Spring Conference 2026

The Poetry Society of Michigan spring conference will be held on Saturday, May 2, at the Castle Museum (Morley Room) in Saginaw, Michigan (500 Federal Ave., 989-752-2861, castlemuseum.org). All are welcome to attend. Visit the website to register.

10-10:30 Registration/coffee and donuts
10:35 Welcome
10:45 Traveling Trophy Reading (bring a short poem to read)
11:40 Writing Workshop (Jan Worth)
12:35 Lunch provided (talk, eat, smile)
1:10 Writing Workshop (M.L. Liebler)
2:05 Brief Business Meeting

The cost is only $35, which includes lunch and a drink (and we have a $20 student rate)! You can register and pay online at poetrysocietyofmichigan.com (under Events). We look forward to seeing you there!

Brief Notes on Our Presenters:

Jan Worth is a poet, novelist and non-fiction writer from Flint, Michigan. For decades she has been delivering poems, essays, short stories, and the novel Night Blind to the world, writing about her life experiences as a preacher’s daughter, a newspaper reporter, Peace Corps volunteer, social worker, and longtime writing teacher at the University of Michigan – Flint. She spent years as a columnist for Flint’s venerable East Village Magazine before becoming editor from 2015 to 2020. Her book of non-fiction is That’s My Moon Over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint and her new book of poems is Elegies from the Last Days of the Empire from Kelsay Books.

M. L. Liebler is an internationally known & widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer. He was named The 2017-2018 Murray E. Jackson Scholar in the Arts Awardat Wayne State University. Liebler is the author of 15 books and chapbooks including the award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream (Wayne State University Press 2008) featuring poems written in and about Russia, Israel, Germany, Alaska and Detroit. Wide Awake won both The Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence and The American Indie Book Award for 2009. In 2005, he was named St. Clair Shores (his hometown) first Poet Laureate. Liebler has read and performed his work in Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Russia, China, France, UK, Macao, Italy, Germany, Spain, Finland and most of the 50 States. Liebler has taught English, Creative Writing, American Studies, Labor Studies and World Literature at Wayne State University in Detroit since 1980, and he is the founding director of both The National Writer’s Voice Project in Detroit and the Springfed Arts: Metro Detroit Writers Literary Arts Organization.  

Poetry Reading by Thomas Lynch

Recorded January 25 by The Crazy Wisdom Poetry Circle, a PSM member group. (Click the Photo)

ThomasLynchThomas Lynch’s most recent of twelve books are The Depositions—New & Selected Essays (W.W. Norton, 2020) and Bone Rosary—New & Selected Poems (David R. Godine, 2021). He is finishing a novel which he fears might finish him. He keeps homes in Michigan and West Clare, Ireland.

Annual Contest Winners for 2021

Category 1: Margo LaGattuta Memorial Award: Judge: Joy Gaines-Friedler

1st I’d Have Painted Him in Altenburg,… Lynn Pattison, Kalamazoo, MI
2nd Antinomy Thom Porter, Woodhaven, MI
3rd Reverie at Slack Time Dr. Emory Jones, Iuka MS
HM Premonition Lori Zurvalec, Grosse Pointe, MI

Category 2: Chancellor’s Prize: Judge: Eric Torgersen

1st How Will I Find Absolution Diana Hart, Kalamazoo, MI
2nd Current Resume Art Curtis, Bellaire, MI
3rd You Don’t Know Colleen Alles, Grand Rapids, MI
HM The Girl with a Green and a Brown Eye Nadia Ibrashi, Troy, MI

Category 3: Founder’s Prize: Judge: Russell Thorburn

1st Michigan State Fair 1960’s Roberta Brown , Royal Oak, MI
2nd Skinny Dipping at Cranbrook Janice Zerfas, Eau Claire, MI
3rd Leaving Tawas, July 3rd Christian Belz, Pontiac, MI
HM New Buffalo Cassandra Caverhill, Ann Arbor, MI

Category 4: Barbara Sykes Memorial Humor Poem: Judge: Elizabeth Kerlikowske

1st You Probably Are One Too Laura Sweeney, Bloomington, IL
2nd Learning to Sit Ann Weil, Ann Arbor, MI
3rd Shifting Gears Milton Bates, Marquette, MI
HM Not Yet Robotic Robert Erlandson, Birmingham, MI

Category 5: George Dila Memorial Prose Poem: Judge: Robert Fanning

1st Toad Dawn McDuffie, Detroit, MI
2nd Home Visit Patricia Barnes, Wyandotte, MI
3rd Churned Terry Jude Miller, Richmond, TX
HM Sea of Stars Simon A. Thalmann, Kalamazoo, MI

Category 6: Nature: Judge: Alinda Wasner

1st Wingbound II: Elegy Shy of Lamentation Barbara Saunier, Marne, MI
2nd Call Winter Home Patricia Barnes, Wyandotte, MI
3rd Swarm Warning Iris Underwood, Leonard, MI
HM Japanese Maple Diana Dinverno, Troy, MI

Category 7: Love: Judge: Sue William Silverman

1st The World Will Always Welcome Lovers Barbara Saunier, Marne, MI
2nd What Her Eyes Did Randy K. Schwartz, Ann Arbor, MI
3rd Bringing Late Lorraine Jeffery, Orem, UT
HM A Sort of Love Poem John Jeffire, Macomb, MI

Category 8: Music: Judge: M. L. Liebler

1st Song and Dance Nadia Ibrashi, Troy, MI
2nd Music Ellen Lord, Charlevoix, MI
3rd The House That Jack Built Sold On Jazz, Diana Cornell, Spring Lake, MI
HM Player of Player Pianos, a Love Poem, Sophia Rivkin, Southfield, MI

Category 9: Loss: Judge: Zilka Joseph

1st New Widow Ellen Lord, Charlevoix, MI
2nd Mothers Claire Scott, Oakland, CA
3rd Noise Trek Janice Zerfas, Eau Claire, MI
HM there, then David Fitch, Lathrup Village, MI

Category 10: Women and Science: Judge: Diane DeCillis

1st Fluids Leak Like Rivers Nadia Ibrashi, Troy, MI
2nd I Am a Standard Candle Janice Zerfas, Eau Claire, MI
3rd Brushstrokes and Stars Carla Dodd, Waterford Township, MI
HM Peggy Whitson Patricia Barnes, Wyandotte, MI

Congrtulations winners and thank you to all who entered!