President

Tony Morris

Dr. Tony Morris currently works at Armstrong-Atlantic State University, in Savannah, GA where he teaches journalism and creative writing courses. He is also the managing editor of Southern Poetry Review.

Morris's first book of poems, Fugue's End won the 2004 Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award, and was published by Birch Brook Press in September, 2004. His most recent book, Back to Cain, was published by The Olive Press in October, 2005. Morris was a 2003 Sewanee Writer’s Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar, and his poems have been awarded the Louisiana Literature Poetry Prize, and the Tennessee Writers Alliance Poetry Award. Morris’s work has been published in over fifty national journals, including: Spoon River Review, Hawai'i Review, Southern Poetry Review, River Styx, Meridian, The Sewanee Theological Review, South Dakota Review, Potomac Review, Nimrod, and many others.

Vice President

Ella Van Wyk

Ella van Wyk was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta Canada. She moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2000 and stayed there for 6 years while completing her BA of English Language and Literature. She currently lives in Savannah, GA and feels very much at home. She is the proud mother of two boys and is also a freelance graphic designer. She has been a member of the society for one year and hopes many will follow.

Treasurer

Angela Mensing

Angela Mensing is an accomplished poet herself, a graduate of the Armstrong Atlantic State University who currently works in journalism and brings to her position considerable business experience. She has been a member of the society since 2006.

Secretary

Diane E. Welch

Diane E. Welch has been a resident of Savannah for 37 years and a poet for 36 of those years.She is a newly elected Secretary of The Georgia Poetry Society for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. Originally from San Diego California. Poetry has been an integral part of her life. It has served in many ways from apologizing to her mom as a child or making cards or poems for special occasions throughout her life. It has assisted her grasp of feelings and emotions through the years as it does for many individuals.

Welch believes that poetry is a wonderful outlet for youth as an alternative to holding these feelings in. She believes poetry is a tool as much as a pleasure for all.  Sometimes allowing our creative side to state what may not be obvious to our conscious side can resolve inner turmoil or frame a beautiful feeling. Her commitment to The Georgia Poetry Society is not only cultural and educational but also as a means for our youth to express themselves in a more healthy venue than some of the tragic alternatives such as violence, suicide and withdrawal.

Critics: Betty W. Hafner

Prize Awards: Karl D. Harris

Historian: Lee Alexander

Publicity: Tony Morris

Publications: Hugh Pendexter III

Board Member at Large

Millie Dimock