Fairhope Songwriter Publishes Debut Poetry Collection

SUBMITTED — Fairhope, Alabama songwriter Mike Turner’s poetry collection, “Visions and Memories,” has been published by Sweetycat Press of Richmond, Virginia.
Turner’s first book, “Visions and Memories” takes its readers on a journey from the limitless reaches of the Universe, to the very depths of the individual and collective soul, with poems of internal reflection, nature, music, love, loss, hope and redemption.

Turner, who retired to Fairhope in 2007 after a 27-year career as a Federal law enforcement executive, began writing songs on a lark and later expanded his writing into poetry.

“I took a beginner’s ukulele class with the local adult ed organization, and really took to it,” says Turner, “No one who knew me in my professional life would have pegged me as a ukulele player, and I found that amusing, so I wrote a little song about it. The folks in the uke class loved it, and, as the lyric says, songs started to pour out of me, ‘like the flood from a busted dam.’”
Turner has written more than 150 songs, plays several times a year at public and charitable events, and has had his recordings played on radio in the US, UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and on the US Armed Forces Radio Network.

“I enjoy songwriting, but find that some of its conventions, like repetition and verse/chorus structure, can be limiting in how I’d like to tell some stories,” says Turner, “So I started writing poetry.” Turner has had more than 150 poems published in numerous print and online journals, magazines and anthologies.

Turner’s writing has received considerable national and international recognition. He was named Male Gospel Entertainer of the Year by both the Alabama Music Association (2016) and the North America Country Music Associations International (2017), and was featured on the “15 Minutes of Fame Stage” at the 2020 Monroeville (AL) Literary Festival. His original song, “He Died For Me,” was awarded 2nd place in the 2017 Worship Team Training Songwriting Contest; while his poem, “A Flash of Blue,” took 1st place in the Spring 2020 Poetry Contest hosted by Academy of the Heart and Mind. Turner is listed in the 2020 and 2021 editions of, “Who’s Who Of Emerging Writers,” and was named Poet of the Week by the University of South Alabama Libraries Art Galleries in April 2021.

Sweetycat Press, a traditional, independent publisher that focuses on new and emerging writers, approached Turner earlier this year about a poetry collection.
“Mike is a gifted poet whose works are deeply personal, and the broader themes are universal,” says Steven Lester Carr, founder and publisher at Sweetycat Press, “As a publisher I felt it important to give him and his work another platform via this collection to gain recognition.”

Visions and Memories is available for purchase in soft cover and e-book formats from Amazon.

Turner plans a series of readings and book signings along the Gulf Coast this summer. Scheduled events can be found by following Turner on Facebook @MikeTurnerSongwriter and @VisionsandMemoriesMikeTurner. Information about Sweetycat Press is available at https://www.SweetycatPress.com .