upcoming dates >>>
October 12-13, 2012
December 21, 2012
January 24-17, 2013
League of Minnesota Poets Fall Conference
Submissions for Manning Poetry Contest are due
Blizzard Writer’s Poetry Retreat
A Quarterly Publication of the League of Minnesota Poets
September 2012
LOMP l i g h t e r
about us >>>
League of Minnesota Poets
(LOMP) holds biannual meetings,
supports regional chapters in
Minnesota, and publishes the
Moccasin anthology.
www.mnpoets.com
Annual membership fee: $20
Students (K-12): $10.
Mail dues to LOMP Treasurer:
Susan McMillan
6327 Oak Meadow Ln NW
Rochester, MN 55906
Membership fees include a
subscription to the LOMPLighter,
membership in the National
Federation of State Poetry
Societies and the NFSPS
publication Strophes.
Regional Chapters
Arrowhead Poets (Duluth)
Heartland Poets (Brainerd Lakes)
Mississippi Valley Poets & Writers
(Twin Cities)
Southeastern Minnesota Poets
(Rochester)
Southern Minnesota Poets Society
(Mankato)
2012 LOMP Fall Conference
Poet Laureate Octoberfest
October 12-13, 2012
Arrowwood Lodge, Baxter, MN
Keynote Speaker: Joyce Sutphen, MN Poet
Laureate (Special Sutphen Public Reading
Saturday @ 7 pm - Central Lakes College)
from the President >>>
Harvest Greetings to our LOMP Members and Friends
Fall is a time of great bustle and excitement. The harvest is coming in for the year, the craziness of
summer is over and school is starting once more. It is also a time of beginnings especially for our local
poetry groups. After a summer off many of our chapters are meeting again for the first time in several
months. In addition to the start of the year’s poetry programs we have this year’s Fall LOMP meeting
to look forward to also.
This year’s fall meeting is being held in Brainerd Minnesota October 12 and 13th, and will be hosted
by our Heartland Poetry chapter. The program is promising to be one of our best meetings yet. I enthusiastically encourage every one to attend if possible. Friday night will feature the winners of
LOMP’s 2012 Poetry contest as presented by our Contest Chair Susan Chambers. Saturday will include a poetry critique and an amazing chance to hear keynote speaker Joyce Sutphen. Saturday evening we have the chance to attend a reading at Central Lakes College by Sutphen that is open to the
public.
Joyce Sutphen is the current poet laureate of the state of Minnesota. A professor of creative writing
and literature at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter Sutphen was appointed poet laureate by
Governor Dayton in August of 2011. Sutphen is the author of several collections of poetry published
by Minnesota presses including, Holy Cow! And Red Dragonfly Press. She is a winner of the Barnard
New Women’s Poets Prize as well as the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry.
At the time of her appointment Sutphen embraced her role as poet laureate as a chance to spread poetry throughout the state and to celebrate those who are practicing the art of poetry. Sutphen stated
“The people who organize readings, who work in the schools, who put poems into the parks, into galleries, and on sidewalks and in film and on the radio. And all those who take time to read and write
poetry.” I hope you can all join me in celebrating an amazing poet and an advocate within the state for
organizations that love and promote poetry as LOMP does. Registration for the fall meeting is open
through September 14, 2012. The registration form for the meeting can be found on our website
www.mnpoets.com on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/leagueofminnesotapoets, or included in this issue of the LOMPLighter. I look forward to seeing you all at the meeting and please don’t
forget to submit a poem for critique.
In addition to the fall meeting I am also excited to be promoting this year’s Manningham Student
Competition. With school starting back up again this is a great opportunity to bring poetry into the
classroom. Rules for the Manningham are listed on the website. Feel free to print as many copies off
the contest as you need. The contest is open to students in grades 6-12. The deadline for entry is December 21, 2012. Please get this information out to your local schools and any young poets you know!
Questions about the Manningham competition can be directed to youth chair
Peter Stein pwilliamstein@yahoo.com. Last year Minnesota students were
successful at both the sate and national levels, please join me in helping
encourage our young poets!
Fall brings new beginnings for reconnecting with our local and state groups.
If there’s anything you need to help make this a successful year filled with
poetry please let me know by e-mailing me at chrismo14@aol.com.
Your friend in Poetry,
Christina M. Flaugher, LOMP President
MN Poet Laureate
Joyce Sutphen
Reading & Reception
October 13, 7:00pm
Joyce Sutphen grew up on a farm in Minnesota. She earned a PhD in Renaissance drama
from the University of Minnesota, and has
taught British literature and creative writing at
Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter,
Minnesota. Her first collection of poems,
Straight Out of View (1995), won the Barnard
Women’s Poets Prize. Subsequent collections
include Coming Back to the Body (2000), a Minnesota Book Award finalist, Naming the Stars
(2004), winner of the Minnesota Book Award,
and First Words (2010).
She was named Minnesota's Poet Laureate in
August, 2011. As poet laureate, Sutphen will
serve as the state's primary spokesperson, supporter and promoter of poetry. She'll work
with the Minnesota Humanities Center to organize a poetry event in the coming months.
Sutphen has read her poems on public radio’s
A Prairie Home Companion, where host Garrison
Keillor described the subjects of Coming Back to the
Body as “scenes of the
family farm, Paris, London, a dying marriage,
stories of plain exaltation
and ordinary weariness.”
Comfortable with traditional forms, Sutphen is
the author of Fourteen
Sonnets, a fine-letterpress
collection of poems from
Red Dragonfly Press. Her
poems often reference
classic literary works.
Sutphen is a co-editor with Connie Wanek
and Thom Tammaro of To Sing Along the Way:
Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial
Days to the Present (2006).
Central Lakes College
Commons
Brainerd, Minnesota
Tickets are $5. Seating is limited
so advanced purchase is recommended.
They are available at

the Center for Lifelong Learning at Central Lakes College;

the Crossing Arts Alliance
Sales & Gift Gallery, Franklin
Arts Center, 1001 Kingwood
St. Suite 114, Brainerd

www.bluecottageagency.com

Or by calling Blue Cottage
Agency at (218) 828-4717
A signing and reception will
follow the reading. Books
may be purchased at the
event.
This event if made possible in part through
a grant by the Five Wings Arts Council
through the McKnight Foundation.
National Poet Laureate
Natasha Trethewey
Natasha
Trethewey has
been named
the 19th Poet
Laureate, and
will open the
Library of Congress's annual
literary season
in the fall with
a reading on
Thursday, September 13. Her
term will coincide with the 75th
anniversary of the Library’s Poetry
and Literature Center and the
1937 establishment of the Consultant-in-Poetry position, which
was changed by a federal law in
1986 to Poet Laureate Consultant
in Poetry.
Natasha Trethewey was born in
Gulfport, Mississippi on April 26,
1966. She is the author of four
poetry collections and a book of
creative non-fiction. Her honors
include the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim
Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
25th Manningham Poetry
Competition for Students
1. All Minnesota students in grades 6-12 who attend public, parochial , private or home-schools are eligible. Limit one entry
per student. No entry fee.
2. Poems must be original but may have been published and/or
have won previous awards.
3. Submit two (2) copies of each poem. In the upper left corner of
each copy, write the division entered (Grades 6-8 Junior Division, or Grades 9-12 Senior Division).
4. In the upper right corner of first copy, list the student’s name,
home address, grade, teacher’s name, school name, address
and phone. The second copy must not have ID information or
any other marking or indication of any prior award granted.
5. Each entrant must make a declaration of originality. The statement, and the student’s signature, should appear on the bottom of the ID copy only.
6. Type the poem (NO handwritten copies will be accepted) using 12-point text in a common font (winning poems are
scanned for the award anthology). The poem must not exceed
50 lines. If the poem continues on more than one page, staple
the pages together.
The ten top poems selected by the League of Minnesota Poets will
be submitted to the National Manningham Contest and will be
published in a chapbook given to the student authors and participating schools.
Mail entries to:
NFSPS 2013 NATIONAL
CONVENTION
La Conferencia del Encanto
The New Mexico State Poetry Society invites you to Hotel Albuquerque in the Land of Enchantment, June 13-16, 2013.
More information, hotel discount
code, and updates on the
"Convention" tab of our NMSPS
website www.nmpoetry.com.
Fabulous tours are planned to
entice you to “Come for the Convention, stay for an Enchanted
Vacation.”
Peter Stein
MN Manningham Poetry Competition Chair
2029 103rd Ave NW
Coon Rapids, MN 55433
ALL SUBMISSIONS must be postmarked by December 21, 2012
Question from the National Society
How do State societies deal with the historical storage of their
journals and members books? Paper copies are hard to keep
stored as officers change and most of us keep our records in our
homes. With technology being what it is, CDs will eventually become outmoded. What about flash drives? Any tech people have
the answer? Please respond to: Brenda Finnegan, MPS President,
at writeaway@cableone.net or to 7606 Davenport Lane, Ocean
Springs, MS 39564.
2012 LOMP Fall Conference Schedule
Friday, October 12
about LOMP
4:00pm
Early Registration (lobby of Arrowwood Lodge)
officers >>>
5:00pm
Dinner (private dining room of the hotel’s Lodge
Grill & Bar) order and pay individually
7:00 pm
Poets convene (upstairs Ojibwa Room at Arrowwood
Lodge—turn right at top of stairway by lobby or use
elevator to right of stairs)
PRESIDENT: Christina Flaugher.
(507) 524-3250. PO Box 466,
Mapleton, MN 56065.
ChrisMo14@aol.com
Welcome
Charmaine Donovan, Heartland President
7:05pm
7:30pm
Annual Report on NFSPS Convention
Meredith Cook, Moccasin Editor
28th Annual LOMP Contest Results
Susan Chambers, Contest Chair
Saturday, October 13
7:00am
$4.99 All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast (Lodge Grill & Bar)
8:30am
Informal poetry read-around (Ojibwa Room)
LOMP Board meeting (Bait & Tackle Room)
9:45am
LOMP General Meeting
10:30am
Meeting adjourned
10:45am
Joyce Sutphen, keynote speaker
12:15pm
Catered Buffet Lunch (Bait & Tackle Room)
1:30pm
Critique Session of poems submitted at registration
3:30pm
Door Prizes
4:00pm
Free time and dinner on your own
7:-00pm
Joyce Sutphen Reading & Reception (Central Lakes
College Commons)
Later
Late-night Read-Around (Arrowwood Lodge Ojibwa
Room) TENTATIVE
VICE PRESIDENT: Dennis Herschbach. (218) 343-1522. 1125
First St S, Apt 467, Sartell, MN
56377. dhersch2@yahoo.com
RECORDING SECRETARY: Position
is vacant, contact Christina
Flaugher if interested.
TREASURER/MEMBERSHIP:
Susan McMillan.
(507) 281-3507. 6327 Oak
Meadow Ln NW, Rochester, MN
55901. suemac.sue@gmail.com
ASSISTANT TREASURER:
Susan Stevens Chambers
(507) 278-4200. 57310 166th
Ln, Good Thunder, MN 56037.
schambersmediator@yahoo.com
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY:
Meredith R. Cook.
(507) 526-2653, 427 N Gorman,
Blue Earth, MN 56013
appointments >>>
LOMP POET LAUREATE:
Shirley Ensrud
MOCCASIN EDITOR:
Meredith R. Cook
HISTORIAN:
Shirley Poliquin
LOMPLIGHTER EDITOR:
Joe Anderson
PUBLICITY CHAIRMAN:
SuzAnne Wipperling
YOUTH CHAIRMAN:
Peter Stein
2012 Fall Conference Location & Registration
Location
Arrowwood Lodge, 6967 Lake Forest Road, Baxter
For reservations, call 1-877-687-5634 by Friday,
September 14. Ask for the “League of MN Poets”
group rate.
Questions? Email: dpoet@brainerd.net or call
(218) 838-0968

1 night: $109 + tax – up to 4/ suite rooms

$99/night + tax (for two night stay)

Complimentary Wi-Fi is available throughout the
hotel under "lodge public access" with no password.

All rooms come with: microwave, refrigerator,
coffee maker, iron and ironing board, and hair
dryer.

A fitness room is located on the second floor of the hotel by the arcade and includes: a universal
weight machine, 2 treadmills and an elliptical machine.

Paul Bunyan Water Park is the premier Minnesota Indoor Water Park in the Baxter/Brainerd area.
The 30,000 square foot water park features a Non-Slip Rubberized Deck and has plenty of slides
available for your Lil' Lumberjack.

The Arrowwood Lodge Grill & Bar serves daily lunch and dinner specials, fresh pasta dishes, salads,
hand-tossed pizzas with our own twist, sandwiches and homemade desserts. Chefs incorporate fresh
and locally grown food and each dish is specially prepared with calorie counts in mind.
Registration
Deadline for registration: Friday, September 14, 2012
Name(s) _____________________________________________________
Fee includes Saturday lunch and
ticket to Sutphen reading Saturday
evening)
$35—LOMP Members ______
____________________________________________________________
$40—Non-members ________
Mailing Address ______________________________________________
Make checks payable to:
Heartland Poets
City/State/Zip _______________________________________________
Email _______________________________________________________
Phone ______________________________________________________
I’m enclosing a poem for the Saturday poem critique.
Mail registration form and fee by
September 14, 2012 to:
Doris Stengel, Heartland Treasurer
1510 S 7th St, Brainerd, MN 56401