NFSPS 65th Annual Convention – featuring Keynote Speaker Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Get ready to be part of something extraordinary…
The National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS) 65th Annual Convention and BlackBerry Peach SLAM are events like no other. Be part of it all in Overland Park, Kansas this July 23-27, 2026!
Our Keynote Speaker: Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer presenting: Falling in Love with the Broken World: Why the World Needs Poems Now
Rosemerry’s Featured Workshop: Meeting All of It: Embracing Paradox and Opposition in Poetry: One of the greatest mysteries of being alive is that the world is simultaneously full of heartache and beauty, sorrow and joy. How do we reconcile this in our own being? How do we allow such richness to infuse our writing? In this process-oriented playshop, we’ll take a practical look at paradox and opposition as technique, then read and discuss poems that invite us to enter two worlds at once, meeting the full spectrum of emotional possibility. Then we’ll write our own.
FORMATS: In person or via Zoom
ABOUT ROSEMERRY:
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 NewsHour, 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.