Thursday, October 11, 2012

Poetry Reading by New English Department Faculty

The new Piedmont College English faculty, Tim O'Keefe and Heidi Lynn Staples, will be giving a shared poetry reading at Avid Bookshop, 493 Prince Avenue. Join us for poetry, books, and chat. The event will be held October 11th, 6:30 pm to 7:30pm.

Timothy O’Keefe is the author of The Goodbye Town, winner of the 2010 FIELD Poetry Prize. His poems and lyric essays have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Conjunctions, Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, Seneca Review, The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He lives in Athens, Georgia, where he is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Piedmont College.
Heidi Lynn Staples is the author of four collections, including Noise Event, forthcoming from Ahsahta and Take Care Fake Bear Torque Cake, recently released from Caketrain. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She lives in Athens, GA, where she works as an Assistant Professor of English at Piedmont College, attends the farmer's market, and kick-scoots downtown.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Humanities Welcome Back Party

The Piedmont College humanities department held its annual welcome back party last Thursday. The event was a great success, with more than 30 students and the entire humanities faculty gathering in the courtyard beside Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art for good conversation and Copper Pot's legendary specialty pizza. A big welcome and thanks to the Museum's new director Daniel White, who opened the courtyard for the party. Thanks also to Bethany Murley for taking the pictures. Studying the humanities at PC brings many a reason to smile!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Trillium Editors Visit to Clayton State University

Kelley, Staples, and Meeks
Dr. Heidi Lynn Staples, Meghan Meeks, and Hillary Kelley attended the launch of Clayton State University's literary and arts journal, The Cygnet. The event was held at the beautiful college located in Morrow, Ga. The Trillium staffers got to have a meet and greet with the adviser, Brigitte Byrd, and the staff of Cygnet.
Scary swan....

 Between the meet and greet and the actual ceremony, there was time to enjoy the nature around the campus that includes a lake and some kinda friendly, kinda scary creatures.

The friendly turtle and his duck companion.
Then came the ceremony for which everyone received a free copy of the beautifully done Cygnet. Following introductions, there were many readings and the closing to a night of great conversation and literary greatness.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Coffee House and Open Mic, Spring 2012

PC-Athens hosted the Coffee House Open Mic for the spring semester, featuring artists and writers associated with Piedmont College. The night was another great success, demonstrating that the campus can support an open mic at least twice a year! Watch the film for highlights:

Monday, March 19, 2012

Monday, March 5, 2012

Piedmont College Film Festival


The collaborative arts continue to flourish at Piedmont College with our first annual film festival, featuring short films, television shows, PSAs, commercials, music videos, and documentaries created by PC faculty and students across both campuses.

Senior Victoria McDonald has launched the festival as her innovative capstone project. The festival will be held on March 15, 2012 in the Swanson Center Screening room at 6 p.m. The deadline for submissions has passed; however, if you have any questions--including about possible late submissions--please contact Victoria McDonald at vmcdonald0928@lions.piedmont.edu.

You can also check out the festival's official website by clicking here.

Attend and be part of Piedmont College's cutting-edge!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Writing Just to Be Writing


I registered for ENG 400 last semester because I hadn't written anything but term papers in years. I felt like I needed to put words on paper, but I knew I wouldn't do it if I had a choice in the matter. I would have too many other classes and too many other assignments. We are half-way through the semester, and I do not regret my decision to take this class. I've struggled to write. I've laughed as I wrote, and I've been embarrassed to read what I wrote out loud, but I've written. In addition to this, I've done some editing and am learning a bit about E-publishing. If you are the creative type, I would urge you to consider taking this course the next time it is offered. You'll be challenged in your writing, and you'll also get the chance to help publish Trillium, Piedmont's yearly, literary journal. The class is a lot of fun. I'm glad I took it!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!


More than 50 Piedmont College students in 7 English classes and across both campuses collaborated on "Love Is," a long poem exploring the meaning of love in our lives. The poem has been installed in the Piedmont College Student Center on the Athens campus and will remain up for two weeks.



Participants will be invited to read from "Love Is" during the Open Mic on the Athens campus this March 27th. A version of the poem will also be read on PC radio and published in the forthcoming Trillium.

To preview the poem, watch the following clip:





To listen to a recent full version of the poem, listen the the following audio file:

Monday, January 23, 2012

Trillium 2012

Trillium is actively seeking quality submissions of poetry, art, short fiction, songs, creative essays, short film and art for this year's issue.

We accept entries from all Piedmont students, potential students, alumni, faculty, and staff, and all Trillium student submissions will be entered for the Trillium Prize. Last year, we awarded $450 in total prize money.

Submissions must be made electronically to be considered for publication in our 2012 issue and for the Trillium Prize. To submit your work, attach it to an e-mail addressed to trilliumjournal@gmail.com. Also please send questions to this address. Please remember to tell us your name and preferred e-mail address, so we can respond.

The deadline for submissions is February 13,2012.

Art work and graphic design: limit 10 submissions per person
Poetry: limit 10 submissions per person
Fiction and non-fiction: Limit 5 per person

We look forward to reading your work!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Your Secret Garden, Harvesting Guidelines for Creative Writing with Kate Campbell

Kate Campbell visited Piedmont on January 18th for a creative writing workshop. Campbell gave attendees tips and tricks for their creative writing processes and explained how her own process works when song writing. Here are some highlights of the event, including words of wisdom and some resources she shared.

Campbell suggested that the most important part of creative writing is writing what you know, so pay attention. No one can take your voice from you, so it is key that you find that voice. This will take you into your own secret garden of the craft and art of writing.

She also said that the "art part" of writing is your inspiration. You must find inspiration that is "musical, historical, poetic and creative" in context. You need to make connections with things and find your own influences. Everybody has them.

She challenged those there to remember their favorite song and book in adolescence and the middle school years, because those are the years you really hold onto as an influence. Her favorite song during that time of her life was "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin. The songwriter for it was Kris Kristofferson, whom she still entertains as one of her favorites.

She also said to ask yourself what grabs your attention. Take a look at the things that stand out to you and figure out why. Imitation of things is something to work with. Everything that you think of has already been done in some way or another, but no matter what you hear or see, "it goes through your own receptical," making it yours.

She challenged us to find the right ideas, then get behind that idea. Ask yourself, "why is this idea so clever?" Always take a step back to figure out why your idea works, and how some minor changes can change the whole work.

Other advice she offered included:

"Always remember what moves you, and ask who is speaking in the piece.

Write the truest sentence that you know.

Be in the most comfortable place for you to be.

Reread your favorite books as they become "comfort foods" which create "comfort language."

Remember that form will always follow meaning."

Some resources she talk about included: The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway, and One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty.

Campbell performed one of her songs, "Tupelo's Too Far" during the workshop and held a concert at Piedmont on the 19th. She was a pleasure to have and attendees learned a lot about creative writing. To learn more about Campbell and her music, visit her website at www.katecampbell.com