Rita S. Spalding has had poems published in 16 Calliope anthologies, National Library of Poetry, AX-POW Magazine, The Heartland Review, Kentucky Monthly Magazine, Keeping the Flame Alive, and her first book, Abstract Ribbons. Poetry will be featured in the 2024 Fallen anthology. A second book, The Eighth, is being published by Hydra Publishing, Pennington Press Division. She is currently working on a third book of poetry and a memoir.
She had poetry exhibited at the Main Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, and in a joint venture with the Kentucky Derby Museum, received awards for poetry from Jefferson Community and Technical College, Elizabethtown Community College, National Library of Poetry, and Kentucky Monthly Magazine.
She was a member of Women Who Write from 1995 through 2011 and served consecutively as secretary then director. During those years she taught poetry workshops, gave poetry performances, and mentored writers and poets. She also served as panelist for the Dorothy Clay Norton Fellowships at the Mary Anderson Center, assisted Carridder Jones with creating the first Kentucky Women’s Book Festival in 2006 and was on a Kentucky Poet Laureate nominating committee for poet laureate Maureen Morehead.
In 2023 Rita was a featured poet at the Calloway County Public Library Kentucky Author Celebration, and interviewed in podcast episodes #84 and #85 of the Never Too Late Cafe Bloom Where You are Planted series, where she talks about her poetry, and what motivates her in this amazing life. In 2024, Rita’s poem “Heart Food” was published in the February 2024 issue of Kentucky Monthly Magazine. She was a presenter at the Kentucky Writers Celebration in Danville and Historic Penn’s General Store in Gravel Switch, Kentucky, and gives poetry readings regionally on a regular basis.
Rita can be reached through Instagram as poet.ritaspalding.1 or on Facebook under the name Rita Spalding.
