Although I belong to a great long-standing poetry critique group, it's on hiatus until we can meet in person again. Meanwhile I'm interested in finding or creating another (additional?) group of poets who are similarly well published and knowledgeable in metrical (and sometimes rhymed) poetry.  Equivalent teaching experience is a plus. Although civility is essential, I'm not looking for pats on the back, but rather for opportunities to learn from totally honest critiques. My profile is in the P&W Directory. Please feel free to contact.

I am an Atlanta poet who has been active on the open mic and slam poetry scene since 2013. I have had the pleasure of being on the Java Monkey Slam team and the Art Amok slam team in Atlanta and have competed in numerous poetry slam competitions. I am currently working on my second chapbook "Out of Focus" and branching out into the essay writing genre. My creative background is also pretty diverse as I am also a singer-songwriter and an theatre actress. I'm hoping to connect with writers of  varied genres and to be able to share my work and get feedback. Community is what helps us grow as writers.

I've foregone the traditional sports car purchase to address the concerns of mid-life and have, instead, decided to try my hand at a life long dream of publishing some writing. I've spent my career so far as an IT manager in a very large corporation - always with a volume of poetry or a novel in hand to spend the lunch hour with. My training in school was in visual art/graphics so - right brain dominant in a left brain career. 

Anyway, I'm a novice with regard to writing but it's that one thing that haunts me. If there's a true inner voice, mine says 'write' - daily and repeatedly. 

With regard to groups I suppose I'm looking for people who might overlook my inexperience and allow me to participate in workshops etc. so that I might improve - and on the off chance that I might help others improve as well.  

In uncertain times people turn to uncertain means. My work of poetry and art, of fables and philosophies, is aimed at the pandemic of crisis anxiety so many of us are going through right now in our daily lives and in our inner spaces. 

We are all of us and each of us, in this together.  

The sciences provide remedies, but so do the arts.  The ancient Egyptians wrote curative words on fragments of papyrus to feed their burnt ashes to the afflicted. Lacking morphine, Walt Whitman read verses to fallen soldiers on the battlefields of the first Civil War.  At their best, the right words are more than therapeutic, they can be curative. My writing is an attempt to emulate these rituals in administrating remedies for living in these times of crisis, in living with uncertainty. 

Graphic Poetry Collection  IS SHE AVAILABLE? (Chameleon Publishing, 2015)
Latest Collection:  TAKE A DEEP BREATH – Living With Uncertainty  (Chameleon Publishing, 2021)

“Igor takes you into the guts of the pandemic and gives you a tour of the struggles and trials of the everyday environment of the virus that is stalking this dystopian pandemic world of the year 2020. Wide-ranging, he takes you from trans-global to the nightly news of the day that is rocketing past at roller coaster speed, pure emotive emotions so personal that it makes you sit back and wonder at the writing here and what you have just read”. 
– Chris Vannoy - US Beat Poet Laureate 2019