69th ANNUAL POETRY FESTIVAL
Poetry Society of Tennessee, will hold their 69th Annual Poetry Festival virtually. Plenary session presenter and Best of Fest judge for this year will be Lisa Coffman. The event is FREE to society members and advance reservation is requested. Members should have received an invitation in mid-March. For questions about the event or registration, contact the society at [email protected].
PLENARY SESSION & WORKSHOP
Midrash, Myth Making, Myth Breaking: The Collective Meets the Individual
LISA COFFMAN grew up in East Tennessee and currently lives on California’s Central Coast. She has studied and worked in intensely different environments, all of which feed her writing–New York City, Philadelphia, and Bonn, Germany; the remote high desert of Deep Springs Valley; and the abandoned coal mining town of Glenmary, Tennessee.
She is the author of two collections of poetry: Likely, which won Kent State University Press’s Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, and Less Obvious Gods, with poems featured in numerous anthologies. Coffman’s audio stories have aired on NPR’s All Things Considered and the Living Traditions podcast series. Her articles have been published by Oxford American, BBC News, Village Voice, Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere.
Her writing has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Bucknell University’s Stadler Center for Poetry. She collaborated with composer Timothy Melbinger on the six-poem cycle Hymns to Less Obvious Gods, which premiered in spring 2019.
Midrash, Myth Making, Myth Breaking: The Collective Meets the Individual
LISA COFFMAN grew up in East Tennessee and currently lives on California’s Central Coast. She has studied and worked in intensely different environments, all of which feed her writing–New York City, Philadelphia, and Bonn, Germany; the remote high desert of Deep Springs Valley; and the abandoned coal mining town of Glenmary, Tennessee.
She is the author of two collections of poetry: Likely, which won Kent State University Press’s Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, and Less Obvious Gods, with poems featured in numerous anthologies. Coffman’s audio stories have aired on NPR’s All Things Considered and the Living Traditions podcast series. Her articles have been published by Oxford American, BBC News, Village Voice, Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere.
Her writing has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Bucknell University’s Stadler Center for Poetry. She collaborated with composer Timothy Melbinger on the six-poem cycle Hymns to Less Obvious Gods, which premiered in spring 2019.
CONTEST & ANTHOLOGY
Winning poems of this year's festival contest will be announced during the festival. First place poems will be featured in our next edition of Tennessee Voices Anthology.
Winning poems of this year's festival contest will be announced during the festival. First place poems will be featured in our next edition of Tennessee Voices Anthology.
FESTIVAL ARCHIVE
69th Annual Festival Contest Results
68th Annual Festival Contest Results
68th Annual Poetry Contest
Tennessee Visions Contest Results
Previous Festival Contest Results & Publication Acceptance
First place winners of all PST contests, unless otherwise noted, are published in Tennessee Voices, our annual anthology. Additional poems may be selected for publication at PST's discretion. See publications for information on how to purchase anthology editions.
Monthly Members-Only Contests
Looking for our members-only contests schedule or winners list? Please see member contests.
68th Annual Festival Contest Results
68th Annual Poetry Contest
Tennessee Visions Contest Results
Previous Festival Contest Results & Publication Acceptance
- 67th Annual Contest (2023) Winners
- 66th Annual Festival Call for Submission Acceptances (2022)
- 65th Annual Contest (2021) Winners
- 64th Annual Contest (2020) Winners
- 63rd Annual Contest (2019) Winners
- 62nd Annual Contest (2018) Winners
First place winners of all PST contests, unless otherwise noted, are published in Tennessee Voices, our annual anthology. Additional poems may be selected for publication at PST's discretion. See publications for information on how to purchase anthology editions.
Monthly Members-Only Contests
Looking for our members-only contests schedule or winners list? Please see member contests.