SDSPS was organized in 1927 and incorporated as a South Dakota non-profit on August 8, 1970.
Our Mission
To encourage and foster the writing and publication of poetry by South Dakota writers and to promote excellence therein; to arouse in students of high school and college age, interest in the creative writing of poetry; to foster or publish Pasque Petals, a magazine, on a regular basis, thereby continuing the publication which was begun before the Society was organized, which publication is devoted chiefly to poetry, to stimulate by such proper means as the sponsoring of contests, awarding of prizes, and by other means of encouragement, the writing of poetry; and by these means to aid in the cultural growth of South Dakota.
SDSPS acknowledges that we share the traditional lands of the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires nations, the proper name for the tribes of the Santee-Dakota, Yankton-Nakota, and Teton-Lakota people, referred to collectively as the Sioux.
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Great Plains Writer’s Conference
Readings and Book Signings Featured Writers: Heidi Czerwiec, Barbara Duffey, Patrick Hicks, Christine Stewart-Nuñez and Steven Wingate Women Poet’s Collective: Lysbeth Benkert, Heidi Czerweic, Barbara Duffey, Jeanne Emmons, Lindy Obach, Marcella Remund, Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Norma Wilson Workshops, Craft Talks & Roundtables Making Fiction out of Nonfiction Digital Literature: What it is and Why Humans Do It […]
Vintage Poetry- Revelation
A timely, beautiful poem with a beautiful message. Enjoy! Revelation by Marilyn Kratz, Yankton The winds of fall have swept away brown leaves from old elm trees And now reveal what summer’s green had hidden from my gaze. Abandoned nests, their builders flown, stand out in stark relief, Mute evidence of secret toil that filled […]
Poetry of Place
I am a place poet. I write about pink interstates and shorn ditches and abandoned homesteads and big rivers and cracked driveways. I write about the way the first golden light breaks over the early prairie as I drive west on I-90 in October. I write about the garbageman who predictably ushers away my recycling […]
Writing Persona Poems
Coming from the Greek word for mask, persona poems, also known as dramatic monologues, draw freely in their craft and technique from the genres of playwriting, fiction, and poetry, making them, to my mind, a hybrid-genre form rich with exciting cross-genre possibilities. Paradoxically, the dramatic monologue, or persona poem, emerges from a tricky welding together […]
Annual Contest Winning Poems: Landscape Category
Congratulations to Katy Beem, John Nelson, and James McEnteer for winning the annual contest in the landscape category! Katy Beem secured first place with her poem “Fortress Instructions,” John Nelson won second place for “Monuments,” and James McEnteer won third place for “Mountain Time.” To view the poems, click the following link: Landscape contest winners […]
Annual Contest Winning Poems: Portrait Category
Congratulations to Roberta Haar and Bill Quist for winning the annual contest in the portrait category! First Place 50, today by Roberta Haar What part of me is 50? What specks, particles, motes or grist over the years? Hair keeps growing molecule by molecule while cells replenish from time to time. Nails renewed. Even nerves […]