"I really appreciate your selective work: you don't just throw a bunch of stats at us and hope we'll figure it out."
Jane Carpenter, Poetry Contest Insider subscriber

"Your site is the best! I've sent a lot of my fellow writers to you. I'm on the board of a local writers' group here in the Tampa Bay area called PINAWOR (Pinellas Writers and Authors Organization), and we have 140 members. I will often announce contests that I see on your site. I also tell them that it is well worth the subscription cost to have access, so that they will have links to the guidelines, submissions and information about of all the contests you list. I believe in Winning Writers."
Wayne Williams, Poetry Contest Insider subscriber

"For evaluations of the merits of individual contests, consult Winningwriters.com (a paid service)."
From the FAQ at Creative Writers Opportunities (CRWROPPS), a highly active mailing list announcing quality literary contests and publication opportunities

The Choke-Up Factor
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, eloquent aviator; Ernest Hemingway, pathbreaking writer of fiction, avid sportsman and battle-scarred combatant; Robert Desnos, poet, critic, lyricist and lover (among other things); Igor Stravinsky, nonpareil "inventor of music" with a penchant for pithy comments. So 20th century, so retro, yet these artists continue to resonate. And for many readers/listeners the vibrations penetrate to the core.

Two—Saint-Ex and Desnos—were French, the others weren’t but were nourished on French soil. Hemingway’s reputation soared while living as an American expatriate in Paris. A Russian by birth, Stravinsky became a naturalized French citizen before he immigrated to America, eventually obtaining US citizenship.

Hemingway and Desnos were on amicable terms. "He was often in the apartment of the leftist poet Robert Desnos, in the rue de Seine," writes biographer Carlos Baker. Hemingway and Saint-Exupéry frequented Les Deux Magots in Paris and spent time in the same hotel as shells exploded around them in the Spanish Civil War. All had to have been aware of Stravinsky by reputation, if not he of them.

Sketches, anecdotes, quotes, excerpts in a two-part appreciation. www.edalbaugh.com


New England Writer's Studio
It's peak foliage season! Treat yourself to a weekend writing retreat for just $100
Editorial Expertise offers writers a period of secluded concentration in Tamworth, New Hampshire. Located between the Lakes Region and the White Mountains, Tamworth is a village with spectacular mountain scenery; quaint shops; winter and summer outdoor activities; a library within walking distance; and easy access to nearby towns and villages in the Lakes Region and White Mountains. The Barnstormers Theatre, the oldest summer stock playhouse in the country, is located in the heart of the village and offers plays and concerts throughout the year.

The newly renovated, fully furnished studio with a private entrance, bay window overlooking a small cottage and woodlands, and adjoining bathroom/utility room (with washer and dryer) is $100/weekend (Friday-Sunday), $275/week, and $550/month. Since each writer has unique needs and preferences, the cost of the writer's studio is separate from the fee for editorial services. Dr. Elizabeth Tillar is available for editing and consultations at $15/hour. Email Eliztillar@aol.com or call 603-323-2924. It's the peak of the season for fall foliage, and Thanksgiving and Christmas events at the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm are coming soon. Call now for the best times to stay.


Shakespeare Redux
by Larry Lyall
On sale now at Amazon.com

A poem for poem response to Shakespeare's sonnets in his own terms. Shakespeare Redux counters the rich, "upholstered rhetoric" of the Elizabethans with our contemporary American idiom.

"A rarity: a high level of energy and wit sustained throughout an entire collection...in which the comic muse is the antic child of wisdom."
—James Hoggard, Texas Poet Laureate, 2000

"For a Shakespearean, for anyone really familiar with the Sonnets, these are fascinating—at once fine poems in themselves and keen commentaries/readings of Shakespeare's work."
—Sidney Homan, University of Florida

Excerpt from Shakespeare Redux

68.

like him our bastard tongue was once held fair
its rolling cadence gilding beauty's crown
but that's now lost shorn well beyond repair
as we enjamb inflate our paring down
we live these second lives bereft of rhyme
& rhythm reason's sweet regalia
too often halt as we've become resign'd
to untun'd shepherds' dry bulemia

perhaps the map to beauty's drawn by age
perhaps false art exhaust'd though still young
has yet to learn what lies here on the page
perhaps it's best if these old maps were sung

(metallurgical tag:)

doubt not each age will thus desire itself
& turn a tinny ear to all things else


Last Call!
2007 Kore Press Short Fiction Award
Postmark Deadline: October 31
A prize of $1,000 plus chapbook publication by Kore Press will be given for a short story written in English. Judge: Margot Livesey. This competition is open to any woman writing in English, regardless of nationality. For full guidelines, please visit www.korepress.org.


Last Call!
Eighth Annual Poets Out Loud Prize
Postmark Deadline: October 31
Winner will receive publication by Fordham University Press, a book launch in the reading series, and a $1,000 honorarium. Prize judge: Alice Fulton. Open to poets with or without previous book-length publication. Manuscripts must be postmarked between September 1 and October 31, 2006 and accompanied by a $25 entry fee. For guidelines and an application form, please visit www.fordham.edu/pol

Please mail your entries, fees, and completed application forms to:

Poets Out Loud Prize
Fordham University at Lincoln Center
113 West 60th Street, Room 924 I
New York, NY 10023

Questions? Please email pol@fordham.edu.


The Litchfield Review Winter Contest
Postmark Deadline: Extended to December 31
The Litchfield Review seeks original, unpublished poems, essays and short stories for its current contest. We provide a forum to both emerging and established writers; our only criterion for acceptance is excellence. We look for good stories beautifully told, quality poetry of substance, and creative nonfiction that lingers long in the minds of readers. The overall winner will receive $250. Other prizes of $100 may also be awarded. The reading fee is $10 per essay, short story, or set of 1-3 poems; or $15 to submit an unlimited number of prose and poetry entries. Make checks payable to The Litchfield Review. All prizewinners will be published in The Litchfield Review. Runners-up may also be published. All writers we publish will receive a free copy of the issue in which they appear.

Please submit two copies of your manuscript and make your reading fee payable to The Litchfield Review. Essays and short stories may be up to 3,000 words long. Poems may have up to 45 lines. Your entry should be typed, double-spaced, on one side of letter-size sheets of paper. Staple multiple pages together. Include a cover page with your name, address, phone number, email address (if available) and title for each submission. Indicate the word count (prose) or line count (poetry) on the cover page.

Mail your submission to: The Litchfield Review, 7 Bonna Street, Beacon Falls, CT 06403.

You may submit the same work simultaneously to this contest and to others. Please notify The Litchfield Review if the work you submit is accepted elsewhere. Questions? Please email Theresa C. Vara-Dannen.


Perigee’s 14th Issue Now Available, Call for Submissions
Hot off the presses, our new issue features fresh poetry, memoir, and fiction. Enjoy the three winning stories from our 2006 Fiction Contest—along with some of the edgiest writing we've featured. Like what you read? Get your voice included in this important online literary magazine: submit your best unpublished verse or prose. We are open to all styles and simultaneous submissions are welcome. If you're feeling competitive, Marvin Bell and the editors are currently gathering submissions for Perigee's 2006 Poetry Contest. A faculty member of Pacific University's MFA Program, the author of sixteen books of poetry, and Iowa's first Poet Laureate, Bell is a virtuoso of verse indeed. So submit only your very best work to this contest! Don't miss the chance to win cash, publication, and a 2007 Pushcart Nomination. Visit us soon, read the new issue, and submit your work directly through our web site: www.perigee-art.com.



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SELECTED FREE PROSE CONTESTS

These free prose contests with deadlines between October 16 and November 30 are included as a bonus in The Best Free Poetry Contests.

Click the contest names below to go straight to their profiles, or login to The Best Free Poetry Contests here. After you login, please click the Find Free Contests link, then search by Prose Contest Type to find prose contests.

10/16: Brenda L. Smart Fiction Prizes +
Formerly October 17
Neutral free contest for North Carolina authors with no published books offers $500 for short fiction (up to 5,000 words), $250 for flash fiction (up to 1,200 words).

10/30: RTE Radio 1 Short Story Competition ++
Entries must be received by this date; formerly October 7
Recommended free contest for authors born or normally resident in Ireland offers top prize of 3,000 euros for unpublished short fiction of 1,800-2,000 words that is suitable for radio performance.

10/31: FundsforWriters Essay Contest +
Entries must be received by this date
Neutral free contest for short essays (750 words maximum) on topics of interest to the professional writer offers $150 in fee-charging category, $50 in free category. FFW is an excellent resource for both literary and commercial freelance writers, offering useful e-books and newsletters that list paying markets for different types of writing. Fee is $5 per essay. Themes change annually. Email entries preferred (no attachments). The 2006 contest offers a choice of four themes:

1. Someone has a $5,000 grant open to writers. Only one writer can be selected. Write a narrative explaining why your writing is worth funding.


2. Most grants for writers are small. If you won a $1,000 grant designed to further a writer's career, how would you use it and why?


3. Where will you be as a writer five years from now? How will you get there?


4. If you were a mentor to a new writer, describe the who, what, when, where, why and how lessons of becoming successful. 'Successful' is your own definition.

10/31: A Lion's Tale +
Entries must be received by this date
Neutral free contest offers 1,000 pounds and possible publication for a story, 300-800 words, that would be appropriate for a children's picture book. Sponsor Lion Hudson is the children's-book division of Lion Publishing, a Christian publishing house in the UK. Entry is open only to previously unpublished authors of children's fiction over the age of 18. Enter by mail or email. No simultaneous submissions.

10/31: National Short Story Prize +++
Entries must be received by this date; formerly November 30
Highly recommended free contest for UK citizens/residents with "a prior record of publication" offers 15,000 pounds for the best short story up to 8,000 words, plus other large prizes. Stories must either be unpublished or have been published during the current calendar year. See website for detailed eligibility rules.

10/31: PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction +++
Entries must be received by this date
Highly recommended free contest for published books of fiction by US citizens offers top prize of $15,000, four runners-up of $5,000. Send 4 copies of book to the PEN/Faulkner Foundation office. Recent winners have been well-established writers such as Ha Jin and John Updike.

11/1: Guideposts Sweet 16 Magazine Scholarship Contest +++
Highly recommended free contest for girls aged 13-18 offers college scholarships up to $16,000 for the best true first-person essays about a memorable or life-changing experience. Entries should be 1,600 words maximum. Submit by mail or email. Guideposts Sweet 16 is a bimonthly magazine for girls aged 11-17, launched in 2004 by the publisher of the inspirational magazine Guideposts as a wholesome alternative to teen fashion magazines.

11/1: Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize ++
Entries must be received by this date
Recommended free contest offers C$15,000 for nonfiction books published in Canada during the calendar year by Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Deadline varies depending on whether your book was published in the first or second half of the year: books published between January 1 and May 31 must be received by June 30, while those published between June 1 and December 31 must be received by November 1. Publishers should submit 5 copies of the book (or 3 bound galleys, to be followed by at least 2 copies of the book), press kit, entry form, and list of titles published by that publisher, to establish eligibility. See website for detailed requirements.

11/1: Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize ++
Entries must be received by this date
Recommended free contest offers C$15,000 for novels or short story collections published in Canada during the calendar year by Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Deadline varies depending on whether your book was published in the first or second half of the year: books published between January 1 and May 31 must be received by June 30, while those published between June 1 and December 31 must be received by November 1. Publishers should submit 5 copies of the book (or 3 bound galleys, to be followed by at least 2 copies of the book), press kit, entry form, and list of titles published by that publisher, to establish eligibility. See website for detailed requirements.

11/15: French-American Foundation Translation Prizes +++
Entries must be received by this date
Highly recommended free contest offers prizes of $10,000 apiece for the best published book-length translations of French fiction and creative nonfiction into English. Entries must have been published in the US during the current calendar year. (Bound galleys are accepted for books scheduled for publication by December 31.) Publishers should submit the translated book along with the French original and a cover letter with information about the book and its author.

11/30: Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for Short Fiction +
Neutral free contest offers $300 for the best story accepted by The Caribbean Writer during this year. All eligible submissions to the magazine are also considered for the David Hough Literary Prize for an author residing in the Caribbean ($500), the Marguerite Cobb McKay Prize to a Virgin Islands author ($200), and the Charlotte & Isidor Paiewonsky Prize for first-time publication ($200). Send 1-2 stories, maximum 15 double-spaced pages each. The Caribbean should be central to the work, or the work should reflect a Caribbean heritage, experience or perspective.

11/30: Encore Award +++
Entries must be received by this date
Highly recommended free contest from the UK-based Society of Authors offers 10,000 pounds for a second novel published during the current or preceding calendar year. Either the author must be a British or Commonwealth citizen, or the submitted book must have been first published in the UK. Submit 5 copies plus entry form.


Login to The Best Free Poetry Contests now to view these and all our profiles of free contests.

Key to Ratings
Highly Recommended: +++
Recommended: ++
Neutral: +

All deadlines are postmark deadlines unless otherwise specified.


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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

DesiLit Magazine
Postmark Deadline: November 30
DesiLit is a twice-yearly online journal celebrating exceptional contemporary writing and visual art focused on South Asia and the diaspora. Submissions must either be about this region, or by authors of South Asian nationality or heritage. South Asia is defined as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. Editors say, "Our magazine will print essays, fiction, humor, poetry, reviews, and art. We plan to attract, nurture, and promote artists whose work breaks established molds attached to definitions of South Asia, and hope to showcase their material so that it is accessible to all audiences. We are also interested in pieces that celebrate traditional art forms." See website for submission guidelines and material from the first issue.


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NEW LITERARY RESOURCES

Colorado Independent Publishers Association
CIPA holds informational meetings and seminars for Colorado's independent publishers to help their members market books through cooperative ventures, education and networking. They also offer book awards, sponsor literacy programs, and help promote members' books at literary conferences and trade shows.

Dispoet
Insightful blog about poetry and disability includes brief reviews and discussions of contemporary poets writing about the subject (Floyd Skloot, Jim Ferris and others), plus contests and resources.

Gail Golden
Activist poet speaks with eloquence and compassion about war and peace, the blessings of family life, and her Jewish heritage. Visit her other website, http://www.goldenwrites.com, for her prose writings about racism, domestic violence and social justice.

International Cities of Refuge Network
ICORN is an association of cities and regions around the world dedicated to protecting freedom of expression by offering refuge to writers fleeing political persecution. Their quarterly webzine publishes the work of persecuted writers from around the world, to raise awareness of the issue and promote cross-cultural understanding. They are also seeking creative writing for their Babel Voices section: poetry, short stories or short creative nonfiction related to ICORN's mission. They are especially interested in work that they can publish in two languages. Read their submission guidelines here.

Rock & Sling: A Journal of Literature, Art, and Faith
Attractively produced journal publishes poetry, prose, and artwork that engages with Christian spirituality in complex and subtle ways. The editors started the journal in 2004 to find a middle ground between "the narrow religious market, which is driven more by theology than literary quality, and the literary world which is often dismissive of faith." Contributors include award-winning writers such as Ellen Bass, Luci Shaw, Sydney Lea, and Susanna Childress. The glossy pages even smell good.


See our complete directory of resources at http://www.winningwriters.com/resources/ur_web.php. This is also the gateway to our recommended books, magazines, service providers, advice for writers (with manuscript tips) and poetry critiques.


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NEW RECOMMENDED BOOKS

A Bride of Narrow Escape
By Paulann Petersen. Lush poems, at first heavy with the weight of memory and responsibility as the author nurses her dying parents, then laden with a sweeter burden of nature's ripeness and the enjoyment of her own body. A mature and trustworthy voice. This book was published by Cloudbank Books in their Northwest Poetry Series.

The Bride Price
By Barclay Franklin. Bittersweet romance set on the American frontier tells the story of a white woman and a half-Indian soldier who hope their love is strong enough to survive prejudice and the dangers of army life. The hero's seduction of a married woman is hard to square with his generally noble character, but his displays of leadership and grace under pressure are worth emulating.

The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories
By Steve Almond. The often absurd and exaggerated premises of these witty tales heighten our sympathy for the hapless protagonists who seek love and sex in urban America, but rarely hang on to either one for long. Almond chronicles life's freakshow in the same spirit as Flannery O'Connor's grotesque: to shock us into solidarity with one another and compassion for our abnormal secret selves.


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Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest
Postmark Deadline: March 31, 2007
Now in its 15th year. Prizes of $1,200, $800 and $400 will be awarded, plus four High Distinction awards of $200 each. Submit any type of short story, essay or other work of prose, up to 5,000 words. You may submit work that has been published or won prizes elsewhere, as long as you own the anthology and online publication rights. $12 entry fee. Submit online or by mail. Early submission encouraged. Winning Writers is assisting with entry handling for this contest. Judges: John H. Reid and Dee C. Konrad. Guidelines:
http://www.winningwriters.com/tomstory


Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest - No Fee
Online Submission Deadline: April 1, 2007
Winning Writers invites you to enter the sixth annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. The prize pool has doubled to $3,336.40 in cash, with a top prize of $1,359. There is no fee to enter. Judge: Jendi Reiter. Submit online at www.winningwriters.com/wergle


Start a Great-Looking Blog in Minutes with GoDaddy
Blogs are a great way to publicize literary work and timely information, but you may have been intimidated by the cost or technical considerations. We have had good results using the Quick Blog service at www.GoDaddy.com . You'll pay $2.99/month or less. If you need a new domain name as a home for your blog, it's just $1.99 to reserve one for a year. Upload text, images and audio recordings. Multiple authors can add to the same blog, so you can share the work. GoDaddy has several handsome templates to choose from. No technical or design expertise needed, nor will GoDaddy place ads on your blog. Learn more at www.GoDaddy.com .


LEARN TO WRITE FOR MAGAZINES!
Want to freelance for magazines but don't know how? Need a little motivation to get started? Learn how to develop ideas, research markets, write your query letter, and make your pitch to editors! In only eight lessons, veteran freelancer Linda Formicelli will show you the ropes. She's written for more than 120 publications, including USA Weekend, Family Circle, Men's Fitness, and Women's Day. Let Linda show you how you can, too!
http://www.absoluteclasses.com/Formicelli/writing_for_magazines.htm


2007 Poet's Market
The 2007 edition of Poet's Market is on sale now at Amazon. Published each August by Writer's Digest, this is the best annual guide to 1,800 journals, magazines, book publishers, chapbook publishers, websites, grants, conferences, workshops and contests. Helps you find publishers who are looking for your kind of work. Also updated are Novel & Short Story Writer's Market and Writer's Market for works of prose. Writer's Market is "the most valuable of tools for the writer new to the marketplace," says Stephen King in On Writing.


Office Depot - October Coupon
Save on paper, toner, binders and all your writing supplies at Office Depot. Free delivery in select areas when you order $50 or more. Coupon:
Save $40 off any $200 Purchase from Office Depot in October!


Discount Coupon Codes at Alibris
Good books cheap. Free shipping when you order $49 or more of eligible books. Use the coupon codes below at checkout for extra savings. They are valid through October 31.
Save $3 off $30: THANKS3
Save $5 off $50: THANKS5
Save $10 off $100: THANKS10
Search over 60 million new and used books at Alibris!


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FEATURED POEMS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS

Change the Color of Sky
by Susan Cowger

It's black, but still Christmas at seventy-five
miles an hour, through Montana midnight,
the small drag of oh no pulling the long hope
of home off an icy December in a spray of gravel,
a whirling wedge of light circling
the shriek no one heard, three thousand
pounds rasping rubber against sod, steel
crushed into clay, cheat grass and sage,
rocks, ground then floating, flying free,
everything breaks
against the power pole: foreheads and glass, ribs and time,
the brittle spine of the guitar packed with
a trunk full of epiphany, honey and jam,
the wooly new scarf and baby Jesus
scattered with that chubby steel coffee mug
forty-five feet out the back window. It's waking,
upside down, voices and vertigo
unable to breathe or unstrap from dust and
the dangle of sparks, yes, it's one call
from a black hole, bringing direction for
the universe using headlights from the old road;
it's errant oxygen biting through chest wall
and the leaking howl of a lung
collapsed, it's a palm on the face in lieu of morphine,
how many times, 1,2,3 lift, again lift
after such a slow ride to the plane,
to the chest tube, to the savior, it's the lift,
the airlift, of dawn.


Copyright 2006 by Susan Cowger

This poem is reprinted from Ms. Cowger's chapbook Scarab Hiding, which will be released by Finishing Line Press on November 28.


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My Father's Snow
by Laurie Klein

My blue nylon parka
gives snow back
its voice, a granular
tchink, tchink. It's the snow
of my father.

If I were twelve
I'd be skating tonight,
clearing the ice, my father
and I, beneath
shore lights where snow
would stick to our sleeves.
I can almost whistle
that pewter tune, like wind
playing bones, or frozen
marimbas. Crystalline
snowplates and columns
collided, mid-air. Falling,
like fathers on ice, or
firstborn girls moving away,
in the cold way snow
reinvents itself, dancing a little,
before it breaks.

Oh, that long-necked
aluminum shovel—
balanced, remote
as a great blue heron.
How often it rode
my father's right shoulder,
the crooked one that
ached with November.
This was one way
he loved us.

In some book I read, or
maybe a dream, someone
unearthed a leather
Psalter, the first
lament of a thousand snows:
corn snow, smoke snow,
down of milkweed,
shavings of opal.

Someone should bury
that book again.

Gunshot snow,
will no one else praise you?
Rasping this graveyard air,
you bring down
dust and cinders, bare
your small white teeth
against my cheek, then
drop away. At last,
a clean wounding
made of water, but mostly
air. And light,
reflected.


Copyright 2006 by Laurie Klein

This poem is reprinted from Ms. Klein's chapbook Bodies of Water, Bodies of Flesh, which won the 2004 Predator Press chapbook competition. To purchase a copy of the chapbook, write to Laurie Klein, P.O. Box 727, Deer Park, WA 99006, or email ljkbklein@yahoo.com, with "chapbook" in the subject line.


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After Losing His Arm at the Mill, Chickie Dubois Goes to Work as a Gravedigger
by Ellen LaFleche

Chickie likes to groom the gravesite before his digs.
He shaves the lush grass to bone,
washes the earth's skin like a surgical prep.

Chickie doesn't mind the cellar smell of the hole.
When he licks dust from his lips Chickie's tongue
savors the grave's cake-moist blackness.

An hour before the burial
Chickie falls into a furious one-armed rhythm,
a kind of manic self love,
his empty sleeve panting like the throat
of a man who is about to come.

His shovel bites earth like an incisor.

When the hearse glides quiet
as a stealth missile into the cemetery
Chickie hides behind the willow tree.

Widows do not want to see the gravedigger.

But the gravedigger wants to see them:
factory women in cheap dresses and black high heels
that stab his well-groomed grass, their faces stunned
and bloodless with the swift shock
of amputation.


Copyright 2006 by Ellen LaFleche

This poem won first prize in the 2006 Natchez Poetry Contest (PDF) from Copiah-Lincoln Community College.


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October in Raymond, Maine
by Jean M. Hendrickson

I love October in Raymond, Maine,
the capricious catch of its
sweet-sad scent floats
through cool, damp days.

I love the scintillating susurration
of tires on wet streets,
the sharp-edged sound
pulled along behind cars.

I love the wispy strands of fog
as they sidle between houses
arranged like jack-o'-lanterns
along the lanes.

I love the crisp, clean crackle
of leaves
crunching
under children's dancing feet.

I love the Grange Hall,
its windows, empty eyes,
waiting for meetings
that will never convene,
decades of square dances
echoing down the stairs and
spilling out its splintered door.

I love half-grown kittens
stalking an abandoned shoe
in the musty milkweed,
          cat-eyes glowing,
          seal-sleek fur,
sinuous muscles smooth as
the Egyptian cat-god, Bast.

I love red-cheeked children,
skipping home from school
in the twilight,
breath visible in the air,
scraping their shoes
in the mud-room,
pulling off mittens
with their teeth
and plucking an apple
from the bushel basket
before pushing through the door,
and blinking into the kitchen,
bursting with stories of their day.

I love secret lovers
huddled in hallowed shadows,
pledging the impossible,
promising forever,
believing their promises.

I love russet fields
tented with teepees of corn,
and studded with yellow pumpkins
that wallow like plump Pilgrims.

I love tended cemeteries,
smug in their symmetry,
and, the graveyard, weed-grown,
its tombstones
like cracked teeth.

I love October's somnolence,
shimmering with memories
radiant with life,
precursor of death,
retelling the tale of
Demeter and Persephone...
decadent with the scent
of dying roses, dead leaves...
old chrysanthemums.


Copyright 2006 by Jean M. Hendrickson

This poem won second place in the Christine Sparks Award at the Christopher Newport University 45th Annual Writers' Conference.


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The ability to read, write, and understand one's native language is the basis for all other education. Literacy is the key that opens the door to economic prospects, good health, political awareness and participation, and cultural opportunity. It is a weapon against poverty and gender inequality. But five years after the Framework for Action was signed, UNESCO reports that literacy is "one of the most neglected of the six goals adopted in 2000..."

UNESCO reports there are many explanations for why this has occurred, including the almost universal but "unfounded" belief by governments that "primary education is more cost effective than youth and adult literacy..." ProLiteracy's position is that this emphasis is misplaced as there is no consideration given to those adults who will never access the primary education system or who passed through it without gaining the necessary literacy skills. In addition, research and experience show that a child of parents who have low literacy skills is much more likely to become a low-literate adult than a child whose parents have well-developed literacy skills or who are enrolled in a literacy training program. Clearly, a more comprehensive approach to literacy for people of all ages is necessary.

While the majority of the world's illiterate adults live in developing countries, there are significant numbers of older teens and adults living in industrialized nations whose abilities to read, write, and perform basic mathematical computations fall far short of what they need to reach their full potential in today's technologically focused living and work environments.