Potter College News
English Club Holds 2023 Goldenrod Poetry Festival
- Abbey Gore and Joseph Shoulders
- Tuesday, April 11th, 2023
The Goldenrod Poetry Festival was held in Cherry Hall on Monday, April 3rd at 7 pm. The festival is an annual event sponsored by the English Club that serves as an award ceremony for a poetry contest. Each year at the festival, a new guest poet comes to WKU to share their poetry and to lead a workshop with the finalists. This year’s visiting poet was Dr. Emily Schulten, author of The Way a Wound Becomes a Soar. Schulten is well-familiar with WKU as she earned her MA here and grew up in Bowling Green.
After the finalists’ workshop, Schulten selected the top three poems and announced them at the festival. “AWOL” by Bobby Coffee won 3rd place; “I made a lover out of cheap apartment walls” by Miriam Story won 2nd place; and, “bowling green, december 11th” by Christian Butterfield won 1st place.
The other finalists and their poems were "here is a foolproof way to deserve love" by Isaac Nelson, "Cleopatra" by Taryn Deckard, "Hope from a thousand sorrows" by Danae Hobbs, "The River Behind Your House" by Autumn Barnes, and "Little Dipper" by Heather Neidlinger.
The current president of the English Club, Felicity McDonald, said of the event, “Goldenrod had a lot of amazing poets this year, and I'm so glad that the event was successful and able to recognize the talent of WKU students."