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Volume 38 Issue 2
September 19, 2000

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MCC writing student to be published in national book
Unique form of poetry springs ‘Sestina Song’

BY KARA WIREMAN
MESA LEGEND
Submitted September 19, 2000

MCC student Tish Dallas received the honor of being published for her first time in “Nota Bene,” the annual literary honors anthology of Phi Theta Kappa, to be released this October.

Marie El Ghayalini/ MESA LEGEND

MCC honors student Tish Dallas reads "Sestina Song" to a charter school class in Ahwatukee.

Dallas’ poem, “Sestina Song,” was chosen from more than 1,200 entries including research papers, poetry, short stories, non-fiction essays and drama to be placed in the anthology, which is distributed to more than 1,700 libraries reaching an audience nationwide and abroad.

Nota Bene, Latin for “note well,” was created in 1994 when Phi Theta Kappa, an academic honors society for 2-year colleges, wanted to demonstrate its members’ academic excellence.

Phi Theta Kappa is an international organization with chapters in all 50 United States, as well as Japan, Germany, Canada and Guam. Twenty-five selections were chosen for publication by an editorial jury.  The five most outstanding authors received scholarships — one $1,000 Citation Scholarship and four $500 Reynolds Scholarships.

Dallas, a creative writing major, has attended MCC for three years and is enrolled in the liberal arts program. She has been a member of MCC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, Omicron Beta, for more than a year.

Betsy Hertzler, the honors program co-coordinator, has known Dallas for two-and-a-half years. After receiving news of Dallas’ publication, Hertzler immediately informed MCC administration because of its national exposure.

“(Tish) certainly is an outstanding member of the chapter and has been ever since she’s been involved with Phi Theta Kappa, and I’m thrilled she has received this recognition,” Hertzler said.

Dallas decided to write a poem using the complicated form of Sestina, an assignment she received in her creative writing class.

Sestina, referred to as “A Song of Sixes,” was developed in the 12th Century by Troubadours, singers and poets that wandered around the countryside of France from province to province. The poem is composed of six stanzas with six lines each. The six words that are used to end each line in the first stanza are the defining words, as they will be repeated throughout the rest of the poem.

Dallas said it took four-to-five weeks to complete the poem because of it being a “really challenging form to try to work in because you’re so restricted,” Dallas added she enjoyed doing the assignment and fell in love with Sestina.

“(I learned) that writing in a structured format can actually be very free,” Dallas said.

Next year, Dallas will be in ASU’s creative writing program. She hopes to continue being published in different magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Redbook.

“It is the most creative outlet for me because I really like to write about what I know.

“Poetry takes me out of that a little more. I’m not a story person even though I do think I tell stories through my poetry.”

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