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Award-Winning Poems: Winter 2011-2012
One of the "101 Best Websites for Writers"
Writer's Digest, 2005-2011
Welcome to our Winter 2011-2012 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 December 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 is proud to have received Special Recognition from Preditors and Editors in November 2011 for our "efforts in helping writers avoid scams".
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"We can tell by our data readings that Winning Writers is an economical and efficient way to advertise both the Anderbo Poetry Prize and The RRofihe Trophy/Open City Short Story Contest." —Rick Rofihe, Publisher & Editor-In-Chief, anderbo
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FEATURED SPONSOR'S MESSAGE
Welcome to Carpe Articulum Literary Review!
This issue is a one-of-a-kind collector's issue. It features close friends and family of the late film icon, Elizabeth Taylor, special interviews and great art, guest appearances by Dr. Wilton Dillon, Senior Scholar Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution, and David Halloran, Dartmouth College, a farewell to the talented Jack Sheridan—first discovered here at CALR—the announcements of the CALR Short Fiction/Novella awards, STUNNING photography and so much more!
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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 was just last October's issue!
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!
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RECENT HONORS FOR OUR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS
Congratulations to Aaron Smith. His debut book, Shanti Bloody Shanti: An Indian Odyssey, was released in November by Transit Lounge Publishing, an Australian small press with a particular interest in creative literary publishing that explores the relationships between East and West, entertains and promotes insights into diverse cultures and encompasses diverse genres. Smith describes Shanti Bloody Shanti as "a Generation-X-er's wild coming of (middle) age Indian travelogue adventure." Visit his website to learn more.
Congratulations to Jason Schossler. His poetry collection Mud Cakes was recently published as the winner of the 2010 Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize from Bona Fide Books. He kindly shares a sample poem below. The most recent submission period for this $500 award was June 1-August 31.
Congratulations to Rolli. His debut collection of short fiction, God's Autobio, was recently published by the Canadian press Now Or Never Publishing. Read a sample here, and find out whether an English professor can talk a tiger out of eating him.
Congratulations to Yvonne Fein. Her screenplay "April Fool" won first prize in the Action/Adventure category of the 2011 US Gotham Screen Screenplay Contest sponsored by New York's Gotham Screen International Film Festival. The grand prize in this contest was $2,500. Sign up for their e-newsletter to find out about the next contest. Visit Yvonne's website to learn more about her novels and screenplays.
Congratulations to Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Two of her books placed in the USA Best Books 2011 Awards from USABookNews.com, an online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishers. Awards were presented for titles published in 2010 and 2011. Carolyn's The Frugal Book Promoter won best business book in the writing category, and Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational, a collection she co-authored with Magdalena Ball, was a finalist in the poetry category. Visit her website to learn more about these and other titles.
RECENT HONORS FOR POETRY CONTEST INSIDER SUBSCRIBERS
Congratulations to William Duvall. His poems "William Still—The Station Master Recruits" and "James B. Still—While Drilling Air Holes in Crates" won honorable mentions in the 2011 Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry Contest from the Detroit Writers Guild. The most recent deadline for this $100 prize was August 30. In addition, his poem "Typist" won first prize in the poetry category of the 2011 Penumbra Poetry & Haiku Contest from the Tallahassee Writers' Association. Winning Writers subscriber Gerardo Mena won the haiku category for "War Haiku". The most recent deadline for this contest, which offered top prizes of $100 for poetry and $50 for haiku, was August 31. Bill writes, "Of course I found both contests on the Winning Writers website."
Congratulations to Ruth Hill. Her poems "If a Barn..." and "The Two Folding Chairs of Valleyview" won honorable mentions in the Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry Contest from Detroit Writers Guild. In addition, her poem "Fading Into Fog" won third prize in the Bob and Francis Fyr Memorial Award for poems on the theme of "Lighthouses", sponsored by Kirk and Jerri Hardesty, with a top prize of $25. This contest was one of the categories in the Fall 2011 Alabama State Poetry Society Poetry Competition. This twice-yearly contest offers prizes up to $100 for ASPS members, $50 for non-members, for poems on various themes. The most recent deadline was September 24.
RECENT PUBLICATION CREDITS FOR OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Arthur Powers' poems "Workmen Repairing The Flagpole At The Municipal Hall", "Trios on a Rose Trombone", "The Beggar Woman", and "1945" were published in the online journal hotmetalpress. Arthur writes, "Thanks as always to Winning Writers, who first linked me with hotmetal (they have since published a number of my poems over the years)."
Gary W Szelc's poetry collection Red Mars and Other Poems from September 11th and Other Places is now available from PublishAmerica. This book is one person's reaction to that day's tragic events and the days, months, and years following. Based on observation and imagination, it is divided into three parts: the first relates to the shock of the catastrophe and the days following; the second part to the weeks and months afterwards; and the third, a more universal look at the passage of time and healing. The poems range from the traditional to the unorthodox.
Nicole Nicholson's poem "High School Jungle" was published in Hyperlexia, a literary journal about autism. Her short film featuring her poem "Letter to My Father" recently appeared in two exhibits: the ARS Spectra exhibit at the Soho Gallery of Digital Art in Manhattan, which ran October 27-30, and The Art of Autism Exhibit at the Good Purpose Gallery in Lee, Massachusetts, November 4-6.
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CONTESTS HOSTED AT WINNING WRITERS & OPEN NOW
All entries that win cash prizes in these contests will be published on WinningWriters.com (over one million page views per year) and announced in the Winning Writers Newsletter, with over 35,000 subscribers.
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest
Postmark Deadline: March 31, 2012
Now in its 20th 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.
Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest (no fee)
Online Submission Deadline: April 1, 2012
Winning Writers invites you to enter the 11th 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.
Sports Poetry & Prose Contest - New!
Online Submission Deadline: May 31, 2012
New from Winning Writers, our Sports Poetry & Prose Contest will award $5,000 in total prizes, including a $1,500 top prize for poetry and a $1,500 top prize for prose (fiction and nonfiction). Submit an unpublished entry of 1-2 poems or one work of prose on a sports-related theme, up to 6,000 words in all. Fee is $15 per entry. Final judge: Jendi Reiter. Click for the complete guidelines.
Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse
Postmark Deadline: June 30, 2012
Now in its ninth year, this contest seeks poetry in traditional verse forms. Both published and unpublished poems are welcome. 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 $8 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. The winners of the eighth contest will be announced here on December 15, 2011.
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AT THE IMPERIAL PALACE
by Suji Kwock Kim
Winner of the 2011 George Bogin Memorial Award
Postmark Deadline: December 22
This long-running, prestigious award from the Poetry Society of America offers $500 for a group of poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinary and to take a stand against oppression in any of its forms. Kim's unflinching poem testifies to the horrors of a repressive regime through the voices of servants who clean up the evidence of its off-stage excesses.
MENDOCINO and other poems
by Charles Douthat
Winner of the 2011 L.L. Winship Award
Postmark Deadline: December 31
PEN New England offers this $1,000 prize for published books of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction with a New England author or setting. Douthat's Blue for Oceans won the 2011 poetry award (for books published in 2010). These lyric poems pay tribute to love's persistence in memory, even as we accept the passing of the days that "whispered through us".
PAPER KISS, PAPER MOON
by Haines Eason
Winner of the 2010 Cream City Review Contest
Postmark Deadline: December 31
This established literary journal from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee offers $1,000 prizes for poetry, fiction, and essays. Eason won their 2010 Beau Boudreaux Poetry Prize for a group of poems. In this precarious love poem, "betrayal" and "betrothal" are only a breath apart.
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 will gain the most attention for your work, 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.
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2009 WAR POETRY CONTEST—HONORABLE MENTION
A WILD LIFE ZOO
by Natalie Diaz
—sleep is good, better is death
Heinrich Heine, "Morphine"
I watched a lion eat a man like a piece of fruit, peel tendons from fascia
like pith from rind, then lick the sweet meat from its hard core of bones.
The man had earned this feast and his own deliciousness by ringing a stick
against the lion's cage, calling out Here, Kitty Kitty, Meow!
With one swipe of a paw much like a catcher's mitt with fangs, the lion
pulled the man into the cage, rattling his skeleton against the metal bars.
The lion didn't want to do it—
He didn't want to eat the man like a piece of fruit and he told the crowd this: I only wanted some goddamn sleep. The crowd had trouble believing the words that slid out of the lion's mouth, a mouth the size of a cathedral with a vaulted ceiling, maxilla and mandible each like a flying buttress. They believed the lion even less when they saw that one or two of his words had been impaled on his teeth which were pointed and lined up in a semi circle like large pink wigwams at a war party. The crowd scattered, fled to the safety of the pagoda bridge over the koi pond and the humid reptile house with tinted windows.
But, I believed the lion—
I had seen him yawn. I had fallen in love with that yawn and my thighs panged just thinking about laying my head right inside that wet dark bed of jaws. So, I stayed, despite the man glittering and oozing on the ground like a mortal wound.
The lion burped up the man's jeans, now as shredded as a blue grass skirt, and about that time a jeep of twelve zoo workers screeched around the blue rhinoceros exhibit in swat gear and khaki shorts—to rescue the man who was crumpled on the floor like a red dress that had too many drinks—their tranquilizer guns shone like Saint Michael's swords, and they each held handfuls of dope-filled darts with neon pink feathers at the ends.
The lion paid this Zoo Crusade little attention and burped up the man's asshole next. He looked at me and said I hate assholes. (Seven darts hit him at once, causing him to wince.) But, the lion continued the eyes...you can't beat those salty, olive-like eyes. At that point, the lion shook his massive rock star hair and stumbled off toward a shallow cave at the back of his cage, dragging his tail behind him like a medieval flail. All seven darts jangled and clicked from his flanks like pink aloe flowers. The Zoo Delta Force Team followed behind him, stepping in the thick tracks his heavy tail had made. The crowd, now hiding out like two separate groups of bandits, were wary of the animals they found themselves near at that particular moment: the gaping gobs of the electric koi beneath the surface of the flotsamed pond, opening and closing their lips in a song shaped like skulls, and the agile maws of the boa constrictors and pythons, unhinging and resetting their jaws like basement doors. But I, I believed the lion.
Copyright 2009 Natalie Diaz
This poem won an honorable mention in the 2009 War Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers. Author Natalie Diaz received a $100 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, email Jendi Reiter or send a check for $8.00 to Amsterdam Press, 6199 Steubenville Road SE, Amsterdam, Ohio 43903.
Enjoy this sample poem from Swallow:
Our Story So Far
by Jendi Reiter
It snowed harder than it had in years. He hit her with his car. He apologized. She gave him her number. The damage was small. She didn't file a complaint. He called her. They fell in love. She told the children this story.
*
She fell in love. He didn't complain. She told the children a story. It snowed harder than it had in years. She called him. He apologized. The damage was small. He hid it in the car. She had his number.
*
He apologized for his car. She loved to complain. He told the children, it snowed harder than it had in years. Years without number. When they were in love. The damage was small. They were a hit. That's what she called him.
*
She called the children in from the snow. He hit it with his car. The complaint had a number. His story was that he was in love. The damage was small, he apologized. She was harder than she'd been in years.
*
The snow fell on their car. The complaint took years. They called the children for the story. No one apologized. It was harder without them. Perhaps they had hit the numbers. Perhaps they fell in love.
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OW News
Read, write and love poetry? OW News is a monthly newsletter delivering submitted poetry, articles and news to a great community of poetry lovers. Join the community today!
www.ownewsonline.com
Closing Today!
Writer's Digest Poetry Awards
Postmark Deadline: December 1
Great poets toil and suffer. Wordsworth was lonely as a cloud. e.e. cummings chose to lug around someone else's heart. Do you think Frost's less-traveled road was a cakewalk? We think not.
Enter the Writer's Digest Poetry Awards Competition and join the ranks of the great tormented wordsmiths of the world. Lucky for you, winter approaches...discomfort abounds! Crank up the heat. Hot coffee? Caffeine is for losers. No computer for you...you're going to lay down your opus LONGHAND.
However you decide to create your own inspirational despair, use these dank brumal days, enter your poetry—haiku, non-rhyming, epic, rhyming, WHATEVER—and you could win cash and bragging rights! Not to mention a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in NYC.
Last Call!
2011 Anderbo Poetry Prize
Postmark Deadline: December 15
- Submit up to six unpublished poems
- Winner receives $500 cash and publication on anderbo.com
- Judged by Debora Greger, assisted by Charity Burns
Guidelines:
- Please type each poem on 8 1/2" x 11" paper with the writer's name in the upper-right corner of every page
- Include a cover page with the writer's name, contact information, and the titles of the poems submitted
- Writer must not have been previously published on anderbo.com
- Mail submissions to:
Anderbo Poetry Prize
270 Lafayette Street, Suite 705
New York, NY 10012
- Enclose a self-addressed stamped business envelope (SASE) to receive names of winner and honorable mentions
- All entries are non-returnable and will be recycled
- Reading fee is $10. Check or money order payable to RRofihe
- See the complete guidelines at http://www.anderbo.com/anderbo1/anderprize2011.html
Debora Greger is the author of eight books of poetry: Movable Islands (1980), And (1986), The 1002nd Night (1990), Off-Season at the Edge of the World (1994), Desert Fathers, Uranium Daughters (1996), God (2001), Western Art (2004), and Men, Women, and Ghosts (2008). She has won, among other honors, the Grolier Prize, the Discovery-The Nation prize, the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets, an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Brandeis University Award for Poetry. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, and in Cambridge, England.
Charity Burns, Anderbo's Poetry Editor, earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Florida. Her poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Madison Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and West Branch. Charity's blog is The Beauty Works Project.
Closing This Month
Dream Quest One Poetry and Writing Contest
Postmark Deadline: December 31
This writing contest is open to anyone who loves to express their innermost thoughts and feelings in poetry or to write a short story that's worth telling everyone! We're accepting poems, 30 lines or fewer on any subject, and short stories, 5 pages maximum on any theme (single- or double-line spacing). Multiple entries welcome.
Prizes
Short Story First Prize: $500, 2nd: $250, 3rd: $100
Poetry First Prize: $250, 2nd: $125, 3rd: $50
Entry fees
$10 per story
$5 per poem
How to Enter
Send your work with a cover page that lists the title(s) of your poem(s)/story(ies), name, address, phone number, and email address, along with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for entry confirmation. Make your entry fee payable to "DREAMQUESTONE.COM" and mail to Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest, P.O. Box 3141, Chicago, IL 60654. Electronic entries accepted via PayPal. Visit www.dreamquestone.com for details and to enter.
We are honored to present this excerpt from "Imperativa" by Denisa M. Potop, the first-prize story from our Summer 2011 contest:
I decided I would walk home tonight. It will take me an hour to get home on foot but I need to trade the uncomfortable interior of the cab with the serenity that will be inevitably brought by the long walk that awaits me. I can be alone with my thoughts, with my worries...with my stalker. I realized that someone was following me after a few minutes of walking and surprisingly, I feel calm. Somehow, I didn't want him to know that I held the reality of him following me grasped in my mind, reason why I only afforded to turn my head slightly and catch a glimpse of him. He's well built, regular features, nothing special about him yet. Yet, because he'll hope to acquire a higher and more important status than the one he currently holds. From the simple pursuer that he appears to be at the moment, a dangerous man might emerge soon. Am I ready to face it? No one could ever be ready... For now, I'll allow this ignorant fool to follow me. "Could I be his first victim?" I wonder. I must be, there's no doubt about it. His inexperienced method of following me reveals it; stopping at the same time I do, keeping an obvious close distance, the loud steps he makes which immediately drew my attention. Judging from this, how can I not notice that someone is following me?
Why did he choose me to be the one? And what do I know about stalkers? They are people who choose their victims based on looks, status or belongings. They know every move of their victim and they acquire valuable information, which could help them strike when the right moment arises. They admire the victim, they try to think and act like the victim to the moment it becomes an obsession and they eventually become the victim. And when you become the victim, you want to erase the original existence. You want the victim to look you in the face and lose sanity and whatever it is that sparked interest. I'm quite flattered. Yes, I am. To know that for the first time in my life someone dedicated exclusive time to me. After all, this poor, inexperienced man, around 50, I presume, did some research. I saw him another time more clearly, two weeks ago maybe, staring right at me from the other side of the street. He isn't the mastermind type, just a pathetic old man who's hoping I might have my purse stuffed with money and credit cards. I am rich after all...and my father is famous.
And now, here he is again. Present. And aware of the fact that once a month I walk home, having no cab or personal car to fetch me up straight from work. The road to the house I live in is void of traffic or people. He knows that too if he allows himself such an obvious pursuit. I have to at least admire him for that but I'll give him no prize. This man must be out of his mind if he believes I'll easily surrender to his ridiculous attempt. But I am young, rich, spoiled therefore he is entitled to consider me naïve and confident that nothing bad could ever happen to me. How wrong he is. The truth is that I'll turn the cards around to suit my benefit and I will be the hunter, not the prey. I'm leading the way. I have the advantage.
Click to continue reading
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Closing This Month
Tupelo Press Dorset Prize
Postmark Deadline: December 31
The Dorset Prize includes a cash award of $3,000, publication by Tupelo Press, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion. The final judge for this year's contest is Tom Sleigh. All finalists will be considered for publication. Results announced in April 2012.
The Dorset Prize is open to anyone writing in English, whether living in the United States or abroad. We welcome published or unpublished authors. Translations are not eligible. The contest is competitive. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or contests are permitted; notify Tupelo Press promptly if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
Submit a previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscript of between 48 and 88 pages (of poems). Include two cover pages: one with title only, the other with title, your name, address, phone, and email. Include a table of contents and, if applicable, an acknowledgments page for poems previously published in periodicals. For notification of receipt of manuscript, include a SASP. For notification of the winner, enclose a SASE. Manuscripts will not be returned.
A reading fee of $28 by check (payable to Tupelo Press) or via PayPal must accompany each submission. Multiple submissions are accepted, each accompanied by a $28 reading fee.
Read the complete guidelines before submitting your manuscript: http://www.tupelopress.org/dorset.php
Submit your manuscript online at: http://www.tupelopress.org/dorset.php
or send via postal mail to:
Tupelo Press Dorset Prize
P.O. Box 1767
North Adams, MA 01247
Read about past winners and more information about all Tupelo contests at: http://www.tupelopress.org/contests.php
Here is a poem by Rachel Contreni Flynn, winner of the 2003 Dorset Prize, from Ice, Mouth, Song (Tupelo Press, 2005):
Fine
by Rachel Contreni Flynn
Find the rip cord,
find the trapdoor,
find the child
in a snowbank
singing
the old song:
We are dying
of the cold and not
of the dark...
In the lake
there's an inch
between frozen
and not yet.
There's a face
pressed there,
doing fine.
The mouth practices
kisses all winter,
turning purple.
This is childhood
in three pieces:
ice, mouth, song...
This is bone china
buried in the yard.
A plate held
to the sun shows
a hand behind it—
brushing dirt away
or waving.
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Closing Next Month
13th Annual Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest (no fee)
Postmark Deadline: January 15, 2012
Oregon Quarterly invites entries to the 2012 Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest in both student and open categories. Entries should address ideas that affect the Northwest. The Oregon Quarterly staff will select finalists and this year's contest judge, Robin Cody, will choose the top three winners in each category. Past judges have been Kim Stafford, Barry Lopez, John Daniel, Karen Karbo, Brian Doyle, Lauren Kessler, Craig Lesley, Molly Gloss, Kathleen Dean Moore, Kenny Moore, and Thomas Hager.
- Prizes in the Open Category: $750, $300, $100
- Prizes in the Student Category: $500, $200, $75
- No entry fee required
- First-place essay in the open category will appear in Oregon Quarterly
- A selection of top essays will be featured in a public reading on the UO campus
- Fifteen finalists (ten in the Open Category and five students) will be announced in the Summer 2011 issue of Oregon Quarterly
- All finalists will be invited to participate in a writing workshop with the contest judge on the day of the reading
Entries should be nonfiction, should not have been previously published, and should be no more than 1,500 words in the Student Category and 2,000 words in the Open Category. The student contest is open to any student currently enrolled and pursuing a graduate or undergraduate degree at a college or university. One entry per person. Find complete guidelines at www.oregonquarterly.com (click on Essay Contest at the top).
Please enjoy this excerpt from "A Flyway Runs Through It" by Dwight Holing. This essay won second place in the Open Category of our 2011 contest.
Dressed in a pressed blue suit, my father had on a fixed smile, his good-luck tie, and a pair of comfortably worn athletic shoes. "Take care of your feet and they'll always take care of you" was one of his folksy mantras, a lesson he learned more than a half century before while leading a company of infantrymen through the murderous and malarial jungles of Guadalcanal. The shoes were my sister's idea, more of a nod to his practicality and sense of humor than a backhand at sartorial convention. Besides, no one would be affronted by the choice of Dad's informal footwear. The lid of the casket was like a Dutch door and the bottom half was closed.
Despite the thermostat's purposeful low setting in the visitation room, the scent of gardenias hung heavy as I watched the mourners file by to pay their respects. My brother, older than me, took his place at the end of the line, the last to bid farewell. He bent low over the open casket, whispered a few words, and placed something inside. After he left, curiosity won out. There, hooked to the breast pocket of the blue suit was a #12 golden stone nymph, a Polly Rosborough original, I was certain of it, knowing that my Dad had known the late fly-tying master. Also, gleaming from his grasp now firm for eternity was the brass cap of a twelve-gauge duck load. Charon's obols, maybe, but totems to be sure, and another mantra filled the somber silence: "When it comes to hunting, never be a shell short, but when it comes to fishing, it's not how many flies you take, it's the kind you do."
Click to view this and all the winning essays from our twelfth contest. |
 Closing Next Month
Friends of Acadia Nature Poetry Prize (no fee)
Postmark Deadline: January 30, 2012
Submissions are invited for the 2012 Friends of Acadia Poetry Prize. Established in 1998, this prize is awarded biennially to promote and recognize distinctive nature poetry. First, second, and third-place poems will be published in the Friends of Acadia Journal (print and online) and awarded cash prizes ($350, $250, $150).
GUIDELINES:
Submit up to 3 nature-based poems, each of 30 lines or fewer. Entries must be original and unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are permitted; please notify us immediately if a poem is accepted for publication elsewhere. There is no fee to enter.
Format: Submit each poem on a separate page. Include a cover sheet with your name, address, and the titles of the poems you are submitting. Do not include your name on manuscript(s).
For notification of results, include a business-sized self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE). Manuscripts will not be returned. The competition results will be announced in the Spring 2012 issue of the Friends of Acadia Journal, to be mailed and published online in April.
If you wish to receive a copy of the Friends of Acadia Journal in which the first-place poem is published, include a self-addressed envelope, at least 9" x 12", with $2.00 postage attached. (This is in addition to a business-sized SASE for notification.)
Please submit your entries to: Editor, Friends of Acadia Journal, P.O. Box 45, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, editor@friendsofacadia.org. If sending via email, please include your submissions and cover sheet as a single attachment.
We're pleased to present this poem by Candice Stover, third-prize winner in our 2000 contest.
Conversation
by Candice Stover
The red chairs facing the sea are empty.
They do not wait for the tide to turn.
They do not notice sunset tipping the birch rose.
They do not hear the gulls crying over streaked pools.
Only the green ears of moss listen, pressed
together under syllable
of moon, just beginning to murmur to herself
in that gleaming presence someone once named water.
for Meryl Sweeney
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Closing Next Month
Grayson Books Chapbook Competition
Postmark Deadline: January 31, 2012
Prize: $500, publication of chapbook and 50 copies
Reading fee: $18, payable to Grayson Books
Submit: 16-24 pages of poetry, two cover sheets (one with contact information and one anonymous)
SASE for results only
Simultaneous submissions are permissible if we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.
This year's judge is Patricia Fargnoli. A former New Hampshire Poet Laureate, she is the author of four books and two chapbooks of poetry. Her newest book, Then, Something (Tupelo Press, 2009), won the ForeWord Poetry Book of the Year Award Silver Award, the Sheila Margarat Motton Book Award from the New England Poetry Club, and an Honorable Mention in the Eric Hoffer Awards.
Please mail your entry and fee to:
Grayson Books
P.O. Box 270549
West Hartford, CT 06127-0549
www.graysonbooks.com
 Please enjoy this poem from Rodin & Co by Robert King, the winning chapbook in our 2011 Grayson Books Chapbook Competition.
Rodin at School
by Robert King
Say you're going to school in the 19th century
a rough little peasant who can barely read or write,
and one day, the other boys outside, you find yourself
alone in the echoing classroom and there's the chair
of the professor, inviting like an empty throne.
You might have stolen quietly up to see the world
from that position and, feeling its authority,
begun to lecture on whatever you thought, even
rapping the desk as you contrived what sounded like truth
or brandishing your dramatic arm to make a point
although, if you'd never dared or even thought of it,
had been, let's say, outside with the boys and then come back,
you would have joined the boisterous jeers, laughing, pointing
to shame this dull, dumb, dreamy, presumptuous urchin
and all the dignity he foolishly pretended.
What did any of you know about what would happen?
What did you know about love, art, women in the nude?
Red-faced, you danced in derision at this raw child.
Red-faced, you sat, not sure what law you'd broken, never
imagining the world would stand unclothed before you. |
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Our New Literary Resources and Recommended Books features 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.
Armchair/Shotgun
Brooklyn-based literary journal founded in 2009 publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual art. Unlike many journals, they read all submissions anonymously, without seeing the author's name or bio until the piece is accepted, in order to give newcomers an equal chance. Editors say, "We feel that good writing does not know one MFA program from another... Good writing does not know your interstate exit or your subway stop, and it does not care what you've written before. Good writing knows only story." Visit their blog for lively reflections on the current publishing scene.
Booksfree
Like Netflix for books, Booksfree allows customers to rent up to 15 books at a time, with no late fees, due dates, or shipping costs. Members can choose from more than 250,000 paperback titles or 36,000 audiobook titles.
Civil War Navy Magazine
This quarterly magazine focuses on the navies of the North and South during the American Civil War, with additional articles on the culture, pastimes, and history of that period. They will also publish two poems per issue. Contact poetry editor Charmagne Pruner for details.
Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion, and Spirituality
Accompanying website for the anthology of the same name from Sibling Rivalry Press includes reading dates, contributors' videos, and links to their websites. Featured authors include Ellen Bass, Blas Falconer, Keetje Kuipers, Maitreyabandhu, Carl Phillips, and Amir Rabiyah.
Contrary Magazine
This online poetry journal edited by Shaindel Beers believes that poetry is contrary by nature, always defying, always tonguing the tang of novelty. The editors look especially for plurality of meaning, for dual reverberation of beauty and concern. Submit up to 3 poems per quarterly issue (deadlines are March 1, June 1, September 1, December 1). Authors are paid $20 per appearance. Contrary Magazine also publishes book reviews. See website for guidelines.
Europa Editions
Europa Editions is a New York-based publisher of literary fiction, high-end mystery and noir, children's illustrated fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir. Approximately two-thirds of the titles on their list are works of literature in translation. Europa Editions was founded in 2005 by Sandro Ferri and Sandra Ozzola Ferri, who are also the owner-publishers of Rome-based Edizioni E/O, one of Europe's most prestigious independent publishing houses. Europa's Tonga Books imprint publishes literary prose titles with a strong narrative voice, chosen by prominent authors as guest editors.
Forty Ounce Bachelors
Launched in 2011, this "electro-literary magazine" out of Austin, TX publishes poetry, fiction, essays, and pop-culture reviews. They promise to provide feedback on all submissions. Editors say, "Our name comes from combining chic with grit. This works to promote our efforts of working with high-class literature in a more democratic fashion. We strive to work with art in a way that's accessible from the street and the university."
Grantland
Online lit mag features essays on sports and pop culture by editor Bill Simmons and authors such as Chuck Klosterman.
GreAt PoeTRy of 5 NaTIonS (Gary Introne)
Poet Gary Introne's blog features a large selection of his philosophical, dream-like, life-affirming work.
Hoot: A Postcard Review
Hoot publishes very short creative writing (150 words maximum for fiction and nonfiction, 150 words and 10 lines maximum for poetry) in postcard format. Submissions are accepted by email year-round, with 1-3 pieces published per month. Submission fee is $2 for 1-2 entries. Published authors receive 5 postcards and 30% of month's fees, with a guaranteed minimum of $10. Editors say, "We especially like work that is audacious, surprising and zesty. Furthermore, we want this postcard to be shareable... Ask yourself: 'Would someone want this hanging on their fridge?'"
HorrorMasters.com
This website offers free downloads of new and classic horror stories. Great for discovering out-of-print gems by past masters of the genre such as Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins, Lord Dunsany, Lafcadio Hearn, and Edith Wharton.
Huffington Post: Beyond the Battlefield
This 10-part series from online newspaper The Huffington Post features real-life stories of the physical and emotional challenges, victories and setbacks that catastrophically wounded soldiers encounter after returning home.
Japanese Haiku Poetry Resources
Good-sized directory of links to haiku lesson plans and poetry archives, broken down by grade level.
Linda McCullough Moore
Linda McCullough Moore is the author of the literary novel The Distance Between (Soho Press), the short story collection This Road Will Take Us Closer to the Moon (Levellers Press), and more than 300 shorter published works, appearing in such places as The Sun, The Massachusetts Review, Glimmer Train, The Boston Globe, The Alaska Quarterly Review, House Beautiful, Queen's Quarterly, The Southern Review, and Books and Culture. She is the winner and finalist of numerous national short fiction awards including New York Stories, the Nelson Algren Award, the Tobias Wolff Award, and the Pushcart Prize XXXV. She lives and writes in western Massachusetts where she teaches creative writing and mentors aspiring writers. Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter recommends her workshops.
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac
Annual festival celebrating the life and work of novelist Jack Kerouac, held each autumn in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Moglue
This newly developed desktop platform allows amateur writers and publishers to create and sell their own interactive e-books in a variety of genres including travel guides, cookbooks, and children's books. The finished products can be read on Android and Apple iOS devices.
National Student Drama Festival
British festival sponsors playwriting contests for young authors in the US and internationally.
On Making the Poetry Manuscript: Advice from Tupelo Press Editor Jeffrey Levine
Jeffrey Levine, editor of the prestigious independent publisher Tupelo Press, offers solid advice on collecting your poems into a coherent manuscript and presenting them to best advantage. An earlier version of this article initially appeared in the January 2007 issue of AWP Job List.
Poetry Prompts from Vernon Street Writing Workshops
The website of Western Massachusetts poet and writing instructor Robin Barber features a gallery of writing prompts. Useful for "30 Poems in November" poem-a-day challenges or anytime you need to jump-start your creativity.
Storyville
This app delivers literary short fiction to your iPhone or iPad, one story per week. Six months' access costs $4.99. The editors select award-winning stories from collections currently in bookstores. Featured authors have included Holly Black, Mavis Gallant, Joe Meno, and Kurt Vonnegut.
Terrible Minds
Fiction writer and "freelance penmonkey" Chuck Wendig delivers ballsy, bracing advice for writers at his entertaining and useful blog. Got writer's block? He'll tell your inner demons where to go and how to get there.
textBOX: The Missouri Review Online Archive
textBOX is a collection of some of the best short fiction, essays and poetry from the archives of The Missouri Review, one of the nation's leading literary magazines since 1978. This free anthology is designed to provide access for students and teachers of creative writing and contemporary literature to some of the best short fiction, nonfiction and poetry published in The Missouri Review over the past quarter century. Every essay, story and poem in the anthology is accompanied by a brief critical introduction, interpretive and craft-oriented reading questions and writing prompts. Author interviews and audio files will be added as the site develops.
What Editors Want: A Must-Read for Writers Submitting to Literary Magazines
In this essay from the online bulletin of the literary journal Glimmer Train, Lynne Barrett gives new writers an overview of the magazine editing process and offers tips to help your submission succeed. Barrett is the author of several short fiction collections and the editor of The Florida Book Review.
World War I Historical Association
This site is the portal for several related sites about the history and literature of World War I: the Great War Society, the Western Front Association USA, and the St. Mihiel Trip-Wire.
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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Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
By H.G. Bissinger. This book by a journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer inspired the hit movie and TV series. The Permian Panthers' season-long battle to reach the 1988 state high school football championships becomes a microcosm of racial and economic tensions in a West Texas town where the boom-and-bust of oil wealth has left many without a clear vision for their future.
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales
Edited by Kate Bernheimer. Dark, innovative, beautiful, strange variations on classic fairy tales from around the world. Some stories remain within the fantasy-horror genre, while others reenact the fairy tale's psychological themes in a contemporary realist setting. Each story is followed by the author's reflections on the source material and how it inspired them. Notable contributors include playwright Neil LaBute, poets Joyelle McSweeney, Kim Addonizio, and Sabrina Orah Mark, and fiction writers Michael Cunningham and Gregory Maguire. This book is not appropriate for normal children.
The Girls Club
By Sally Bellerose. Winner of the Bywater Prize for lesbian fiction, this enjoyable and honest first novel follows three young working-class Catholic sisters as they navigate women's changing social roles in the 1970s. Cora Rose, the protagonist, comes to embrace the aspects of herself that she once struggled to hide: her chronic illness and her desire for other women. In prose that is electric with wit and longing, Bellerose shows how the ones who drive us crazy are the ones we can't live without.
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Loyalty
by Jason Schossler
It wasn't the Mars bar or Bazooka gum wrappers
that he couldn't throw out. It was the things that hung
around awhile that gave him trouble:
the roller-skate wheel his uncle couldn't reattach
or the basket of plastic Easter grass his mother had packed
with mellocreme rabbits and malted eggs.
For all it had drawn and colored, it sickened him
to simply toss his dried-up marker into a garbage sack
of orange peels and pork-chop bones.
The same held true for the dancer kite snagged
on the fence post or the old pair of KangaROOS he'd worn
when he slid into second for a double; they'd been through
a lot together, but now they couldn't go another step.
Then there was the loose thread. Pulling it
from his mitten during recess, he was about to let it fall
to the ground when something made him stuff it
in his pocket, checking from time to time that it was still there,
until he could safely store it in his dresser drawer,
the one already crammed with scratched 45s and burnt-out
lightbulbs, the one that wouldn't close.
Copyright 2011 by Jason Schossler
This poem is reprinted from his collection Mud Cakes, which won the 2010 Melissa Lanitis Gregory Poetry Prize from Bona Fide Books.
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2012 Poet's Market
Published in late summer 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.
2012 Writer's Market
Annual directory for prose writers from Writer's Digest offers comprehensive 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."
2012 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market
Annual directory for fiction writers from Writer's Digest includes over 1,500 listings of magazines, book
publishers, literary agents and contests, plus interviews with authors, agents, and other publishing
professionals.
Publish Your Book From Your Computer for as Little as $2.00 Each
InstantPublisher.com will take your manuscript over the Internet as a PDF or from MS Word and other popular programs. Publish a book in trade quality from 25 to 5,000 copies in as few as 7-10 days. Ideal when you want to publish books to give as gifts, sell at events and readings, or sell from your website. Specify the kind of book you want to print and get an instant price quote. Customers say, "the published book is exactly what I had envisioned. And the cost was so reasonable, I'd recommend InstantPublisher.com to anyone." "I experimented with several different short-run and POD printers during my 90-day adventure from self-published to major book deal, and I have to say that the quality of your books was BY FAR the best. When sending press kits to the media, and anyone we wanted to impress, we'd always send your books, which we affectionately referred to as 'The GOOD books'."
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BarnesandNoble.com
Office Depot Coupon
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Advertise to 35,000 Poets and Writers
Promote your contests, websites, 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
On January 1, our standard ad rate will increase from $100 to $125 as our circulation base increases to 40,000. Place your 2012 ads by December 31 of this year to enjoy the current lower rate.
"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
See more testimonials
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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
News for You App — Learn English Anywhere, Anytime
News for You, ProLiteracy's weekly online news source for adult learners, is now available as an app for iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The app makes it even easier for learners to learn and practice English skills at times that are most convenient for them. The News for You app is free to download but requires a subscription for access.
Smartphones have become great educational tools for people of all ages. A 2009 study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Foundation Center at the Sesame Workshop showed that there is vast educational potential in mobile technologies. With the rapid increase of mobile phones, News for You is taking advantage of that technology to become available to many people without access to computers in developing countries and urban areas. This allows education to reach those in areas that have the highest rates of low literacy levels. Learners who do not have computers can subscribe to News for You Online and practice reading outside of the classroom.
The app shares many of same features as the News for You Online website. Seven stories based on world and national news are posted weekly and written at reading levels 3 through 6 and ESL levels high-beginning and low-intermediate.
The app also includes each article's audio version so that users can listen and read along. Interactive exercises reinforce understanding of key concepts and strengthen vocabulary skills. For more information and to download the app visit the iTunes store.
 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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2011 WERGLE FLOMP HUMOR POETRY CONTEST—HONORABLE MENTION
THE BALLS
by Randy Gross
A recitation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells", as read by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Hear da sludges with da balls—
Slivered balls—
What world of merry mint their mell-o-dee fore...talls.
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In da icy air of da night!
While da stars that over-sprinkle
All de heavens, seem to twinkle, too...
With a crystal-lean delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Andy Rooney kind of rhyme,
To the tin...tin...ab...I know that part! I got da abs, baby! Tin-tin-AB-ulation that so musically swells,
From my balls, balls, balls, balls,
Balls, balls, balls,—
From the jingling and da tinkling of my balls.
Hear da marsh-mellowy wedding balls,
Golden balls!
What a world of happiness dere harmony fore...talls.
Through de balmy air of da night
How they ding out their dee-light
From the Marvin Garden notes!
And all in tune,
What a liquidy titty floats
To the turtle-ly dove that listens, while she herds da goats
On the moon! Baaaaaaaa!
Oh, from out of dee going out of business sales,
What a gust of eubonics volum-...volooom-...monstrously wails!
How it wails!
How I swell!
Oh, da future!
How it tells
Of rapture that impales (laughs) kind of like Dracula...
Oh my balls, balls, balls—
Oh my balls, balls, balls, balls,
Balls, balls, balls—
To the rhyming and the climbing atop my sweaty balls!
Hear da loud alarm clock balls—
Brazil-ly balls!
What tales of terror, now, dere turbulancy...talls!
In da startled ear of da night,
How dey scream out their afro-fright...(laughs) sort of like Buckwheat.
Too much they are horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune—an Ashlee Simpson shriek it is.
In a clamorous appealing to dee mercy of da fire,
In a mad ex-post-u-lation with da deaf and da frantic fire
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With one of dose desperate desires,
And a resolute endeavor
Now—sit down never
On da dark side of the girlie-faced moon.
Oh, my balls, balls, balls!
What a tale their sweatiness...talls!
Of despair!
How they clang, and bang, and rrrroar!
What a honey stickiness they outpour
On the bosom of de palpitating air!
Yet the girl, she fully knows,
By the twanging
And the banging
How de jism ebbs and flows;
Yet the booty distinctly tells,
In the jangling
And the bangling,
How the danger, it stinks and swells,
By the stinking and the swelling in the anger of my balls—
Of my balls—
Of my balls, balls, balls, balls,
Balls, balls, balls,—
In de clamor and de clanging of my balls!
Hear da tolling of my balls—
Iron balls!
What a world of de solemn thought their monopoly com-...palls!
In da silence of da night,
How we shiver with de Alfalfa's fright...(laughs) another little rascal.
At de melancholy menace of dere tone!
For every sound dat floats,
From the thrust within dere throats,
Is a groan...like dat Linda Lovelace woman.
And the people—ah, de people—
They that dwell up in dat steeple,
All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
In dat muffly mojo-tone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
(pause) we know what they are rolling! And get stoned!
They be neither man or woman—
They be neither brute nor human—
They be transgendered maybe?
And their Queen it is who tolls,
And she rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls,
A pee-on from my balls!
And her merry bosom swells,
With the pee-on from my balls!
And she dances and she yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Andy Rooney kind of rhyme,
To the peeing from my balls—
Of my balls;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sick and de twisted Rooney kind of rhyme...I hate de liberals!
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy, girlie-man Rooney rhyme,
Keeping time, time, time,
To the kneading of my balls,
Of my balls, balls, balls—
To the toiling of my balls,
Of my balls, balls, balls, balls,
Balls, balls, balls,—
To de moaning and de groaning of my manly-man balls.
Copyright 2011 Randy Gross
This poem won an honorable mention in the 2011 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers. Author Randy Gross received a cash prize of $75. See the judge's comments on the winning poems from this contest.
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COMING IN OUR DECEMBER 15 NEWSLETTER
Winners Announced for the Eighth Annual Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse
Tenth Annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest Opens
The Best Free Poetry Contests for December 16-January 31
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