AGT Monthly Meeting for August 2025

 The Authors Guild of Tennessee held its monthly meeting on Thursday, August 7, 2025, at Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut from 10:30 to noon.

The following members were present:

Bill Barbour, Gene Berryhill, Sam Bledsoe, Gary Butler, Gayle Curtin, Laura Derr, Danita Dodson, John Forcum, Kaye George, Leoma Gilley, Jim Hartsell, David Johnston, Jim Johnston, Ernie Lancaster, Jerry Morton, Cheryl Peyton, Nancy Pressley, Ron Pressley, Chuck Roseberry, Brenda Sellers, Kit Sexton, Frank Snyder, Art Stewart, Jeri Weems, Victoria Winifred, and Curt Young.

Welcome – Cheryl.   Our newest member, Steven Cornelius, is out of town, so we will meet him next month.

Treasurer’s Report – Bill

Beginning Cash Balance         $  3,021

Ending Cash Balance              $  2,784

Less                           (776)  Writing Contest

$   (149)   Outstanding checks

Net Cash available                   $  1,859

 

Income

Trade show booths                    $        26

Book Sales (Townsend)            $      123

Badge Replacement                  $          9

 

Expenses

Author payments                       $      230

Speaker lunch                            $        24

Vinyl event sign                        $        38

Storage Space rental                  $        87

Postage stamps                          $        16

Reports by Committee Chairs

Fairs and Festivals – Nancy

There is a box of plastic bags, AGT cards, and bookmarks available in our storage facility on Dutchtown Rd., if you need them for your next shows.

Nancy has simplified the evaluation form to: How did it go? Would you go again?

The Home Fair had empty booths, as many left early. It wasn’t well attended as it was a new venue, and people seemed not to know the location.

Cars and Canines, Aug 16.

Asian Festival Aug 24.

Balloon Festival, Vonore Aug. 30-31

TN Books and Readers on Sept 13-14  is full

Hola at World’s Fair Park seems not to have interest. 3 spots available

Etowah has 6 spots available. No one has signed up yet. Oct 4-5.

Nov 7-9 Christmas Show at the Expo Center. 4’ spots filled, 3’ spots are still available. Children’s books sell best.

At the Scopes Trial weekend in Dayton, Gary and others sold quite a few books on the “inside” weekend. There was a “captive” audience as they weren’t moving around a lot.

 

Writing Contest — Art

Art met with Angela Crabtree, the creative writing teacher. He would like volunteers to speak to the classes. Angela is teaching according to a theme, and you can choose any theme you want. She gives a form to the students they need to fill out. Fall sessions are 11:15-11:35, 2:00-2:20 None on Wednesdays. Gail Curtin’s presentation was the most popular last term. Can be Fact or fiction – how to write. Let Jerry or Art know if you are willing to make a presentation.

 

Retail – Victoria

Story Hollow bookstore in Madisonville is new and sells all genres. Victoria took 6 titles of ours, but hopes to add more in the future. Two copies: one goes in the Local Authors section and the other goes in the appropriate genre.

 

Gerri Weems was featured in Tellico Village magazine. Jim Hartsell had an interview in a local magazine. If you are in something, let Cheryl know to build visibility for yourself and AGT.

Jim Hartsell has a new book for middle-grade readers, titled The Atlas: Book One in the Atlas Series.

Program 

Our speaker was AGT member Danita Dodson. Danita is the author of three books of poetry: Trailing the Azimuth (2021) The Medicine Woods (2022), and Between Gone and Everlasting. (2024) She is currently writing her first novel, set in the hills of Appalachia during the Civil War era and inspired by family history.  Danita has been a Fulbright-Hays fellow in Turkey, a university professor in Nicaragua, an amateur archaeologist in the Southwest, and a high school Spanish teacher in Appalachia.

Danita spoke on the topic, “The Vitality of Poetry.”

What is poetry? Free verse poetry is wonderful, and it doesn’t have to rhyme or have meter. It is a way of seeing, distilling information, and expressing oneself. The reader needs to think to understand. There is a compression of the emotional and intellectual. Poetry echoes creativity.

Myths that push writers away:

Poetry has to rhyme. Poetry is hard to understand. It intimidates me. You have to be born a poet. It’s just for academics. It’s elitist.

There is a kinship between poetry and music. People may get more from it than the author intends.

Poetry includes song lyrics, movie monologues, and advertising slogans. It is a mode of expressing culture and is embedded in popular culture.

What prose writers can learn from poets: economy of language (conciseness), enhance voice and rhythm, sharpened imagery, seasoned metaphors, symbolism, expanded creative possibilities, and powerful endings.

How to start: Read 1 poem a week (start short), write micro-poems or haiku for fun, steal structure—use poetic forms to shape prose scenes. Sources (online) poetry.org, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Archive (the only charity wholly dedicated to the production, acquisition and preservation of recordings of significant poets reading their work aloud.), Poetry 180 (Library of Congress creation), Hello Poetry (user-friendly where people share with each other).

Poets congregate in reading spaces.

Here are some prompts: A List Poem–What Matters, by Jane Hicks. She employs many senses.

Six-Word Poem:

Rain fell. Silence grew. Hearts broke.

No map. Just stars. Still lost.

Acrostic Poem

SKY

So blue when I look up

Kissing the clouds

You are always changing colors

Haiku Example (Think of it as beats rather than syllables).

For deliciousness  (5 syllables)

Try fording this rivulet. (7 syllables)

Sandals in one hand. (5 syllables)

Poetry is a scalpel, not a sword. Let it shape your writing voice. Read widely, write fearlessly.

Email: dodsondanita@gmail.com

www. Danitadodson.com

FB denitadodson-author

Button Poetry is on YouTube, featuring authors reading their own poems.

Billy Collins does a Master Class.

 

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 12:12  Next meeting will be on September 4, 2025, at Faith Lutheran Church.

Respectfully submitted,

Leoma Gilley, Secretary