Friday Five: Q&A with novelist and poet Melissa Powers

‘The best poems are those that don’t really end.’

Continuing our tribute to poets during National Poetry Month, today’s Friday Five is with Melissa Powers, a poet, novelist and non-fiction writer.

Melissa Powers

Melissa is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in Common Boundary, American Literary Realism, The Quest, Midwest Poetry Review, Writer’s Journal, and Cave Region Review. Her books include The Outsiders (2006), an instructional guide on the novel; Afterthoughts (2012), a collection of poems; and three works fiction, including two young adult science fiction novels, Spark and Surfacing (Amazon, 2012, 2014) . Her awards include the Springfield (Missouri) Writer’s Guild Grand Prize for Poetry (1998), the Johnson Memorial Grand Prize Award — League of Minnesota Poets (2003), the William Stafford Award — Washington Poets Association (2009), and the Writer’s Journal poetry contest (2011). She holds an M.A. from Missouri State University and was a college English instructor for more than 25 years at Drury University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and East Central College. Currently, she is a student success specialist/writing tutor at East Central College, a freelance academic editor specializing in dissertations, theses, journal articles, and book projects, and a staff writer for The Phelps County Focus newspaper. Melissa’s recent poetry can be found on the Facebook group Melissa Ann Poetry.

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Friday Five: Q&A with poet and ‘Sparks of Calliope’ editor Randal Burd

‘I try to make poetic observations that tie in to our common humanity.’

Randal Burd

On this, the first Friday of National Poetry Month, I’m pleased to introduce readers to Randal Burd, a fellow Missourian whose second book of poetry, Memoirs of a Witness Tree, was published in 2020 by Kelsay Books. His first book of poetry is a self-published work titled Leaving Home: Discoveries and Reflections of a Once-Sheltered Heart. An educator, freelance editor and writer, and genealogist, he also is the creator of the “journal of poetic observations,” Sparks of Calliope. His poetry appears in numerous print and online journals (partial listing). Learn more about Randal and his writing on his website, The Edge of Memory.

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