Missouri Festival Features Storm Country: The Anthology

Linda Fisher 

The March 6, 2012, Governor’s Annual Verses and Voices Festival which celebrates Missouri’s poetry, music, and art featured readings from Storm Country: The Anthology published by Mozark Press for the Missouri Writers’ Guild. The program was performed in the rotunda at the State Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri. The theme was “Remembering the people of Joplin in their time of pain and loss in the storm. Commemorating the help and hope that followed.”

Choirs from Benton High School, Jefferson City High School, Savannah High School, Missouri Western State University, and Joplin High School performed poetry set to music. Joplin High School premiered “Storm Country” by Susan LaBarr, Missouri’s Composer Laureate.

The “Storm Country” lyrics were adapted from “My Foundation” written by Bill Cairns and published in Storm Country: The Anthology. All choirs joined their voices for the ending to commemorate those who helped Joplin after the devastating May 22, 2011, tornado. The moving performance received a standing ovation.

David Clewell and Walter Bargen

Missouri Poet Laureate David Clewell read a poem he wrote for Joplin. He later read “Supercell” from Storm Country: The Anthology for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Poet Laureate of Kansas, who was unable to attend due to illness. Walter Bargen, Missouri’s first Poet Laureate, read a new poem and “Harmony Tornado” from Storm Country. Claudia Mundell, President of Joplin Writers’ Guild read her poem “Weather Tantrum” from Storm Country.

Missouri Writers’ Guild President, Deborah Marshall, recognized Ms. Mundell for first proposing the idea of an anthology to benefit Joplin Schools. Ms. Marshall also recognized the Humanities Council for their support and Mozark Press for donating publishing and editing for the project.

Storm Country: The Anthology

Missouri is Storm Country and my hometown is in a place affectionately known to locals as “tornado alley.” We share that designation with many other towns in Missouri, but after the disastrous tornado that hit Joplin, they have earned the title the hard way. 

My thoughts have been on Storm Country since I have been working on the anthology. My small press, Mozark Press LLC, was honored to donate publication of the anthology. Claudia Mundell, President of the Joplin Writers’ Guild, who lives in Joplin first came up with the idea of an anthology of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction stories with the subject of Midwest storms as a way for writers to help the people of Joplin. She said, “Not everybody can carry steel and lift walls and not everybody can cook, so everybody does what they can, and writers write.”

I have had a chance to read the book several times while copyediting. The stories range from poetic observations to raw emotions of a teenage boy who was crowded into a basement room with family and a stranger off the street while the EF-5 Joplin tornado raged overhead. The fiction stories speak of real emotions in intriguing stories.

The works in Storm Country: The Anthology were written by veteran writers, poets laureate, previously unpublished writers, and poetry by sixth-grade students.

This outstanding collection is available online at www.mozarkpress.com or at  www.stormcountry.workpress.com/. All proceeds will benefit libraries in the Joplin School District. It isn’t everyday that you get to help a worthy cause by reading an outstanding book. 

Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild Supports Joplin

The Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild voted yesterday to donate $500 to the American Red Cross to benefit Joplin after the devastating tornado. We wanted to show support for the Joplin Chapter of the Missouri Writers' Guild.

The Joplin Writers will publish an anthology Storm Country. Profits will be used to buy books for Joplin Schools. To enter your storm stories into the contest visit Storm Country for guidelines.

Storm Country - Midwest Writers Call for Submissions

The Joplin (MO) Writers’ Guild, in coordination with the Missouri Writers’ Guild, is seeking fiction, non-fiction and poetry to be included in an anthology, Storm Country, to be published near the end of the summer. All proceeds from book sales will go to the purchase of books for school libraries damaged or destroyed by the May 22nd tornado.

Midwest writers are encouraged to submit their original work June 1st through July 15th. Submit work with the theme of storms and severe weather in the Midwest. All forms of stormy weather should be considered: ice, floods, tornadoes, wind, and snow.  Include name, address, phone number, and email address on first page of submission.

Poetry of any form and up to 30 lines may be submitted.  A maximum of THREE poems from any author will be considered.

Short fiction in any genre, 1,500 words or less, will be considered.

Nonfiction (features, essays, memoirs, etc.) of 1,500 words or less may also be submitted. A maximum of three pieces of prose will be accepted per author.

All submissions must be typed in 12-point Times New Roman. Prose should use three-space paragraph indention and double-spacing. Poetry should be single-spaced. Pages should be numbered. Spelling and grammar must be as the author intends.  Author retains all rights. 

Please include third-person author bios up to 75 words. Submit your Word documents by July 15th to joplinwritersguild@yahoo.com or mail to Claudia Mundell, 1815 River Street, Carthage, Missouri 64836.

More more information visit http://stormcountry.wordpress.com/