What better way could there be to celebrate National Poetry Month in April this year than by writing a sonnet or three and submitting it to the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest?
Interested in trying your hand? Take a look at their website: entries@sonnetcontest.org. If you like, you can opt in for email updates. And if your are able to be in beautiful Winona, Minnesota on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, you won’t want to miss a very special sonnet celebration–readings and discussions at the Blue Heron Coffeeshop with poets Melissa Range and Ken Mogren. (I will have more later in the month on Melissa Range’s dazzling collection of poems (including sonnets) called Scriptorium (Beacon Press, Boston, 2016).
As many of you know, I first got to know the City of Winona, Minnesota through participating in the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest as a poet who writes in the sonnet form. Growing out of the successful Great River Shakespeare Festival, established in 2008, the Contest was the brainchild of Winona Poet Laureate James Armstrong and GRSF Artistic Director Doug Scholz-Carlson. Since a small regional start nine years ago, this contest has become a vibrant national and international incubator and celebrator of some of the best sonnets being written by contemporary poets. This expansion has been made possible by the participation of all three of Winona’s Poet Laureates (James Armstrong, Ken McCullough, and Emilio DeGrazia), by the diligent creativity of program administrator Heidi Bryant, and by the extraordinary and far-sighted philanthropy of Ted Haaland, husband of the late Maria W. Faust.
My own first submission was in 2013, and since then this annual contest has been an exciting part of my year, whether or not I had a submitted sonnet honored or not. Each year has been an opportunity to write new sonnets, submit my very best, and plan to attend the Closing Reading to hear sonnets read by actors in the GRSF company or by poets able to attend.
This year, I was honored to be asked to join James Armstrong, Ken McCullough, and Emilio DeGrazia as a judge. This year, a total of 604 poems were submitted from 214 people (poets can submit one, two, or three sonnets per submission.) These poets hail from thirty-five states and ten countries. Of special note this year, entries in the Youth category were up 58 percent, from 31 in 2020 to 49 in 2021!
All poems are judged blind–that it, the judges do not know who the author is, so the poem must speak for itself. With so many truly fine poems–excellent examples of the sonnet form, and, more than that, compelling writing on a large range of subjects, with varying points of view, tone, and use of language–it was very difficult for me to select my top choices, but I did manage to do that by going over the best submissions several times. When the judges met in July to compare lists and select the top winning poems in each category, I was struck by how often judges were in agreement on the merits of poems. I was also delighted that each judge was able to champion four “Laureates Choices” once the top poems were selected. A special pleasure at the end of that process–once all the winners were selected–was learning the names of these fine poets and seeing who had written each poem. Many I recognized through reading their work before: Scott Lowery, Marilyn Taylor, Anna Evans, Jean L. Kreiling, and Barbara Lydecker Crane. Most were new to me. Now all these names are ones I shall look for in the journals I read in the years ahead.
Names of the winning poems poets, and the full text of each sonnet, in a splendid digital version of a program with turning pages, is available on the contest website as well.
Below is a video of a Zoom meeting in which many of the poets were able to read their own winning poems. For those poets with winning poems who were not able to attend, either one of the judges or a member of the Great River Shakespeare Festival Company stepped in, so every winning sonnet can be heard as well as read.
The City of Winona is a bastion of lively writers, artists, and musicians, filled with good conversation, good food, and (of course!) amazing theatre through the annual Great River Shakespeare Festival. Most recently, I was able to learn more about the deeper history of the area through this beautifully written play by Emilio DeGrazia, enhanced by a thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction by Monica DeGrazia.
Stained glass window at the Winona Visitors Center
Wishing you continued adventures–reading, writing, exploring, and enjoying the remaining days of summer!
Five years in the making, a new anthology of winning sonnets from the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest is now published! The finished volume is filled inventive and moving sonnets, and I am honored to have two of my own included in this gorgeous volume that can be held in the hand, read in the open air of the garden, considered, and returned to again.
Copies of the anthology can be purchased by emailing entries@sonnetcontest.org.
Tim and I always try to attend the Closing Event for the yearly contest in Winona, Minnesota. This year, an inventive online event will be held–and you are invited! Below, the text from a recent email I received from the program administrator.
I hope that you are enjoying these long, light-filled days! Leslie
Traditionally, the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest has held an annual Closing Event in partnership with the Great River Shakespeare Festival (GRSF). Because we are unable to host a large in-person event this year, we are taking the opportunity to re-invent the celebration. What does that mean?
Potentially the largest audience ever! The Closing Event is where the winning sonnets are publicly announced each year. Because this will be an online event, winners will be able to join GRSF actors in reading their sonnets.
We have contacted all of the winners and many are excited to participate.We hope that you will join us, too. The link below will allow you to view the event on your computer through Zoom. If you are not available at that time, you will be able to view the video of the event on our website at a later date.
This year, more than 400 sonnets were submitted from poets from all over–many from the Mississippi River region, many from across the U.S., and each year more and more from abroad–this year submissions were received from nine countries outside the United States.
If you click on the link above, you’ll find a list of winning sonnets as well as poets’ names and home towns. I was quite surprised — and very pleased! — to learn that one of my own submitted sonnets, “Zebras in Sunlight,” is in the list. I was very pleased (and not at all surprised) that a fine sonnet by a poet-friend, Scott Lowery, was in the highest winners’ circle!
As an aside, I have realized that since the time I first learned of this sonnet showcase in 2013, I have truly begun to “think in sonnets.” I have written poems in this form for many years now and then, but I just did a loose count and realized that in the past six years I have written more than 100 new sonnets. I know for certain this would not have happened without this annual nudge from my friends in Winona. Thank you!
But I digress! The prelude to the event was music by the ensemble, Flutistry. This group of five flutists–Janet Heukeshoven, Heidi Bryant, Arlene Boll, Lisa Ramsey and Amanda Wenzel–wove the sonic spell that prepared us all for the music of the sonnets to come. Their program for the day ranged from a composition by William Byrd–a contemporary of William Shakespeare–to more modern works. All were rendered with verve and panache, as you can sense from the inset video clip, primitive though my videography skills are.
Valsette, J. Anderson Ashokan Farewell, Jay Ungar Mississippi Rag, W.H. Krell Earl of Oxford's Marche, William Byrd Fascinating Rhythm, George Gershwin Summertime, George Gershwin
After the music, everyone headed in to the theater.
Many thanks to all the people who have made this event a summertime essential for so many of us: present and past Winona Poet Laureates Ken McCullough, Emilio DeGrazia, and James Armstrong; readers from the GRSF acting company, including Artistic Director Doug Scholz-Carlson; Heidi Bryant, webmaster; the musicians of Flutistry; the hundreds of poets who submit work each year; and especially Ted Haaland, who supports this annual celebration of new poetry as a living memorial to his beloved late wife, Maria W. Faust.
If you know the river town of Winona, Minnesota, you know it is pulsing with exciting arts opportunities, spectacular natural beauty, and delicious opportunities for snacking and dining. In fact, their motto is “Surprisingly Weird, Incredibly Entertaining.”
If you fancy a scenic drive to this part of the state, I would like to suggest two poetry-rich dates for your calendar. The first is 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 9, 2019 at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse, when I will be reading from my collection, CONCERTINA.
The second event is later in July, on Saturday the 20th at 10:30 a.m. on the Winona State University Campus. Each year, Tim and I like to hear the winning sonnets of the annual Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest read expressively by members of the Great River Shakespeare Festival. (The link above has more details on the 2019 capstone event as well as postings of the winning sonnets from past years.)
We will probably also visit the gardens and paintings at one of our favorite museums, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, located right on the Mississippi. I am especially keen to see the exhibition up by justly celebrated photographer Alec Soth called “Sleeping by the Mississippi.”
Hoping to see you there, once or even twice! Happy summer travels!
