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Award-Winning Poems: Spring 2009
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Welcome to our Spring 2009 selection of award-winning poems. These quarterly specials are included with your free Winning Writers Newsletter subscription. We'll release our next regular newsletter on March 15.
Lost one of our newsletters? Formatting appears odd? Not to worry. All our recent newsletters are posted online at http://www.winningwriters.com/news
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FEATURED SPONSOR'S MESSAGE
Thousands of writers use FanStory.com for:
- Helpful Feedback - Detailed feedback for every poem, short story and book chapter that you write.
- Writing Contests - Over 50 new contests are now opened every month! Participate for cash prizes.
- Rankings - See how you compare to other writers. Online statistics will show you how you are doing.
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Upcoming Contest Deadlines
Acrostic Poetry
Write an acrostic poem, where the first letter of each line spells out a word. View an example in the announcement. $100 Prize to the winner.
Deadline: Tomorrow! - March 2
Faith Non-Fiction
The theme for this non-fiction contest is "faith". We are looking for personal essays, memoirs, and works of literary nonfiction that in some way pertain to the theme. It can be spiritual, political, or funny. Creative approaches welcomed. $100 prize!
Deadline: March 10
Haiku Poetry
For this contest you are challenged to write a Haiku poem. Haiku is a form of poetry that only uses three lines. Can you paint a mental image using only three lines? $100 Prize to the winner of this poetry contest.
Deadline: March 19
Cinquain Poetry
Write a "Cinquain" poem for this contest. A cinquain poem is a poem that follows a specific format. $100 prize to the winner. Read the announcement for a sample poem.
Deadline: March 31
These are only a few of our contests. View our full listing here.
FanStory is one of the Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers" (2005-2008). Writer's Digest says, "Founded in 2000, this site presents free contests and peer-to-peer reviews. One fairly unique feature offered by the site is the ability to create your own contest and challenge other writers." Find out more.
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RECENT PUBLICATION CREDITS FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Ruth Matlow Asher's poems "Elephant of Japan" and "If I Could Kiss the Barn" appeared in Writer's Bloc, the literary journal of Texas A&M Kingsville. These are her first published poems. She kindly shares the latter poem with us below.
Nicole Nicholson's poem "Cremation" was published in Shoots and Vines Zine. Her poem "Shattered Mirror" appeared on the Young American Poets website in January. In addition, the Orlando Artist's Collective Zine published her poem "The Alternative".
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New feature: All our contests now permit you to submit your entry as a file from your computer. This better preserves the formatting of your entry.
Closing This Month
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest
Postmark Deadline: March 31
Now in its 17th year. Prizes of $2,000, $1,000, $500 and $250 will be awarded, plus five High Distinction awards of $200 each and six Most Highly Commended Awards of $100 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 online publication rights. $15 entry fee. Submit online or by mail. This contest is sponsored by Tom Howard Books and assisted by Winning Writers. Judges: John H. Reid and Dee C. Konrad. See the complete guidelines and past winners.
Closing Next Month
Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest - No Fee
Online Submission Deadline: April 1
Winning Writers invites you to enter the eighth annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, called "famous" by Writer's Digest. Fifteen cash prizes totaling $3,336.40 will be awarded, including a top prize of $1,359. There is no fee to enter. Judge: Jendi Reiter. See the complete guidelines and past winners.
War Poetry Contest
Postmark Deadline: May 31
We seek 1-3 original, unpublished poems on the theme of war for our eighth annual contest, up to 500 lines in total. We will award $5,000, including a top prize of $2,000. Submit online or by mail. The entry fee is $15. Judge: Jendi Reiter. See the complete guidelines and past winners.
Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse
Postmark Deadline: June 30
Now in its sixth year, this contest seeks poetry in traditional verse forms such as sonnets and free verse. Both published and unpublished poems are welcome. Prizes of $2,000, $1,000, $500 and $250 will be awarded, plus five High Distinction awards of $200 each and six Most Highly Commended Awards of $100 each. The entry fee is $7 for every 25 lines you submit. Submit online or by mail. Early submission encouraged. This contest is sponsored by Tom Howard Books and assisted by Winning Writers. Judges: John H. Reid and Dee C. Konrad. See the complete guidelines and past winners.
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest
Postmark Deadline: September 30
Now in its seventh year, this contest seeks poems in any style, theme or genre. Both published and unpublished poems are welcome. Prizes of $2,000, $1,000, $500 and $250 will be awarded, plus five High Distinction awards of $200 each and six Most Highly Commended Awards of $100 each. The entry fee is $7 for every 25 lines you submit. Submit online or by mail. Early submission encouraged. This contest is sponsored by Tom Howard Books and assisted by Winning Writers. Judges: John H. Reid and Dee C. Konrad. See the complete guidelines and past winners.
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POEM
by Lucy Ives
Winner of the 2008 Slope Editions Annual Book Prize
Postmark Deadline: March 15
Slope Editions, an independent press that welcomes surreal and experimental work, offers this $1,000 prize for poetry manuscripts by US authors. Ives' collection Anamnesis won the 2008 award. In this stream-of-consciousness poem, the speaker seeks to outrun the sensations and thoughts that keep her from experiencing the freedom of pure awareness, yet her lyrical language renews the allure of the experiences that keep her (and the reader) from focusing.
"MEMORY BELIEVES BEFORE KNOWING REMEMBERS"
by Shelby Stephenson
Winner of the 2008 Bellday Poetry Prize
Postmark Deadline: March 16
This open poetry manuscript prize offers $2,000 and publication by Bellday Books, a small press that specializes in contemporary American experimental poetry. In this selection from Stephenson's prizewinning Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl, scenes from the backbreaking daily routine of a slave family are interwoven with glimpses of the dreams and rivalries of their descendants.
AT THE EDGE OF A DEEP, DARK WOOD, RE-PURPOSED DOLPHIN SPEAKS
by Marc McKee
Winner of the 2008 Diagram Chapbook Contest
Postmark Deadline: March 27
Quirky multimedia journal offers $1,000 for a poetry or prose chapbook manuscript (all genres compete together). McKee's What Apocalypse? won the 2008 prize. In this poem, whose associative leaps imitate the dizzying pace of technological change, one of science's more bizarre creations gives voice to the absurdity and poignancy of our efforts to bring the world under rational control.
We are gathering a growing library of award-winning poems in Poetry Contest Insider, over 125 to date. Enjoy a wide range of today's best work. Sign up for a free trial.
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2004 WAR POETRY CONTEST—FINALIST
ON PELION BEACH
by Diane Cockburn
When I see the chapel with no people,
its walls cracked wide with warping
like a shout at the moment of death
when the spirit left the body,
mildewed icons on the salty walls
little lamp still burning, tended
by someone who remembers
but is not remembered.
I am thinking of the older place, the older time,
a temple to Poseidon, where the great
dragging sea sucked and forced its will
as it boiled round ankles.
How the people worshipped as they scrambled
up the beach to honour you,
to paint fantastic creatures on your pillars
and entwine your altar with seaweed.
I see an empty beach, broken by the sea,
concrete posts at crazy angles
where the war crashed in,
no beauty, just grey foam
and tiny sponges lying in the crevices
left by the water in homage
to the men who scrambled up the beach
in heavy boots and who worshipped
clean well loaded guns to save them
from the sucking of the water
and the terrible roar of their spirits
as they left their bodies.
I am watching a crab move sideways,
waving its imperfect claws as it sidles
over rocks to find a cool corner,
dragging one broken leg but knowing
where it wants to be at this moment,
darkness its compass, shadow its life,
clicking as it moves like an empty egg
rolling lightly across a hill on Easter morning.
I'm thinking of the sponges feeding slowly
on the soldiers' bodies as they lay and lapped
the shore. Why they never built tavernas
here and why the lamp is still lit
and why the temple ruins and concrete posts lie entwined
and how the news was taken by boy messengers
like little broken crabs with shattered legs
again and again as each tide
came in and in and in.
Poseidon! You did not rise up.
God! You curled yourself
like smoke in a sanctuary lamp.
Nervously I stand and watch the sea
as if it will sparkle an S.O.S. to save
them all. Only the whistle of the wind
teasing open the chapel cracks,
only Poseidon's whisper to the ghosts
still worshipping at his temple.
The seaweed spilling over the stones
Red, brown, green, blue, black.
Copyright 2004 Diane Cockburn
This poem was a finalist in the 2004 War Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers. See the judge's comments on the winning poems from this contest.
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SPONSORS' MESSAGES
The Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference
Next conferences: April 17-20; May 15-18
The Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference provides the faculty, connections, and method necessary to set poets with a completed manuscript or manuscript-in-process on a path towards publication. Includes workshops, consultations with press editors, evening poetry readings, editorial panel Q&A, group critique of selected poems, and an after-conference strategy session.
The cost of the conference is $995 and includes tuition, pre-conference materials, lodging and meals. The April and May conferences will be held at the Round House in Colrain, Massachusetts. Truly magical both inside and out, the Round House is a four-story building of 14 sides with over a dozen decks, sparkled by stained glass windows and a domed center with a cupola on top. Attendance is limited. For an application and complete guidelines, please visit www.colrainpoetry.com. You may also call 978-897-0054, email conferences@colrainpoetry.com or write to Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference, Concord Poetry Center, 40 Stow Street, Concord, MA 01742-2418.
Success Stories from Our Attendees
- Jamie Ross, whose book Bringing in the Name has won the 2008 Four Way Books Intro Prize, attended Colrain with the manuscript in November 2006.
"To say you (Joan) and Fred and the Colrain conference were formative in this whole deal would be an understatement! I met Martha there, too—though you never could have told me at the time that I'd even be sending the collection to Four Way."
- Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno, a June 2007 attendee, has won the Beatrice Hawley Prize from Alice James Books and her book Slamming Open the Door will be published in April 2009.
"There is no question in my mind that had I not attended the Colrain Manuscript Conference and received the kind of encouragement and judicious advice that I did there, I would not have won the Beatrice Hawley Award—would not have revised my manuscript the way I did, or even had the confidence to send it out."
- Kristin Bock, a first conference attendee (March 2006), will have her manuscript from the conference, Cloisters, published by Tupelo Press in 2008.
"I'm so grateful to the Colrain conference! What struck me most about the Colrain experience was the kindness and generosity of the attendees, the workshop leaders, and the editors. Everyone worked hard, taking the time to provide thoughtful and detailed feedback on each other's work. The editors gave individual attention to each and every poet, answering all of our burning questions about our manuscripts and the often cryptic world of publishing. A heartfelt thanks to all!!"
- Lauren Rusk, also a first conference attendee, signed a book contract with Plain View Press for publication of her manuscript from the conference, Pictures in the Firestorm.
"The most useful parts of the conference for me were doing the thought-provoking and instructive pre-conference assignments, hearing the editors speak on the panel about their motivations and daily realities, and receiving your insightful feedback on the parts of my manuscript we discussed in the workshop. Our time together remains vividly in my mind."
- Diana Adams, another first conference attendee, had her manuscript, Cave Vitae, accepted for publication by Plain View Press.
"At the conference I learned to think of a book of poems as a larger poem, and using Fred Marchant's and Jeffrey Levine's experienced advice was able to completely reconstruct my book, giving it a new life, synchonized and more coherent."
- Allegra Wong, second conference attendee (August 2006), has had her manuscript, A Pure Bead, solicited for publication by conference editor, Joan Houlihan (Del Sol Press). A Pure Bead was published in 2007.
"My consultation with Dennis Maloney, White Pine Press, was helpful in several specific ways. Poets Joan Houlihan, Teresa Cader, and Fred Marchant are dedicated and dynamic workshop leaders. The workshops showed us what an editor is seeking. I know so much more about the publishing world."
- Anne Shaw, first conference attendee (March 2006), has had her manuscript, Undertow, selected as winner of the 2007 Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize, to be published by Persea Books in December 2007.
"I wanted to share my big news with both of you: I won the Persea Books contest! My ms Undertow is finally going to be published... I can't believe it. I am still in shock. I also want to thank both of you for the Colrain conference. I think it helped a lot in terms of making contacts, and getting me to think about the order of the book. When I went home I re-ordered and re-titled the ms, and I think that helped. The meeting with Martha Rhodes was very, very helpful too. At any rate, thank you both."
- Suellen Wedmore, third conference attendee (November 2006), has won the Grayson Books Chapbook Contest.
"I just wanted to thank you again for the support and advice you offered at the Colrain Poetry Manuscript workshop. One thing I learned/deduced while I was there was that my manuscript was perhaps really two chapbooks—so I began sending out chapbooks instead of a full manuscript. And just last night I learned that I won the Grayson Press Chapbook prize with a book built around my war poems. Chalk one up for Colrain! And thanks again!"
- Charles Boyer, another first conference attendee, had his manuscript The Mockingbird Puzzle accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press.
"I've had some good news. I had a chapbook accepted at Finishing Line Press, a Kentucky literary press. It should be coming out sometime in June. Thanks to all of you for your advice and encouragement with the poems!"
Click for more Colrain Publication News
 Last Call!
Prairie Schooner Book Prizes in Poetry and Short Fiction: $3,000 and Publication
Postmark Deadline: March 16
Enter the Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series contest—now in its seventh year! Winners of the annual competition for a book of short fiction and a book of poetry receive $3,000 and publication by the University of Nebraska Press. A runner-up in each category receives $1,000. Competition is open to new and established writers. Mail manuscripts with $25 entry fee to:
Prairie Schooner Prize Series in [specify Poetry or Short Fiction]
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
201 Andrews Hall
P.O. Box 880334
Lincoln, NE 68588-0334
Complete guidelines and information are always available at: prairieschooner.unl.edu. Click on the "Prairie Schooner Book Prizes" link. And be sure to visit our blog for updates: www.prairieschooner.typepad.com.
Please enjoy this story excerpt from Our Lady of the Artichokes and Other Portuguese-American Stories by Katherine Vaz, a winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Short Fiction:
Excerpt from Taking a Stitch in a Dead Man's Arm
by Katherine Vaz
...I was in love with someone who was leaving me his own lessons in being unafraid. James was a tall Filipino boy in my sophomore class who wore three-piece business suits on Free Dress Day and smoked cigars with the Asian kids in the parking lot, and once when Sonny Barger and some Hells Angels rode through, as they did now and then, James threw a flaming butt end at one of them and got flipped off but not hurt. I understood that the motorcyclist admired James for a moment, and it thrilled me, to watch how someone could go straight toward points of fear.
Violet Wong, my best friend, would get onto the bus with me at the San Damiano stop, and she'd take out the green eye shadow she'd stolen from her mother. We'd put it on with our fingers, and my lashes were so long that they stroked green dust onto the inside of my glasses. She wanted to help me be beautiful for James. I had written a speech for him, and he won the regional Lions Club contest with it and would go on to the state finals. He had not told me that he won; one of his friends did, and when I went to him, he said, "I was going to tell you, Isabel." I wanted him to bury his face in my hair and wet my scalp with his mouth, to breathe my name back to me inside my ear.
How could I explain any of this to my father—the odd, awful timing of my love? I'm not scared of anything, Papa. That was all I could manage. "That's good!" he whispered. "I don't want you taking a stitch in my arm."
"No, I won't, Papa," I said, and we laughed.
It was a joke between us. When he was a boy on the island of São Miguel in the Azores, he suffered from a fear of the dark. His mother had explained to him that the cure for that in her family, she was very sorry to say, was taking a stitch in a dead man's arm. The cure was horrible, but its strength lasted forever. "Forever" had sounded wonderful to my father, so he said yes, next time there was a dead man in the town of Sete Cidades, he would take a stitch in his arm. Nothing could be worse than the monsters roving in his bedroom at night.
My father was five years old. His mother stood outside the chapel, crying into a lace handkerchief. Since fear of the dark is fear of aloneness, my father had to go by himself to the dead man in his casket. The thread in the needle was white. Papa thought the man looked like marzipan, especially where a drip of pink paint stood out on his ear. He had died from falling off a stone wall, where he had been entwining hydrangeas through the gaps. Everyone agreed that the world fought back when you tried to make it beautiful.
My father pulled up the young dead man's cuff and touched a waxy arm. His name was Fernando, and his mustache was trimmed neatly for the first time ever. My father stuck the needle into the wrist and pushed until it dipped through flesh and emerged from under the skin, and then he thought, All right, that's enough. Two drops of fluid seeped at the prick marks. My father's stomach shrank smaller than a fist. He left the thread in the man's skin and drew his sleeve down and ran back to his mother.
It was easy to give up fear of darkness rather than repeat such a cure. Maybe it was some Old World remnant, sticking a man with a needle to make certain that he was not merely in a coma. At one funeral in Sete Cidades, a man had bolted upright in his coffin while being borne to the cemetery and roared, "How will I breathe underground?" Maybe the idea was to stitch the body to earth, so that it would not cling with its worms to the spirit trying to fly to heaven...
Last Call!
 Two Competitions Now Open at Fish Publishing
The Fish One-Page Prize (Flash Fiction)
Entries must be received by March 20
Judge: Arthur Mathews, co-writer of the 'Father Ted' series
The best ten stories will be published in the 2009 Fish Anthology in July
First prize is 1,000 euros
50 euros each for the nine runners-up
There is a limit of 300 words
Results announced April 30
Enter online for 12 euros per story. Critique of story (optional) 25 euros
Postal entry costs 15 euros each, and 28 euros for a critique. Send to Fish One-Page Prize, Durrus, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland.
2009 Fish Poetry Prize
Entries must be received by March 30
Judge: Peter Fallon, poet and poetry publisher with Gallery Press, Ireland's leading publisher of poetry
The best five poems will be published in the 2009 Fish Anthology
First Prize is 500 euros
100 euros each for the four runners-up
There is a limit of 200 words
Results announced April 30
Enter online for 12 euros
Postal entry costs 15 euros. Send to Fish Poetry Prize, Durrus, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland.
The following details pertain to both competitions:
- No entry form is needed
- You can enter as many times as you wish
- Open to writers of any nationality writing in English
- There is no restriction on theme or style
- All entries must not have been published previously
- Copyright returns to the author one year after publication of the Anthology. Copyright of the Anthology remains with Fish
- Notification of receipt of entry will normally be by email
- The verdict of the judge is final
- Poems or One-Page stories cannot be altered or changed once they have been entered
- Entry is taken as acceptance of these conditions.
Closing Next Month
 Enter the Tiferet Writing Awards—Prizes Doubled to $500 Each
Postmark Deadline: April 1
TIFERET: A Journal of Spiritual Literature offers awards of $500 each (doubled from $250) for Poetry and Prose. We publish writing from a variety of spiritual and religious traditions.
Our mission is to help reveal spirit through the written word and to promote peace within the individual and the world.
$15 entry for one story or essay (Prose) up to 25 pages or 6 poems (Poetry).
To enter, please mail your submission and check payable to TIFERET to 211 Dryden Road, Bernardsville, NJ 07924. Or you may submit your entry online. Specify a genre of "Contest-Poetry", "Contest-Nonfiction", or "Contest-Fiction", then pay the entry fee using PayPal.
Winners will be announced Summer 2009.
Poetry Judge
Elisabeth Murawski
Prose Judges
Nonfiction: Peter Selgin
Fiction: Ilan Stavans
 Perigee Named Top 50 Literary Magazine, Accepting Submissions!
Perigee has just been named one of the top 50 literary magazines by Web Del Sol, alongside the Paris Review and other leading publications. Along with submissions related to our upcoming John Updike themed issue, we are now accepting general submissions in poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction.
Writers are also invited to participate in Perigee's 2009 Fiction Contest, which closes on April 30. This year's guest judge is James Brown, author of The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir (HarperCollins), which was chosen for Best Books of the Year 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, and The Independent in the UK. His work has appeared in GQ, The New York Times Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Brown has written several novels including Lucky Town and Final Performance. Subscriptions to Perigee are offered free-of-charge, and work can be submitted directly through our award-winning web site.
Contributing editor Thomas E. Kennedy—author of 20 books including The Copenhagen Quartet, and winner of the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart, Gulf Coast, and European prizes—recently published a retrospective on his developing friendship with John Updike:
"I had met him once before, at a conference in the Netherlands, but doubted that he would remember me. I sidled up, cradling my glass of red wine close to my chest to avoid mishaps, in the hope of getting close enough to make my face visible to this great writer whose work had been a model of style for me since I was a teenager. As I penetrated the second tier of the ring of people around him, I became dazzled by the man's aura—his stature, his bearing, his powerful smile, his great mane of silver hair.
"I heard him say, in response to some comment, with a nonchalance that belied the profundity of his words, 'Of course the easiest thing in the world is not to read a book.'
"Instantly I recognized the truth of the statement; further I recognized that I knew this to be true but would not have had the awareness to have known that I knew it without Updike's having said it. In the grip of this complex of truth and submerged awareness and his dazzling aura, the hand that clutched my glass of red wine spasmed, and I jostled the wine all over my tie and jacket lapels."
To read more, submit, or subscribe for free, visit www.perigee-art.com.
Artwork by Derek McCrea
Closing Next Month
Announcing the Fifth Annual Skysaje Enterprises Poetry Contest
Postmark Deadline: April 30
This year we're offering a $250 first prize and three $25 honorable mentions. The judges are:
- Award-winning poet Ellaraine Lockie (winner of our 2008 contest)
- M.J. Iuppa, legendary Rochester, NY-based poet and professor at St. John Fisher College
- Rick Petrie, co-host of the long running Pure Kona Poetry series
Guidelines for entry into the 2009 contest:
- All entries must be typed in the 14-point font size
- Submit up to five (5) poems per entry
- Title of poem and author contact info must appear on each page submitted
- A $15.00 non-refundable entry fee must accompany all submissions
Make check or money orders payable to Larry Berger and mail to:
Skysaje Enterprises
50 Amesbury Road
Rochester, NY 14623
Please enjoy "Narrowing the Line", which received an honorable mention in our 2008 contest:
Narrowing the Line
by Kate Eisenberg
1930 and hunger ruled.
It was wrong I know,
but it was there and our children were starving.
We were walking
The back roads of rural Mississippi
carrying everything we owned,
looking to work the fields.
Thin but strong
All of us.
My husband took off his hat,
went to the back door and asked about work.
Mean as a caged tiger,
A woman came at him broom swinging.
We all hightailed it back to the road.
As we gathered our wits a large cock strutted our way.
I looked up to God and asked his forgiveness.
With that I grabbed it and I wrung its neck.
Safe on another stretch of highway we built a fire.
Best darn chicken I ever did eat.
Every one of us scraped the bones.
Poverty has a way of narrowing the line between predator and prey.
Copyright 2008 Kate Eisenberg. Reprinted by permission.
Artists Embassy International Poetry Contest - Three Grand Prize Winning Poems to be Danced and Filmed
Postmark Deadline: May 15
- 3 Grand Prizes will receive $100 each plus their poems will be danced and filmed. Each Grand Prize winner will be invited onstage for photo ops with the dancers and a bow in the limelight.
- 6 First Prizes will receive $50 each
- 12 Second Prizes will receive $25 each
- 25 Third Prizes will receive $10 each
All prize winners will receive a prize certificate suitable for framing, a ticket to the Dancing Poetry Festival 2009, and be invited to read their prizewinning poem at the Festival. The top three poems chosen as Grand Prizes will be choreographed, costumed and recorded live in an on-stage performance at the Festival to be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009, Noon-4pm, at San Francisco's Florence Gould Theater in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Art Museum. See pictures from our 2008 Festival.
Last year's Grand Prize winners included Lucille Lang Day, Janice P. Egry and Allison Joseph. Recent topics of winning poems have touched on the travels of Matisse, a Picasso painting, falling leaves, love, Iraq, China, history, dance, current events, reverie, socially significant situations and even some humor sprinkled here and there. Please don't feel constrained to write a poem about dancing.
The entry fee is $5 per poem or $10 for 3 poems. Each poem may be up to 40 lines long. Send two copies of each poem. One copy should be anonymous (just title and poem), the other should have your name, address, phone, email address and where you heard about this contest (e.g. Winning Writers Newsletter). There is no limit on the number of entries.
When the judges evaluate entries, they look for innovative perspectives on ordinary or unusual subjects as well as excellence of craft. Your entry should be suitable for a general audience since our following is comprised of people of all ages and ethnicities. English translations must be included with non-English poems.
Our judges consist of poets, dancers, musicians and visual artists of various media, all members of Artists Embassy International. Judging is done with the anonymous copies of the poems. Artists Embassy International is a non-profit, volunteer, arts and education organization whose goal is to further intercultural understanding through the arts.
Three poets, the Grand Prize winners, will be rewarded with seeing their poems danced by Natica Angilly's Poetic Dance Theater Company, a well-known dance troupe that has performed around the world and throughout America. This company is dedicated exclusively to creating new avenues by combining poetry, dance and music together for presentation and the expansion of poetry with dance in the life of our culture.
To enter the contest, please visit our website at www.dancingpoetry.com or submit to AEI Contest Chair W, Judy Cheung, 704 Brigham Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Questions? Please email Ms. Cheung at jhcheung@comcast.net.
 2009 R.A.I.L. Awards - Call for Submissions
Postmark Deadline: May 31
The R.A.I.L. Awards are an annual literary competition dedicated to
Recognizing Advancement & Innovation in Literature. Each year we honor the best new voices in Poetry, Fiction, and Playwriting with cash prizes totaling $750:
R.A.I.L. Excellence in Poetry Award ($200 prize)
Best Poem (single) ($25 prize)
Best Poetry Collection ($25 prize)
R.A.I.L. Excellence in Fiction Award ($200 prize)
Best Novel Award ($25 prize)
Best Short Fiction Award ($25 prize)
R.A.I.L. Excellence in Playwriting Award ($200 prize)
Best One-Act Play ($25 prize)
Best Full Length Play ($25 prize)
The 2009 R.A.I.L. Lifetime Achievement Award is going to: William Kennedy
The 2009 R.A.I.L. In Honorarium Award is going to: Clarence Cooper Jr. (1934-1978)
The Awards are open to all English-language poets, fiction writers, and playwrights. We accept works of all lengths, styles and genres.
We started the Awards back in 2005 as a rather informal affair—a group of friends in San Francisco who liked to get together and discuss their favorite new writers and poets. Although we've grown in scope and ambition, we are still a close-knit group of literature lovers who strive to run a fair and transparent competition for all writers—new, emerging, established or otherwise.
Our credo is simple: you will ALWAYS keep all rights to your work, we will ALWAYS give every entry complete, thorough readings, and we will NEVER try to sell you anything.
Submit your work online today with our paperless entry system. We look forward to reading your work!
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If I Could Kiss the Barn
by Ruth Matlow Asher
If I could kiss the barn I'd feel the weathered plywood that sucked that red paint rough against my lips and inside I'd kiss the spot where Jiggs is on the stall written in red nail polish and still smelling of him and inside the stall the sled the labs pulled us on their crimson harnesses stark against the snow
If I could I'd kiss the saplings now twenty feet tall poplars planted near the septic field what did we know their branches in despair their willingness to give up leaves and grow anew so clean and sweet these trees of shelter
If I could kiss the fence that almost held the horses almost held the cattle too it would kiss me back for watching caring caressing times together through summer's heat winter's bite sunset's embrace
If I could kiss the land I'd hear its heartbeat slow and steady unwavering rocky hard in places softly yielding in flower beds full of life vegetable garden with memories of pumpkin and eggplant in colors deeper richer than any paint
If I could kiss the woodstove I'd feel the necessary message that old wood's transformed to living fire warming us lighting the darkness of our lives a hearth for sharing tea when the sun withdraws its company
Wood and fire carbon char ashes and smoke acrid smoke
Copyright 2008 by Ruth Matlow Asher
This poem appeared in Writer's Bloc, the literary journal of Texas A&M Kingsville.
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2009 Poet's Market
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Advertise to 25,000 Poets and Writers
Promote your contests, websites, events and publications in this newsletter. Reach over 25,000 poets and writers for $65. Ads may contain up to 250 words, a headline and a graphic image. Find out more and make your reservation here:
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"We can tell by our data readings that Winning Writers is an economical and efficient way to advertise both the Anderbo Poetry Prize and The RRofihe Trophy/Open City Short Story Contest."
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"I'm very pleased with the variety of responses we've received, and I very much appreciate the
care you took in adding links and generally improving the copy I sent you."
Mark Schorr, Executive Director, The Robert Frost Foundation
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Basic Facts about Literacy
- Literacy is the ability to read, write, compute, and use technology at a level that enables an individual to reach his or her full potential as a parent, employee, and community member.
- There are 774 million adults around the world who are illiterate in their native languages.
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- In the U.S., 30 million people over age 16—14 percent of the country's adult population—don't read well enough to understand a newspaper story written at the eighth grade level or fill out a job application.
- The United States ranks fifth on adult literacy skills when compared to other industrialized nations.
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2006 WERGLE FLOMP HUMOR POETRY CONTEST—FINALIST
LOVE IS NOT ALL
by Holly Martin
Love is not all; It is not booze or pain
Nor a Toshiba 27" television box
For which to tape and tape again
When torn down by the fox
At the campground where you hide
Because your old man kicked you out
Of the trailer where you used to reside.
Love cannot stifle the doubt
When the man that you loved swore
That you were the only one in his life
And then leaves you for some younger whore
Even when you got out the kitchen knife.
Yet many women are making friends with chocolate
In the name of love when love goes wrong
Love makes you take your wedding ring and hock it;
Then spend the money on a brand new thong.
It may well be that at happy hour,
Cursing about how I've lost my smokes
(Or having one too many whiskey sours)
I may sell your love for a couple of tokes
Or trade the memory of your kiss for jello shots
It could very well be; Why the hell not?
Copyright 2006 Holly Martin
Sent as a joke to Poetry.com, this poem was a finalist in the Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest sponsored by Winning Writers. See the judge's comments on winning poems from this contest.
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COMING IN OUR MARCH 15 NEWSLETTER
The Best Free Poetry Contests for March 16-April 30
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