Winners of the Robert Burns Poetry Award:
Terry Semple Memorial Contest 2000
In association with the Knoxville Writers' Guild, Marybeth Boyanton has sponsored the Robert Burns Poetry Award:  Terry Semple Memorial Contest in memory of her husband Terry Semple.  Open to all residents of the Knox and surrounding counties as well, this contest asks for a poem concerning heritage, including but not limited to its general significance, or the heritage of the poet, or the mix of cultures in our society. Terry Semple's Scottish ancestry came through the Semples, but his grandfather Semple also was a Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation.  Terry was on the Oklahoma Indian Rolls all his life; that heritage, too, was very important to him.

Judges for this year's contest:  John Reaves, Doris Ivie, Candance Reaves, Don Williams and Marybeth Boyanton.  Poems submitted:  123.

Winners of the 2000 Robert Burns Poetry Award: 
Terry Semple Memorial Contest

1st prize: 
Awards of Excellence:
Honorable Mentions:
  • Marilyn Kallet -  "No One Escapes History" 
  • Linda Marion -  "Hackberry" and  "Genealogy" 
  • Sarah Mate -  "Laray's Song" 
  • Jenna Tonn -  "Recipe for Communion" 
  • Ariel Cauright - "Process: Repeat" 
  • Gretchen Geisinger -  "The Fig Gatherers"
Celtic Heritage Prize (given by the Scottish Society of Knoxville)
  • Jim Johnston - "The Greening of America"

    • Read the winning poems from the Robert Burns Poetry Awards:  2000   2001  2002 2003
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