Fall Meeting 2025

POETRY SOCIETY OF MICHIGAN

Fall 2025 Poetry Conference

The Fall Meeting of the Poetry Society of Michigan will be held in-person on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at the Dennos Museum Center (1410 College Dr.) in Traverse City, 10:00-3:00 p.m. All are welcome to attend!

As an added treat, there will be a pre-conference event for those who plan to arrive the night before in Traverse City: “Poets Meet Musicians,” 9:00 pm start with Hosting Poets from across MI at MiddleCoast Brewing on Fri Oct 3. We  invite Poets to arrive at 8:30 pm. Bring a piece to read. Details about MiddleCoast can be found here: https://www.middlecoastbrewingco.com/

10:00 Registration/coffee and donuts
10:30 Welcome
10:45 Traveling Trophy Reading (bring a short poem to read)
11:45 Writing Workshop with Fleda Brown
12:40 Lunch provided (talk, eat, smile)
1:15 Writing Workshop with Terry Wooten
2:15 Business Meeting

Or you can mail in your registration and check (or other arrangements made with Treasurer Susan Herman) no later than September 20: Click Here to open a printable Registration Form.

2025 Fall REGISTRATION FORM

Name___________________________________

Address_________________________________

City_______________________ZIP___________

Email address:

________________________________________

Enclosed is my payment of $35 each for me and my guests

or $20 for me as a student.

Guest Names:

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

Mail to: Fall Meeting 2025
The Poetry Society of Michigan
PO Box 1035
Cadillac, MI 49601

BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF OUR WORKSHOP LEADERS:

Fleda Brown was born in Columbia, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She earned her Ph.D. in English (specialty in American Literature) from the University of Arkansas, and in 1978 she joined the faculty of the University of Delaware English Department, where she founded the Poets in the Schools Program, which she directed for more than 12 years. Her books, essays, and individual poems have won many awards. Her tenth collection of poems, The Woods Are On Fire: New and Selected Poems, was chosen by Ted Kooser for his Contemporary Poetry Series from the University of Nebraska Press in 2017. Her collection of memoir-essays, Driving With Dvorak, was published in 2010 by the University of Nebraska Press. Her memoir with Sydney Lea, Growing Old in Poetry: Two Poets: Two Lives, came out in 2018 from Green Mountain Press. She has co-edited two books, most recently On the Mason-Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers. She served as poet laureate of Delaware from 2001-2007, when she retired from the University of Delaware and moved to Traverse City, Michigan.

Born and raised in northern Michigan, Terry Wooten had his imagination sparked by nature, trains, ghost towns and folklore. He attended Western Michigan University, working toward a degree in Education, writing poetry on the side. In 1980 he met poet Max Ellison who taught him the magic of the oral tradition and has been performing his poetry and the work of over 100 other writers as a bard ever since. So far, Wooten has published sixteen books.

“POETS meet MUSICIANS”

Here’s a great opportunity for those people heading up to Traverse City before the conference on Saturday or for those who live in the area. On Friday, October 3^rd at 8:30 p.m., there will be a pre-conference event at NOBO Riverside (414 East 8^th St.) in Traverse City. This is a casual collaboration between poets and musicians! Bring a poem to read and/or sit back with a beverage and enjoy the words and music! Let’s have a good PSM turnout for this unique event with local musicians.

Tom Mair will host this very cool evening, and we thank him for that.