Missouri Poetry.com
A New Site for Missouri Poets
Please support this site by donating and /or purchasing some of the merchandise from the links below. This site is presented by Steven Robert Heine. Heine is a disabled poet in his 70's. He was crippled in a fall several years ago and suffered a stroke in 2023. Your support will help cover costs of this site and provide more frequent updates.
Missouri Poetry and Writing Groups.
The current Missouri State Poet Laureate is:
Karen Craigo
Governor Michael L. Parson has appointed Springfield poet and journalist Karen Craigo as Missouri’s fifth Poet Laureate, for 2019-2021. Ms. Craigo is the poetry series editor for the Missouri State University-based Moon City Press and the nonfiction editor for the literary journal Mid-American Review. She is also editor and general manager of The Marshfield Mail. More information about Ms. Craigo can be found on the Missouri Arts link above.Previous Missouri State Poet Laureates include.:
Walter Bargen
(Febraury 13, 2008-January 2010)
David Clewell
(March 3, 2010-January 31, 2012)
William Trowbridge
(April 13, 2012-June 29, 2016)
Aliki Barnstone
(June 30, 2016-2019)
The Missouri Arts Council provides grants to artists and art groups in Arkansas working in all genres. The Council is a good resource for Missouri poets and writers. For a list of their programs, please see the link above.
The Missouri State Poetry Society provides Summer and Winter poetry contests, resources for Missouri poets and (when possible) a State convention. The Society has local chapters in Cuba, Missouri, Lebanon, Springfield, Kansas City, Bolivar, De Soto, Independence and St. Louis. For membership information, please see the link above.
For the past several years, thousands of Missouri high school students have participated in the Poetry Out Loud State recitation competitions, sponsored by the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Your high school is invited to participate.
Poetry Out Loud is a wonderful program for students. The program helps the develop Stage and speaking skills, confidence and a love of poetry. Poetry really needs to be spoken to truly be enjoyed. Poetry Out Loud is a great program for Missouri students. To learn how to get your school involved in the competition, please see the above link.try through memorization and recitation. The program helps students build self-confidence, develop public-speaking skills, learn literary history and compete for prizes and awards.
Poetry Slam is an event that takes place all over Missouri and all over the United States. Adults and students compete for prizes by reading poetry out loud. Please contact your local poetry group for a Poetry Slam event near you.
Mid-South Writers Group is a group in Cassville. They meet twice a month (when possible). Please see link above for details.
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** The Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild** supports all genres of writing, including poetry, and welcomes all Missouri writers. Membership dues are $25.00 per year. Their site states that their ‘purpose is to support, encourage, and promote writers and their craft in our community.’ They produce a number of events annually, including: ‘Well Versed’, and anthology; they work with the ‘ShowMe Writers Masterclass and they host a summer fiction writing contest. More information is available on the link above.
The St. Louis Writers Guild is one of the most prestigious organizations for writers in Missouri. The group supports all genres of writing, including poetry. Currently, all St. Louis Writers Guild events are online. Please see the link above for events and contest information.
** The St. Joseph Writes Guild** Their mission statement reads in part: ‘the St. Joseph Writers Guild has a heart for writing and for writers. We encourage anyone who writers or loves words, to seek us out. We respect all people; all are welcome, from every creed, social standing, and even age. We have had members from 11 to 90+ since writing knows no limits or boundaries.’
The Guild usually meets once a month at the Rolling Hills Library. Please see link above for updates.
The Writers Place is a group in Kansas City that supports all genres of writing, including poetry. The group produces conferences, promotes poetry readings and provides resources for writers and authors. Currently, all events are online, via Zoom. Please see like above for updates.
The Heartland Writers Guild is a group in Kennett Missouri. Their mission statement reads in part: ‘The purpose of the Heartland Writers guild is to promote and to support the concept of professionalism in published and unpublished writers and to aid all members toward the goal of successfully marketing what they write. Backgrounds of members are diverse, ranging from first time writers to published writers.’ They usually meet once a month in Jackson, Missouri. Please see link above for their newsletter and meeting updates.
The Missouri Romance Writers is a group in St. Louis that welcomes all area romance writers. The group provides support and resources for romance writers in Missouri. They are currently holding meetings via Zoom. Membership dues are $25.00 per year. See link above for updates.&&&&&&&&&&&&&
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Steven Robert Heine is an American poet and author. He has spent much of his life supporting poetry projects and events. He is the author of 8 volumes of poetry. In 2011 he was seriously injured in a fall that left him in great pain and almost unable to walk. He suffered a stroke in 2023. Heine receives no disability and relies on a small pension and retirement income. He is no longer able to make public appearances.
We hope you will consider purchasing some of the merchandise in the links below. Many are original tee-shirts and merchandise created by Steven Robert Heine.
Thank you!
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Web Hosting Article.
Web Hosting Article
Magnificent 7seven Reviews.
Web hosting
I think you will find the following article very helpful as you begin to set up your own website or a website for your writing group.
Please pay close attention to what you are paying for domain names. I have listed three inexpensive domain registrars. Most hosting companies will sell them to you and many provide a domain free with your paid account.You may be looking at creating a website and don’t know where to start. OR you may have a product or book and don’t know how to create a website to sell it. Then this blog is a great place to start! I have reviewed many webhosts from CARRD to Zyro. I think you will find the following suggestions useful.As recently as a few years ago, most sites provided access to the programming language of the website, or html. This allowed you to make changes to the programming and see how that reflected on your website. Fortunately, knowledge of html is no longer necessary. (You may still find it helpful to learn what the basic elements of html are, in case you need to insert a link in your site or see the code for your site).
Please note: I was not paid by any of the companies listed below to promote their sites. I did find it interesting to research what they have to offer and list some of the main points to consider. And yes, these are affiliate links but they have all been researched.1. What is the cost of a website?
Many hosts can get you started for free! OR with a very monthly rate for the 1st year. Cost is usually listed as a ‘monthly cost’ provided you pay for a whole year at a time. IE: if the cost is $20.00 per month, you may be required to pay $240.00. Make sure you get a plan that fits your needs. Usually you can upgrade to a more expensive plan as your needs grow.2. What is the platform the ecommerce site uses? Generally, sites use either Wordpress or what I call, a ‘House’ software. Wordpress is in my experience a platform that requires an intermediate level of computer savvy. You will do better when you put some time into working with it and develop a ‘feel for it’. ‘House’ software is unique to the webhost site you are using. Most are ‘plug and play’. Like any application, you just have to get comfortable moving around in them. Each has some unique features. When you go to the webhost, you will see samples of web pages. When you like the look... go for it!3. If you are going to be selling products through your site, you will need to know what bank does the ecommerce site use? This is extremely important. It is great you made a sale on your website, but how do you get the customer’s payment into your bank account? You want banking tools that your customer will feel comfortable ordering with, AND you want banking tools that will give you access to your money. While many sites use PAYPAL, some use other financial tools.4. How many domains can I use on one account? If you have several domains, you will want to host them all in the same place. If you have different stores selling different products, you may want to use more than one site. Ecommerce sites vary from one domain per account to ‘unlimited’ domains.5. What kind of stats will this ecommerce site provide? You may want to look around to see how much traffic you are getting and where people are seeing your site. (You may be surprised to note how many people in other countries are viewing your site).6. How good is the technical support from this ecommerce site? You don’t want to wait days for a question to be answered. A good test or response time is to ask the Web host a question as ‘a potential client’ to measure response time.7. Does this vendor sell domain names and for how much? And will they provide me with a free domain name with my order?8. What is the difference between shared web hosting and a dedicated server?’ The answer is, that a dedicated server is a server used by no other sites and thus those sites can’t impact the server or slow it down. Dedicated servers are quite a bit more expensive per month. Most websites should be fine running on shared hosting.
We will try to answer those questions. You can click on the link provided to get Common Website Terms you should know:
Html: hypertext markup language. This is the actual programming code. No matter which programming tool you are using, whether it be **Wordpress ** a sitebuilder, that interface is adjusting the html as you move and change features.
CSS: cascading style sheets. This refers to how you website is presented in the programming.
When you have purchased hosting and are ready to build a website on the hosting server, you must put your domain on that hosts server. You do this by putting in the code numbers for that server into your domain names. Both the hosting provider and your domain seller will explain to you how to do this.VPS Hosting: ‘virtual private server hosting’. VPS hosting acts similar to a private server with more flexibility than shared hosting. Most new users will only need shared hosting.Domain names: this is VERY important, when purchasing a domain name, pay little attention to the initial price of the domain name. What is important is the renewal cost. I have seen domain registers that charge very little for the initial price but upwards of $30.00 per year to renew. Most paid hosting plans give you one free domain name with the purchase of a plan. Beyond that, you will need to go to the market to buy additional names.
Steven Robert Heine is a West Coast poet & author. He has traveled extensively through the United States, including several trips to Missouri. He has spent his life promoting poetry; serving as founder for many poetry contests. He is the author of fifteen books, including poetry, history and his own short auto-biographies. His books can be found on Ebay, Amazon and Amazon Kindle.
Heine was crippled in a fall in 2011 and now makes very few public appearances.