Springtime Poetry
For our Springtime Poetry Contest we are looking for poems that somehow incorporate this time of year. Poems should be springtime oriented (such as new life or new beginnings). $100 prize!
Deadline: In 7 Days! - May 22

Short Love Poem
Write a short love poem with fifteen words or less. $100 Prize to the winner of this poetry contest.
Deadline: In 8 Days! - May 23

Horror or Thriller Story
Put your readers on edge or terrorize them for this horror writing contest. $100 prize to the winner.
Deadline: May 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.

We are pleased to report that the largest vanity contest, Poetry.com, has gone out of business. This deceptive marketer operated under the following names: Poets.com, the National Library of Poetry, the International Library of Poetry, the International Society of Poets, Watermark Press, and the International Poetry Hall of Fame. It also appears to be affiliated with Noble House. Lulu.com, a print-on-demand publisher, acquired the www.poetry.com web address in April 2009. We have high hopes that Lulu will not engage in the same bad practices as Watermark Media and its affiliates.

Other vanity contests remain in existence, of course, so our "famous" Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest will continue to bend satire, parody and nonsense to the cause of justice.

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Last Call!
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We seek 1-3 original, unpublished poems on the theme of war for our eighth annual contest, up to 500 lines in total.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.

Closing Next Month
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 Both published and unpublished poems are welcome.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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RECENT HONORS FOR OUR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS
Congratulations to Diana Woodcock. Two of her poetry chapbooks have been accepted for publication by presses she discovered in this newsletter. In its annual contest, Toadlily Press chose Travels of a GwaiLo as one of four chapbooks to be published in 2009 as the sixth in its Quartet Chapbook series. Submissions for this $100 prize are accepted during January each year. Mandala, dedicated to the Tibetan people's ongoing struggle for justice, is forthcoming in 2009 as part of Foothills Publishing's Poets on Peace series. She writes, "Thank you, Winning Writers Newsletter editors, for making these two publications—my first chapbook publications—possible!"

Congratulations to Maryann Jennings and Ellen LaFleche, who won first and second prize, respectively, in the inaugural Paradise Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Northampton Arts Council. This contest for residents of Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties in Massachusetts offered prizes up to $75 for poems on the theme of "Joy". Northampton Poet Laureate Lesléa Newman was the judge. (Northampton is the hometown of Winning Writers.)

Congratulations to Ash Krafton. Her fantasy novel Bleeding Hearts was a finalist in this year's Pikes Peak Writers competition. The manuscript also earned third place in the recent Fort Bend Writers Guild (now the Houston Writers Guild) competition; Ms. Krafton's latest novel, Takin' It Back, placed in the same contest and tied for first place. In addition to cash prizes, both contests offer contestants the opportunity to receive feedback on their manuscripts.

Congratulations to James Tyner. His chapbook The Ghetto Exorcist won the 2008 Coal Hill Review Chapbook Competition. This contest offers $250 plus publication of the winning entry as a special electronic chapbook in a stand-alone issue of Coal Hill Review, the online literary journal of Autumn House Press. The most recent deadline was December 31. Read Mr. Tyner's winning poems here. Mr. Tyner was a finalist in our 2008 War Poetry Contest.

RECENT HONORS FOR POETRY CONTEST INSIDER SUBSCRIBERS
Congratulations to Susan Lewis. Her poetry chapbook Commodity Fetishism won the 2009 Cervena Barva Poetry Chapbook Prize. This well-regarded small press with connections to the Cambridge, Massachusetts poetry scene offers prizes of $100 apiece for poetry and fiction chapbooks. The most recent submission period was November 1-January 31. Read poems from Commodity Fetishism at Verse Daily and the online journal Snow Monkey.

Congratulations to Dion Farquhar. Her poetry manuscript Feet First was one of two runners-up for the 2009 Sinclair Poetry Prize and will be published by Evening Street Press. The most recent deadline for this $1,000 award was December 1. She kindly shares a poem from this collection below.

Congratulations to Chloe Ledbetter Brown. Her piece "The Mahogany Chest of Drawers" won first prize for prose in the 2009 Art Is Ageless contest, sponsored by the Texas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. This contest recognizes art and literature produced by residents of TAHSA member homes who are aged 65+. The most recent deadline was January 31.

Congratulations to Ned Condini. He is the editor and translator of An Anthology of Modern Italian Poetry, recently published by the Modern Language Association. The 38 poets included in this anthology, some of whose poems are translated here for the first time, represent a wide diversity of styles and movements: symbolists (Gabriele D'Annunzio), free-verse satirists (Gian Pietro Lucini), hermetic poets (Salvatore Quasimodo), feminist poets (Sibilla Aleramo), twilight poets (Sergio Corazzini), fragmentists (Camillo Sbarbaro), new lyricists (Eugenio Montale), neo-avant-gardists (Alfredo Giuliani), and neorealists (Pier Paolo Pasolini)—among many others. The Modern Language Association is a leading professional organization of humanities scholars.


RECENT PUBLICATION CREDITS FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Atar Hadari's translation of an excerpt from Hanoch Levin's epic poem "Lives of the Dead" was published in the May 2009 issue of Poetry.

Brian Donaghy's poem "Note to Van Helsing" was published by the webzine MicroHorror. This is his first publication.

Nadine Boulware's poem "Steppin'" was published in the anthology Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems from Ragged Sky Press. This book features work by 100 emerging and established contemporary poets, including Kim Addonizio, Billy Collins, Jorie Graham and Maxine Kumin. Nadine writes, "I wanted to tell you how impressed I am with Ragged Sky Press...the book is great. I am so happy I subscribe to your website, I would have never found this publisher."

Martin Steele's poem "Bring Back the Children" was published in Poetry Super Highway's annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issue, the week of April 20-26. He kindly shares it with us below. Other Winning Writers subscribers appearing in this issue include Ellen LaFleche ("The Book of Ruth: a prose poem") and Nicole Nicholson, who also shares her poem "Somewhere" below.


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TRY POETRY CONTEST INSIDER
If you enjoy using The Best Free Poetry Contests, consider upgrading to Poetry Contest Insider. The Best Free Poetry Contests profiles the 150 or so poetry contests that are free to enter. With your Poetry Contest Insider subscription, you'll get access to all of our 750+ poetry contest profiles, plus over 300 of the best prose contests. Contest rules, addresses and deadlines change constantly. We update Poetry Contest Insider nearly every day to stay on top of them. Search and sort contests by deadline, prize, fee, recommendation level and more. Access to Poetry Contest Insider is just $7.95 per quarter, with a free 10-day trial at the start. Cancel at any time.

Most contests charge entry fees. You can easily spend hundreds of dollars and many hours entering these contests each year. Don't waste your time or money. Out of hundreds of contests, there might only be two or three dozen that are especially appropriate for your work. We help you find them fast. Interviews and links to award-winning entries help you refine your craft. Learn more about Poetry Contest Insider.

Our customers say...

"...about a year ago I shifted my writing focus (novels, nonfiction) to poetry. I use your site exclusively to select contests. I've won, placed, and/or published 13 poems. The site is great. I can't imagine how much time it would take to search contests out and qualify them one at a time."
Lee Whipple, Florida

"Your website is invaluable: definitely the best around. I have benefited greatly from the database of contests. Thank you and keep up the fantastic work!... Last year I received first prize in both the Dorothy Prizes and the Room of One's Own poetry competition—both of which I learned of through your database."
Vicki Duke, Alberta, Canada

See more testimonials here, plus coverage of Winning Writers in Writer's Digest and The Writer, or start your trial now.

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THE BEST FREE POETRY CONTESTS
Deadlines: May 16-June 30

Here is a summary of upcoming free poetry contests. Click the contest names to be taken directly to their profiles (you may be asked to login on your first click of the day). You may also view the profiles by logging in to The Best Free Poetry Contests here and clicking the Find Free Contests link to search for contests by name.

Forgot your password? Need a password?
Please go to http://www.winningwriters.com/forgot_password.php
We will email your password to you within minutes.

Winning Writers gathers contest information from a wide variety of sources including publishers' press releases, online link directories, Poets & Writers Magazine, and e-newsletters such as TOTAL FundsforWriters, The Practicing Writer, and CRWROPPS. We encourage readers to explore these useful resources, and let us know about worthwhile contests we may have missed.

5/31: Bordighera Poetry Prize ++
Recommended free contest for manuscripts by Italian-American poets offers $1,000 each to the author and a commissioned translator who will translate the book into Italian. The poet must be a US citizen, but the translator may be an Italian native speaker from any country. The poet may translate his/her own work if bilingually qualified. Initial submission should be a 10-page sample from a manuscript of 48 pages maximum. See website for complete details.

5/31: Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation +++
Highly recommended free contest from Britain's prestigious Poetry Society offers 1,500 pounds for the best published poetry collection translated from a European language into English. Books must have been published in the two years prior to the deadline. For example, books published between June 1, 2007 and May 31, 2009 are eligible for the May 2009 contest. Send 3 copies of book (galleys acceptable) and cover letter. Offered in odd-numbered years only.

5/31: Rosine Offen Memorial Award +
Entries must be received by this date
Neutral free contest offers $200 for the best poem published in every issue of Free Lunch (usually publishes at least two issues per year). There is no separate application process. Follow general submission guidelines. Magazine does not read submissions June through August.

6/1: American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prizes ++
Recommended free contest offers $2,000 for English translations of modern poetry, fiction, drama or literary prose originally written after 1800 in Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish. $1,000 Leif & Inger Sjoberg Prize will also be awarded to an individual whose translations have not previously been published. Submissions should be 25 pages of poetry or 50 pages of prose, and previously unpublished.

6/1: Amy Awards +
Neutral free contest seeks lyric poems by women age 30 and under who are residents of Long Island or NY metropolitan region. Winners receive an honorarium and a reading with a distinguished poet in NYC. The Amy Award honors the memory of the poet Amy Rothholtz, author of Iced Tigers, who died at age 25. Formerly sponsored by Guild Hall of East Hampton, NY, the award was taken over by Poets & Writers Magazine in 2004.

6/1: Claudia Ann Seaman Poetry Award ++
Entries must be received by this date
Recommended free contest for unpublished poems by US high school students offers $500 and publication in the notable literary journal Hanging Loose. Send 1-2 poems, maximum 10 pages total. Mail or email entries accepted.

6/1: Harold Witt Awards +
Neutral free contest offers prizes of $100 and $50 for poems published in the past three issues of Blue Unicorn, a literary journal established in 1977. Follow their regular submission guidelines: 3-5 short poems, no simultaneous submissions. "Blue Unicorn wants well-crafted poetry of all kinds, in form or free verse, as well as translations. We shun the trite or inane, the soft-centered, the contrived poem. Shorter poems have more chance with us because of limited space."

6/1: Inglis House Poetry Contest +
Neutral free contest offers top prize of $50, smaller prizes, in each of two categories: poems about disability, or poems by disabled authors. Inglis House is a Philadelphia-based center for wheelchair-bound adults.

6/1: Samuel Taylor Coleridge Memorial Poetry Prize +
Entries must be received by this date
Neutral free contest offers prizes up to 300 pounds and web publication for a poem on an urban or rural theme. Send 1-3 poems, maximum 30 lines each. No simultaneous submissions. This contest is sponsored by a group of British patrons of the arts, including the 7th Marquess of Bath and the award-winning author Dame Margaret Drabble.

6/15: Towson University Prize for Literature ++
Recommended free contest offers $1,000 for published books of fiction, poetry, drama or imaginative nonfiction by Maryland residents (entries in all genres compete together). By nomination only. The work must have been published within the three years prior to the year of nomination or must be scheduled for publication within the year in which nominated.

6/19: Teachers & Writers Collaborative Fellowships +++
Entries must be received by this date
Highly recommended free contest offers two fellowships of $20,000 for emerging writers, aged 35 and under, who demonstrate a significant commitment to a writing career and financial need. Writers must live in the New York City area or be willing to relocate for the duration of the fellowship. Submit 3 copies of entry form plus a writing sample of 10-25 pages of poetry or prose. See website for application form and additional requirements.

6/24: Costa Book Awards +++
Entries must be received by this date; formerly June 25
Formerly known as the Whitbread Book Awards, this highly recommended free contest offers a top prize of 25,000 pounds, plus prizes of 5,000 pounds in each genre, for books first published in the UK or Ireland by authors who have lived in the UK or Ireland for at least six months of each of the preceding three years. Awards given in the genres of poetry, novel, first novel, biography, and children's literature. Books must have been published between November 1 of the previous year and October 31 of the current year. Must be submitted by publisher.


Login to The Best Free Poetry Contests now to view these and all our profiles of free contests. You can browse contests by deadline date, name, recommendation level and more.

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

All deadlines are postmark deadlines unless otherwise specified.


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SPONSORS' MESSAGES


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Last Call!
Snake Nation Press: Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry
Postmark Deadline: May 30 (extended from May 1)
Snake Nation Press sponsors the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry:

• $1,000 prize and publication
• $25 entry fee must accompany the manuscript
• 50-75 page manuscript; previously published poems eligible

Please mail your entry and fee to:

Snake Nation Press
Attn: Poetry Contest
2920 North Oak Street
Valdosta, GA 31602

Snake Nation Press: Serena McDonald Kennedy Award
Postmark Deadline: July 30
Snake Nation also sponsors the Serena McDonald Kennedy Award. Submit a novella of up to 50,000 words or a manuscript of short stories up to 200 pages long. Fiction and nonfiction accepted. Any well-written manuscript on any topic will be considered. Previously published works may be entered. An entry fee of $25 must accompany the submission. Winner receives $1,000 award and publication. Final judge: Janice Daugharty, a HarperCollins author and Writer-in-Residence at Valdosta State University.

Please mail your entry and fee to:

Snake Nation Press
Attn: Serena McDonald Kennedy Award
2920 North Oak Street
Valdosta, GA 31602

Snake Nation Press is proud to announce the winner and finalists of the 2009 Serena McDonald Kennedy Award for fiction, nonfiction, and novellas. The prize is named after Barbara Passmore's grandmother, who valued reading and education.

Winner
Wendy Marcus of Seattle, WA, for Pollygot

Finalists
Cecilia Pinto of Chicago, IL, for Imagine the Dog
Perry Glasser of Haverhill, MA, for Ballsy
Jean Braithwaite of Edinburg, TX, for Fat
Starkey Flythe of North Augusta, SC, for Driving With Hand Controls
Norton Girault of Norfolk, VA, for Dragon in the Box
Terry Marshall of Las Vegas, NV, for American Model
Hal Ackerman of Los Angeles, CA, for Long Women, Short Stories
Michael Schiavone of Gloucester, MA, for Skin
Eleanor Swanson of Lakewood, CO, for Fireflies
Wayne Harrison of Eugene, OR, for Wrench

Snake Nation Press provides an informative, non-threatening venue for writers to submit their work in the midst of an often chaotically diverse publishing world. Over the twenty-year history of the Press, the staff and volunteers have found great satisfaction in forging personalized editorial relationships with both emerging and established writers. The Snake is committed to keeping an honest and open dialogue with authors and to furthering the literary arts on a local and global scale. Many hours of volunteer labor and the electronic resources of the Web have allowed a small press to help present many new literary voices to the world-wide community.

The editors of Snake Nation Press look for manuscripts that concretely render the writer's actual and imaginative experiences. We publish writing that both newly interprets life in its everyday reality and that opens the reader's eyes to internal landscapes that have not yet been envisioned. We believe that good writing fortifies a belief in the value of human life and effort, but above all the work must connect intuition and experience to cast a spell of surprised recognition that shocks the reader with what was thought to be familiar.



Last Call!
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!



Last Call!
Society of Southwestern Authors Writing Contest
Postmark Deadline: June 1
Categories:

• Poetry (40 lines max)
• Short Story (2,500 words max)
• Short Story for Children 6-12 (1,500 words max)
• Personal Essay/Memoir (2,500 words max)

Cash awards each category: First Prize $300; Second Prize $150; Third Prize $75; Honorable Mention $25. Winning entries published in The Story Teller. $10 fee per entry. No limit on the number of entries. See the complete rules and obtain entry forms at www.ssa-az.org, or mail a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to Writing Contest Entry Forms, P.O. Box 35484, Tucson, AZ 85740.



Last Call: Christian Poets
Postmark Deadline: June 1
Do you write rhyming poetry about the Christian faith? The Christian Publishers Poetry Prize is tailor-made for you! $1,200 in cash prizes will be awarded.

You can enter the classical category or the open category. Either way, your poem must rhyme and it must be about some aspect of Christian faith. This contest offers our lowest entry fee of only $10 per poem. Prizes are guaranteed by the Utmost Christian Writers Foundation.

Please enjoy last year's winning poem in the classical category, "Praise Him the One in Three" by Tina Louise Blevins:

Praise Him the One in Three
by Tina Louise Blevins

Praise Him, the One in Three, who cannot be but is,
The birthless Lord who yet was born, all song and dance be His
Who died upon the cross, yet made all death untrue,
The tender Lamb, and great I AM, the old, the ever new.

Serve Him, the Father God, the Genesis whose heart
The deep embraced and speechless placed the Word around the dark,
Who, in His timeless Love, with joy and grief foreknown,
Endowed the dust with breath and trust, with image like His own.

Feel Him, the formless Ghost, the Holy Spirit wild,
That puts in man the terror and the fervor of the child.
It weeps inside the song, It sings inside the tear,
The flaming Wraith, the stuff of faith, the birth and death of fear.

Know Him, the human Son, who earth and water trod,
Who brought to hand the ancient plan, yet rent the heart of God,
Who knew and yet did doubt, who died and yet did rise,
Behold the end of death and sin, the God, the Man, the Christ.

Love Him, the Love of Loves, whose being being made,
The Flawlessness that answers yes, the Light that never fades,
The King that was and is, whose reign is drawing near,
Through space and time, O Love divine, that guides the rolling spheres!

Closing Next Month
2009 Guy Owen Prize
Postmark Deadline: June 15
$1,000 and publication in Southern Poetry Review for the poem selected by a distinguished poet. Submit 3-5 unpublished poems (10 pages maximum). Include SASE for reply only, and a check for $15 to Southern Poetry Review (includes one-year subscription). Contact information on cover sheet only, not on poems. Indicate simultaneous submissions. All entries considered for publication. No electronic submissions; none on disk. Manuscripts recycled. Southern Poetry Review, Guy Owen Prize, LLP, Armstrong Atlantic State University, 11935 Abercorn Street, Savannah, GA 31419-1997. www.spr.armstrong.edu

Please enjoy "Jellyfish" by George David Clark, winner of the 2008 Guy Owen Prize. The final judge of this contest was Jane Hirshfield. Mr. Clark's poem appears in issue 46:2 of Southern Poetry Review.

Jellyfish
by George David Clark

The dark sea dreams them.
They are the inexchangeable
currency of dreams,

the interest the other world
pays and pays into this one.
In the blueing pre-dawn

they seem hewn out
from the littoral like great,
waterlogged diamonds,

an interior gleam.
Who speaks for them
speaks for the secret

side of the womb
for they are the long-tasseled
death-bonnets of children

we conceive but never
bring to term. And so we love
and jointly curse them.

It is impossible
to tell if they reach for us
or we for them,

so strange is their delicate
gravity. They are sisters
to the moon then, and pulse

in her wake, a curdled
blooming of echoes
as she too is an echo.

But in the fluorescent pink
and green pockets
of their bodies, softer

than night, they're smuggling
rumors of those suns we fail
to imagine. They hold whole

oceans beneath their umbrellas.
Tell me, friend, is there an end
to revelation? The poison

flowers blossom inside me
like colored Rorschachs
I might come to believe in.

Evening and thunderheads
in the austral sky, the jellyfish
tides, an exhibition

of lightnings. Scaled-down
Hiroshimas of the deep,
they flare in the mind,

their cold medusa-bells
resounding, calling us back
to the black sands of sleep.

Closing Next Month
2009 Autumn House Poetry Prize and Autumn House Fiction Prize
Postmark Deadline: June 30
The winners will receive book publication, a $1,000 advance against royalties, and a $1,500 travel grant to participate in the 2009 Autumn House Master Authors Series in Pittsburgh. All finalists will be considered for publication. Final judge for the Poetry Prize is Alicia Ostriker. Final judge for the Fiction Prize is Sharon Dilworth (bio, interview).

All full-length collections of poetry 50-80 pages are eligible. Fiction submissions should be approximately 200-300 pages. All fiction sub-genres (short stories, short-shorts, novellas, or any combination of sub-genres) are eligible. Include a stamped, self-addressed envelope (SASE) for contest results. Autumn House Press assumes no responsibility for lost or damaged manuscripts. All entries must be clearly marked "Poetry Prize" or "Fiction Prize" on the outside envelope. $25 entry fee (check or money order) must be enclosed. Send manuscript and fee to:

Autumn House Press
P.O. Box 60100
Pittsburgh, PA 15211

Click for the complete guidelines. Please note: Manuscripts will not be returned, so please keep a copy.

Please enjoy this selection from Mary Crockett Hill's A Theory of Everything, published by Autumn House Press. Ms. Hill is the winner of the 2008 Autumn House Poetry Prize.

All About It
by Mary Crockett Hill

He looked like sullied laundry, which is to say
Jeff Clark, which is to say the scrubby field
where Jeff Clark took me when I was 5 and he 13
to teach me, as he put it, how to hump.

Jeff didn't take my clothes off, or his for that matter,
or stick any one of his parts into any one of mine.
He just led me out into the first light of November
where even I suspected we should not have come.

He said, "I bet you don't know anything," and I told him
"I know all about it," and he said, "Show me then."
So I did to him what my brother had described.
It must have looked ridiculous —this thin-boned child

in wrinkled corduroys and mittens, pumping
her intrepid hips against dawn of 1975.
Perhaps it is wrong for me to smile when thinking on it.
But it is my memory. I'll do with it what I want.


Copyright 2009 by Mary Crocket Hill, reprinted by permission of Autumn House Press

Closing Next Month
The Litchfield Review Writing Contest
Postmark Deadline: June 30
We seek poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction for our semi-annual magazine competition. Prose entries should be 3,000 words or less. Poetry entries may be of any length.

To be considered for both publication and a cash prize, please enclose $10 with each essay, short story, or set of 1-3 poems. Enclose $15 and you may submit an unlimited number of entries. Mail your manuscripts to:

     The Litchfield Review
     7 Bonna Street
     Beacon Falls, CT 06403

Exceptional entries of poetry, memoir and short fiction will be considered for publication as books by The Litchfield Review Press. For more information and news about our ongoing writing contests, please check our redesigned website, litchfieldreview.com, or email Theresa C. Vara at tvdannen@sbcglobal.net.

Please enjoy this excerpt from a poem by Ryan P. Harper, published in the current issue of The Litchfield Review:

Opening Our Eyes During Prayer, Tuesday Night Bible Study
by Ryan P. Harper

We are caught in our early rising
from this circle
two thieves colliding on a rooftop of silent heads
still wide-eyed
we who love light rather than darkness
lifted up.
What seek we over this span
of skulls brought low
in golgotha silence?

To look upon
faces praying as on French cathedrals
lip tremors and hands wanting blood
thigh-brushes swift as the death angel
or to catch
the ash-flakes of Sodom on our powdering tongues
the face of Yahweh through his desert fingers?

How would that good apostle find us
he whose midnight sermons
dropped dulled disciples like basin water
out upper room windows?
Would he who found life in a fallen sleeper
find it in two drugged awake
by the pious cadence of divine conversation?

How quickly surprise yields
delight bulbs your cheeks
you see me smile faithfully
you want to laugh
I want to
pour your laughter into this yawning space
so that we may run surely
ever over flat earth
and never again check our steps
almost tearful I sing in myself
the glory of hidden sunlit heresies
perched atop these sunken temples
that they would ever sink
under our weight
that we would bury amen
alive
deep
true...

Closing Next Month
2009 Omnidawn Poetry Contest Judged by Ann Lauterbach
Postmark Deadline: June 30
The 2009 Omnidawn Poetry Contest, judged by Ann Lauterbach, is Omnidawn Publishing's second annual contest for a first or second full-length collection of poems by a poet writing in English. (If you have two or more books published or accepted for publication, you are not eligible, although chapbooks do not count for this purpose.)

The recommended length of manuscript entries is 40 to 70 pages. Simultaneous submissions and multiple submissions are acceptable. The prize includes $2,000, Fall 2010 Publication by Omnidawn, and 100 complimentary copies of the book. The entry fee of $25 entitles you to one free Omnidawn title of your choice, if you send a Priority Mail self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE).

The prize-winning book will be produced, distributed, and advertised to full Omnidawn standards. As with other Omnidawn books, we will encourage the winning poet to participate in the design of the book, including choice of typefaces, cover artwork and design, with all stages subject to the approval of the winning poet. All costs, including production, distribution and advertising, will be fully paid for by Omnidawn. Omnidawn abides by the CLMP Code of Ethics.

The winner of last year's contest, judged by Marjorie Welish, is Michelle Taransky for her manuscript, Barn Burned, Then, to be published this September.

For the complete guidelines to this year's contest, visit
www.omnidawn.com/contest/contest_guidelines.htm

For information on last year's contest and winner visit
www.omnidawn.com/contest/contest_2008.htm

For other information about Omnidawn, including a list of Omnidawn titles, subscription to our mailing list, and more, visit www.omnidawn.com



Tennessee Writers Alliance Poetry & Short Fiction Contests
Postmark Deadline: July 1
The Tennessee Writers Alliance announces the 2009 Poetry and Short Fiction Contests, with $1,400 in prize money—$400 to first place in each category. Entry fees are $15 for TWA members, $20 for non-members. Complete guidelines are available online at tn-writers.org. For written guidelines, send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to TN Writers Alliance Contest, P.O. Box 257, Linden, TN 37096. While visiting the website, read last year's winning entries under the Maypop magazine link, and learn about WordFest, the TWA annual summer conference, June 12-13.

Please enjoy "Writer's Block" by Connie Jordan Green (PDF), published in the January 2009 issue of Maypop:

Writer's Block
by Connie Jordan Green

The old dog,
head beneath a bush,
lies where sun
warms his bony rump.
All around
forsythia bud,
jonquil bloom
yellow as butter,
spread light over
leaf-covered earth.
Fecundity breathes
on every wisp of wind.
Dog slumbers
like a December night,
dreams frozen pond,
fish cased tight.
Not bird song,
not earthworms
astir in leaf mold
can rouse him,
disturb the stone
of his body.

Houston Writers Guild Announces its Fall 2009 Contests
Postmark Deadline: July 30
The Houston Writers Guild, formerly the Fort Bend Writers Guild, announces its Fall 2009 Writers Contests. We will award $500 for the best novel in any genre, plus additional prizes in the categories of short story, personal essay, poetry, and a lifetime achievement award for published authors. The novel contest is open to all unpublished and not under contract novelists & screenwriters anywhere in the world. See the complete guidelines for all contests and the entry blank. Non-members may enter any contest, but members enjoy a discount on the entry fee for the novel contest.

Don't miss our 2009 Fall Writers Workshop with renowned mystery author David Liss. Join us on Saturday, September 12 at the Holiday Inn Southwest in Houston. Register before July 30 to enjoy the discounted rate of $45 for members and $55 for non-members. See details and register today.



13th Annual Robert Frost Foundation Annual Poetry Award
Postmark/Email Submission Deadline: September 15
The Robert Frost Foundation welcomes poems in the spirit of Robert Frost for its 13th Annual Award. The winner will receive $1,000 and an invitation to present the winning poem this fall at the Frost Festival located at the Lawrence Public Library in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the library in which Frost first explored the traditions of English and Irish poetry.

This year's judge, Jarita Davis, is a poet and fiction writer who earned a B.A. in classics from Brown University and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. She was the writer in residence at the Nantucket Historical Association and has received fellowships from the Mellon Mayes program, Cave Canem and Hedgebrook. In addition, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Travel Research Grant, a Neiheisel Phi Beta Kappa Award, and a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. Her work has appeared in the Southwestern Review, Historic Nantucket, Cave Canem Anthologies, Crab Orchard Review and Plainsongs.

Please submit two copies of each poem, one copy with contact information (name, address, phone number, email address) and one copy free of all identifying information. Reading fees are $10 per poem (send fees via regular mail, please). Make your check payable to The Robert Frost Foundation. Mail your entry to: The Robert Frost Foundation, Attn: Poetry Award, Lawrence Public Library - 3rd Floor, 51 Lawrence Street, Lawrence, MA 01841. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) or an email address if you'd like to receive the contest results. Email submissions are accepted at frostfoundation@comcast.net if you send your entry fee by regular mail.

You may submit up to three poems of no more than three pages each. Both published and unpublished works are accepted. See the complete contest guidelines at www.frostfoundation.org.

Please enjoy "Double Wedding Ring" by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck of Peoria, Illinois, winner of the 2008 Robert Frost Award:

Double Wedding Ring
by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck

How cramped a lot
to be a slave-stitched quilt,
to be Cathedral Church in cast-off gingham, or
old Shoofly sewn in blocks of red
and studded with a dirty pinwheel heart.
How wretched to
be born from tattered scraps
of common cotton cloth and penny thread to form
dark sheets of patchwork squares. How small
and mocking to be comforter, though frail
and thin. By night,
to rest on worn-out laps
and later beds and bodies in attempts to cut
cold cabin winds...and then, by day,
to hang against wind-splintered fence rails, or
along the backs
of peeling porch chairs, there
to air under the harsh spilled Southern sun. Bow Ties,
Log Cabin, Flying Geese: stitched fast
from cloth, one at a time, the quilts displayed

their solemn, spot-

stained fronts. How sore a fate! The dazed parade
of masters, mules, and slaves looked past
the fence-draped quilts; just one or two cast up their eyes
in quickened glance to where
the quilts hung lax.
Those certain sharp-eyed few knew to look for
the Monkey Wrench (go hide away
the tools), to recognize good Wagon Wheel (pack what
is needed), next perhaps
to note the bright
zigzags of Drunkard's Path (stagger your trail),
and then, one day, to see the fall
and rise of Tumbling Boxes (leave tonight). Not warm
those quilts (all shred and gaps),
not expert (too
coarse, primitively sewn), not song, not art...
but, hanging there, those blankets read
as eloquent as prose: their patchwork words free-born
from thread, their phrases built
from stitch and knot.

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SELECTED FREE PROSE CONTESTS

These free prose contests with deadlines between May 16 and June 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.

5/31: Black Orchid Novella Award ++
Recommended free contest offers $1,000 and publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for the best traditional mystery novella. Contest sponsor The Wolfe Pack is the official fan club for Nero Wolfe, a legendary fictional sleuth created by Rex Stout in a series of mystery novels published from 1934 to 1975. Entries should be 15,000-20,000 words. See website for thematic and stylistic restrictions. Essentially, they are looking for an old-fashioned story of deduction, with a witty style and an engaging relationship between the characters, and no explicit sex or violence.

5/31: Jerry Jazz Musician Fiction Contest +
Entries must be received by this date
Thrice-yearly free neutral contest offers $100 and web publication for short fiction. The Jerry Jazz Musician reader has interests in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film and theatre, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-20th century America. Entries should appeal to a reader with these characteristics. Submit stories of 1,000-5,000 words by email to jm@jerryjazz.com as an MS Word or Adobe Acrobat attachment. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number with your submission. Please include "Short Fiction Contest Submission" in the subject heading of the email.

6/1: Fraser Institute Student Essay Contest ++
Entries must be received by this date
Recommended free contest for high school, college and graduate students awards prizes up to C$1,000 for short scholarly essays on an annual theme dealing with current events. 2009 topic is Economic Freedom and Global Prosperity. Enter by mail or online. Entries must be received by 5 PM Pacific time on the deadline date. Entries may be written in English or French. The Fraser Institute is a Canadian free-market think tank.

6/1: Hillerman Mystery Competition +++
Formerly July 1
Highly recommended free contest offers $10,000 and publication by St. Martin's Press for a mystery novel set in the Southwestern US, by an author with no published books in that genre. Entries should be a minimum of 220 pages (60,000 words). Early entries strongly encouraged. Contest is co-sponsored by St. Martin's Press and the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference. Tony Hillerman was the author of the best-selling Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee mystery series set on a Navajo reservation.

6/1: Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award ++
Formerly April 14
Recommended free contest from Fly Rod & Reel, a bimonthly magazine for fly-fishing aficionados, offers $2,500 and publication for the best "distinguished original essay or work of short fiction that embodies an implicit love of fly-fishing, respect for the sport and the natural world in which it takes place, and high literary values."

6/15: Northrop Grumman Annual Robotics Essay Contest ++
Entries must be received by this date
Recommended free contest from the U.S. Naval Institute offers top prize of $10,000 for essays on the subject of new or enhanced robotics applications. Open to members of the Naval Institute. Maximum 2,500 words. One entry per person. Submit online. No simultaneous submissions.

6/26, 8/7: Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize ++
Entries must be received by these dates; former deadlines were April 25, June 27, and August 8
Recommended free contest offers C$25,000 for novels or short story collections published in Canada during the calendar year by Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Deadline varies depending on when your book was published: books published between January 1 and April 23 must be received by April 24; those published between April 24 and June 25 must be received by June 26; and those published between June 26 and September 30 must be received by August 7. 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.

6/26, 8/7: Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize ++
Entries must be received by these dates; former deadlines were April 25, June 27, and August 8
Recommended free contest offers C$25,000 for nonfiction books published in Canada during the calendar year by Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. Deadline varies depending on when your book was published: books published between January 1 and April 23 must be received by April 24; those published between April 24 and June 25 must be received by June 26; and those published between June 26 and September 30 must be received by August 7. 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. Formerly known as the Nereus Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, changed name in 2009.

6/30: Delacorte Dell Yearling Contest for a First Middle-Grade Novel +
Neutral contest offers $1,500 cash plus $7,500 advance against royalties for an unpublished novel for readers aged 9-12. Authors must be US or Canadian residents who have not previously published a novel for middle-grade readers. Novels may be contemporary or historical fiction set in North America. Sponsor is an imprint of Random House, a major international publisher. No simultaneous submissions. We've rated it Neutral because this sponsor has a habit of not awarding the prize (10 such incidents since 1992), which we feel is unfair to authors who spent money on postage and printing, and refrained from sending their work elsewhere for several months.

6/30: Drue Heinz Literature Prize +++
Highly recommended free contest for an unpublished book-length collection of short fiction (150-300 pages) includes $15,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Open to writers who have published a book-length collection of fiction or a minimum of three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals of national distribution.

6/30: FIL Literature Prize in Romance Languages +++
Entries must be received by this date
Highly recommended contest offers $150,000 lifetime achievement award (by nomination only) for a writer whose work is in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Galician, Catalan, Basque French or Romanian. This is one of several awards sponsored by the Guadalajara International Book Fair. Formerly known as the Juan Rulfo Latin American and Caribbean Literary Award, changed name in 2009.

6/30: Goi Peace Foundation International Essay Contest for Young People ++
Entries must be received by this date
Recommended free contest offers top prize of 100,000 yen (about $1,000) for short essays by children and youth on themes of cross-cultural reconciliation. Prizes awarded in age categories under-14 and 15-25. See website for details on the annual theme and formatting rules. Entries may be written in English, Spanish, German or French. Send by mail or email.

6/30: L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest +++
Highly recommended free contest for emerging writers of short science fiction, fantasy and horror offers quarterly prizes of $1,000 plus an annual $5,000 grand prize for one of the four winners. Send only one story per quarter, maximum 17,000 words. See website for eligibility rules. Entrants may not have professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium.


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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CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Cyclamens and Swords
Entries must be received by May 31
Cyclamens and Swords, an online literary journal edited by Israeli poets Helen Bar-Lev and Johnmichael Simon, seeks submissions of poetry, stories and artwork for their next issue. The poetry theme for this submission period is "Not What You Might Expect". Fiction can be on any theme. Enter online only.

The Fiction Flyer "Old Mold New Milieu" Flash Fiction Contest
Entries must be received by June 30
The Fiction Flyer, a free e-zine for writers, offers prizes up to $10 and publication for flash fiction with a twist. "Old Mold New Milieu" challenges authors and writers to choose two characters from one of their books or works and create a flash fiction story based on several prompts provided in the contest guidelines. Winners will receive certificates and modest cash prizes, and their stories will be published in the July/August issue of The Fiction Flyer with a subscriber list of about 1,000. The contest will be judged by youth book illustrator and author Kevin Collier, his co-author and wife, Kristen, and author and promotional guru, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Entrants must be subscribers to The Fiction Flyer (membership is free). Enter by email.

First Person America - In These Hard Times
Postmark Deadline: June 30
First Person Arts, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization dedicated to memoir and documentary art of all kinds, seeks submissions of personal essays, photos and videos that depict Americans from all walks of life. Inspired by the artists of the WPA, who documented the experiences of Americans in every part of the country, First Person Arts is asking artists to help craft the first draft of the history of our era by capturing, in photographs, on video, or in writing, the stories of America and its people during these difficult times. Finalists in each category (writing, film, and photography) will be featured on the First Person Arts website and at the First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art, November 4-8, 2009. First place winners in each genre will be invited to Philadelphia to participate in the festival. A cash prize will be awarded to the best story overall. See website for mail and online submission guidelines and length limits for each genre.

Voices Israel Anthology
Entries must be received by October 7
The Voices Israel Group of Poets in English seeks submissions of poems for their 36th annual anthology. Send 1-4 poems, maximum 40 lines each, as a single MS Word or RTF email attachment to Voices_Israel_2010@me.com. One poem per page, with author's name and contact information in upper right corner of each page. Include bio, 7 lines maximum. Include NIS30 or US$15 if you would like a copy of the anthology. (Normally, Winning Writers does not list publishers that do not provide free contributors' copies, but Voices Israel is a very reputable organization and the anthology is edited by internationally known authors.)


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NEW LITERARY RESOURCES

Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions
Independent small press Dzanc Books offers a very reasonably priced online mentoring program through which members can get critiques of their poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction from professionally published authors. Fees support Dzanc's creative writing programs for low-income youth. Dzanc Books also runs Black Lawrence Press, which sponsors several well-regarded literary contests annually.

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog
This blog from the sponsor of the renowned Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival features video clips of readings by major contemporary poets (see the "Poetry Fridays" sidebar link), plus news about other cultural programs that the Dodge Foundation sponsors in New Jersey and beyond.

Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
Iowa State University maintains this website featuring definitions of over 30 early musical instruments, with illustrations and audio clips. Writers of historical fiction will find this site useful for fact-checking or just creating a mood while they envision their characters' next adventure.

Liturgical Credo
Formerly an online journal of theological articles, as of June 2009 Liturgical Credo will become a literary site devoted to contemporary stories of faith and doubt, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. See website for submission guidelines.

Poemeleon Mystery Box Contest
Online journal Poemeleon seeks poems inspired by a "mystery box" depicted in a photo on their website. The winner and runners-up will be published in Poemeleon, and the first-prize author will receive the box. Deadlines are irregular; check website.

Poetry Through the Ages
Poetry Through the Ages, a project of the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA), is a free online exhibit that showcases poetic forms and movements from different cultures, with examples and instructions. A special feature of the site is a new poetic form called "node poetry", which breaks the traditional linear flow of a poem into branching clusters of words that the reader can read in different sequences. Drawing its inspiration from synthetic and visual poetry, the form is found exclusively online, and enables readers to take the poet's lines and construct the poem as they explore it.

Ragged Sky Press
Ragged Sky Press was founded in 1992 by poet and publisher Ellen Foos of Princeton, NJ, and publishes quality works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. See website for submission guidelines for their themed anthologies. Authors in their catalog include Elizabeth Socolow, Anca Vlasopolos, and Carlos Hernández Peña.

Snow Monkey
This eclectic online journal of poetry and micro-prose is published 10 times a year with up to 10 writers featured in monthly postings September through June. The editor seeks writing that's like footprints of Langur monkeys left at 11,000 feet on Poon Hill, Nepal. Snow Monkey Online is supported by Ravenna Press.


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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MORE SPONSORS' MESSAGES

2009 Poet's Market
The 2009 edition of Poet's Market is on sale for $18.47 at Amazon. (The 2010 edition will be published in August 2009.) This is the best annual guide to 1,600 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 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.

Enjoy $30 off purchases of $150 or more at OfficeDepot.com. Excludes Technology. Offer Expires 12.31.09.

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FEATURED POEMS FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS

Choice Bits
by Dion Farquhar

The deepest is the skin.
—Gilles Deleuze, The Logic of Sense

In the beginning
was the algorithm
subject
to reason's drive-by shooting (itself in the foot)

the costs of incarnation
any Buffy the Vampire Slayer
watcher can tell you
return as the repressed
farce the second time around
that would have been merciful (sufficient, too)

but instead:

lives are ruined every day
people die
they cry real tears
elections are decided for us

and real choice like reading books

shrinks every day
to what can be squeezed in
amidst endless care-taking
the old, the young, the sick
and daily life
shop, cook, clean

Choice is everywhere and nowhere

diet or regular
DSL or dial-up
ATM or credit
anti-depressants or libido

The Time of Oughts
the next millennium
is here and we're in it
up to our eyeballs.

I want to believe what I know
more than ever
more than anything else
that all we have
—the good news and the bad news—

is repetition, horizontal texts

(that axiom itself heresy)

and all we could have is infinite variation

for the better.

Remember

Free Abortion on Demand
Socialist Feminism

So let us open the door
to the undead of our demands
antiphonal swing
a solidarity forever
living full the lives we're in

with all the horror
& the desire
& the loss

be cheered by other things:
the choice bits
& loves and passions
big and small
and friendships
surrounded
by Sisyphian smarts


Copyright 2009 by Dion Farquhar

This poem is reprinted from her poetry manuscript Feet First, which was one of two runners-up for the 2009 Sinclair Poetry Prize and will be published by Evening Street Press.


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Bring Back the Children
by Martin Steele

The barbed wire enclosure bristles.
A gaunt gauleiter looks on. He is amused.
He laughs,
As he shoulders his cold steel steps.

Red blue eyes start bleeding
From sad songs
And lost words of last testaments.
Red blue eyes bleed
From dank, deep desolate dirges
Of sad children's songs sashed in rags—
Hidden in last year's religious guises.
There is rage and fright
In the eyes of fresh arrivals
Who seek lost transparent ghosts
Melted down to warm wax
That spreads new stains on brick kiln walls,
Washed by clean daily blood,
Once so pure,
As petals on white roses,
Churning grey cement
To joyless red;
Promised pledges are lost
On page one of a Family Book.
Fresh-fruit promises fade remorselessly;
They hang from broken trees
'longside haughty smoking stacks,
Substituting soot and grime and stench
For a lost laughter in children's eyes—
Fleeing this drunken stable of broken promises
And unfulfilled dreams.

Help!
Lead the children,
To a cold thin stream
Standing sentinel in the dawn.
Show them views of life
And last reflections
Of unsurviving, quick-sand genes.

Pause!
Help search for minutes
Of those long lost lifetimes;
Aeons of thoughts lost
And packed in thin air
Around fine ashes
Once so far scattered,
Now lying lost
In the strokes of dead lead pendulums
In a disused suburban mall.

Don't stare at your thoughts.
Walk on by,
And pray in soft undertones of grey;
Hear a last goodbye echoing to nowhere,
Kindling with soft salt tears
For warmth,
Forever staining cheeks
With the unwashable joyless tears
That coagulate again, indelibly
'gainst the gauleiter's-mason's steps,
Leaning lazily and drunkenly
In a forgotten, dissipated warlord's
Unused blackened broom room,
Nestling with his mixed eternal curse.
The long-gone children seek him.
They want back a little bit more of life.
If he will trade,
They will be forever, eternally grateful.

In remembrance of the brave children who perished in the dastardly camps.


Copyright 2009 by Martin Steele

This poem was first published in Poetry Super Highway's annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issue, the week of April 20-26, 2009.


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Somewhere
by Nicole Nicholson

somewhere
a lime pit had opened its mouth
and swallowed his mother
and all that he is left with are

sketches
of her face tattooed
inside his paper-thin eyelids
and

endless refrains of mother words
the d.j. in his mind respins them
respins them
she says:
"don't forget your coat"

and
"watch out for your little brother"

and
"I love you"

in indelible ink
which
will outlast the Nazi numbers
tattooed upon his arm
you see

nothing can make you forget
blood running through veins
carrying building blocks reassembling
themselves into a brand new configuration
every time a new soul in your family
is birthed and
how much your building blocks look like your mother's
look like your father's
look like your brother's
look like the faces staring out of the windows
of trains
carrying them away so that their blood
can run down a scrubbed half-tone gray hill of rocks
that cannot understand
just what that blood meant
and cannot hear
its screams—silent, the kind that
only Heaven
and ears that were pre-programmed to hear
blood calling from the ground can hear
somewhere

the sky is singing above their heads
weeping yellow six-pointed stars
back down to earth for us to find
and if anybody ever tells you

that there were no trains
that there were no camps
there were no congregations of hollowed eyes
staring out of fences, peering
searching the horizons for Heaven
to come back down to earth
that there were no hearts crying
pleading for the chance to sit shiva
looking for outer garments to rend
but finding
that someone had already torn them
then look

for those yellow stars
somewhere

the crackle of latkes plays in his head
as a backbeat to her mother refrains and
the melody of seder strains where
as a child, he would ask who he was
in five parts and every year
he would get his answers
spoken from the mouth
of the Haggadah

and if you question for a moment
wonder if the song in his head is real or if
history is a liar, then remember
that

somewhere
a lime pit had opened its mouth
and swallowed his mother


Copyright 2009 by Nicole Nicholson

This poem was first published in Poetry Super Highway's annual Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) issue, the week of April 20-26, 2009.


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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:
http://www.winningwriters.com/advertisers.php

"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."
Rick Rofihe, Publisher & Editor-In-Chief, anderbo

"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

See more testimonials.

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Global Literacy Matters - A New Blog from ProLiteracy Worldwide

Every day we at ProLiteracy Worldwide are amazed by the new and innovative ways our partners around the globe find to help more people with their literacy programs. We hear of heartwarming stories of how people's lives have been transformed through these programs.

Visit ProLiteracy's new International Programs blog today. Via Global Literacy Matters, we wish to share with you the joys and successes of literacy that people are experiencing around the world. In addition, this blog serves as a place to share current news, reports and information pertaining to literacy issues. We would like to welcome all of you to our blog. Your participation is invaluable to us.

ProLiteracy supports adults and young people in the U.S. and internationally who are learning to read, write, and do basic math by training instructors, publishing instructional materials, and advocating for resources and public policies that support them.

Support ProLiteracy's vital mission. Click here to learn more. Click to contribute.

Send this page to a friend and we'll donate 15 cents to ProLiteracy for each friend you refer.


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JENDI'S CRITIQUE CORNER

This month, Critique Corner is pleased to present "Songs and Metaphors" by Akpoteheri Godfrey Amromare.

If you would like a chance to be critiqued, please email your poem to me at critique@winningwriters.com. Send the poem in the body of your email message (no attachments) and put "poetry critique" in the subject line. One submission per poet per month. Thanks!


Songs and Metaphors
by Akpoteheri Godfrey Amromare

     For Modupe

I know
There are tunes
My soul should hum
To you, but my throat
Is too sore to attempt them.

I know
There are words
My heart should say
To you, but my mouth
Is too dumb to let her.

I know
My love
You don't love me
But in you
Am too lost to turn back.

Yes
I know
Oh sable homeland
We practice democracy
But my heart
Is too hurt to believe it.

I know
My love
There are spots
My lips should touch
You, but my eyes
Are too blind to see them.

So I say
Oh poor soul sing
Sing of love
To warring homeland
Love too soft to touch
Love much quieter than a burial rite
Love that struck me dumb like thunderstorm
Love that punished my father's purse
But made us one
Love that we lack in Africa!

Open
Pray hungry mouth
Speak of love
Love that weaved webs to steal my sight
A woman too mighty for words to try
Love the silent sky of our earth
Once obsessed
With light like a palace court!
Ah!
Love the thunderous voice of our ancestors!

That blind Africa may regain her sight.

My love
Tell me
How it came to be
That we
To a fierce duet, tempt
The friendly spirits of the gods
By slaughtering ourselves.

Beware!
I say
Recoil from this draw with Liberty.
A portion poured out
To the gods
Isn't for us—poor mortals to sup

Yes
I know I hear
The break of day approaching
Though silently
A voice
Drowned in the chorus
Of tonight's wars
Hush,
Be calm
The sun is returning to her court!

The dews soon
Should descend upon
The slumbering field
Take my hand
Love
It is a sign of daybreak!


Copyright 2009 by Akpoteheri Godfrey Amromare


Critique by Jendi Reiter

Nigerian poet Akpoteheri Godfrey Amromare returns to these pages with "Songs and Metaphors", a stirring combination of the romantic lyric and the war poem. Read his August 2008 critique poem, "Whisper Without Words", here.

"Songs and Metaphors" reminded me of Wilfred Owen's famous World War I poem "Greater Love". Both poems interweave tenderness, tragedy, and prophetic hope, refusing to let the personal remain merely personal against a backdrop of large-scale atrocities, yet valuing that one-on-one intimacy as a possible cure for the desensitized attitudes that perpetuate violence.

The first three stanzas of Amromare's poem lead us to think that it is a traditional love poem. I welcomed the few touches of originality: "tunes/My soul should hum/To you" (rather than the expected "sing") and the personification of the heart as "her" instead of "it" in the second stanza, which gives the interaction a more protective, affectionate tone. But then, in the fourth stanza, an epic lament—"Oh sable homeland"—breaks into the potential narcissism of the lyric. Sentiments that could verge on banality are transfigured by their connection to relationships beyond the two lovers, such that the narrator's personal heartbreak does not distract him from his community's suffering but rather provides a means to empathize with and critique it....

Click to continue reading this critique

This poem, our critique and contest suggestions for poems in this style appear in full at:
http://www.winningwriters.com/resources/critiques/2009/urc_0905amromare.php

See all of our poetry critiques.


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