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Andrea Dietrich
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Andrea Dietrich grew up in Iowa and now resides in Utah with a spouse and two cats. She has two grown children and six grandchildren. Having graduated BYU with a Spanish major/ESL minor, she has spent most of her adult life teaching. It wasn't until 2000 that she began writing in earnest and discovering her "niche" as a writer of lyrical poetry. The internet opened up a new world for her, and she has spent two decades now participating in poetry clubs, acting as a judge of poetry contests for various magazines, for the website Shadow Poetry, and for Poetry Soup. 

Ms. Dietrich has won numerous awards, as well as the title Poet of the Year 2008, from the Yahoo group, Poetry For Thought. In addition, she has won prizes from the magazines Lucidity, Bell's Letters, Art with Words, Poets at Work and SP Quill, the magazine for which she wrote grammar and poetry articles as well as movie reviews and for which she acted as poetry editor for the head editor Marie Summers for six years. Many of her poems appeared in Shadows Ink, a yearly published series of chapbooks of award winning poetry as well as in numerous other anthologies. Her short stories appeared in many issues of SP Quill and much of her poetry was published in eight chapbooks (no longer sold online). 

Since coming to Poetry Soup, Ms. Dietrich has been both contest sponsor and winner of numerous contests. In 2010, her poem "Cinder Girl" was first place winner of Soup's International contest (these contests are no longer held).  A song was created from her lyrics "Honeymoon Serenade" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDWxc4cpHDc) and two movies have been made featuring the poetry of Andrea Dietrich: "A Tale of Fire and Ice" (a 4 min. Z-Film Fest Project, 2014) and the full length movie "Six Days of Sistine" in which 20 poems of Ms. Dietrichs serve as the thoughts of two characters played by Jamie Campbell Bower and Elarica Johnson (directed by Richard J. Perry, 2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7710360/

Christmas Acrostic Sonnet Contest Judged/ Fun poems!!

Blog Posted by Andrea Dietrich: 12/24/2015 4:11:00 PM

I will make this as short and as sweet as possible.  I enjoyed reading all the entries! In an attempt to narrow my field to only a top ten with no more than 20 in the top ten, I eliminated more poems than usual. It was difficult for me to get some clear winners, so I used five criteria with 3 points each:Rhyming/ Structure (which includes a lot of different things for me)/ Uniqueness of Theme and/or Imagery/ Iambic Pentameter or Keeping to 10 syllables per line and finally,just how well I enjoyed the read.  A person may have done poorly with Iambic pentameter but could have used great structure and imagery. Or a person may have used too many commas everywhere but had great meter (so they would not have scored as high as they could have) . Please if you have questions on how or why  I scored you as I did, just send me a Soupie! I really struggled with how to place those at the bottom. I just wanted to whittle it down to 20 winners from 1 to 10! 

Thanks to all who entered. I really enjoyed seeing your acrostic sonnets. Merry Christmas to you all!



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Date: 12/26/2015 12:50:00 PM
Andrea, I wrote two lines that had no meter and tried and tried to get into the spirit of the contest and the spirit of the season, but, as you can probably tell from my last few writes, my poem still has two lines and no meter. Sorry for not entering.
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/27/2015 8:43:00 AM
I'll have to check that out, my friend. Not sure what you would have written? Did you try a sonnet? Anyway, the muse is not always good to ME when it comes to writing FREE!!!
Date: 12/25/2015 10:54:00 PM
Thank you so much for my placement and for appreciating my poem in your contest my dear friend, Andrea! Congratulations to all! Hugs and cheers!
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/26/2015 8:59:00 AM
Hi, Leonora, it's always a treat to see you. I know you are so busy with your teaching, etc. Thanks for trying out an acrostic sonnet!
Date: 12/25/2015 3:51:00 PM
Thanks for the placement Andrea and the muse/opportunity to create this write. Congratulations to all the participants producing such fine writes.
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/25/2015 4:07:00 PM
I appreciate your support, Robert. The message of your sonnet was the true meaning of Christmas.
Date: 12/25/2015 1:44:00 PM
many thanks for this challenging exercise, andie... you got a lot of good entries!.. congrats to all and merry christmas!..huggs
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/25/2015 2:46:00 PM
Yes, I sure did!Thanks for your support and your fine entry, Nette
Date: 12/25/2015 8:23:00 AM
Andrea, thanks you so much for this great contest, and for my fine placement, I am in wonderful company and am truly honored ~
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Constance La France
Date: 12/25/2015 10:24:00 AM
oops! and congratulations to all the winners
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/25/2015 10:09:00 AM
You're welcome, Constance. I like how you are getting better and better with sonnet form!
Date: 12/24/2015 6:47:00 PM
Andrea, thanks for this contest. It was fun to write in meter again and I enjoyed the Acrostic addition. Thank you for my placement and Merry Christmas. Congrats to all the winners.
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/24/2015 11:48:00 PM
I think you are learning a lot trying to write in meter. As I recall, you did a pretty good job of it!
Date: 12/24/2015 5:58:00 PM
My congratulations to all the winners. You did a great job in choosing your winners Andrea. I am happy with my 4th placement because I am in the talented company of Emile and I was crazy about his entry. Not only that, but my entry made the best new poems list so I feel like I got a top placement Andrea. I am pretty happy to have completed the challenge correctly and just be on this list with such fine entries. Thanks for a great contest Andrea. Mele Kalikimaka to everyone and have a blessed new year! Love, Connie
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/24/2015 11:47:00 PM
oh I am happy to hear it is in best list now. WAY to GO, Connie!! Mele Kalikimaka!!!
Date: 12/24/2015 5:39:00 PM
I was hoping to see one on Christmas Candy but Christmas Magic was the most popular...Thank you for my placement Andrea...Congrats to all winners
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/24/2015 11:48:00 PM
Jospeh, I was surprised I only got ONE candy entry!! It was actually pretty cute but the lines were very long, over ten syllables each!!
Date: 12/24/2015 4:17:00 PM
I really enjoyed the challenge you set us Andrea:-) congrats to all the winners and thanks for my placement:-) hugs Jan xx
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Andrea Dietrich
Date: 12/24/2015 11:49:00 PM
You did great, Jan!!

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