Poetry, Hiking, Education, Logic, Philosophy, Gardening, Birdwatching, Politics, Cooking, Sports--playing and watching (Dodgers, Dolphins, Tarheels, Bobcats), Travel (especially the Outer Banks of NC), Hickory Soup Kitchen Boardmember
Books
Support Literature in North Carolina. Subscribe to the NC journals listed here:
"Asheville Poetry Review," link
"Carolina Quarterly," link
"Cavewall," link
"Cold Mountain Review," link
"Crucible," link
"Dead Mule," link
"Ecotone," link
"Greensboro Review," link
"Iodine Poetry Journal," link
"Kakalak," link
"Main Street Rag," link
"North Carolina Literary Review," link
"The Pedestal," link
"Pembroke Magazine," link
"Sanctuary,"
"The Sun," link
"Tar River Poetry," link
"Wild Goose Review," link
Three videos of Ted Pope at Poetry Hickory
Heroes
Galway Kinnell, Ann Carver, Tim Peeler, Ron Rash, Wendell Berry, Robert Frost, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, James Wright, W.S. Merwin, James L. White, Jeff Daniel Marion, Robert Hayden, Robert Desnos, C.P. Cavafy, Yannis Ritsos, Pablo Neruda, Walt Whitman, Nazim Hikmet, Donald Hall, Kay Byer, Tom Sleigh, Yehuda Amichai, George Seferis
Author of "Musings," a weekly poetry column in "Outlook"
Upcoming Readings:
*Tuesday, 2/10/09, Time To Be Announced, Catawba College, Salisbury, NC
*Tuesday, 2/24/09, 7:00 Charleston County Public Library Main Branch, Charleston, SC
*Thursday, 4/23/09, 11:00 Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, NC
My new collection of poetry, "The Fractured World" was released by Main Street Rag in August 2008. Copies can be ordered here. You can also see sample poems and read a few comments from readers.
My chapbook of poems, "Book of Days," will be published online by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature on January 1, 2009. Visit Dead Mule here
Another chapbook of my poems, "Deceptively Like a Sound," was recently published online by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature link.
My first collection, "The Persistence of Faith," was published in 1994 by Sandstone Press
Garrison Keillor reads one of my poems on NPR's "The Writer's Almanac" here
COMMENTS ABOUT MY WORK
"Nothing prepared me for the immediacy and yet intimacy of the poems in Fractured World. Nor the intensely painful revelations about our woundedness and vulnerability, not to mention our despair at being turned into empty vessels by the "game" of a world divided into sides always at war with each other. As "Taking the Field" declares, "And this is the way/you play the game/...you are nothing unless you win," says the black booted man who draws a line and tells you, "whoever stands/across that line/is your enemy.../and you must hit him/and you must beat him/until he falls..."The irony in these often bruising poems is that the winner in this game becomes the lost one, the numbed and empty one who moves through his world either enraged or numbed. Scott Owens has given us a powerful, disturbing look at our contemporary fractured world." --Kathryn Stripling Byer, NC Poet Laureate
"Scott Owens' poems grab the reader by the throat from the opening line and don't let go, unspooling down the page with verve and startling moments of insight and imagination. He's the real thing." --Ron Rash, Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University
“'The Fractured World' is a courageous examination of the long term effects of child abuse in our society. Owens’ poems are at times heartbreaking, at times humorous, yet always triumphant." --Tim Peeler, author of "Blood River," "Fresh Horses," and "Don't Take Me Alive"
"Scott Owens' love for these materials is fierce and true and out of it he brings poems fierce and true. Here is one to read joyfully and admire plentifully." --Fred Chappell, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina
Reviews of "The Fractured World"
in "Charlotte Observer," October 5, 2008. View here
by Tim Peeler, in "Wild Goose Poetry Review," Summer 2008, view here
by Kristina Marie Darling, in "The Pedestal Magazine," Fall 2008, view here
Interviews of Scott Owens
by Joe Milford on the "Joe Milford Poetry Show," September 27, 2008. Listen here
by Pris Campbell in "Mipoesias," Fall 2008, view or order here
by Tim Peeler, in "Main Street Rag," Summer 2008, order here
Articles about Scott Owens
by Barbara Burns, in "Outlook," September 5, 2008, view here
Recent/Forthcoming Publications
*"Misguided Angel" in "Tertulia," December 2008. View here
*"13 Ways of Poetry" and "Existential Canonization" in "Pirene's Fountain," January 2009. View here
*"The Dream of Lost Hands," and "When the Dead Undress" in "The Sylvan Echo," January 2009. View here
*"Putting Up the New Bed" in "R-KV-R-Y" Fall 2008. View here
*"The Journey," "Barrier Islands," and "A Plague of Ladybugs" in "Willows Wept Review," view here
*Reviews of Linda Ferguson's "Bird Missing From One Shoulder," Janice Moore-Fuller's "Seance," and Beverly Jackson's "Every Burning Thing" in "Wild Goose Poetry Review," Summer 2008. View here
*"The Persistence of Field," "Waiting for Wings," and "Why I Would Not Name You Story" in "Pirene's Fountain," October 2008. View here
*"Politician," in "Side Stream" #16, fall 2008. Order here
*"Clearing the Garden" in "Town Creek Poetry," fall 2008. View here
*"Listening to Louie in the Shadow of Grandfather," and "Slaughter" in "Pembroke Magazine," 2009. Order here
*"The Appearance of Beauty," in "Grasslimb," January 2009. Order here
*"Resizing Norman" (Collaboration with Pris Campbell) in "The Smoking Poet," Fall 2008. View here
*"The Impossibility of Stillness," "The Land Above This Line Is Oak and Hickory -- Below Is Pine," and "Soul Society" in "Innisfree Poetry Journal," September 2008. View here
*"Darkness Is No Bad Thing," in "Side Stream #15," August 2008. Order here
*"How Some Things Bleed Through," in "International Poetry Review," Fall 2008. Order here
*"Augury" in "R-KV-R-Y," Summer 2008. View here
*"Conclusion," "13 Ways of Birds," "13 Ways of Trees, "13 Ways of Weather," and "To Resist Fading" in "Luiciole Press" 2008. view here
*"Tumblers" in "Blue Fifth Review," Fall 2008, View here
*"How Sounds Became Flowers, Flowers Turned to Faces" and "Make Believe" in "Voices and Vision." Order here
*"The Things We've Become," "Femme Fatale," and "Motherhood" in "Tertulia Magazine," Fall 2008, View here
*"Poem to a Cold Land," in "The Pedestal Magazine," June 2008, View here
*"Norman Dreaming," "Norman Incarnate," and "Holding the Breath We Feel Inside Us" in "Main Street Rag," Summer 2008. Order here
*"Approaching Noon" in "Natural Bridge," Fall 2008. Order here
*"Persistent Drought" in "Side Stream" #14, June 2008
*"The Sensual World" and "Behind," in "Wild Goose Poetry Review," Spring 2008. View online here
*"Insomnia" in "Steam Ticket," Spring 2008. Order copies here
*"13 Ways of Jars" in "The Smoking Poet," Summer 2008, view here
*"How the Past Came to Be Seen as a Broken Pop Bottle" in "Tertulia Magazine," April 2008, view here
*"Readings" and "Memorial" in "Oracle Literary Journal," Spring 2008
*"My Father's Picture" in "Iodine Poetry Journal," Fall 2008 link
*"Clark," "Reverie," "Filling the Void," "The Need for Flight," and "Resolving to Say Nothing of 9/11" in "Short Poem," Winter 2007 link
*"Brooks," "In Splintered View of God," and "March with Your Flowers Burning" in "Blue Fifth Review," Spring 2008 link
*"Norman at 14 Masters the Show," and "Eight-Pointed Star" in "Byline," subscribe here
*"Getting There" in "R-KV-R-Y," Spring 2008, view here
*"Prosody" and "The Arrival of Wings," in "Tar River Poetry," Spring 2008, subscribe here
*"The Question of Failure Arises," in "SLAB," Spring 2008, subscribe at www.sru.edu
*"Common Knowledge" and "The Dead of Winter," in "Eclipse," Spring 2008, subscribe at 1500 N. Verdugo Rd., Glendale, CA 91208
*"Quiet Like a Man," in "Main Street Rag," Spring 2008, subscribe here
*"July, the Sun, and Thundering Storms," in "North American Review," Spring 2008, subscribe here
*"We Never Know the Places We Are," in "Blue Unicorn," February 2008, subscribe here
*"My Grandfather's Hands," republished in "Cold Mountain Review" 35th Anniversary Edition, Fall 2007. Order here
*"If He Had Seen the Day Shining in One More Window," in "The Pedestal," Fall 2007, view here
*"Gradually the Summer Leaves," in "Wild Goose Poetry Review," Summer 2007, view here
Poetry Hickory: Check out the Poetry Hickory events at 6:30 P.M. on the second Tuesday of each month at Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse in downtown Hickory, NC (29 second st. nw). Poetry Hickory is sponsored by The Main Street Rag Publishing Company (link. For further information, contact Scott Owens at asowens1@yahoo.com.
Tuesday, December 9, Jeff Davis, author of "Transits of Venus," and "Natures" (visit http://naturespoetry.blogspot.com) and Rand Brandes, author of "Balefires"
Tuesday, January 13, Chuck Sullivan, Head of English at the NC Governor's School and author of "A Catechism of Hearts," "The Juggler on the Radio," and "Zen Matchbox," among others. View details at http://www.mainstreetrag.com/CSullivan.html. Dannye Romine Powell, Book Page Editor for the Charlotte Observer, winner of the Brockman-Campbell Book Award, and author of "A Necklace of Bees," "The Ecstasy of Regret," "At Every Wedding Someone Stays Home," and "Parting the Curtain: Interviews with Southern Writers."
Tuesday, February 10, Linda Annas Ferguson, author of "Bird Missing from One Shoulder," "Last Chance to Be Lost," and "It's Hard to Hate a Broken Thing." View details at http://www.lindaannasferguson.com/. Lissa Hamilton
Tuesday, March 10, Brenda Graham, author of "How Sound Carries Over Water." Sigrid Hice, co-founder, Hickory Writer's Group and Visiting Writer, Mountain Arts Program and South Carolina Arts Commission.
Tuesday, April 14, Carter Monroe of Rank Stranger Press, author of "Waffle House Blues" and "Billy Putrid Works His Way Through School," and Ted Pope, NC Performance Poetry Champion and author of "reDlipSticK"
Tuesday, May 12, DB Cox, author of "Empty Frames," "Passing for Blue," "Lowdown," and "Ordinary Sorrows." Bill Griffin
Tuesday, June 9, Al Maginnes, of Raleigh, author of six collections of poetry, most recently a chapbook, Dry Glass Blues (Pudding House Publications, 2007) and Ghost Alphabet which won the 2007 White Pine Poetry Prize and will be available in October of 2008
Other recent readers: Mark Smith-Soto, John Picard, Tim Peeler, Robert Canipe, Bud Caywood, M. Scott Douglass, Adrian Rice, Lissa Hamilton, Rand Brandes, Kevin Keck, Brad Vogler, Molly Rice, Ted Pope, Jonathan K. Rice, Jack Hicks, John Amen, Helen Losse
Hi Mr. Owens... i was trying to find a cite for your poem "the question of failure arises." if you could please help i would appreciate it very much... THANK YOU!
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