Most recent email news from www.CowboyPoetry.com Cowboy Poetry at the BAR-D Ranch

Friends of the BAR-D,

Come by and celebrate Cowboy Poetry Week! The seventh annual event takes place April 20-26.

And, catch up on all of the latest news at the BAR-D. For example, The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Three compilation CD has just been released; there's an exciting Silent Auction for two sets of Stagecoach tickets; a new, free, CowboyPoetry.com directory for poets and musicians is in the works; RATTLE magazine seeks poetry and prose submissions; Michael Martin Murphey is looking for something; and there's news about Western magazines and about new books and CDs.

You can get into an argument with Rod Miller about free verse; tell about your favorite Western or cowboy poem; read regular columns such as Jeri Dobrowski's Cowboy Jam Session and Rick Huff's Best of the West Reviews; meet Diane Tribitt, the newest Lariat Laureate; find classic and contemporary poetry and Western music lyrics; enjoy vintage and modern photos in Picture the West; check out the events calendars; read news of our wide community; and much more.

There are updates posted daily.

You and many poets, musicians, financial supporters, fans, broadcasters, gathering organizers, and other critical members of our community—our over 2 million annual CowboyPoetry.com visitors—are the moving force behind all we do.

Support from BAR-D visitors like you makes it possible to continue all we do. All of our programs and projects are funded by generous donors to the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry. The Center sponsors CowboyPoetry.com, Cowboy Poetry Week, the Rural Library Project, and all of our activities. Please renew your support or join the others. Read more about how you can be an important part of it all right here.

NEWS, FEATURES, POETRY, MUSIC, REPORTS, AND MORE
The links below take you right to popular features and news
at CowboyPoetry.com:

NEWS
POETRY
FEATURES
GATHERING REPORTS
EVENT CALENDARS AND EVENT DETAILS

Below:

SEVENTH ANNUAL COWBOY POETRY WEEK

THE BAR-D ROUNDUP: VOLUME THREE

SILENT AUCTION

ART SPUR

POET AND MUSICIAN DIRECTORY

LARIAT LAUREATE

PICTURE THE WEST

YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF IT ALL

SPONSOR SUPPORTERS

COWBOY POETRY WEEK

We celebrate the seventh annual Cowboy Poetry Week, April 20-26, 2008, and the event continues to grow. There are activities planned at libraries, in communities, and at established gatherings in (to date) Washington, Kansas, California, Missouri, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Georgia, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Nevada, and Idaho.

Just a few examples:

In Oklahoma, Center supporter Karen Neurohr, Oklahoma State University Librarian and Cathryn Christensen, Outreach Coordinator, OSU Rodeo Booster Club are co-coordinating the 3rd Annual Oklahoma Cowboy Poetry and Songs event, inspired by Cowboy Poetry Week. Karen Neurohr has spread the word of the work of the Center in presentations at library association meetings. This year, she put out a statewide notice that resulted in a number of interested rural libraries being added to the Rural Library Project.

In Washington state, Center supporter Sue Matley (of "Cimarron Sue and Nevada Slim") has organized events at five rural libraries and two other locations, in a busy schedule throughout her rural area. She has gathered books and CDs from generous poets and musicians for her local library's collection, to be donated during the library's Cowboy Poetry Week event.

In Georgia, The Booth Western Art Museum, Center supporters and sponsors of the Annual Southeastern Cowboy Gathering and the Southeastern Cowboy Festival and Symposium, have a statewide Youth Cowboy Poetry Contest, opened to students in grades 5 -12, with winners announced for Cowboy Poetry Week.

In Texas, Center supporter, poet and writer Linda Kirkpatrick will take part in a program at her rural town's library, where she has also helped create a display for Cowboy Poetry Week. She also has scheduled performances at the local school and will deliver a cowboy poetry writing workshop in Abilene.

And there are many more activities, many noted here and on our calendar of events.

Twenty states' governors have recognized Cowboy Poetry Week, and proclamations are arriving for the 2008 celebration from most of those states.

We're honored to have master painter, designer, and musician William Matthews' impressive painting, "Waxed Jacket," as the 2008 Cowboy Poetry Week poster.

Posters are not for sale. They are sent to rural libraries and to supporters. Those renewing their support or making a new donation at the $40 or higher level receive the 2008 Cowboy Poetry Week poster.

Find more information about Cowboy Poetry Week here.

THE BAR-D ROUNDUP: VOLUME THREE

We're pleased to announce the official release The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Three compilation CD.

The BAR-D Roundup: Volume Three showcases contemporary and traditional works, including Robert Service's vintage recording of "The Cremation of Sam McGee"; the poetry of past Texas Poet Laureate Red Steagall, National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow Wallace McRae, and Montana Governor’s Arts Award for Literature recipient Paul Zarzyski; noted reciters Randy Rieman, Ross Knox, and Jerry Brooks presenting classic poems by Henry Herbert Knibbs, D. J. O'Malley, and Badger Clark; a third annual selection from Grass, the master work of the late Buck Ramsey, an NEA National Heritage Fellow, recognized as the modern spiritual leader of the genre; and eighteen additional offerings from today’s top poets and reciters, including Joel Nelson, Ken Cook, Doris Daley, DW Groethe, Yvonne Hollenbeck, Paul Kern, Linda Kirkpatrick (reciting a Bruce Kiskaddon poem), Deanna Dickinson McCall, Andy Nelson, Susan Parker (reciting an A.V. Hudson poem), Pat Richardson, Georgie Sicking, Bill Siems (reciting a Curley Fletcher poem), Jay Snider (reciting a Luther A. Lawhon poem), Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns, Hal Swift (reciting a James Barton Adams poem), Mick Vernon (reciting an S. Omar Barker poem), and Smoke Wade. The CD includes a radio Public Service (PSA) Announcement by Francie Ganje, radio broadcaster and director of the Heritage of the American West show.

The CD cover is a photo of Perry Preston ("P. P.") Dickinson, circa 1912, Texas cowboy. Perry Preston was the grandfather of Deanna Dickinson McCall, and great grandfather of poets and reciters Rusty McCall and Katie-McCall Owens.

The BAR-D Roundup CDs create a growing cowboy poetry archive. CDs are offered to libraries in the Rural Library Project, an important Cowboy Poetry Week outreach program that fulfills our mission to serve the rural Western population. CowboyPoetry.com, Cowboy Poetry Week and the Rural Library Project are programs of the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry. Center supporters at the Partner level and above receive the CD (and the Cowboy Poetry Week poster by William Matthews). The CD is also available for $20. There's a special offer for the 2007 and 2007 CDs.

Read more about the CD, including on-line notes for each track, in our feature here.

SILENT AUCTION

Thanks to the generosity of the organizers of the 2008 Stagecoach festival we have special Silent Auction for premium VIP tickets to their star-studded event, May 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 2008, at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio,California. This is the Center's second annual Silent Auction of Stagecoach tickets.

Western music and cowboy poetry performers include Wylie & the Wild West, Michael Martin Murphey, Waddie Mitchell, Don Edwards, Sons of the San Joaquin, Riders in the Sky, Red Steagall, and Ian Tyson.

Bidding closes Monday, April 21.

Proceeds from the Silent Auction benefit the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, which sponsors CowboyPoetry.com, Cowboy Poetry Week, the Rural Library Project, and all of our activities.

Read more about the auction and bidding here.

ART SPUR

Art Spur invites poets to let selections of Western art inspire their poetry.

Art Spur poems inspired by William Matthews "Waxed Jacket," selected as the image for the 2008 Cowboy Poetry poster, will be posted during Cowboy Poetry Week.

A special National Day of the Cowboy Art Spur will feature a photo by Wyoming photographer Chanda Snook. The Art Spur will be posted June 16, and poems will be posted for the National Day of the Cowboy, which takes place July 26, 2008.

POET AND MUSICIAN DIRECTORY

Here at the BAR-D, we receive many requests from organizers for recommendations for poets and musicians to appear at their events. Some of those requests get posted in this news section.

If there is adequate interest from poets and musicians, we'll create a free directory that will be posted at CowboyPoetry.com. Anyone may participate. If you'd like to be included, we invite you to submit the following information by email:

1. Name (if a group, please include the group's name and each individual name)
2. Your location (town, state/province)
3. Type (for example: poet, musician, poet/musician)
4. Description (no more than 200 words about yourself and your experience)
5. Contact information (you must include a phone number, email address, or web site address for posting;
you may include all three)
6. Area of availability (for example, whether you perform in a particular region)
7. Past appearances (include three events at which you were invited to perform; do not include open-mic appearances)

Please be brief and include all requested information. Email your information to editor@cowboypoetry.com in plain text; no attachments.

LARIAT LAUREATE

The fourteenth Lariat Laureate (and "8 Seconds") were selected in March, 2008.

Minnesota rancher, writer, and poet Diane Tribitt was recognized as Lariat Laureate for her poem, "Half the Hand." The poem was written with well-loved octogenarian poet and cowboy Georgie Sicking in mind.

The "8 Seconds" finalists are, alphabetically, G. M. Atwater of Gardnerville, Nevada; Ken Cook of Martin, South Dakota; Michael Henley of Cabot, Arkansas; Stuart Hooker; Slim McNaught of New Underwood, South Dakota; Mag Mawhinney of Vancouver Island, British Columbia; Dale E. Page of Monrovia, Indiana; and Kip Sorlie of Viborg, South Dakota.

Read all the poems, and about the winners here.

PICTURE THE WEST

Picture the West is one of the most visited features at CowboyPoetry.com, a growing treasury of photos that give a glimpse of the ranching, cowboy, and rural and working life of the West-from today and yesterday. It's a great way to share your heritage or your current way of life, and to help show our many visitors the real West.

We want to keep the popular feature going, but to do that, we need your help: Please send your photos and stories to editor@cowboypoetry.com.

Texas writer and poet Linda Kirkpatrick has an interesting story posted this week. Look for a another great collection of vintage photos from photographer and journalist Jeri Dobrowski in Picture the West during Cowboy Poetry Week. See an index of all past photos here.

YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF IT ALL

IIf you visit CowboyPoetry.com often and find news, information, and entertainment; if your poetry, CD, book, news, or gathering have been featured...please show your support, so that we can continue to bring you all of the information that is important to you.

Thanks to all of our supporters for making CowboyPoetry.com and all of the Center's work possible. Continued annual support is essential to programs such as Cowboy Poetry Week, The BAR-D Roundup, the Rural Library Project, and CowboyPoetry.com.

CowboyPoetry.com and the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry exist only through the tax-deductible donations of those who support our work.

If you're not already a supporter, please consider being an important part of it all. If it's time to renew your support, please do.

When you give at the $40 level and higher, you'll receive the 2008 Cowboy Poetry Week poster, which features William Matthews' impressive art. At the $100 level and higher, you'll receive the poster and the 2008 edition of The BAR-D Roundup.

Please give us your support, which will let us continue to bring you our many features and programs.

You can make a donation by check or money order, by mail (please use the form here for mail to the Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, PO Box 330444, San Francisco, CA 94133) or by a secure, on-line credit card payment through PayPal (a PayPal account is not required):

CowboyPoetry.com is a project of The Center for Western and Cowboy Poetry, a tax-exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Act. Contributions to the Center are fully deductible for federal income tax purposes.

As in all journalistic endeavors, no editorial preference is given to financial sponsors or supporters.

Your generosity today allows us to plan for tomorrow. We thank you and look forward to working together to continue to fulfill the Center's mission to serve rural populations and to promote and preserve our Western heritage.

Join with others on the Wall of Support.

VISIT OUR NEWEST SPONSOR SUPPORTERS

Booth Western Art Museum

The Booth Western Art Museum, an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is an 80,000 square foot museum located in Cartersville, Georgia, where guests are invited to explore the American West through contemporary Western artwork. The Museum also houses a Presidential Gallery, Civil War art gallery, and Sagebrush Ranch – featuring hands-on art activities and areas for role-playing, storytelling and reading, all with a Western flair. Visitors to Booth Museum also enjoy the intimate downtown setting with unique specialty and antique shops, boutiques and nationally featured restaurants all within walking distance of the Museum. Open since August 2003, the Booth Museum is the only museum of its kind in the Southeast and is the second largest art museum in the state of Georgia. The museum sponsors the annual "Southeastern Cowboy Gathering" in March and the "Southeastern Cowboy Festival & Symposium" in October.

Wendy Brown-Barry

As California poet Wendy Brown-Barry's web site tells, she has lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in the Gold Rush-era town of Mariposa since 1971. Mariposa means "butterfly" in the Spanish language, and is often referred to as the "Gateway to Yosemite," being located only miles from Yosemite National Park. She and her husband Kevin live on the Round Tuit Ranch with their horses, dogs, and cats.

RATTLE

RATTLE is dedicating its Winter 2008 issue to Cowboy & Western poetry, and seeks your submissions. Based in Los Angeles, RATTLE is one of the widest-read poetry journals in the U.S., matching a populist stance with eclectic tastes for the last 14 years. They've published Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and Poet Laureates—now they're hoping to add Lariat Laureates to the list.

Western Poetry Writers' Association

The Western Poetry Writers' Association is headquartered in Kanab, Utah. They meet regularly and hold events, including the annual "Utah, Arizona, Nevada (& Neighbors) Cowboy Poetry Gathering & 'Old Timers' Get Together," held in April in Kanab, Utah in April. The organization's mission is to "perpetuate western heritage through poetry."

Michael Martin Murphey

As described on his web site, Michael Martin Murphey was inducted in the Western Music Hall of Fame in 2004, and is the best selling Cowboy Music Singer of our time. His music reflects his life and many wide-ranging interests. Michael's passions are to preserve the American Cowboy Western History, restore land back to its natural prairie state, and breed and raise Texas Longhorn Cattle, American Quarter Horses and American Paint Horses on his Rocking 3M Ranch.