Keynote speaker

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Keynote Speaker

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has written and shared a poem a day since 2006. Her daily poems can be found on her blog, A Hundred Falling Veils. A curated version is available on her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, on the Ritual app.

She co-hosts Emerging Form (podcast on creative process), Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal), and Soul Writer’s Circle. Her poetry has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, O Magazine, American Life in Poetry, on Carnegie Hall stage, and on river rocks she leaves around town. Her collection Hush won the Halcyon Prize. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. Her most recent books are All the Honey, The Unfolding, and Exploring Poetry of Presence II: Prompts to Deepen Your Writing Practice. Her spoken-word albums include Dark Praise and Risking Love.


As poet laureate for Evermore, she helps others explore grief, wonder, and love through poetry. She’s been an organic fruit grower, a newspaper and magazine editor, and a parent educator for Parents as Teachers. She earned her MA in English Language Linguistics at UW- Madison.

 

Her three-word mantra: I’m still learning. If limited to one word: Adjust.

More about Rosemerry

Workshop Presenters and Panelists

Sheri Purpose Hall

SHERI PURPOSE HALL is an award-winning spoken word artist, interdisciplinary creator, and mental health advocate. She ranked number two Woman Poet in the World at the 2022 Women of the World Poetry Slam (virtual) and was named 2020 Female Spoken Word Artist of the Year. A Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Awardee and multi-year arts grant recipient, Sheri is widely published and the author of five books, including Black Girl Shattered. She serves as Executive Director of Arthropy and founder of East of Red ArtHouse.

Kelsey Bigelow

Kelsey Bigelow works as a mental health poet and is the author of five poetry projects, including "Far From Broken." Her work is published with several small presses and journals. Her videos can be found on Button Poetry, Write About Now, Ghost Poetry Show, every.Word, and elsewhere. She founded the Des Moines Poetry Workshop, chairs Iowa Poetry Association Poetry Slam, teaches poetry in Des Moines, directs the BlackBerry Peach National Poetry Slam, and more.

Linzi Garcia

LINZI GARCIA comes from a family of Rocky Mountain artists and has lived in Kansas for over a decade. She serves as the poetry editor and publicist for Meadowlark Press and the director of the Diverse Voices Literacy Program for House of Morrow, an arts and services nonprofit. She is the author of Thank You and Cravings. Linzi is also a recipient of a NextGen Under 30 Kansas Award and Kansas Governor’s Arts Award.

Huascar Medina

HUASCAR MEDINA is a poet, editor, and essayist. He served as Kansas poet laureate from 2019 to 2022. He is the author of three books of poetry: Protest As Love Poem, Un Mango Grows in Kansas, and How to Hang the Moon His work has appeared in The Flint Hills Review, Gasconade Review, Green Mountains Review, Inscape, Kansas Magazine, Latino Book Review, The New York Times, and other publications.

Maureen Carroll

MAUREEN CARROLL, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Anamcara Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to inclusive, socially engaged books. With over a decade of experience producing print, ebook, and audiobook titles for U.S. and international markets, she champions LGBTQ+ and underrepresented voices. Her background in linguistics, anthropology, conflict resolution, and human-rights training informs her ethical, collaborative editorial approach and commitment to mission-driven publishing. Maureen, with help from other judges, selects the annual Amity Literary Prize winner.

 

M. Palowski Moore

M. PALOWSKI MOORE is Silver Lion Poet. His photography has been featured in several exhibitions including Tangled Roots at IUAH. He is the current Chancellor and judges’ Chair for NFSPS. He has received numerous awards including a Phi beta Kappa Award (Georgia State University) and a Sammy Davis, Jr./ Zora Neale Hurston Award for Arts and Humanities.  He is a contributing poet to the Civil Rights Memorial Center (SPLC) community poem A CIVIL COMMUNITY.