In 2021, Howard County Poetry and Literature Society launched the Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize in honor of its founding member, Ellen Conroy Kennedy. Now in its fifth year, contest judges evaluated many submissions for mechanics and technique, clarity, style/music for our contemporary age, imagery/sensory power, and emotional resonance. Congratulations to this year’s runner up, Jo Tyler, and the poem “Ink”. Read on to learn a little about the this poet and to hear the poem recited. Congratulations to Jo!

Tell us about your poem, “Ink.” How did it come about? What sparked or inspired it?

For the last 3 years I’ve met just about every Thursday morning with a fabulous group of poet-friends for a generative writing session. We take turns hosting, sharing a poem or a piece of visual art we like and providing a small assortment of writing prompts derived from it. “Ink” got its start on one of these Thursday mornings from a series of photographs I took at The Museum of Everyday Life in Glover, Vermont, way up north. There was, among other things, an amazing collection of lists visitors had made as part of an interactive exhibition. If you haven’t ever been to the museum, I recommend it. It’s quite an experience.

What was an early experience in which you learned that language had power?

There are two experiences competing to be told here. The first one that comes to me is the first time I swore out loud. At my mother. I was six. I begged her to forgive me because I didn’t want to go to Hell. Now I don’t believe in Hell so I swear as needed, usually to get someone’s attention. The second experience is more formalized and more performative. In seventh grade I was selected to recite The Gettysburg Address from memory on Memorial Day. My English teacher coached me for weeks, teaching me how inflection and silences help words shine. On the day, the parade came to a pause at the library green, and I stood before a microphone in a new dress and patent leather shoes. The whole town was there, and the whole town was quiet. I could feel them listening. I could feel the importance of Lincoln’s language in that listening, and I also knew that in that moment the whole town was on my side, willing me not to make a mistake. And I didn’t. It was seventh-grade-glory. I think that experience accounts for my ongoing delight in sharing my work out loud, giving it a life beyond the one it has on the page

As a writer, what would you choose as your avatar / mascot / companion animal?

So many choices. I mean my dog Moxie is a faithful and favorite companion, and he’s jockeying for first place, but that seems too easy. I’m going to go with a snake, maybe a friendly one like a corn snake. I’m choosing a snake because they brumate. They slow down their metabolism, like mammals in hibernation, but their sleep isn’t as deep, and they have more options to wake up, drink, stretch, when there’s a warm spell. I like that. Sometimes my poems need to hibernate, but mostly they I think they benefit from brumation. If I encounter something in the world that makes me think of a poem I’ve set aside for a time, I might gently shake that poem awake, do some revising in the moment, give it a sip of water and then let it rest some more. I think too, that snakes are a good metaphor for poetry, because of the ways that they can slip around so smoothly, curl, elongate, contract, surprise. Corn snakes aren’t inclined to bite, but they can if they need to. I think some of my poems are like that.

Tell us about a writer or book that you return to over and over for inspiration.

I’d say Mary Oliver for sure. I know she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but she lowers my heart rate and her simplicity in conveying complexity feels so masterful to me. She can do it all, form, free verse, long, short, and always perfectly pared down. Her imagery is so clear, stark, fearless and heartbreaking in the face of mystery. There’s something magical about how she fully welcomes her reader to the poem, how she invites us directly into her experience, engages us in it. Mary Oliver doesn’t make her reader contort, lean, peer in, surmise from an angle. Rather we encounter her experience at her side, joining with her in the delight, the sadness, and the surprise not as an outsider, but as a friend. I want my readers to feel this way – welcome, with no distance between us

What are you working on next and where can we find you?

I’m finishing up a collection that I’m going to let brumate for the rest of winter, and revise over the summer with a goal of submitting it in the fall 2026 “season” of contests and calls. I have a chapbook called Rooms for Love from Bottlecap Press available at this link: https://bottlecap.press/products/roomjt and I’m working on two others. You’ll find some of my individual poems in Yellow Arrow Journal, Maryland Literary Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly and Pen in Hand. And if you ever want to hear my work, I’m pretty much a regular at some of the open mics in the Baltimore area, like The Hot L, Manor Mill, Maryland Writer’s Association and of course the Wilde Reading Series! We’re so lucky to have such great venues in Maryland, and such great writers. I hope to see you out and about sometime soon!