Community invited to celebrate poetry, creativity
Published on Mar 11, 2025
The Heartland Review Press will host a poetry reading, open mic event and art walk from 4 to 6 p.m. April 2 in the Student Center at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College. The event is free and open to the community.
“This is a great opportunity to celebrate writing and art and to develop connections within the local arts community,” said The Heartland Review Press Editor in Chief Amy Fox-Angerer. “We’re looking forward to recognizing talented artists on our college campus, in our community and beyond.”
Writers are invited to share their own original work. Sign-up for the open mic event begins at 3:45 p.m. on the day of the event. ECTC student artwork will be on display and the art walk will be open for the duration of the event.
The Heartland Review Press will unveil the Spring 2025 edition of its literary journal, The Heartland Review, which includes student art for the first time. Mick Kennedy, The Heartland Review Press founder, will kick off the event with selections from his recent book “I’ll Say This About You.”
The Spring 2025 issue includes the top 20 poems from the 2025 Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize.
Libby Falk Jones, a Kentucky writer, photographer and teacher, judged this year’s poetry contest. Jones personally knew Joy Bale Boone, a Kentucky Poet Laureate. Out of 120 submissions nationwide, the prize winners are:
First place and a $500 Visa gift card was awarded to “Sometimes in Fall” by Matthew J. Spireng, of Lomontville, N.Y.
“‘Sometimes in Fall’ launches a seemingly trivial moment into a sphere of larger significance, a contemplation of relationship and memory,” Jones wrote.
Second Place and a $140 Visa gift card was awarded to “Ode to My Inner Nun” by Kaecey McCormick of the San Francisco Bay Area.
“In ‘Ode to My Inner Nun,’ the characters are revealed through concentrated language and imagery,” Jones wrote. “The poem builds through syntax and strong verbs to the turn of its climax, where the ‘tug’ of the first line explodes into surprising yet well-prepared-for action.”
Third Place and a $100 Visa gift card was awarded to “Slow Ornithology” by Jay McCoy, of Lexington.
“In ‘Slow Ornithology,’ the characters and their relationships are precisely defined through apt images of the different birds. The poem’s form accentuates the meditative tone, the fits and starts of insight,” Jones wrote.
Honorable mentions went to “Space” by Cate Honzel and “we had no summer in Alaska” by Cassondra Windwalker.
The Heartland Review Press publishes two to three books per year, a poetry chapbook and a spring and fall edition of The Heartland Review.
