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Bio:
Misty Skaggs is an author, artist, activist and part-time hermit from the east Kentucky backwoods. Lexington is about as close as she'll venture to city lights. Her first poetry chapbook, Biscuits and Blisters, will be coming out soon from Workhorse! Skaggs' ain't too good for her raising or for shameless self promotion. Her other interests include stinky junk stores, stray cats and making rich people uncomfortable.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up so i can indulge in some virtual people watching, binge on poetry and convince the good folks of Lexington to purchase my first poetry chapbook, Biscuits and Blisters! coming out soon from Workhorse.
mtpoet
Bio:
The author of 29 books, mostly poetry, novels and short stories... Editor and publisher of Old Seventy Creek Press... At work on a novel and another book of poetry to be completed with work from this year's LEXPOMO...
Reason for signing up:
I have been here for every past Lexington Poetry Month and I do look forward to reading the work of other participants here.
Nancy Jentsch
Bio:
Nancy K. Jentsch has taught German and Spanish for over thirty years at Northern Kentucky University. She has published scholarly articles, short fiction and poetry in journals such as Journal of Kentucky Studies, Eclectica, Aurorean, and Blinders. Her chapbook, Authorized Visitors, has been published by Cherry Grove Collections, an imprint of WordTech Communications (2017). Seven of her ekphrastic poems appear in the collaborative chapbook Frame and Mount the Sky (2017).
Reason for signing up:
I am looking forward to the discipline of a poem a day and eager to see what the month of poems brings.
Nettie Farris
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Bio:
Nettie Farris has one son marrying, one son graduating from college, and one son graduating from high school summer 2018.
Reason for signing up:
Lexington Poetry Month calls to me.
Website:
Nick Skid
Nobu
Photo of Nobu
Bio:
I'm in your area.
Reason for signing up:
Practice, publishing, and feedback.
Nollie Palmer
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Bio:
Nollie is an art school dropout and vaguely problematic person. Check out his drawings on instagram at halfwitchdisaster, if you want to see his art.
Reason for signing up:
My brother insisted, and I do enough to let him down as it is.
Pat Owen
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Bio:
Pat Owen went form the left-brain career of legal publishing to the right-brain work of poetry. The sift still sometimes makes her dizzy. Her debut poetry collection, Crossing the Sky Bridge was published by Larkspur Press.
Reason for signing up:
I love the daily practice and discipline.
Patrick Johnson
Reason for signing up:
This is another way to motivate me to write a poem a day for six months.
Patrick Maloney
Patti Miller
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Bio:
Wife. Mother. Grandmother. Writer. Reader. Traveler.
Reason for signing up:
The mind says no but the heart says yes.
Pauletta Hansel
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Bio:
Pauletta Hansel is author of six poetry collections, including Palindrome (Dos Madres Press, 2017), winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award for best Appalachian poetry book. Pauletta was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate from April 2016 through March 2018. Her first LexPoMo was 2013.
Reason for signing up:
Because it is almost June, and that's what I do in June!
Philip Corley
Photo of Philip Corley
Bio:
I may get a lot of things wrong, but at least I'm still me. This year is a celebration of that.
Reason for signing up:
Poetry is how I relate to the world, so I try to write some every day. Lexpomo is great for motivation.
Philip Sallee
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Bio:
Philip resides in Lexington with his beloved wife and children. He enjoys writing and reflecting on what it means to truly live and love.
Reason for signing up:
If writing is personal then poetry is intimate. Its scary to share this element of thought life; Lexpomo creates an accepting environment to share our unique views on life with others.
Rachel Khosrowshahi
Bio:
Currently Writing a five part play about mass hallucinations. Past works include a series of short novellas set during the collapse of a small town in rural Kentucky, a modern re telling of the book of Job in which Donald Glover is both God and Job and a few pieces of Appalachian Papaw poetry.
Rayny Palmer
Bio:
Rayny Palmer is alive.
Reason for signing up:
Because it is the thing to do.
Rebecca Cavendish
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Bio:
Rebecca Cavendish Taulbee is not a crook.
Reason for signing up:
It's becoming a habit.
Regan Strehl
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Reason for signing up:
I signed up because I felt like it was time to get more involved in the writing community. I chose to do it through Lexpomo specifically, because two mentor writers-whom I deeply respect-recommended it.
Reid Goins
RG
Photo of RG
Bio:
I am a musician and only recently have I decided to embark on this poetic journey, for therapeutic purposes and as a creative outlet. I’ve had so many feelings that I have put into my pieces and I hope that you can feel them in a very similar fashion.
Reason for signing up:
I was halfway forced to sign up by a friend who has read my writing, but I also really appreciate the idea of critique and constructive criticism since I am a new writer!
RJ Rudd
Rona Roberts
Bio:
Rona Roberts, a writer and researcher based in Lexington, Kentucky, works with local, state, and national groups to find things out, figure things out and work things out. She also co-hosts a weekly community radio show, speaks and writes about Kentucky's farms, farmers and foodways.
Reason for signing up:
Practice, fellowship and fun.
Michael Moloney
Bio:
Sabne Raznik is from Eastern Kentucky and has published online as well as in the US and Ireland. She founded and coedits the ezine "AvantAppal(achia)" and coedits "North/South Appalachia". She has published three full-length collections "Following Hope", "Linger To Look", and "Rabbit Hole" as well as a homemade chapbook called "Marrow" for the benefit of childhood cancer research via St. Jude's Hospital. She has been an actor in Community Theatre and won awards as a visual artist.
Reason for signing up:
Continuing ongoing projects and likes the challenge.
Sabne Raznik
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Bio:
Sabne Raznik is an internationally published poet and an award-winning artist who occasionally acts in Community Theatre. She founded and serves as the Poetry and Art Editor of AvantAppal(achia) e-zine. She has three full-length collections: “Following Hope” (Xlibris, 2007), “Linger to Look” (Sabne Raznik/Createspace, 2015), and now “Rabbit Hole” (Sabne Raznik/Createspace, 2017). She also wrote and hand produced “Marrow” (Sabne Raznik, 2013), a little art book, to benefit St. Jude’s Research Hospital. She currently paints in watercolour, acrylics, and digital, and her artistic style is different with each medium. She lives in Kentucky, USA with her puppy candidate Aida.
http://sabneraznik.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/sabneraznik
http://www.facebook.com/sabneraznik
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6190999.Sabne_Raznik
http://poetryzoo.com/author/sabneraznik
https://soundcloud.com/sabne-raznik
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabneraznik
http://instagram.com/sabneraznik
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/sabne-raznik.html?tab=artworkgalleries
http://www.avantappalachia.com
Reason for signing up:
I enjoyed it last year and thought I would try again this year. I am also doing The Gauntlet unofficially and working on my 4th full-length collection. This will help keep the words flowing.
Samantha Ratcliffe
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Bio:
Samantha Ratcliffe is an Appalachian poet and musician under the name of Fields May.
Reason for signing up:
I have to sign up. I have a lot of words and this makes me feel like they matter.
Sarah Marie
Reason for signing up:
I think this will be my third LexPoMo. I'm signing up again because I love to write and I don't do it nearly enough. I hope this challenge will keep me accountable to park my bottom and get some words out of my head and onto paper.
Serena Devi
Reason for signing up:
year 5 is a lucky number
Shanna Bowen
Shaun Turner
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Bio:
Shaun Turner writes and teaches in central Kentucky. Check out his published work at http://shaunturnerwrites.com
Reason for signing up:
To read and share poetry with fellow writers and poets!
Shawn Saylor
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Bio:
Shawn works in branding & design at Mediocre Creative, an agency on the north side of town.
Shelda Hale
Smiley
Reason for signing up:
I have several friends in the group and they made it sound amazing! I need this!
Stefani Heller
Stephanie Mojica
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Bio:
Stephanie Mojica, a widely published former journalist who has interviewed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, currently copyedits, proofreads, and writes – mostly non-fiction – for numerous websites and publications. Her non-fiction publication history includes “The Philadelphia Inquirer”, “The Virginian-Pilot”, “Realty411”, “Louisville Magazine”, “Today’s Woman”, and “The Courier-Journal”. Stephanie’s published poetry credits include “Open Minds Quarterly”, “The Stray Branch”, “Mad Swirl”, “Calliope Nerve”, and “The Mainichi Daily News”. Stephanie is a writing mentor and teacher through the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, and teaches in other organizations including the Fayette County Mental Health Court.
Reason for signing up:
I participated two years ago and it helped me write and revise poems.
Steve Cummings
Bio:
This is Steve's third year participating in Lexpomo. He's hoping for the charm.
Reason for signing up:
To read some great poems and maybe write one.
Susan M. Stephens
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Bio:
Mother and American Sign Language Interpreter
Reason for signing up:
To borrow from John Muir: The poems are calling & I must write & I will write while I can, studying incessantly
Susan McDonald
Susie Slusher
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Bio:
Lafayette High School graduate, cosmetology student and barista
Sylvia Ahrens
Sylvia Collings
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Bio:
Sylvia Collings is Lemon Star Mag's Internship Coordinator, a former Poetry Gauntlet participate and a mom of 5 cats and a dog.
Reason for signing up:
I would like to get back into the habit of writing poetry often.
T. D. Worthington
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Bio:
Currently stationed at Keesler Air Force Base for technical training as a weather forecaster, still fond of Kentucky and Lexington no matter the distance.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up because I wanted to continue to improve my writing and stay in touch with this writing community.
Tabitha Dial
Bio:
Tabitha teaches tarot haiku and tea leaf reading parties. She reads tea at the Winter Wizarding Waltz as Professor Trelawney and is the author of Creative Divination: Read Tea Leaves and Develop your Personal Code.
Reason for signing up:
Amy Camuglia.
Taleah Gipson
Tania Horne
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Bio:
Tania has a husband, a son, a dog, and an alarming number of cats. Her housekeeping is lousy but she hopes people remember her for wanting to help and make a difference for others. She enjoys writing and associating with creative people and feels inspired by them.
Reason for signing up:
To stay inspired and motivated to create.
The Philosophical Physicist
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Bio:
Ryan Keinath is an abstract artist and photographer based out of Lexington, Ky.
He typically explores the realms of Abstract Expressionism, he uses both digital and film cameras for his various endeavors. His goal is to produce post conventional and thought provoking works of art while conveying an emotional expression to the viewer.
Reason for signing up:
Expression of mine
On pixelated paper
With digital ink
t.l andry
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Bio:
just another punk aging out of relevance.
Reason for signing up:
i am a show-off.
Tina Parker
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Bio:
Tina Parker is trying to bring order to her new poems about women and mental illness. She hopes to write some new poems that will properly distract her.
Reason for signing up:
During LexPoMo, the mic is adjusted just right and the sounds are sublime.
t.m. thomson
Bio:
t.m. thomson’s work has most recently appeared in bonfire(s) and Foliate Oak Literary Magazine. Three of her poems have been nominated for Pushcart Awards: “Seahorse and Moon” in 2005, “I Walked Out in January” in 2016, and “Strum and Lull” in 2018. She has co-authored Frame and Mount the Sky, a chapbook of ekphrastic poetry (2017); her chapbook Strum and Lull placed in Golden Walkman’s 2017 chapbook competition; and her chapbook The Profusion is due out in January of 2019.
upfromsumdirt
V. Moriarity
Bio:
Vickie has been teaching middle school language arts for 27 years. She currently resides in Mt. Sterling Kentucky with her three cats.
Reason for signing up:
I signed up for the challenge of writing a poem a day and to ensure I will write every morning before starting the day!
V. Violett Vonn Trapp
Bio:
Flowers in her hair. Stars in her heart. Her smile, just for Him.
Reason for signing up:
Stumbled upon.
Victoria Gross