|
|
No chapters, and plenty of connections. PST operates as a chapter-free organization. The Regional Connections Committee serves to help develop regions and connect people within eight designated regions of Tennessee and one region for out-of-state members. Members will be assigned a "home base" region when joining but may participate in any regional activities. |
|
About the Regional Connections Committee The PST Regional Connections Committee (RCC) helps promote opportunities for regional development across Tennessee. The RCC identifies and develops initiatives to meet the needs of PST membership regions of state. |
|
RCC Goals
- facilitate independent regional development and growth according to each region’s strengths and interests
- promote a regular exchange of communications and information between PST Regional Representatives and PST Leadership regarding regional planning efforts
- coordinate plans for a yearly PST regional budget allotment to address regional development and membership growth
- encourage regions across the state to share ideas and support each other as they discover how to proceed with developing programs and initiatives
- provide support to Regional Representatives as they work to promote their region’s growth and increase PST membership
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
|
|
In the Southeast region, Tennessee Wesleyan University hosts a special convocation reading and discussion on the profession of writing September 2025 featuring society members Connie Jordan Green and Natalie Kimbell, who read and shared views on writing as a profession. Q&Q facilitated by Regional Chairperson Claudia Stanek. Above: Connie Jordan Green addresses audience as Natalie Kimbell looks on. Natalie and Connie interact with audience members and available to answer questions and sign books. Claudia Stanek interacts with audience. Natalie Kimbell reads a selection from one of her poetry books. |
In the Northeast region, PST members participate in an annual contest and poetry happening each October. Members appearing as guest readers or contest finalists (above, l to r) include Jerry Buchanan, Christie Anderson Peters, Kayla Nichols, and Molly McDonough.
Claudia M. Stanek’s chapbook, Language You Refuse to Learn, was a co-winner of Bright Hill Press’s annual contest (2014). Her poems have been published in Ekstasis, Solum, Book of Matches, Atticus Review, and Rust + Moth, among others. Claudia was awarded a Writer's Residency in Poland, where her work has been translated into Polish. Her poem “Housewife” was selected for a commissioned libretto by Judith Lang Zaimont for the Eastman School of Music’s Women in Music Festival. She holds an MFA from Bennington College. A founding member of Just Poets (Rochester, NY), Claudia now lives in East Tennessee with her elderly dogs, where she also rescues the occasional hummingbird.
Fred Tudiver is a dual citizen of Canada and the US who has lived in the Johnson City area for 21 years. He retired from an academic career in medicine in 2016, finishing a 40-year career at ETSU as full professor, in the department of Family Medicine at Quillen. Fred became a member of PST in the last 2 years and has enjoyed it, in particular the feedback and camaraderie from fellow poets. While he has published in the scientific medical world quite extensively, his poetry writing came about rather recently. His work has been published in Black Moon Magazine.
Welcome Cassandra Cooper as the Kentucky Lake regional representative. More information to come soon.
More InformationCheck back for more information about regional programs and regional representatives. Find information about virtual and in-person programs and groups here.
|
Dr. Ruby Jones is a native Memphian who was born in Mississippi. She retired from the Army as an E-7, Sergeant First Class, in 1996. In 1997 she enrolled in University of Texas, Austin, where she received a Ph.D. in Russian in 2008. Dr. Jones returned to Memphis in 2012 where she has been active in politics and in her church for the last 10 years. She also volunteers with Literacy MidSouth, where she provides adult-literacy tutoring.
Cynthia Storrs teaches and writes near Nashville. She taught high school and college English and writing for nearly four decades. She also served on the board of Poetry West, the Pikes Peak Poet Laureate Committee, and with the Pikes Peak Arts Council, which awarded her a grant for the promotion of poetry in Colorado Springs. Her award-winning poetry has been published in several anthologies, online, and in magazines. She currently teaches creative writing for adults in Williamson County.
Ray Zimmerman is a former Chattanooga Writer’s Guild president and Chattanooga Audubon Society president. He lives and writes in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His poetry has been published in Number One, The Southern Poetry Anthology: Tennessee, Volume 6 from Texas Review Press, and the Mildred Haun Review, a Walters State Community College publication in Morristown, Tennessee, among others. His feature articles have appeared in The Chattanooga Pulse, Photo Traveler (Los Angeles), The Journal of Interpretation (Fort Collins, Colorado), and The Hellbender Press (Knoxville). His essay “How I Became a Poet” appeared in Waxing and Waning, Nashville. His illustrated poetry book, "It's Just a Phase," (Walnut Street Press) is available. Learn more at https://rayzimmermanauthor.com.
|
