If you’re a college basketball fan, March really is the month of madness—especially here in North Carolina. Now poets can get in on the action with “Poetry Bracketology,” led by North Carolina Writers’ Network member and teacher Suzanne Baldwin Leitner.
Just like the NCAA college basketball tournament, “Poetry Bracketology” takes 64 poems (teams) divided into four regions, and pits them head-to-head in a one-loss elimination tourney. The regions are “3 Centuries of American Poetry” (3CAP); “Romanticism/Elizabethan/Metaphysical” (R.E.M.); “Poets Laureate” (any poet laureate, any nation, any region, any town); and “Poet Pourri” (for all those poems that don’t fit into the other three regions).
Nominations are currently open for 3CAP. One person may send up to two nominations for any poem written by an American poet in the last 300 years. To nominate, e-mail Suzanne or contact her through her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/suzanne.b.leitner.
Once the “teams” have been settled, tournament action begins in March, with the winner will be announced in early April—for poetry month!
Suzanne is also looking for regional supervisors for the four regions. If interested, contact her through one of the methods mentioned above.