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Award-Winning Poems: Spring 2011
One of the "101 Best Websites for Writers"
Writer's Digest, 2005-2010
Welcome to our Spring 2011 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? Too wide when viewed in email? Not to worry. All our recent newsletters are posted online at http://www.winningwriters.com/news
Winning Writers offers condolences to the family and friends of Mary Louise Rockwell (February 1, 1950-February 4, 2011), longtime member of the Charlotte Writers' Club and chair of their Anthony Abbott Poetry Contest. Louise was always helpful in keeping our contest listings up-to-date. She will be missed. Read a tribute to her on the Charlotte Writers' Club website.
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FEATURED SPONSOR'S MESSAGE
Welcome to Carpe Articulum Literary Review!
This has been an incredibly exciting quarter, and we are thrilled to introduce you to our new guests, just in time for our most popular issue, the Spring Edition. Every quarter we bring you a famous author or authority to talk about what is happening in the literary world.
This quarter we feature an exclusive interview with LORD (CHARLES) SPENCER, NINTH EARL SPENCER about the literary festival at his ancestral home, The Althorp Estate, his favourite reads, and his sister Princess Diana's charitable legacy.
Also, we feature an exclusive interview with MARK VICTOR HANSEN, world bestselling author with over 157 million books sold! He introduces his new book with co-author BILL FROEHLICH, movie producer/director, and discusses its divergence from his wildly famous Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
This quarter also features magnificent poetry by emergent writers, several of whom are being published for the first time! The Non-Fiction category is another tour de force this issue as well with a special highlight on an Iraqi writer who shares his experiences in The Scent of Rima's Gardenias. International and cross-cultural writing is a specialty of ours here at CALR, because it provides a broader platform for writers' and readers' perspectives on the human condition. The short stories are likewise masterful this quarter!
SPECIAL OFFER: SUBMIT TWO ENTRIES FOR THE SAME FEE AS ONE
If you want to submit your work to any of the competition's categories, you may now do so 2 for 1. We are offering an opportunity to submit your second piece free of charge. Simply send it in the same .doc file with your original piece and we will accept both for possible publication. This will apply to as many entries as you would like to send in (i.e. if you want to send in four, you may include eight). This is a one-time opportunity, and is your chance to get your work recognized and published alongside famous authors. Please register at our website, then make your submission with this promotion code: WW4,1SPRING |
We give away $10,000 every year to outstanding writers and artists and hope you will decide to become a member of our literary family. Enter our fiction, non-fiction, poetry, novella and photography contests at any time of year. If you miss a deadline, your entry will automatically roll over for the next cycle.
The magazine is 150-200 pages of full-colour delight, translated into five languages. We feature short fiction, poetry, informative articles, photography, non-fiction and incredible interviews with hot up-and-coming writers as well as iconic ones such as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, George Lucas (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Ray Harryhausen (father of motion picture special effects), Ray Bradbury (author of Fahrenheit 451), Jodi Picoult (author of Change of Heart, Handle With Care, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister's Keeper which was made into a major motion picture with Cameron Diaz) and Nicholas Sparks (author of Message in a Bottle, also made into a motion picture with Kevin Costner & Robin Wright Penn, as well as The Notebook, The Last Song, etc.) And that is just this October issue!
CALR is edited by Hadassah Broscova, who has been honored this year to join Ryan G. Van Cleave and Alice Lovelace in judging the American Poet competition at poetrytv.org. Please enjoy this gratis electronic issue featuring Barbara Ehrenreich, Stan Jones and Bruce Piasecki: http://www.epaperflip.com/aglaia/viewer.aspx?docid=ceb02e6c0d844dec832a51d2b5d58902
View this special 10-minute video on what we do for writers and readers!
YouTube: "Carpe Articulum Lit Magazine: Q&A with the Editor-in-Chief"
We hope you will join us and become a vital part of our literary family—without you, none of this is possible nor necessary. Become a cherished reader today!
http://www.carpearticulum.com/submissions/
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RECENT HONORS FOR OUR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS
Congratulations to Thelma T. Reyna. Her poetry collection Breath & Bone was a semifinalist in the 2010 New Women's Voices Chapbook Competition and will be published in April by Finishing Line Press. She kindly shares a sample poem below. Pre-order your copy here. The most recent deadline for this prize, which offers $1,000 for a poetry chapbook manuscript by a woman with no previous full-length poetry books, was February 15.
Congratulations to Elisavietta Ritchie. Her poetry book Cormorant Beyond the Compost was recently published by Cherry Grove Collections. She kindly shares a sample poem below.
Congratulations to Suvansh Raj Nirula. The 14-year-old author from New Delhi won first prize in the Children's category in the 2010 Year of Youth Poetry Contest sponsored by Poets for Human Rights. He received $50 for "A World of My Dreams".
Congratulations to David Martin. His double book of poetry, Ocean of Suns/Light First, Light Last, written under the name "Q.R. Quasar", has been accepted for publication by Global Scholarly Publications. GSP is an affiliated wing of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy. It publishes books and journals in the humanities and social sciences. It also holds conferences and serves as a liaison among various universities and other institutions that globally foster the dissemination of scholarly works.
RECENT HONORS FOR POETRY CONTEST INSIDER SUBSCRIBERS
Congratulations to Elaine Zimmerman. Her poem "Mending" won a Highly Commended award in the 2010 Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Contest. The most recent deadline for this contest, offering prizes up to $300, was November 30. In other news, her poem "The Hold Up" was accepted for the spring issue of Coal Hill Review, a publication of Autumn House Press. She kindly shares it with us below.
Congratulations to Ann Eustace. Her poem "In Exile" won an honorable mention in the Fall 2010 Lucidity Poetry Journal Clarity Awards. This twice-yearly free contest offers prizes up to $100 for poems in any form dealing with people and interpersonal relationships. The next deadline will be April 30.
RECENT PUBLICATION CREDITS FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Alegria Imperial has several publications to report. She was one of two featured poets at Poetry Super Highway for the week of November 5, 2010 with her poem "Spangled Seasons". Her three tanka in English, Spanish, and the Filipino language Iluko appeared in the Translation issue of the online journal Qarrtsiluni (January-April 2011). A haiku sequence and a tanka are also due up in the next issue of Lynx, a journal of Japanese short forms published by AHA Poetry. Her poems "a beggar's prayer", "Sizes", and "who but the heart" appeared in the September-October 2010 issue of Sketchbook: A Journal for Eastern & Western Short Forms.
Robert Savino's poem "Composite Color" was published in the Fall 2010 issue of North American Review. He kindly shares it with us below. Founded in Boston in 1815, and currently published by the University of Northern Iowa, North American Review is the oldest literary magazine in the US.
Ruth Hill's poems "Split Second" and "Whittler" were chosen for the Spring 2011 anthology from Ascent Aspirations, Close to Quitting Time, a collection of poems about work.
Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter's poem "Prison Epistle" was published in Cutthroat, Issue #10. Her poem "Split Ends" was accepted for the March 2011 issue of Collective Fallout, a journal of queer-themed fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. Her flash fiction "Same Love Same Rights" appears in Issue #6 of the online journal Newport Review.
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CONTESTS HOSTED AT WINNING WRITERS & OPEN NOW
Closing This Month
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest
Postmark Deadline: March 31
Now in its 19th year. Prizes of $3,000, $1,000, $400 and $250 will be awarded, plus six Most Highly Commended Awards of $150 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. 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.
Closing Next Month
Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest (no fee)
Online Submission Deadline: April 1
Winning Writers invites you to enter the tenth annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. We'll award $3,600, including a top prize of $1,500. Submit one humor poem online. No length limit. Both published and unpublished poems are welcome. No fee to enter. Final 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 tenth 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. Final judge: Jendi Reiter. See the complete guidelines and past winners.
Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse
Postmark Deadline: June 30
Now in its eighth year, this contest seeks poetry in traditional verse forms such as sonnets and free verse. You may submit work that has been published or won prizes elsewhere, as long as you own the online publication rights. Prizes of $3,000, $1,000, $400 and $250 will be awarded, plus six Most Highly Commended Awards of $150 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 ninth year, this contest seeks poems in any style, theme or genre. You may submit work that has been published or won prizes elsewhere, as long as you own the online publication rights. Prizes of $3,000, $1,000, $400 and $250 will be awarded, plus six Most Highly Commended Awards of $150 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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WHEN I THINK OF THE END OF THE WORLD NOW
by James Crews
Winner of the 2010 Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series in Poetry
Postmark Deadline: March 15
Prairie Schooner, the prestigious literary journal of the University of Nebraska, offers annual prizes of $3,000 and publication for full-length poetry collections and short story collections. Crews' The Book of What Stays won the 2010 poetry prize. In this elegiac yet hopeful lyric, he expresses faith that the simple vitality of the earth will survive our destructive civilization.
THE BEES
by Giles Goodland
Winner of the 2010 Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition
Entries must be received by March 25
The national literary society of Wales offers prizes up to 5,000 pounds for unpublished poems. No simultaneous submissions. Goodland's first-place poem employs assonance and invented compound words to give a voice to the creative swarm that "knock down the sky, one word at a time".
HER PANEL
by Martha Silano
Winner of the 2010 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize
Postmark Deadline: April 1
This open poetry manuscript contest from a press with experimental leanings offers $1,500 and publication. Silano's The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception won the 2010 prize. In this poem packed with zingy wordplay, she riffs on the double meaning of "panel" as an academic forum and a decorative veneer, implying that women who've gained admittance to the scholarly elite should kick down the barriers between the "go-go booted" and the "Boolean".
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. Learn more below.
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TRY POETRY CONTEST INSIDER - NOW PROFILING OVER 1,250 LITERARY CONTESTS
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 1,250+ active poetry and prose contest profiles. Search and sort contests by deadline, prize, fee, recommendation level and more. We don't just list contests, we point you to the ones that can benefit your career the most, whether you are just starting out or are well-established. Exclusive interviews with contest judges and editors help you understand how your submissions are evaluated.
We update Poetry Contest Insider nearly every day. Be among the first to learn about new contests and late deadline changes. Access to Poetry Contest Insider is just $9.95 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. Learn more about Poetry Contest Insider.
"Your website is still the highlight of my life. I use it every day. I have had positive feedback from several editors and judges, have won some contests, and have been accepted for publication several times. I have also enjoyed the links for reading more poetry and learning more about the craft."
Ruth Hill, British Columbia, Canada
"Congratulations: Winning Writers is an extremely well-built and eminently useful tool! I have recommended it to many writers. Cheaper and easier to use than Poets and Writers, it also includes those valuable recommendations for those not yet (or only sometimes, as in my case!) in-the-know about the relative merits of the many invitations to submit, submit, submit."
Nancy White, New York
"...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."
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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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2007 WAR POETRY CONTEST—THIRD PRIZE
GIRL IN THE FIRE
by Aliene Pylant
At night she dreamed of fires, of red-orange flames
rising from a small hill of dead leaves
like the one her father gathered in their back yard
and set a match to before the rain came.
She'd played a game of catch-me when the wind heaved
the smoke curl on its side—she laughed as charred
leaves stirred and brilliant embers rose to leave
her clothes marked with pinprick black stars.
Her father lit his pipe and the smoke scents
mixed, woody-sweet and green, then hunkered down
in wool and hair and skin with incense stain
to stay until her mother's well-meant
scrubbing. Once the leaves burned down her father drowned
the ash and nothing of the fire remained
but an acrid stench on sodden, blackened ground
and the spot brought grief the girl could not explain.
And frightening dreams she couldn't sleep away.
Dreams of leaf-games, of hiding in the heap,
waiting for her father's voice to call her out
before he set to burning. But in her dream-game
he forgot. Gas from the red can trickled deep
down around her, but she couldn't stir or shout
for help or stay the match's rasp or keep
his hand away or stop the fire from bursting out.
She woke in screams as flames began to eat
her face. Her mother hurried in and swept
in coolness from the hall, cool night air
that wrapped unsullied sleep. Her mother's neat
white fingers rubbed her shoulders and the young girl crept
against the billow of her mother's hair,
and her mother pledged that even while she slept
God's angels kept her safe with holy prayer.
But the girl had learned the history of the world—
of times and places fires had raged. There was Anne
whose Jewish body fueled a nation's hate.
Without Shadrach's angel she lay dead, curled
inside the furnace. The girl recalled a pan
of meat forgotten in her mother's oven, its great
stench covering the kitchen, blackened fat
and bone shrunken to a cast of charcoal waste.
And Hiroshima, a city fire destroyed—
she saw a girl in silk with ivory hands
kneeling at her household shrine, Buddha's eyes
impassive as the great grenade deployed
and dried reed floors and paper walls and lacquered stands
flashed white, then roiled in flames and Buddha's eyes
watched pearl flesh blister, boil, expand,
explode, then crisp to ash and rise in black, black skies.
And even Joan, who heard divine decrees
and kept a sainted faith, still burned alive.
In May in France, while living elms and oaks
unraveled green, the wood of dead and broken trees
spat scarlet. Bound in chains, her body writhing
in the summit of the fire, Joan choked
out again, again, her Savior's name, her scorched eyes
seeking out Christ's face inside the smoke.
These were the images that kindled fear—
history's brutal murders carried out
against all sense, against all godly thought.
In the dark, her mother's goodness near,
the girl pronounced aloud her soul-dealt doubt—
Why do some prayers work, but some do not?
Her mother tried to reason out
unfathomable theology. But she could not.
Her father never knew the weight he bore
each time he brought a match to flame and lit
the fireplace tinder or the heater's spire
of gas. He never knew about the war
she carried on inside, the wanting to commit
belief in mercy far beyond each young girl's pyre
while fearing God stood derelict.
Father, father—he was striking faith, not fire.
Copyright 2007 Aliene Pylant
This poem won third prize in the 2007 War Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers. Author Aliene Pylant received a $600 award. See the judge's comments on the winning poems from this contest.
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SPONSORS' MESSAGES
 Swallow by Jendi Reiter Reviewed at Ampersand Books
Winner of the 2008 Flip Kelly Poetry Prize from Amsterdam Press, Jendi Reiter's poetry chapbook Swallow was favorably reviewed on the Ampersand Books blog in December 2010. Critic Martha Rzadkowolsky-Raoli says, "Jendi Reiter created a tidy poetry book in which swallow means everything you can expect swallow to mean. She exhausts the word; its mashed remains a mix of cow meat, desire, intestines, bird. If you read the book, and you should, you'll experience the beating of the word....The relationship between premises in these poems get downright eucharistic on logic's ass."
To order, visit the Amsterdam Press online store or send a check for $8.00 to Amsterdam Press, 6199 Steubenville Road SE, Amsterdam, Ohio 43903.
Enjoy this sample poem from Swallow:
Save the Trees
by Jendi Reiter
...We know that the whole creation has been
groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time...
Romans 8:22
Pluming in brief white petals, it too
intends—slim green-patched trunk, roots veining
under bricks underfoot. City props,
round beds of welcome pansies—no,
not stage, backdrop of our rush;
see but once the upward spreading
molecular praise of wood.
When those famous apes nibbled and fell
wood fell, crone-face dried in the fruit,
man's foot on mouse's tail,
baby ants in the torn gut of the dog.
Along the sunset trail birches groan
in winter wind, doors of an empty house
swept clean to wait for—
not alone
our black traces, mud lines of wheels
like erased forbidden words.
Who the owl who in the trees
his only sermon. Now the bull speaks
in lowered horn, the sea's
dumb ardor licks the breath from our lips.
Wood is for the axe, the pen
to set aglow. Drawn round our book,
we recognize each other.
Language is our lost wood.
A headlong squirrel chitters
outside the summer heat of pews—
will the maple and the flea
be saved, but not unbelievers?
who
who
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FUNDSFORWRITERS — Grants, contests, markets and publishing calls for submissions. Over 35,000 readers. Chosen by Writer's Digest for its 101 Best Websites for Writers commendation for 2001-2010. Ten years of recognized excellence. www.fundsforwriters.com
From a grateful reader:
I opened an e-mail from the Ligonier Valley Writers' Conference—I was awarded a scholarship. Having discovered that conference thru you I thought it only proper you should know of my award. Small steps, small successes, large rewards...
Closing This Month
FISH POETRY PRIZE 2011
Entries must be received by March 30
Judge: Brian Turner, author of Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise
First Prize: 1,000 euros
The ten best poems will be published in the 2011 Fish Anthology, and the poets will receive five free copies.
Entry fee: 14 euros per poem when submitted online at www.fishpublishing.com, or 16 euros per poem when submitted by mail (instructions below). A critique is available for an additional 30 euros per poem.
General Guidelines
- The poetry contest is open to poets of any nationality writing in English
- Each poem is restricted to 200 words or less
- There is no restriction on theme or style
- The winning poems must be available for the anthology and, therefore, must not have been published previously
- Copyright returns to the poet one year after publication of the anthology. Entry is taken to be acceptance of these rules
- Results will be published on April 30, 2011
Entering by Mail
To enter by mail, please include your entry fee and poem in the same envelope. Do not put your name or address on the poem—put all contact details on a separate sheet. Checks payable to Fish Publishing. NOTE: Checks must be made out in the currency of the country from which they are sent, to the value of the fee. We will acknowledge receipt of entry by email only. Poems will not be returned. Critiques will be transmitted by email unless requested to be sent by mail. Mail your submissions to: The Fish Poetry Contest, Fish Publishing, Durrus, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland.
Full details of the competition and previous anthologies are online at www.fishpublishing.com along with the Fish One-Page Prize, and a great online Flash Fiction Writing Course. Questions? Please email info@fishpublishing.com.
Please enjoy this poem by Ken Taylor, a runner-up in our 2010 contest.
Ward Allen Woods
by Ken Taylor
walking the cross-country path,
not running, so as to catch
the offering of every
fecund circumstance: dogwood,
snake trail, rabbit poised to flee,
rhododendron, tulip tree
and all that pine – shadowy
sylvan drama opening
as i walk, both in the past
and now. i remember talk
of terza rima, sonnet,
tone, keats, donne, agamemnon,
ribald jokes, football, whiskey
agrarian ways, odd folks,
secret southern days and god.
cryptic lessons in the mix.
the once upends the present
and i'm off the course holding
a stick in front to give hell
to spider webs. loamy smell
brings back uncertainty, me
the awaiting graduate,
absurd june and a storm near.
lightning flash and i'm transfixed
and then the firmament
descends – an alabama
baptism washing the miles
away between then and here.
soon all is abruptly clear.
a mockingbird tune turns me
to old asphalt steaming up
a low rise. the skies settled.
there is rhythm to this place
and stanza and caesura
and one must walk to see it –
this place, this path, these moments.
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Ken Taylor was a runner-up in the 2010 Fish Poetry Prize with "Ward Allen Woods". He travelled to the west of Ireland to read at the West Cork Literary Festival and receive his award at the launch of the 2010 Fish Anthology. He was born in Alabama and now lives in North Carolina with his wife Phoebe, daughters Sally and Kate, their dog Dave, cat Muffin and various wild things in the woods. His plays Vows, 24 Hour Donut, Looking for Grace and The Name of the Bar is Heaven have been produced around the US. He is fond of juggling, photography, golf and Sam Beckett. His poetry has been published in the Auburn Circle and Chattahoochee Review, and the Fish Anthology.
Closing Next Month
Oneal Walters' 3rd Annual Women Inspirational Poetry Contest
Postmark Deadline: April 12
This is a call to all poets who write about WOMEN. Write about someone who inspires you. You may use a character depiction, a triumphant situation... Surprise us with your talent. ALL writers welcome. Winners will be notified in May 2011 by Oneal Walters; their names and the title of their winning poems will be published in OW News, a Monthly International Poetry Newsletter. All poems remain the property of the poet.
- First Place $110
- Second Place $60
- Third Place $30
Submission fee: $7 per poem, or submit three poems for $17. Submit as many entries as you like.
This contest is a celebration of inspirational women. Our journey as people and writers is to recognize those who display great attributes, those who endure through diverse challenges, and those who enrich us with their words. This contest is dedicated to all those women who have added to our lives, and made it easier for us to have hope. I encourage all writers to commemorate their loving memories of a phenomenal woman.
Submit original and unpublished poems. See the complete contest details at www.onealwalters.com/contests.html
"I would say that winning your contest reaffirmed my commitment as a poet. I felt supported, and appreciated—that meant a lot to me. Having my poem online is quite a joy. Being a poet is one of my purposes in life. To those who are entering—let life flow in you. Speak what needs to be spoken. Create what needs to exist. That is the goal of a poet."
—Alison Clarke (2009 winner)
Please enjoy this poem from the first-place winner of our 2010 contest:
Upon a Wing and a Smile
by Lynda Anaya
Lady is a flower;
stem strengthened by life,
tresses, petal soft
flowing in gentle breezes
catching clandestine sparkle
of falling constellations.
Appearing almost fragile;
her scented skin glowing
as moon shines, faintly
jealous of her light.
She basks in the afterglow
of accomplishment
singing lullabies to sleepy eyes,
still unaware of the strength
hiding behind soft eyes;
love fluttering within every blink
of feathered lashes.
~ ~ ~
My poem is dedicated to my Mom
and all Mothers whose love carries us
through life upon a wing and a smile!
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 Closing Next Month
12th Annual Tupelo Press Award for a First or Second Book of Poetry
Postmark Deadline: April 15
The 12th Annual Tupelo Press Award for a First or Second Book of Poetry is an open competition with a $3,000 prize. Submissions are accepted from anyone writing in the English language, whether living in the United States or abroad (translations are not eligible for this prize). Final judges are to be announced. Prior winners include Jennifer Michael Hecht, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Bill Van Every, Kristin Bock, and Jennifer Militello. All entries must be postmarked or uploaded to the online Submission Manager between January 1 and April 15, 2011. To submit your manuscript electronically and to see full guidelines, please visit our website:
http://www.tupelopress.org/first.php
You may also send your manuscript via postal mail. Please include a $25 reading fee, payable to Tupelo Press, a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for notification, as well as a self-addressed stamped postcard (SASP) if you would like acknowledgment that we received your manuscript. Manuscripts will not be returned. You may include an acknowledgments page listing previously published poems. Make sure that you include two cover pages. One with manuscript title, your name, address, phone number and email address. One with only manuscript title. Send your manuscript to:
Tupelo Press
Attn: First/Second Book Award
P.O. Box 1767
North Adams, MA 01247
Here is a poem by Kristin Bock, author of Cloisters (Tupelo Press, 2008), winner of the Tupelo Press First Book Award:
Wintering
by Kristin Bock
All night, hemlocks drop their cones on stone steps.
If the cones were slippers, I'd unlock the latch
for the woman who fled from her home in her nightgown.
From under the purple shade of the pines she'd come
to warm her feet in my hands. If her gown were hemmed
in hailstones, I'd fold it over my shoulder to thaw,
and with my lips, drop a seed under her tongue. We'd fall
asleep listening as the pines mourn the waxwings—
those birds in black masks who huddle on high limbs
passing berries from one mouth to another.
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Closing Next Month
19th Annual Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards
Co-sponsored by Book Marketing Works, LLC
Postmark Deadline: April 15
Writer's Digest is searching for the best self-published books of the past few years. Whether you're a professional writer, part-time freelancer, or a self-starting student, here's your chance to enter the only competition exclusively for self-published books! Click for the guidelines.
ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be awarded $3,000 cash and a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City. The editors of Writer's Digest will endorse and submit 10 copies of the Grand Prize-Winning book to major review houses. Brian Jud & Book Marketing Works, LLC will provide a one-year membership in the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), guaranteed acceptance in a special-sales catalog giving you national representation through 1,800 salespeople selling to non-bookstore markets, guaranteed acceptance by Atlas Books, a top distributor to wholesalers, chains, independents, and online retailers, six hours of book shepherding from Poynter Book Shepherd Ellen Reid and a guaranteed review in Midwest Book Review.
10 FIRST-PLACE WINNERS will receive $1,000 cash and promotion in Writer's Digest. In addition, Brian Jud & Book Marketing Works, LLC will provide a one-year membership in the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), a guaranteed review in Midwest Book Review, a one-year membership to Book Central Station where you can find lists of suppliers rated by previous clients, an ebook of Beyond the Bookstore by Brian Jud (with CD) and a copy of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers by Shel Horowitz.
Plus, all Grand Prize and First-Place winners will receive promotion on the Writer's Digest Web site at writersdigest.com, a copy of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 4th Edition by Tom and Marilyn Ross, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and a Notable Award Certificate.
HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS will receive promotion at www.writersdigest.com, $50 worth of Writer's Digest Books and a Notable Award Certificate.
All other entrants will receive Certificates of Participation, a brief judge's commentary and a listing with a link on the Writer's Digest Web site, provided an accurate URL is provided.
THE CATEGORIES:
- Mainstream/Literary Fiction
- Genre Fiction
- Nonfiction
- Inspirational (Spiritual, New Age)
- Life Stories (Biographies, Autobiographies, Family Histories, Memoirs)
- Children's/Picture books
- Middle-Grade/Young Adult books
- Reference Books (Directories, Encyclopedias, Guide Books)
- Poetry
American Short(er) Fiction Prize
Online Submission Deadline: May 1
This contest highlights great work in shorter fiction—stories of 1,000 words or less, to be exact. Judged by the editorial staff of American Short Fiction.
- First prize receives $500 and publication
- Second prize receives $250 and publication
A Few Salient Guidelines
- All entries must be unpublished fiction and 1,000 words or less. Please type and double-space.
- The entry fee is $15, payable via PayPal. When you have paid the entry fee, you will be given access to our online Submission Manager to submit your work.
- You may send up to three shorts per entry, but make sure they are all combined into ONE file for uploading. Each individual short may be up to 1,000 words, so the file can contain a maximum of 3,000 words.
- You may enter as many times as you like. Each separate entry requires its own fee of $15.
For complete instructions, please visit http://www.americanshortfiction.org/short-shorts
Please enjoy this excerpt from "Orient Point" by Emma Straub, our February web feature:
The day after our wedding, my parents told me they loved John. They said it together, at the kitchen table. I was already five months pregnant.
"He's a good man," my father said. "A good man."
"We're very happy for you," my mother said.
No one thought I would ever get married, not to somebody as clean as John, as fancy. That's what they were really saying—that I'd waddled backwards into it like a scuba diver plopping off the back of a boat. That he wouldn't have married me otherwise, and what luck. And they were right. Eve had three cousins already on her father's side, slim, long children all. There were family outings to the beach, camping trips. They sang songs and did the puzzle. My parents didn't close the door when they used the bathroom, and as far as I knew, no one in John's family had ever even had to go.
Eve looked like me, with dark features and a cloudy expression. She often cried when faced with cheery strangers at the grocery store, a trait I admired. She was an excellent screamer. In a few weeks, she would be a year old. I'd always hated it when parents counted in months, the same way that pregnant women counted in weeks, as though their time was too precious to use such large units of measure. John would have described Eve's age in days, if he could count that high. It was like he thought that she was the only baby who had ever been born.
"I am too hot to breathe," I said. We were only forty minutes out of the city, but the concrete landscape had already relaxed into long, uninterrupted stretches of trees.
John didn't respond, instead just stared at the road in front of him. We zoomed by the huddled body of a dead deer on the median, and then another. John seemed not to notice.
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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
- 30 Third Prizes will receive $10 each
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All prize winners will receive a prize certificate suitable for framing and a ticket to the Dancing Poetry Festival 2011, and be invited to read their prizewinning poem at our 18th Festival at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (September 24, 2011, Noon-4pm). The top three poems chosen as Grand Prizes will be choreographed, costumed and recorded live in an on-stage performance at the Festival. See pictures from our 2010 Festival.
Last year's Grand Prize winners included Ana Elsner, Art Schwartz and Pat Tompkins. 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. Entries should be typed.
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.
 Announcing...The Idaho Prize for Poetry 2011
Postmark Deadline: May 15
$1,000 cash prize, plus publication by Lost Horse Press. Winners will be announced in August 2011.
Send manuscripts of 48 or more pages of poetry, no more than one poem per page, no smaller than 12-point type in an easily readable font. Poems may have appeared in journals and chapbooks, but not in full-length, single-author collections.
Name, address, phone number, email address, and title of poetry collection must appear on the cover letter only. The goal is "blind" judging. Author's name should not appear anywhere in manuscript except the cover letter.
No restriction on content, style, or subject—we're looking for the best manuscript.
All checks or money orders for entry fee—$25—should be made payable to Lost Horse Press. Submissions without a reading fee enclosed will not be considered. A $50 fee will be charged for returned checks.
Include SASE (a self-addressed #10 business envelope) with sufficient postage for notification of finalists and winner. Manuscripts will be recycled. We are sorry but manuscripts cannot be returned.
If manuscripts arrive postage due, they will be returned.
Use white, lightweight paper. Quality paper won't impress readers the way a quality manuscript will.
Typed and printed on one side of the paper only. No handwriting should appear anywhere on the manuscript.
Entries submitted by email or fax are not permitted and will be disqualified.
Send submissions to:
Lost Horse Press
Attn: The Idaho Prize
105 Lost Horse Lane
Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
Questions? Please visit our website at www.losthorsepress.org, call 208-255-4410, or email losthorsepress@mindspring.com.
 Lost Horse Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, independent press that publishes poetry titles of high literary merit, and makes available fine contemporary literature through cultural, educational and publishing programs and activities. Christine Holbert, founder and publisher of Lost Horse Press, earned her publishing degree from Eastern Washington University in 1998. At that time, she realized that few independent presses in the region could afford to hire a full-time editor or book designer. She understood that the place to pursue a serious publishing career was New York, but since she didn’t want to live in the City, Holbert decided to found a literary press so she could have a job. And live in the country. So, in June 1998, she established Lost Horse Press in her home south of Spokane, Washington. Holbert and the Press moved to Sandpoint, to a Mennonite-built log cabin in the Sunnyside area, in 1999. There—by the shores of 43-mile-long Lake Pend Oreille—Christine reviews and edits manuscripts, designs covers and text, typesets books, designs catalogs, promotes Lost Horse books, manages marketing, oversees interns and volunteers, and negotiates with distributors, bookstores, printers, authors, and other publishers.
Christine Holbert has guided to completion such outstanding titles as Love by Valerie Martin, Composing Voices: A Cycle of Dramatic Monologues by Robert Pack, Thistle by Melissa Kwasny, Woman on the Cross and Tales of a Dalai Lama by Pierre Delattre, Just Waking by Christopher Howell, The Baseball Field at Night by Patricia Goedicke, and A Change of Maps by Carolyne Wright, among others. In its eleven years of existence, the Press has published twenty-six books of poetry and ten fiction titles, many of which have won national awards.
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As previously noted, our New Literary Resources and Recommended Books features now appear in our quarterly special issues, which are published on March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1. Contest announcements and calls for submissions appear in our regular monthly newsletters.
20 Best Travel Writing Blogs
OnlineDegree, a site that collects information on distance learning programs, has compiled this list of high-quality travel writing blogs. Whether you're trying to break into this writing market or just looking for exotic vacation tips, these blogs will take you to new places.
African American Literature Book Club
AALBC is dedicated to promoting literature by and about black people. Founded in 1997 by Troy Johnson, AALBC.com is a widely recognized source of author profiles, book recommendations, active discussion boards, writer resources, informative articles, videos, and book reviews.
Anti-
The online journal Anti- is contrarian, a devil's advocate that primarily stands against the confinement of poetry in too-small boxes. Anti- wants to provide a single arena for a wide range of styles and ideas, so these different kinds of poets and poems can either fight it out or learn to coexist. Submissions accepted by email.
Arkansas Writers' Conference
Held each summer since 1944, the Arkansas Writers' Conference offers two days of workshops and an awards banquet for winners of their poetry contest. The top prizes are only open to conference attendees; other themed contests offer smaller prizes (typically $25-$50) and are open to all writers, or to Arkansas writers only.
Blackbird
Blackbird is a multimedia online literary journal, co-sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review. They publish poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, artwork, and audio and video works. Prominent authors published in Blackbird include Linda Bierds, Norman Dubie, George Garrett, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Philip Levine, Spencer Reece, and Mathias Svalina.
Book Promotion Scam: Beware of Pay-to-Play TV Talk Shows
This article from the blog of essayist Kim Brittingham, author of the memoir Read My Hips, exposes a book promotion scam. In a new wrinkle on vanity publishing, infomercials disguised as TV talk shows will invite authors to appear...for a fee. Bottom line: legitimate TV shows don't charge their guests.
Contrary
Contrary, a literary journal, was founded in 2003 by students and alumni of the University of Chicago's masters program in the humanities. Now based on the South Side of Chicago, it publishes original commentary, fiction, and poetry from around the world. This is a paying market. Regular contributors have included Shaindel Beers, Kiki Petrosino, Gregory Lawless, Corey Mesler, and Edward McWhinney.
Copper Nickel: A Journal of Art and Literature
Copper Nickel is edited, designed, and published through a student-teacher collaboration at the University of Colorado Denver. Their submission period is August 15-April 15. They also offer an annual fiction and poetry contest. Recent contributors include Sandra Beasley, Noah Eli Gordon, Bob Hicok, Wayne Miller, Margot Schilpp, and G.C. Waldrep. This market seems most appropriate for intermediate to advanced writers.
Dalkey Archive Press
This independent publisher in Champaign, Illinois specializes in bringing translations of world literature to the US market. Their website features author interviews, information for bookstores and reviewers, critical essays on contemporary literature, and other resources of interest to translators.
Etruscan Press
Based in Pennsylvania, Etruscan Press is a nonprofit cooperative of writers producing books that nurture the dialogue among genres, achieve distinctive voice, and reshape our literary and cultural histories. Their catalogue of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism includes the authors H.L. Hix, Paul Lisicky, Carol Moldaw, Bruce Bond, and Kazim Ali.
Fiction Writers Review
This online journal publishes author interviews and reviews of books by emerging authors of literary fiction.
Fictionaut
Fictionaut brings the social web to literary fiction, connecting readers and writers through a community network that doubles as self-selecting magazine highlighting the most exciting short stories, poetry, flash fiction, and novel excerpts. The blog can be read by the general public. To join the social network, you need to request an invite via the link on their website.
Figment
Along with peer feedback and member contests, this online writers' forum also boasts a classy site design, author interviews, and exclusive excerpts from new books. Figment was co-founded by Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and Jacob Lewis, the former Managing Editor at The New Yorker and Condé Nast Portfolio.
Hayden's Ferry Review
Hayden's Ferry Review is the literary journal of Arizona State University. Editors read year-round with an average response time of 3-4 months. This is a paying market. They accept poetry (maximum 6 poems per entry), fiction, nonfiction, artwork, and translations. No length limit for prose. Enter through online submission manager.
Idiots' Books
Idiots' Books is a Maryland-based indie press that publishes offbeat, satirical illustrated books featuring the work of writer Matthew Swanson and illustrator Robbi Behr. Books are distributed through a subscription service. Titles include Dawn of the Fats, billed as "the oft-neglected examination of that special place where funnel cakes and zombiism collide"; Ten Thousand Stories, a book whose split pages can be recombined into 10,000 absurd but still grammatical narratives; and After Everafter, which gives ten classic fairy tales the same (mis)treatment.
Institute of Children's Literature
Resource site for authors of children's books. Offerings include a correspondence course and the "Rx for Writers" e-newsletter with writing prompts, how-to articles, and calls for submissions.
Interstitial Arts Foundation
The Interstitial Arts Foundation supports the creation and critical study of literary, visual, musical, and performance art that occupies the margins between categories, genres, and disciplines. Its founders include acclaimed fantasy writers Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Terri Windling. See website for submission guidelines for Interfictions Zero, a rolling online anthology of interstitial criticism on interstitial texts.
Kattywompus Press
This small press based in Cleveland Heights, Ohio publishes chapbooks of innovative, contemporary writing in a variety of genres: poetry, a chapbook-length essay collection, a rollicking long prose poem or gaggle of shorter prose poems, a clutch of micro-fictions, one incredible short story, or a chapbook-friendly slice of autobiography, travelogue, or art criticism. $15 reading fee. Enter online only. The no-simultaneous-submissions rule is unusual for manuscript submissions, but they promise to respond within four weeks.
Kugelmass
Published by Firewheel Editions, Kugelmass is a twice-yearly journal of literary humor. They publish short fiction and essays, 1,000-4,000 words. Enter through their online submission manager. Editors say, "We like things that are funny. Think George Saunders and David Sedaris and Woody Allen and Jack Handey and Bill Bryson. We're also believers that funny can be sad and poignant and gritty and whimsical. We like when funny gets dark or ambiguously inappropriate."
Los Angeles Review
Los Angeles Review, an imprint of the prestigious literary publisher Red Hen Press, features poetry, short fiction, essays, memoirs, commentary, reviews, and translations. Each issue is dedicated to a contemporary writer or cultural leader; honorees have included Ishmael Reed, Eloise Klein Healy, Judy Grahn, and Bruce Holland Rogers.
Manuscript Editing by Lynda Lotman
This fiction and nonfiction editing service has been favorably reviewed at Absolute Write. Genres include children's literature, Christian books, science fiction, mysteries, and romance.
Motion Poems
MotionPoems features short, evocative, professionally produced videos that dramatize the poems being read on the soundtrack. Featured authors include Robert Bly, Todd Boss, Jane Hirshfield, and Freya Manfred. At present, they are not accepting unsolicited submissions.
Nashville Review
Nashville Review, an online journal published by Vanderbilt University, seeks to feature those forms of writing not often recognized as literature—music, comics, film, creative nonfiction, oral storytelling, drama, dance—alongside the more traditional forms of fiction and poetry. This is a paying market. Enter through their online submission manager.
Numinous: Spiritual Poetry
This online journal based in New Zealand publishes poems of a spiritual nature written in any style. Contributors have included such well-known authors as Annie Finch, Barry Spacks, and Martin Willitts Jr. Authors may submit one group of 4-6 unpublished poems per year.
On Giving It Away
In this essay in Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry, poet and novelist Tracy Koretsky writes about building a readership by making her self-published poetry collection Even Before My Own Name available for free download from her website. Koretsky is the Winning Writers Poetry Reviewer, whose critiques of subscriber work appear in our monthly e-newsletter.
Oyez Review
Oyez Review is the student-run literary journal of Roosevelt University in Chicago, publishing poetry, literary fiction and nonfiction, and original artwork. Well-known contributors have included Barry Ballard, Ace Boggess, Gaylord Brewer, Moira Egan, and John Surowiecki. Authors of narrative free verse, prose-poems, and magical realism may find this journal a particularly good fit. Reading period August 1-October 1; no simultaneous submissions.
Peepal Tree Press
Based in Leeds, England, Peepal Tree Press publishes Caribbean and Black British fiction, poetry, literary criticism, memoirs and historical studies. In addition to their catalogue of contemporary authors, their Caribbean Modern Classics Series restores to print essential classic books from the 1950s and '60s.
PenTales
Online writers' forum PenTales strives to empower people to share and discover stories through live events, collaborative books, and a curated online platform. They publish narrative poetry, flash fiction, and artwork. See website for currently open themes.
Pilot Books
Based in Western Massachusetts, Pilot Books is a publisher of artistically designed, limited-edition poetry chapbooks. Editors say, "We strive to publish innovative work, and believe that innovative work demands innovative design; all of our books are designed and printed in ways unique and luminous to the manuscript itself. We take the editorial and design process as a seriously creative act, one that gives the poems an opportunity to live a physical life that the reader can interact with in new ways."
PMS: poemmemoirstory
Based in Birmingham, Alabama, PMS is an annual journal of creative writing by women. Submissions must be received between January 1 and March 31. Send 1-5 poems, or maximum 15 pages (4,300 words) of prose. Notable authors published in PMS include Edwidge Danticat, Ruth Stone, and Molly Peacock.
Poetry Dances
The writers' forum FanStory sponsors this website for emerging writers, which offers tips on writing in a variety of poetic forms.
Q Avenue Press
Launched in 2004 by award-winning poet Curtis Bauer, Q Avenue Press publishes hand-bound chapbooks. Editors say, "We are devoted to publishing new writing, whether prose, poetry, or some combination of the two, new translations, and books that incorporate visual art with writing." Titles include I take back the sponge cake by Loren Erdrich and Sierra Nelson, an illustrated poetry chapbook modeled on choose-your-own-adventure novels.
Recovering the Lost Joy of Poetry Games
This essay by poet Marcus Goodyear from the magazine Books & Culture celebrates the playful spirit in poetry and contends that it can be a necessary leaven for poems that address difficult themes.
Rock & Sling: A Journal of Literature, Art, and Faith
Attractively produced journal publishes poetry, prose, and artwork that engages with Christian
spirituality in complex and subtle ways. The journal was launched in 2004 to find a middle ground between "the narrow religious market, which is driven more by theology than literary quality, and the literary world which is often dismissive of faith." Contributors include award-winning writers such as Ellen Bass, Luci Shaw, Sydney Lea, and Susanna Childress. Rock & Sling suspended operations in fall 2008, then re-launched in summer 2010 with new editors under the auspices of Whitworth University, a Presbyterian college in Spokane, WA.
Small Beer Press
This independent press based in Western Massachusetts was founded in 2000 by the husband-and-wife team of Gavin Grant and Kelly Link, award-winning authors and editors of The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror anthology series. The press publishes an eclectic mix of magical realist and literary fantasy and science fiction, as well as the Working Writer's Daily Planner, an attractive and useful datebook that includes contest announcements and writing advice.
Southern California Review
This literary journal from the University of Southern California accepts submissions year-round, by postal mail only. Send 1-3 unpublished poems or one story or essay, maximum 8,000 words. Editors say, "We do consider genre work (horror, mystery, romance, and sci-fi) if it transcends the boundaries of the genre." They also occasionally publish one-act or ten-page plays, scenes, and monologues, and scenes from screenplays.
Stages and Pages
Writer, editor, and theatre professional Francine L. Trevens reviews books, movies, and stage productions at her blog.
Sweet: A Literary Confection
This online literary journal publishes poetry and creative nonfiction by emerging and established writers. Sweet is published three times a year, in September, January, and May. Send 3-5 poems, or 2-3 short-shorts or one longer essay up to 3,500 words, through their online submission manager. Contributors have included Nin Andrews, Rachel Furey, Laura McCullough, and Dinty W. Moore.
Telling Our Stories Press
This publisher showcases the art of literary personal narratives and encourages storytelling via reflection and self-analysis. They accept submissions of memoirs from 100 words to 50 pages, for inclusion in anthologies or publication as a stand-alone chapbook.
The Dos Passos Review
The Dos Passos Review, a publication of Briery Creek Press, seeks literary prose or poetry that demonstrates characteristics found in the work of John Dos Passos, such as an intense and original exploration of specifically American themes; an innovative quality; and a range of literary forms, especially in the genres of fiction and creative nonfiction. Reading periods are April 1-July 31 for Fall Issue, February 1- March 30 for Spring Issue.
The Greensboro Review
The Greensboro Review is the literary journal of the University of North Carolina Greensboro. They accept submissions of unpublished fiction (maximum 25 double-spaced pages) and poetry (maximum 10 single-spaced pages per submission). Online entries are accepted through Submishmash. Deadlines are February 15 and September 15 annually; late entries will be held for the next issue. They also offer the annual Robert Watson Literary Prizes in fiction and poetry.
Three Percent
A project of the University of Rochester's publishing house Open Letter Books, Three Percent is a resource for international literature. Their blog features reviews of world literature in translation. They also offer the Best Translated Book Award with sponsorship from Amazon.com.
Topside Press
Launched in 2011 in Brooklyn, Topside Press is interested in literature by and about transgender people. Editors Tom Leger and Riley MacLeod co-produced the STAGES Transgender Theatre Festival in 2003 and have written short films and musical comedy.
Used Furniture Review
Quirky online literary journal features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, experimental writing, artwork, book reviews and interviews. They seek new writers with distinctive voices. Recent contributors include Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Roxane Gay, Paul Lisicky, Taylor Mali, and Susan Tepper.
VIDA: Women in Literary Arts
Award-winning poets Cate Marvin and Erin Belieu founded this online community in August 2009 to address the need for female writers of literature to engage in conversations regarding women's work as well as the critical reception of women's creative writing in our current culture. Formerly known as WILLA: Women in Letters and Literary Arts.
West Branch
West Branch, the literary journal of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, publishes poetry, short fiction, essays, poetry book reviews, and translations. Reading period is August 15-April 15. Enter through online submission manager. This is a paying market.
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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Cold June
By Francine Witte. The men and women who populate this flash fiction chapbook don't have much time. They do desperate, magical, outrageous things to bridge the all-too-ordinary distances between them, the indifference of lovers and the clumsiness of communication. The rare happy marriage can almost survive the world's end, it seems, whereas for many others, even a trip to outer space won't rekindle the fire. This chapbook won the 2010 Thomas A. Wilhelmus Award from RopeWalk Press.
Folly Bridge
By M. Lee Alexander. This poetry chapbook from Finishing Line Press charms the senses with narrative poems that sing the particular music of locales ranging from Oxford to the Kansas prairie. One can hear the splash of the oars in the languid call-and-response of "Punt House, River Cherwell", or the off-key enthusiasm of the Midwestern mother in "Roxie Margaret Mouths the Words", who gives her children the gift she was denied, the belief that everyone deserves to find their voice. Alexander creates characters that will remain in readers' hearts.
From the Box Marked Some Are Missing: New & Selected Poems
By Charles W. Pratt. This delightful first volume in Hobblebush Books' Granite State Poetry Series offers formal verse that is light-footed, elegant, and full of surprises. Many of Pratt's poems concern his work as an apple-grower in New Hampshire, describing the farming life with humor, wistfulness, and reverence. There are also poems of family life, European travel, meditations on aging and the mystery that lies beyond.
In My Father's House: A Memoir of Polygamy
By Dorothy Allred Solomon. This insightful, compassionate memoir tells of growing up within a breakaway fundamentalist Mormon sect that considered plural marriage a holy obligation. A theology of eternal family bonds, combined with the need to hide from persecution, drew her father's many wives and children closer together but also stifled their self-development. Amid the upheaval of social roles in the 1960s and '70s, the author strives to discover her own connection to God without rejecting her people. Personal narrative is well-balanced with historical background. First written in 1984, this book was reissued in 2009 by Texas Tech University Press.
the lake has no saint
By Stacey Waite. Repeated images of old houses, vines, and being underwater give this poetry chapbook the blurry, yearning atmosphere of a recurring dream, where one searches for the lost or never-known phrase that would make sense of a cloud of memories. Even as Waite offers compelling glimpses of discovering a masculine self within a body born female, womanhood exerts its tidal pull through domestic scenes with a female lover who seems perpetually on the verge of vanishing. This collection won the Snowbound Series Chapbook Award from Tupelo Press.
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Quilts
by Thelma T. Reyna
Mother plugged up the coffee spout
with foil after dinner
to keep the cockroaches out
and laid a pile
of patchwork quilts on the chilly floor
for us to sleep on and urinate.
She hung them on the doors
next morning,
colorful, stinky banners hanging
room through room
to dry—rearranging
them next night so the most pissed
would be on the bottom of the stack
and we could sleep without the stench
of too much wetness.
Her black
coffee sometimes had a baby cockroach
drowned in its bitters. Got through the foil, I guess,
damned little fool,
got through the plug to mess
her brew, as we messed her quilts—
growing kids lying shoulder to shoulder
on the floor,
growing older,
still peeing, still wrapped in each other's arms
to keep warm.
Copyright 2011 by Thelma T. Reyna
This poem is reprinted from her collection Breath & Bone, which was a semifinalist in the 2010 New Women's Voices Chapbook Competition and will be published in April by Finishing Line Press.
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Ito Jakuchu artist b. 1716, Kyoto
by Elisavietta Ritchie
A boy in his father's market, he arranges
radishes, long and white as albino carrots
with fat scarlet tubers, in patterns mixed
like stones in the temple courtyard,
piles melons high as the mountains beyond
the stalls, polishes squashes, loquats and ginger,
shakes rain from bouquets of green onions.
His small fingers stroke the shitakes' gills
so lightly they leave no mark but
come away fragrant with rotting oak.
His father cannot trust him to guard the poultry:
he might unhinge bamboo cages to free the ducks.
He releases roosters into the snow, scatters
good grain so they stay pecking there
long enough for him to sketch tail plumes
dark-green fire, manes iridescent bronze,
proud heads with rubbery wattles.
In lulls between serving housewives with plums,
trading spinach for seaweed with clam diggers,
and bartering rice for salt with farmers,
with swiped charcoal lumps he draws
chrysanthemums on the sign boards,
swirls, birds and bamboo on the banners,
prefiguring colors on rice paper, silk
edged with brocade, scrolls so precious
temple priests hide them away from the eyes
of peasants, fishermen, vendors of juice.
He would understand why I apologize
to the tomato before my knife slices,
caress the tawny hen while I wait
for the stew pot to boil.
Copyright 2011 by Elisavietta Ritchie
This poem is reprinted from her book Cormorant Beyond the Compost, recently published by Cherry Grove Collections. It was first published in Visions International.
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The Hold Up
by Elaine Zimmerman
There you were collecting the week's money
from the cigarette machine at Lenny's when
he put the gun to your head. Sharp, but quiet.
And you, knowing this was the finale, invited
him to drink. Pulled a new bottle of Seagrams
and two shot glasses from the gold Impala.
Both of you sitting in darkness, near the alley.
Wondering if you should slip out, leave him
the damn car and save your skin, or drink on
and on. You talked of women, his time in jail.
Laughed over slim escapes, the Brooklyn mob.
Blackbirds sang above the corner market,
just hosed down for the day's mangoes and rum.
You gave him quarters from all the machines,
pinball, jukebox, candy—in one red, plaid bag.
Threw in a carton of Camels and wished him luck,
after such a great night. I loved you for this.
Turning tragedy to story. Each plot putting
the gun down and further away. Savored
your knowing that one small connection might
alter the plan. Laughter and rich tales would
splice the ending, if you could just get there
in time. Words travelled a different alley, less
dank and narrow. Nothing gone but a bag
full of quarters, one night's sleep and the vast
terror between a dark hunger and speech.
Copyright 2011 by Elaine Zimmerman
This poem was first published in the Spring 2011 issue of Coal Hill Review, a publication of Autumn House Press.
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Composite Color
by Robert Savino
The night sky is black, perforated by bb holes
of light, sometimes under a blanket of doubt.
Perhaps it will change to African American night;
and Indian Summer to Native American autumn.
Why not...ask Crayola!
prussian blue changed to midnight blue
flesh is now peach
indian red, chestnut
and while green-blue, orange-red and lemon-yellow
were retired and enshrined in the Hall of Fame,
pink flamingo, banana mania and fuzzy
wuzzy brown were added to the list.
Segregation has become a tempered memory.
A double scoop of chocolate and vanilla,
once packed like fists of Sugar Ray
and Jake, now melts in handshakes.
Sammy and Frank; Martin and Bobby—
forging connections, a slow crawl
of tap dance steps to gigantean proportions,
a mixing bowl with no sense of separation.
Crayola brands, ice-cream stands,
playful minds, shaded hues of humanity.
Copyright 2010 by Robert Savino
This poem was first published in the Fall 2010 issue of North American Review.
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2011 Poet's Market
Published each August by Writer's Digest, this is the best annual directory of journals, magazines, book publishers, chapbook publishers, websites, grants, conferences, workshops and contests. Helps you find publishers who are looking for your kind of work.
2011 Writer's Market
Annual directory for prose writers from Writer's Digest offers over 3,500 listings of book publishers, magazines, trade publications and literary agents. Helpful articles cover topics such as using social media and how much to charge for your work. "The most valuable of tools for the writer new to the marketplace," says Stephen King in On Writing, "If you're really poor, ask someone to give it to you for Christmas."
2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market
Annual directory for fiction writers from Writer's Digest includes over 1,100 listings of magazines, book publishers, literary agents and contests, plus interviews with authors, agents, and other publishing professionals.
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Advertise to 35,000 Poets and Writers
Promote your contests, websites, workshops, events, and publications in this newsletter. Reach over 35,000 poets and writers for $100. 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
"The results were great for the money—a good value."
David Dodd Lee, judge of the Lester M. Wolfson Poetry Award sponsored by 42 Miles Press
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
ProLiteracy Launches the Keys to Safety Fire Prevention and Safety Campaign
Adults with limited literacy may find it difficult to read or understand critical fire safety information. Without home fire safety and prevention education, these adults and their families are at a greater risk for loss, injury, or death due to fire.
 To help decrease this risk, ProLiteracy is proud to announce the launch of the Keys to Safety Campaign, a national effort that promotes fire prevention and safety education through local adult education and literacy programs. Through April 2011, ProLiteracy is providing free campaign materials and support to help programs organize Keys to Safety activities in their communities, independently or in collaboration with area fire departments. Free fire safety materials for teachers and tutors to use with adult learners in instructional settings are also available through Keys to Safety, including the Home Safety Council's Home Safety Literacy Project Kit.
All ProLiteracy member organizations will receive free Keys to Safety campaign materials in the mail to mark the start of the campaign. Members may sign up for the campaign on the Keys to Safety website, or return the campaign participation form included with the printed materials. Non-members can request the free materials on the website.
ProLiteracy will host several webinars to introduce the Keys to Safety materials and suggest ways to participate locally. Webinar dates include:
- March 10, 2011, at 2 p.m. EST
- March 15, 2011, at 2 p.m. EST
Each session is limited to 30 participants, so register today! After the March 15 session, a recording of the webinar will be available in the resources section of the Keys to Safety website.
For more information, visit the Keys to Safety website, proliteracy.org/keystosafety, or contact Katie Schisa, Keys to Safety project manager, at (315) 422-9121 ext. 250 or at firesafety@proliteracy.org.
Keys to Safety is sponsored by ProLiteracy. The project was made possible with funding from DHS/FEMA's Grant Program Directorate for Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program - Fire Prevention and Safety Grants and assistance from the Home Safety Council and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
 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 newsletter to a friend and we'll donate 15 cents to ProLiteracy for each friend you refer.
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2009 WERGLE FLOMP HUMOR POETRY CONTEST—HONORABLE MENTION
WARNING
by Paul Hlava
This product may cause excitability in children
Do not use this product if you are pregnant
Consult your doctor if you are ill
Do not use this product if you will be pregnant
Do not shake this product
Do not leave this product out of sight for 48 hours
It is lonely
Do not make loud noises around this product
Do not look directly at this product
Do not hold this product
This product may cause baldness,
Obesity, impotence, irreversible communism,
Homosexuality in heterosexual men
And heterosexuality in homosexual men
Do not use this product on the deceased
Do not use this product if you will be deceased
Do not taunt this product
This product may cause bird flu
Your teeth may turn into lit cigarettes
Your hair may become carnivorous earwigs
You will sneeze out mouthfuls of mice wearing parachutes
When you smile you will spontaneously combust
If you've read until the end it's already too late
Copyright 2009 Paul Hlava
Sent as a joke to PoetryPoem.com, this poem won an honorable mention in the 2009 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest sponsored by Winning Writers. Author Paul Hlava received a cash prize of $72.95. See the judge's comments on the 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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