Jerielle
Bio:
I grew up barefoot, on 50 acres of wooded land, handraising birds, learning and performing dance routines, harmonies, and going to the public library twice a week. I rode horses, did dance and gymnastics, diving lessons, skiing, piano and guitar, bass, drums and saxophone. My mom would wake me up at 5 am so as to write in a more unconscious state. I was also frequently walking in the woods, learning the names of everything and how to talk to the spirit in all things like the Native American people in many accounts. I am still as unconventional as I ever was, and making paintings which reflect a bit of my own soul back to me is my current profession. Art, music, spirit, love, are inseparable to me, and above all I believe my mission in life is to help others in the world to open their eyes a little wider to the beauty. I agree with Hiyao Miyazaki that any art created by AI is humanity losing confidence in itself.
Reason for Signing Up:
I always do
Lisa M. Miller
Bio:
Lisa M. Miller is an inclusive mind-body health specialist and social justice advocate. She facilitates women in every life-chapter to integrate physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual resilience. Working from the understanding that health is much more than the “absence of disease”, she’s passionate about the intersection of perennial wisdom teachings with modern therapeutic-arts and sciences in healing. Lisa serves a wide demographic through support groups and workshops in: SoulCollage®, Mussar, yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, mixed media art and creative writing. In every context, humor and synchronicity tend to accompany the deep work of healing.
An empty nester in Kentucky, Lisa feels really lucky to be married to her 1986 summer camp sweetheart.
Her book, Woe & Awe, will be launched in spring 2024 through Accents Publishing.
Reason for Signing Up:
1) I love this groovy writing community.
2) Poetry is groovy!
Shaun Turner
Bio:
Shaun Turner is the Fiction Editor for Stirring: A Literary Collection. His poems and stories have been published in journals such as The South Carolina Review, Bayou Magazine, Still: The Journal, and The Appalachian Review, where he was awarded the Denny C. Plattner Award in Fiction.
Reason for Signing Up:
I love this community: sharing poetry and talking about poetry with folks every June.
Deanna
Bio:
Deanna teaches writing at Morehead State and leads the Morehead Writing Project.
Reason for Signing Up:
To stretch my poetry muscles
Liz Prather
Bio:
Liz Prather is a writer and teacher.
Reason for Signing Up:
It is June.
Mary Potts
Bio:
Mary is a Lexington native, mother and social worker.
She brings her inner battles, perspectives and experiences to the pages before her, to connect, ground and express herself.
Mary is entering her second year of participating in LexPoMo. Last year's participation changed her life and perspective.
The 2024 year has already brought about grief and heartache like no other. With new challenges, she is ready to fill these pages.
Reason for Signing Up:
To experience another year of growth and challenge my ability to think and write outside the box and connect with such a beautiful community. Ready to pour it on the page!
Bernard Deville
Bio:
Bernie is a retired middle school teacher, currently designing role-playing games. Known for Post-Pomo trainwrecks.
Reason for Signing Up:
Haven't missed one yet.
Ann Haney
Bio:
Ann is a painter who also loves poetry. She taught studio art for many years and now takes time to experience and explore art forms that she finds of interest.
Reason for Signing Up:
I learned about LexPoMo from Deanna Mascle and it has been a great expereince!
Lucy James
Bio:
Lucy James writes from a little hilltop in Eastern Kentucky.
Reason for Signing Up:
I like the challenge of writing every day. It motivates me to write.
Cathy Perkins
Bio:
Cathy Perkins, broke and broken multi-talented human whose part-time jobs include horse-crossing guard, zero-turn mower operator and a small business general partner, spends many hours a day writing poetry and comedy, going down internet rabbit holes, staring out the window in a total state of mindless meditation. Cathy is the author of Udder Uproar, 2024 Accents Publishing. https://accents-publishing.com/udderuproar.html
Reason for Signing Up:
I signed up because I am part of the Lexington Poetry family. I wouldn't miss LexPoMo for any reason except for illness or death and I would try to figure out how to be part of the LexPoMo community from the bed or from the grave.
HAROLD SHERMAN
Bio:
Harold Sherman is a freelance musician and has been for most of his adult life. He is also a Donovan Scholar at UK, having previously received his MM in Composition in 1999. He once taught piano lessons to rising standup comic star Ariel Elias and recorded a Christmas CD with Laura Bell Bundy. He did not, however, invent the internet--nor has he ever dated Taylor Swift.
Reason for Signing Up:
I heard about it at Writing Practice at Carnegie Center.
Misty Skaggs
Bio:
artist, activist, barefooted backwoods poet.
Sav Noël Hoover
Bio:
Sav is an Appalachian poet living in Ravenna, Ky with her two kids, two cats, and two dogs. She only has one husband.
It is her hope that her work can offer comfort and provoke thought in a world that isn’t always comfortable.
Reason for Signing Up:
I want to further challenge myself and my work!
Eric W. Willis
Bio:
Eric W. Willis is a writer, reader, sometimes editor, visual artist, traveler, and caretaker of two lively fish and two even more lively felines. He is a graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. He lives and works in the heart of Kentucky.
Reason for Signing Up:
The challenge of it.
Debra Glenn
Bio:
Debra has published two poetry collections, "a pretty, long walk" and "light moves". Debra participated in the Carnegie Center's Poetry Gauntlet in 2020 and is a frequent reader at open mic events.
Reason for Signing Up:
I have participated the last few years and find it a good challenge to write a poem a day!
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.
Gwyneth Stewart
Bio:
Gwyneth is a retired lawyer and practicing poet.
Reason for Signing Up:
I have participated for several years and love the challenge to write daily and the community of poets.
Jennifer Elam
Bio:
Jennifer has spent her life writing and is now part of the Coming of Age women’s writer’ s group. As a psychologist, dancer and writer, she is just completing her book called “Dancing through the Fires”; a personal narrative about healing grief and trauma through (co)creativity, together, with God, Self and Others.
Reason for Signing Up:
To share my writing and creativity with others in the hope that someone will find it helpful.
Jennifer Barricklow
Bio:
Jennifer Barricklow is a writer and freelance editor in Lexington KY. In addition to writing poetry, she studies tarot, putters in the garden, and makes stuff out of yarn. She participates in the literary ecosystem, locally and globally, as much as possible.
Reason for Signing Up:
I signed up because I love being part of Lexington's amazing poetry community!
LittleBird
Bio:
LittleBird gazes into the abyss of the existential challenge before her as she tries to write her biography. At midlife, that seems fitting. She lives in Austin, TX with her two kids and dog. She has a job she loves and she is working toward a Masters degree. She's saving up for her farm dream back in KY, and likes to write poetry to release the words that bounce around in her heart.
Reason for Signing Up:
I love the challenge of writing something each day and enjoy reading the contributions from my creative peers.
