Applications are now being accepted for students interested in a mentorship through the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series. This program allows students of all ages to be mentored by three distinguished poets from East, West, and Central North Carolina. The mentors each work with a middle-school, high-school, college or university student, and an adult within their respective regions.
This year’s poets are Eric Weil (East), Ruth Moose (Central), and Brent Martin (West).
Any middle school, high school, college, or university student—or any adult poet not currently enrolled in an academic program—may apply for the GCDP Series mentorship. The adult student poet does not need to submit an instructor recommendation, otherwise the application requirements are essentially the same. There is no cost for applying, but the deadline for 2015-2016 is November 1.
“The student poets work on a dozen pages of poems for six months with their mentor,” said poet William Jackson Blackley, co-founder and chairman of the GCDP Series. “The students and mentors read at either Barton College, St. Andrews University, or Western Carolina, and in addition, each student reads with their mentor at their hometown public library. At the end of each annual cycle a book is publish by St. Andrews University Press containing the poems of the student poet and their mentor.”
For a list of which counties are associated with which region, click here.
To apply for a mentorship click here.
To apply to be one of the three mentor poets for 2016-2017, click here.
“This is a great opportunity for those wanting to dive deeper into their writing and get experience reading in public,” said Brent Martin. “I had a lot of fun with it last year.”
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series is a program of the North Carolina Poetry Society. The program hopes to foster the reading, writing, and enjoyment of poetry across the state of North Carolina.