"to come up with a valid pun that has not been used during the pairing. Punsters who deliver puns that are determined invalid by the judging panel (i.e. non-puns) are also given a strike and another five seconds to conjure a valid pun. Contestants continue trading puns until a contestant is eliminated, either by exceeding the allotted five seconds or after three strikes. The survivor of each pairing advances to the next round. O. Henry Pun-Off The O. Henry Pun-Off is a yearly spoken word competition that takes place every May at the O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas. Started"
"Austin Poetry Slam The Austin Poetry Slam (APS) is one of the longest running poetry venues in Texas. Founded in 1994 by Wammo of the Asylum Street Spankers and helmed for 15 years by former Poetry Slam, Inc. president, Mike Henry, Austin Slam is renowned for memorable and often raucous performances by many of the best poets in the slam poetry world. Austin Slam is best known nationally for hosting the National Poetry Slam (NPS) in 1998, 2006, & 2007, and for Austin teams' national finals stage performances in 1996, 2003, & 2008. Since its inception, many nationally known poets"
"Danny Strack Danny Strack is a performance poet and juggler, residing in Austin, TX. He currently runs the Austin Poetry Slam, a weekly show at the Spider House Ballroom on Tuesday nights. He has been a regular performer at the Austin Poetry Slam, as well as other Central Texas venues including The Hideout Theatre, Kickbutt Coffee, Expressions, Ruta Maya and Neo Soul since 2003. He is a four-time member of the Austin Poetry Slam Team: 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and a multiple time coach. In 2008, the team advanced to Finals and placed 3rd overall at the National Poetry"
"has also released several compilations of local work throughout the years, including Tina's Fine Ass Lingere, a 2007 team CD, and a 2008 DVD recording of the slam-off at the Long Center. The Austin Poetry Slam continues every Tuesday at 8pm at the Spider House Ballroom. The current slammaster is Danny Strack. Austin Poetry Slam The Austin Poetry Slam (APS) is one of the longest running poetry venues in Texas. Founded in 1994 by Wammo of the Asylum Street Spankers and helmed for 15 years by former Poetry Slam, Inc. president, Mike Henry, Austin Slam is renowned for memorable and"
"The first CUPSI tournament was organized in 2001 by Robb Thibault. It was held at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Seven teams competed in the first tournament. The number of teams participating in CUPSI has grown since then with 53 teams competing in 2014. The 2016 competition will take place at the University of Texas at Austin on April 6-9. The increase in attendance coincides with the growth of slam poetry itself. Poets such as Individual World Poetry Slam champion Rudy Francisco have noted a general trend in the prevalence of poetry slam in everyday life. Several videos of poems performed"
"Fuller and Mike Henry film ""Slam Planet"". National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and in different U.S. cities. The first National Poetry Slam was held at Fort Mason in 1990 in San Francisco. It was organized by poet Gary Mex Glazner and featured three competing teams: Chicago (birthplace of slam), New York City (Nuyorican), and San Francisco (host city). It has been held every year since."
"National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and in different U.S. cities. The first National Poetry Slam was held at Fort Mason in 1990 in San Francisco. It was organized by poet Gary Mex Glazner and featured three competing teams: Chicago (birthplace of slam), New York City (Nuyorican), and San Francisco (host city). It has been held every year since. 2014). From 1990 to 2007, the National"
"generally in Austin, Texas, keynoted by a special guest. The prize is a $5,000 award and two Honorable Mentions who receive $1,000 each. Past keynote speakers have included Dan Rather, Ellen Goodman, Paul Krugman, Seymour Hersh, John Quiñones, and Gail Collins. The deadline for entries from the previous calendar year is typically in March and the submissions are screened by journalists from the Board of Advisors, which governs the conducting of the award. Finalists and winners are determined by an annually selected Executive Committee of the Board of Advisors. The 2013 MOLLY National Journalism Prize was awarded to Sarah Stillman"
"Arlington’s Teatro de la Luna since its founding in 1991 and since 2001 has coordinated its annual Poetry Marathon at Casa de la Luna, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and other venues. Through this festival he has brought together poets from all over the Spanish speaking world, and has published the festival poetry anthologies since 2001. His advice and participation as poet, scholar and teacher has been sought by organizers of poetry festivals and international book fairs in Villahermosa (Mexico), Izmir (Turkey), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Caracas (Venezuela), and Recife (Brasil), among other places. He has also produced"
"Slam in Madison, WI. He was next on the Austin Neo Soul Nationals team, which placed first in the Group Poem Finals at the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, NC. Danny has also been a feature poet on EXSE, a showcase of Austin's best poets for Channel Austin and the Austin International Poetry Festival. In 2013, Danny collaborated with Texas State Musician, Craig Hella Johnson, of Austin's Conspirare to produce ""Fusion"", a workshop show that attempted to fuse spoken word poetry with choral song. Danny Strack Danny Strack is a performance poet and juggler, residing in Austin, TX. He"
"ArmadilloCon ArmadilloCon is a science fiction convention held annually in Austin, Texas, USA, since 1979. As the second longest running science fiction convention in Texas, it is sponsored by the Fandom Association of Central Texas and is known for its emphasis on literary science fiction. ArmadilloCon was traditionally held in mid-October during the weekend of the Texas-OU football game, but moved to a late-summer/early-fall weekend in 1998. The 34th annual convention was held in the Renaissance Hotel Austin from July 27–29, 2012. ArmadilloCon 35 in 2013 was a ""relaxicon"" due to the 71st World Science Fiction Convention to be held"
"poet. Patrick Hicks, poet/writer, came to the city to teach at Augustana College and published the anthology A Menagerie of Words: Contemporary South Dakota Poetry, later, in 2010. Rosalee Blunk was the initial organizer for the Poetry Out Loud state finals held annually in Sioux Falls. Maddie Lukomski, a Poetry Out Loud junior at Sioux Falls Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was named a winner in the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Ourselves competition spoken category, most recently (May 2016). The Sioux Falls mayor's awards in literary arts designated movers and shakers during the growth and"
"the subsequent move to Brooklyn. Dr. Fill, a computer program, has been an unofficial competitor in every contest since 2012. American Crossword Puzzle Tournament The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States; the 2009 event attracted nearly 700 competitors. The 40th annual tournament took place on March 24-26, 2017. For its first 30 years the contest was held at the Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut, but owing to increasing"
"workshops for teenagers, through its ""Poetry Education Project"" in Taos, New Mexico, in the early 1990s. The first statewide competition for high school students was held at Taos High School in 1993, with the top teams and individual participants awarded plaques. Members of Taos' competitive teams earned athletic letters annually up until 2008. [cf. The Taos News, Taos, NM, articles, 1993 to present.] Youth Speaks, a non-profit literary organization founded in 1996 by James Kass, patterned the slam competitions at the annual Brave New Voices festival after that seminal Taos event. Youth Speaks serves as one of the largest youth"
"organized and hosted the first weekly poetry slam in San Antonio, Texas, a poetry reading like no other in the Alamo City. Held at the now defunct Re:Verb music lounge, the first PuroSlam- held on a Tuesday night, May 4, 1999, at 10:30 pm, as it has been every Tuesday since- attracted over 100 rowdy and enthusiastic, and by the end of the evening, very drunk spoken word fans. For the summer months that followed, a variety of poets from across South Texas descended upon the Re:verb every week to battle it out for priceless vinyl and the weekly title"
"Glascock Prize The Glascock Poetry Prize is awarded to the winner of the annual Kathryn Irene Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest at Mount Holyoke College. The ""invitation-only competition is sponsored by the English department at Mount Holyoke and counts many well-known poets, including Sylvia Plath and James Merrill, among its past winners"" and is thought to be the ""oldest intercollegiate poetry competition."" Each year, about six young poets from the nation's top colleges and universities are selected to participate. After being selected, participants submit a brief manuscript of poems, which they read at a public reading during the culmination of the"
"on the Friday of the convention, with a Writers' Track of sessions available during the rest of the weekend. ArmadilloCon ArmadilloCon is a science fiction convention held annually in Austin, Texas, USA, since 1979. As the second longest running science fiction convention in Texas, it is sponsored by the Fandom Association of Central Texas and is known for its emphasis on literary science fiction. ArmadilloCon was traditionally held in mid-October during the weekend of the Texas-OU football game, but moved to a late-summer/early-fall weekend in 1998. The 34th annual convention was held in the Renaissance Hotel Austin from July 27–29,"
"Puroslam PuroSlam is the only nationally certified poetry slam operating in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Started in 1999 by Benjamin Ortiz, PuroSlam has earned a national reputation as one of the toughest, roughest, rowdiest poetry slams in the United States, bringing the exciting world of performance poetry to South Texas on a weekly basis. “I’m excited about San Antonio,” says Boston poet Dawn Gabriel in a 2006 article in the San Antonio Current, “because they have a reputation for being the meanest Slam poets around.” In 1999, Texas native Benjamin Ortiz, living in San Antonio after years spent in Chicago,"
"Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ""The Iron Giant"" and ""Secondhand Lions"". The festival focuses on genre films such as horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, Asian, and cult. The festival takes place in September at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, filling eight screens for eight days and hosting many writers, directors, and actors, either well-established or unknown. A notable feature of this festival is the inclusion of ""secret screenings""."
"American Crossword Puzzle Tournament The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States; the 2009 event attracted nearly 700 competitors. The 40th annual tournament took place on March 24-26, 2017. For its first 30 years the contest was held at the Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut, but owing to increasing popularity, in 2008 it moved to the larger Marriott Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, New York. In 2015 the tournament returned"
"August"". Jacques Bailly succeeded him as the National Spelling Bee's pronouncer. Alex Cameron (academic) Alex J. Cameron (1937 – February 24, 2003) was an English professor at the University of Dayton and the official pronouncer of the Scripps National Spelling Bee from 1981 to 2002. Cameron grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, and attended the University of Notre Dame. He taught American literature and the history of the English language at the University of Dayton from 1964 until his death in 2003. In 1978, he began accompanying fellow Dayton professor Richard R. Baker to the National Spelling Bee, where Baker had"
"winner in two distinct categories). A popular Nevada (former) slam poet and travelling urban storyteller, Figler has toured the United States at many festivals and events as a featured performer. . Most notably, since 1997, he has been featured at SxSW, Bumbershoot, North by Northwest, the National Poetry Slam competition, the Porchlight storytelling series in San Francisco, the Back Fence PDX storytelling series in Portland, Oregon, HEEB storytelling and the SF Sketchfest 2011 & 2012. In Nevada, he tours as part of the Tumblewords initiative through the Nevada Arts Council bringing literary events to rural Nevada towns. In 1998, he"
"returned to normal and the poet finished her poem. During the set break that shortly followed, arguments ensued outside about the inappropriateness of the bit, and PuroSlam took much criticism over their decision to allow such an event to transpire. After the break, the poet, who, along with PuroSlam, was in on the planned heckling, defended the art of comedy, and explained that what they were doing was just as legitimate an art form as what the poets were trying to achieve. Puroslam PuroSlam is the only nationally certified poetry slam operating in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Started in 1999"
"in 1962, and died in 1994. The competition has been held annually since 1954, except for 1977, when no tournament was organised. In the early years, neither Oxbridge debating society (the Oxford Union and Cambridge Union) participated. Glasgow University Union has been the most successful institution in the competition's history, winning the tournament 16 times, most recently in 2018. In addition to John Smith, other notable former winners include Charles Kennedy, Donald Dewar, John Nicolson, Lord Hunt of Wirral and Professor Anthony Clare. Since 1993, the competition has been run by the English-Speaking Union, with assistance from regional convenors. Four"
"formally known as the Toastmasters International World Champion of Public Speaking, which is held annually at its International Convention in August. It started in 1938 and involves over 33,000 participants in 141 countries making it the world's largest speech contest. There is a six-month process of elimination to reach the semifinals, in which in 2018 there were 106 participants who got that far. There are ten places in the final and speeches are judged on content, gestures, organisation and style. Toastmasters International Toastmasters International (TI) is a US headquartered nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of"
"and publisher Nick Barbaro. Louis Meyers, a booking agent and musician, was also brought on board. Black came up with the name, as a play on the name of the Alfred Hitchcock film ""North by Northwest"". The event was first held in March 1987. The organizers considered it a regional event and expected around 150 attendees to show up, but over 700 came, and according to Black ""it was national almost immediately."" Meyers left Austin and the festival in the early 1990s, but Black, Barbaro and Swenson remained the festival's key organizers as of 2010. Singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked was the"
"from each school went to the state level to perform three, and the state finalists later performed the same three poems in Washington D.C. during the second week of May, 2006. Originally created as a means by which students could become more involved in poetry and the spoken word, the Poetry Out Loud competition is currently run in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Each state runs its own competition relatively independent of all others. In general, a high school competition is followed by a statewide competition. State Champions"
"most important prizes in Spanish languages in the United States. Winners of this prize are Dinapiera Di Donato by Colaterales/Collateral in 2012 and Cuban-American Carlos Pintado for his Nueve monedas/Nine coins in 2014. Richard Blanco, United States' inaugural poet, served as a judge in 2014. Each year links to its corresponding ""[year] in poetry"" article: National Poetry Series The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program. Every year since 1979, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry. Manuscripts are solicited through an annual open competition, judged and chosen by poets of national"
"8 at Paradise Acres. Paradise Acres is a family owned catering service owned by Shane Taylor. National Hollerin' Contest The National Hollerin' Contest, first held in 1969, is an annual competition held in Spivey's Corner, North Carolina. The contest, formerly held on the third Saturday in June, was inaugurated to revive the almost-lost art of ""hollerin'"", a sophisticated vocal tradition that served as a means of long-distance communication between individuals as well as an amusing form of entertainment, before the widespread adoption of the telephone. The proceeds from the event were, and continue to be, donated to the Spivey's Corner"
"introduced, in which only female and female-identified poets are allowed to compete. The first WOWPS was held in Detroit, Michigan and the first WOWPS champion was Andrea Gibson. In 2008, poet Harlym 125 created an unofficial individual competition called the National Underground Poetry Individual Competition (NUPIC) as a response to the absence of an individual competition at NPS. The winner of this competition has traditionally been given a showcase spot on the finals stage at NPS. The National Poetry Slam has also been the subject of several feature-length documentaries, including the 1998 Paul Devlin film ""SlamNation"", and the 2006 Kyle"
"The American Cowboy Cultural Awards and the National Championship Chuckwagon Cookoff are announced at the symposium. The symposium is an outgrowth of the first National Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in 1985 in Elko, Nevada. The Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering followed in 1987 at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. Similar events were hosted in 1988 in Prescott, Arizona, and in 1989 in Roswell, New Mexico. Alvin Glenn Davis (born 1927), as a cowboy poet, attended the event in Alpine and decided to launch a comparable exposition in Lubbock. The first symposium was held from June 2–4, 1989, on the"
"Sydney that encourages poets to perform in their native language, whatever that may be as all languages are accepted. Through this practice Word Travels aims to celebrate the diversity of language and culture. The 2018 Multilingual Champion was Joseph Schwarzkopf. In 2017 Hasitha Adhikariarachchi was the Mulitlingual Poetry Slam Champion. The 2016 Multilingual Champion was Bhupen Thakkar. Australian Poetry Slam Australian Poetry Slam is an annual poetry slam competition run within Australia. It is a literary celebration in which poets of all ages, experiences and talents perform live and are judged by the audience to determine the best both locally"
"Luster, Dana Moore, Benedict Fernandez, and Frank Shaw. The magazine sponsors two contests each year for microfiction and poetry. Past judges for the International Poetry Contest have included Billy Collins, Philip Levine, Maxine Kumin, and Molly Peacock. In the fall of 2012, the River Styx reading series moved its venue. A ""Best of River Styx"" special edition was published in 2000 to mark the organization's twenty-fifth anniversary. It included poetry, interviews, photographs from readings by River Styx archivist Paul Neuenkirk, and a record insert with highlights from events. The magazine has won several Stanley Hanks Prizes, awards from the Coordinating"