Magnapoets Announcements

Magnapoets Anthology Series 1 and 2 are now available

Available now

Magnapoets Anthology Series 1 - One Hundred Droplets

 

A collection of Japanese form poetry celebrating and exploring spring and summer, with work by an'ya, Pamela A. Babusci, Dave Bacharach, Collin Barber, John Barlow, Dawn Bruce, Helen Buckingham, Andrea Cecon, Susan Constable, Ellen Compton, Magdalena Dale, Janet L. Davis, Melissa Dixon, Curtis Dunlap, Margarita Engle, Amelia Fielden, Denis M. Garrison, Sanford Goldstein, Andrea Grillo, Lee Gurga, Jim Kacian, Kirsty Karkow, M. Kei, Darrell Lindsey, J.Andrew Lockhart, Peggy Willis Lyles, Francis Masat, Michael McClintock, Allison Millcock, Vasile Moldovan, Christopher Patchel, Dru Phiippou, Patrick M. Pilarski, Patricia Prime, Michael Nickels-Wisdom, K. Ramesh, Charles Rossiter, Lidia Rozmus, Natalia L. Rudychev, Adelaide B. Shaw, Sandra Simpson, Andre Surridge, Barbara A. Taylor, Petar Tchouhov, Yoav J. Tenembaum, and articles by Jeanne Emrich and Robert D. Wilson.

Cover photography © Dick Bendele, all rights reserved. No unauthorized use or distribution.

Magnapoets Anthology Series 2 - While The Light Holds

 

A collection of Japanese form poetry celebrating and exploring autumn and winter, with work by an'ya, Pamela A. Babusci, Dave Bacharach, Collin Barber, John Barlow, Dawn Bruce, Helen Buckingham, Andrea Cecon, Ellen Compton, Susan Constable, Magdalena Dale, Janet L. Davis, Melissa Dixon, Curtis Dunlap, Margarita Engle, Amelia Fielden, Deborah Finkelstein, Denis M. Garrison, Sanford Goldstein, Andrea Grillo, Lee Gurga, Peggy Heinrich, J.D.Heskin, Jim Kacian, Kirsty Karkow, M. Kei, Darrell Lindsey, J. Andrew Lockhart, Peggy Willis Lyles, Francis Masat, Michael McClintock, Allison Millcock, Vasile Moldovan, Michael Nickels-Wisdom, Christopher Patchel, Dru Philippou, Patrick M. Pilarski, K. Ramesh, Chad Robinson, Lidia Rozmus, Natalia L. Rudychev, Adelaide B. Shaw, Sandra Simpson, Andre Surridge, Barbara A. Taylor, Petar Tchouhov, Yoav J. Tenembaum

Cover photography © Maureen Faulk, all rights reserved. No unauthorized use or reproduction.

How To Order: Price is $5.00 each + $1.00 S&H in North America, or $5.00 + $3.00 S&H on international orders.  Payment options are cash, check, or international money order, in US funds, made out to Aurora Antonovic,  13300 Tecumseh Road East, Suite 226, Tecumseh, Ontario, N8N 4R8, Canada.

Available now

Magnapoets Anthology Series 1 - One Hundred Droplets

 

A collection of Japanese form poetry celebrating and exploring spring and summer, with work by an'ya, Pamela A. Babusci, Dave Bacharach, Collin Barber, John Barlow, Dawn Bruce, Helen Buckingham, Andrea Cecon, Susan Constable, Ellen Compton, Magdalena Dale, Janet L. Davis, Melissa Dixon, Curtis Dunlap, Margarita Engle, Amelia Fielden, Denis M. Garrison, Sanford Goldstein, Andrea Grillo, Lee Gurga, Jim Kacian, Kirsty Karkow, M. Kei, Darrell Lindsey, J.Andrew Lockhart, Peggy Willis Lyles, Francis Masat, Michael McClintock, Allison Millcock, Vasile Moldovan, Christopher Patchel, Dru Phiippou, Patrick M. Pilarski, Patricia Prime, Michael Nickels-Wisdom, K. Ramesh, Charles Rossiter, Lidia Rozmus, Natalia L. Rudychev, Adelaide B. Shaw, Sandra Simpson, Andre Surridge, Barbara A. Taylor, Petar Tchouhov, Yoav J. Tenembaum, and articles by Jeanne Emrich and Robert D. Wilson.

Cover photography © Dick Bendele, all rights reserved. No unauthorized use or distribution.

Magnapoets Anthology Series 2 - While The Light Holds

 

A collection of Japanese form poetry celebrating and exploring autumn and winter, with work by an'ya, Pamela A. Babusci, Dave Bacharach, Collin Barber, John Barlow, Dawn Bruce, Helen Buckingham, Andrea Cecon, Ellen Compton, Susan Constable, Magdalena Dale, Janet L. Davis, Melissa Dixon, Curtis Dunlap, Margarita Engle, Amelia Fielden, Deborah Finkelstein, Denis M. Garrison, Sanford Goldstein, Andrea Grillo, Lee Gurga, Peggy Heinrich, J.D.Heskin, Jim Kacian, Kirsty Karkow, M. Kei, Darrell Lindsey, J. Andrew Lockhart, Peggy Willis Lyles, Francis Masat, Michael McClintock, Allison Millcock, Vasile Moldovan, Michael Nickels-Wisdom, Christopher Patchel, Dru Philippou, Patrick M. Pilarski, K. Ramesh, Chad Robinson, Lidia Rozmus, Natalia L. Rudychev, Adelaide B. Shaw, Sandra Simpson, Andre Surridge, Barbara A. Taylor, Petar Tchouhov, Yoav J. Tenembaum

Cover photography © Maureen Faulk, all rights reserved. No unauthorized use or reproduction.

How To Order: Price is $5.00 each + $1.00 S&H in North America, or $5.00 + $3.00 S&H on international orders.  Payment options are cash, check, or international money order, in US funds, made out to Aurora Antonovic,  13300 Tecumseh Road East, Suite 226, Tecumseh, Ontario, N8N 4R8, Canada.

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival new spring 2010 deadline

The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival is pleased to announce a new spring deadline for the 2010 Haiku Invitational.

While the cherry blossoms bloom from March through May, you are invited to write your haiku with fresh inspiration. The poems will be judged during the summer and winners announced in the fall 2010. Winning poems will then be featured during the 2011 festival. So start planning now to submit your cherry blossom haiku this coming spring.

An official invitation will be announced in February. Online submissions will begin March 1, 2010 and close May 31, 2010.

Please visit the festival web-site www.vcbf.ca to view past winning haiku with 2010 updates coming soon.

Peggy Heinrich's new book , Peeling An Orange, released

Peeling an Orange Haiku Collection by Peggy Heinrich, Published by MET Press

 
Peeling an Orange  Haiku Collection by Peggy Heinrich, Published by MET Press

Peeling an Orange, Peggy Heinrich’s fine collection of haiku, showcases the exquisite work of this widely published and award-winning poet. These poems carry the reader through the seasons of a life as well as the seasons of the year. Equally evocative are the stunning black-and-white photographs by John Bolivar, a prize-winning photographer based in Seattle.

Baltimore, Maryland –

November 6, 2009 – Peeling an Orange by Peggy Heinrich has been published as a trade paperback by MET Press of Baltimore, Maryland. "January sunset / putting aside her journal / to peel an orange" This fine collection of haiku showcases the exquisite work of Peggy Heinrich, a widely published and award-winning poet. These poems carry the reader through the seasons of a life as well as the seasons of the year. Heinrich’s work has been described as insightful and empathetic and, according to one editor, always finely rendered and thought through. The final haiku in Peeling an Orange: "around the fire / the widening circle / of silence" was cited by well-known artist and teacher Kaji Aso as "an original, neither a second-hand Basho nor Buson, [in which] a basic sense of human life and warmth of heart is well captured." Equally evocative are the stunning black-and-white photographs by John Bolivar, a prize-winning photographer based in Seattle.

"Poet Peggy Heinrich is an insightful and empathetic companion as she invites the reader to travel with her through the seasons of haiku. Her poems are marked by intricate layers of juxtaposition: city and country, sun and rain, solitude and company, humor and poignancy, and above all a deep appreciation of the present steeped in the remembrance of things past. Peeling an Orange is like an enso, offering the reader a complete journey from the ripples in a spring pond to deep winter’s ‘widening circle/of silence’."

— Pamela Miller Ness, Past President, Haiku Society of America

"The poems in Peeling An Orange can only be written by a master poet and Peggy Heinrich is one. This book captivates the reader with its haiku & senryu, and just when you think that it can’t get any better, it does. Over the years I’ve thinned out my bookshelves, but this book is a keeper and it is wonderful to have a collection of such work in a single volume."

— Stanford M. Forrester, editor of bottle rockets: a collection of short verse

About Author:

Peggy Heinrich began exploring haiku thirty-five years ago. Her haiku have appeared in almost every haiku journal here and in Japan, from the early days of Dragonfly to the latest website and in many anthologies, including three Red Moon anthologies; The New Haiku by Snapshot Press, the Basho Festival Haiku Anthology and How to Haiku by Bruce Ross. Among her many awards are the Haiku Society of America’s Henderson Award and the Robert Spiess Memorial Award. Also, she was a runner-up in the giant 1988 Japan Air Lines contest and a prize-winner in Ashiya’s International Haiku Festival. Her mini-chapbook, "A Patch of Grass," was published by High/Coo Press in 1984. Besides haiku, Peggy enjoys writing tanka and longer poems, some of which were published in 2006 in her collection, A Minefield of Etceteras.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact Peggy Heinrich by e-mail at heinrich01@gmail.com Publisher information at: www.themetpress.com
This book is available from www.Lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from the publisher. Complete information and mail/email order forms are available online at www.themetpress.com Price: $11.95 USD. ISBN 978-1-935398-12-7. Trade paperback. 84 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink.

About MET Press:
MET Press (Modern English Tanka Press) is an independent publishing house in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to producing books and periodicals of lasting literary value, especially poetry. A family business, we treat our customers and partners in publishing like family. We use modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. Our special mission is to promote the tanka form of poetry and to educate newcomers about this most ancient poetic form.
Contact:
Denis M. Garrison, owner, MET Press / Modern English Tanka Press
443-802-1249 Email to dmg@themetpress.com www.themetpress.com

Hindi E-Magazine 36 Issue from BHOPAL

Dear Friends
This is the First Complete Hindi E-Magazine 36 Issue in PDF
 Format.
 
Please click following link to read Garbhnal's E-book
 Format. http://garbhanal.quidlab.com/
 
Garbhanal Old issue get http://www.emdcindia.com/garbhnalarchives.html
 & http://hinditoolbar.googlepages.com/garbhanal
& http://www.thisismyindia.com

atmaram sharma

Calling all poets in the Niagara Falls region

So You Think You Can Rhyme seeks to uncover local poetry talent

Review, Balzac's team up in search for unofficial poet laureate

Posted By Corey Larocque

Calling all poets – The Review and Balzac's coffee present a night of poetry Nov. 12 at the coffee shop, 4388 Queen Street, starting at 6:30 p.m. "So You Think You Can Rhyme" is a search for an unofficial poet laureate in response to a recent column by Corey Larocque calling for Niagara Falls to appoint a poet laureate like some other cities have. Several dozen readers submitted limericks about Niagara Falls. Thursday's audience will pare them down to a short list to be published in the Review. Librarian Andrew Porteus will discuss poems about Niagara Falls he has collected over the years. David Smith, known as downtown's "parking poet" will read some of his work. For more information, email clarocque@nfreview.com.

The Breath of Surrender: A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku, edited by Robert Epstein, released

The Breath of Surrender: A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku, edited by Robert Epstein, Published by MET Press
 
The Breath of Surrender: A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku
, edited by Robert Epstein, Published by MET Press

In The Breath of Surrender,haiku poet and psychotherapist Robert Epstein brings together the haiku and recovery communities, whose unique perspectives expand our appreciation of the world within and around us. Whether new to, or widely traveled on, the path of recovery, readers will discover new wholes in their lives sparked by the courage, strength and hope in these inspiring poems.
Baltimore, Maryland –

November 4, 2009 – The Breath of Surrender: A Collection of Recovery-Oriented Haiku edited by Robert Epstein has been published as a trade paperback by MET Press of Baltimore, Maryland. Often described as "wordless" due to its brevity and directness, haiku poetry highlights, and celebrates, our often unseen connection with nature. Recovery from the hell realms of addiction: alcohol, drugs, sex, shopping, over-eating, makes possible a reunion with life and one’s fellow beings. In The Breath of Surrender—the first collection of its kind—haiku poet and psychotherapist Robert Epstein brings together the haiku and recovery communities, whose unique perspectives expand our appreciation of the world within and around us. Whether new to, or widely traveled on, the path of recovery, readers will discover new wholes in their lives sparked by the courage, strength and hope in the inspiring poems that fill these pages.

"The addicted brain is a museum of distorted pictures. Recovery brings forth a new framing of images that is well-captured in this unique collection of poems. Those at every stage of recovery can hang these poetic images on the mental walls that have been left so bare by addiction."

—Fred Von Stieff, MD, MBA, Medical Director, Mt. Diablo Center for Recovery; Concord, CA
"These haiku are tragic, funny, clever, and moving. In bite-sized pieces of wisdom and insight ‘The Breath of Surrender’ sheds light, opens doors, and touches hearts on the path of recovery. What joy!"
—Kevin Griffin, author of "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps" and "A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery"

"The Breath of Surrender
poetically epitomizes human-nature via the touchy and controversial subject of ‘addictions.’ It is a well-compiled meaningful book, due to the editing ability and dedication of Robert Epstein. The poems are diversified yet cohesive; some are happy; others are sad and, in their juxtaposition, one way or another, all are recovery-oriented."
—an’ya, editor of /moonset/
 
About Author:
Robert Epstein is a licensed Clinical Psychologist who practices psychotherapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked in the field of recovery treatment since 1980. Robert is a published haiku poet, whose work has appeared in the major haiku journals. A pinch book, "A Clear View of," was published by Tribe Press in 2003. Robert co-edited a collection of selected quotations of Henry D. Thoreau entitled, The Natural Man, which was published in 1978 and is still in print. He also co-authored a self-help book with Stacy Taylor called, Living Well with a Hidden Disability.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact Robert Epstein by e-mail at taylorepstein@earthlink.net Publisher information at: www.themetpress.com

This book is available from www.Lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from the publisher. Complete information and mail/email order forms are available online at www.themetpress.com Price: $16.95 USD. ISBN 978-1-935398-14-1. Trade paperback. 100 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink.

About MET Press:
MET Press (Modern English Tanka Press) is an independent publishing house in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to producing books and periodicals of lasting literary value, especially poetry. A family business, we treat our customers and partners in publishing like family. We use modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. Our special mission is to promote the tanka form of poetry and to educate newcomers about this most ancient poetic form.
Contact: Denis M. Garrison, owner
MET Press / Modern English Tanka Press
443-802-1249
Email to dmg@themetpress.com
www.themetpress.com

First Annual James Kirkup Memorial Poetry Competition

http://www.redsquirrelpress.com/index.php?competition

First Annual James Kirkup Memorial Poetry Competition

CLOSING DATE: 31ST DECEMBER 2009

Judges: Terry Kelly, Tom Kelly and Alistair Robinson.

1st prize: publication of pamphlet

24 other finalists will be published in a pamphlet anthology

Rules
Entry is free.
You may enter only once.
You must be over 17 years of age.
Your entry will be judged anonymously. Please DO NOT SHOW YOUR NAME on the same sheet as your entry.
Enclose a separate sheet with your name, address, telephone number, email address and the title of your poem. Please mark your envelope 'James Kirkup Poetry Competition'.
Your poem should be typed on one side of A4 paper (you may use any number of sheets).
Poems may be in any style, of any length, on any subject.
Your poem will not be returned to you. If you would like an acknowledgement of receipt please enclose an SAE marked 'Acknowledgement'.
No alterations may be made to a poem once it has been submitted.
Overseas entries are welcome.
Poems must be in English (or English dialect).
Poems must not have won or be under consideration in other poetry competitions.
Poems must not be a translation of another author's work.
Employees of Red Squirrel Press are not eligible to enter.

A celebratory event will be held at South Shields Central Library at 7.30 Friday 23rd April 2010 (on what would have been James Kirkup's 92nd birthday).

Send entries to:
James Kirkup Memorial Competition
Red Squirrel Press
PO Box 219
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 9AU
United Kingdom

We are unable to accept entries by e-mail.

November issue of PIW

The poets featured in November's issue employ various techniques of defamiliarisation to enable the reader to look anew at familiar objects and places, and at the act of writing itself. The China domain presents the work of avant-garde poet Fang Xianhai; Portugal's poet this month is Daniel Jonas; Zimbabwe publishes poems by Freedom Nyamubaya. Belgium features two poets: Geert van Istendael and Ruth Lasters, and there are three poets from India: Oxford University Professor of Poetry nominee Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Telugu poet Varavara Rao and Giriraj Kiradoo, who writes in Hindi.

To read the editorial visit www.poetryinternational.org



Featured Poets:

Belgium

Geert van Istendael

Ruth Lasters

China
Fang Xianhai

India

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

Giriraj Kiradoo

Varavara Rao

Portugal
Daniel Jonas

Zimbabwe
Freedom T.V. Nyamubaya


Related Articles

India
Welcome to Indian Poetry – November 2009

Zimbabwe

The Voice of Freedom Nyamubaya

Poem of the Week

THE BIRDS ARE DEAD NOW
Fang Xianhai


Clip of the Month
1989 (poetry clip)
Yang Lian



Newslog

Nov 3, 2009
New translations of Hiromi Ito's poems to be published

2 November 2009
StAnza's Distant Voices festival programme complete

Cyclamens and Swords Publishing November Newsletter

For our current issue, please see http://www.cyclamensandswords.com

 

2009 Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Contest

 

November is the final month for sending in your entry to the Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Contest. Closing date:
30th November, 2009. 

 

$450 in prize money is waiting to be won: First prize is $300, second prize $100, third prize $50 and seven honorable mentions. 

The winning poems and 7 honorable mentions will be published in a beautiful chapbook. The judges this year are Katherine L. Gordon, Helen Bar-Lev and Johnmichael Simon.

§           Poems of any style or theme

§           Simultaneous entries accepted

§           Previously published work accepted

§           30 line limit (excluding title and stanza breaks)

§           Read last year’s winning poems here:
http://www.cyclamensandswords.com/main/page_contest_winners_poems.html

For complete guidelines to the contest, go here:

http://cyclamensandswords.com/main/page_contest.html

 

Regular submissions to our next issue.

§           The theme for our next issue is “Ticklish Subjects”.

§           Deadline for submissions: November 30th.

§           We’re still accepting short stories and art submissions too.

§           For submission guidelines, please go to:
http://www.cyclamensandswords.com/main/page_submissions.html

The Annual $5,550 Tom Howard Short Story, Essay and Prose Contest Is Now Open

Details here.

WHA Readings / Lithuania

the following link leads to the WHA haiku readings in Lithuania this October:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=WHAvideo#g/u

21st Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, 6 – 8 November 2009

The UK’s leading annual international contemporary poetry festival celebrates its 21st year with an exhilarating line-up of world-class poets. Philip Levine - one of the most significant US poets of the last half century - will appear in the UK for the first time in 30 years. And Albert Goldbarth makes his UK debut as Aldeburgh continues to blaze the trail for introducing outstanding American poets to  British audiences. With 49 events (15 entirely free) a weekend of ‘best words best order’ is promised in this idyllic English seaside town. For full programme and booking information visit us online

Announcing the 6th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival

January 18-23, 2010, Delray Beach, Florida
Workshops, readings, gala and coffee house events with poets, Kevin Young, David Wojahn, Thomas Lux, Marie Howe, Ilya Kaminsky, Carolyn Forché, Stephen Dobyns and Mary Cornish. Admission is by application. A limited number of partial scholarships are available. Apply online before November 2, 2009. For more information, visit us online or send us an e-mail message at srw@palmbeachpoetryfestival.org

GlimmerTrain October 31, 2009 deadline

FAMILY MATTERS
Deadline: October 31, 2009

Prizes:

• 1st place wins $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies.
• 2nd-place: $500 and possible publication.
• 3rd-place: $300 and possible publication.

Reading fee: $15 per story.

Results post on December 31, 2009. Winning story will be published in Issue 78.

Other considerations:

• Open to all writers.
• Pieces should be original, unpublished stories about family.
• Please, no longer than 12,000 words. Any shorter lengths are welcome.
• This category has stimulated lots of questions about
  fiction/nonfiction/creative nonfiction, since many people have
  significant real-life stories to write. It seems to us that many
  fiction submissions are heavily rooted in actual experience, which
  is entirely fine with us, but submissions should read like fiction
  and anything we publish will be presented as fiction.
• 
  Details here.

An update from the Tom Howard Short Story contest and more

The Annual $5.550 Tom Howard Short Story, Essay and Prose Contest Is Now Open! The Margaret Reid Poetry Contest will re-open on November 15!

There is no limit on the number of entries you may submit for our Contests. I'm often asked if lodging multiple entries gives the entrant an advantage? Most assuredly. When I was writing my guidebook, Write Ways to WIN WRITING CONTESTS: How To Join the Winners' Circle for Prose and Poetry Awards, I always lodged multiple entries if possible. If the rules allowed three entries, I lodged three. If five, five. When there was no limit, I judged the number according to the amount of prize money.  I had a simple formula. I divided the total prize purse by 500. If I were to enter this contest, for example, I divide $5,550 by 500. Ignoring fractions, this gives me ten.  

The next question is, will I lodge the entries all together, or will I split them up? Personally, I don't think it's a good idea in a prose contest to lodge more than three entries at the same time. In a poetry contest, it doesn't matter a hoot, but in a prose contest, three entries at a time is fine. Perhaps even four. But more than four at once could weary the judge. Your best story may well be the last, but there's a chance the judge could miss its quality by being tempted to skim through your work instead of reading it carefully word by word. 

So my personal advice is to submit no more than three or four stories/essays at the same time, and then wait a few weeks or even a month to submit another batch. 

As headlined above, the Tom Howard Short Story, Essay & Prose Contest is currently open. Although the Contest does not close until March 31, 2010, it's a good idea to start thinking of your entries right now instead of leaving them to the last month or so. Statistics show that, most particularly in prose contests, early entries do have an advantage.

In our contests, the judges read entries almost as soon as they are submitted. Unlike most other literary competitions, we don't wait until the contest closes. So early entries enjoy the obvious advantage of allowing the judges more time to read and evaluate your work. It also stands to reason that a prose entry, written and revised whilst not under any pressure, will possibly have a greater chance of success than one written in haste close to the deadline.

Another factor, of course, is that at this time of the year, the judges are actually looking forward to and really enjoying your entries. Closer to the deadline, it becomes more of a chore.

This year, the prize pool for the prose contest has been increased to $5,550 (including a First Prize of $3,000). The entry fee will remain at $15 for each short story or essay up to 5,000 words in length. There are ten cash prizes in all, but the judges do reserve the right to award extra cash prizes if they so desire. For the last prose contest, the judges awarded no less than $500 in additional prizes, bringing the total prize pool up to $5,850 instead of the advertised $5,350!

You'll find full details at http://shortstorycontest.0catch.com

An alternative site (click on the contest at the left of the screen) is http://www.winningwriters.com

Now, this is important.  One of the key recommendations in my Write Ways to WIN WRITING CONTESTS is that you  take a look at some of the entries that have won prizes in previous contests. This will give you some idea of the types and varieties of stories and prose pieces that have won prizes in the past. This applies to ALL contests. For instance, it's no use sending a scholarly essay on "The Influence of Metaphysics on Sunbeams" to a Contest that has never awarded a prize or commendation to an entry in any scholarly field at all. 

For this Contest, there are are, however, two fields the judges would like to encourage: Humorous and comic stories and essays are very much appreciated; and we would very much like to see more genre entries such as mystery and detective stories, science fiction, romance, etc. A science fiction story did win a big cash prize in a recent contest, but we actually receive very few such entries.

So here are our previous anthologies of winning and highly commended entries. WATCHING TIME, our latest short story and essay anthology, has been reprinted, but, alas, only in a limited quantity. However, it is again on sale at Amazon. The price is $12.95, which is good value for a 207-page, trade paperback. The 14 prize-winners include four Firsts, three Seconds, and two Thirds!

WATCHING TIME: Anthology of Prizewinning Essays & Short Stories

Amazon also stock two of our previous collections of winning prose, namely Keep Watching the Skies! An Anthology of Prize-Winning Short Stories and Mr Christian and the Bag Lady: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Stories

And finally don't forget my own previously mentioned book of tips, hints and other essentials. Amazon are selling the new, expanded edition for only $11.25 (which is considerably less than the original edition, even though the new edition has more pages and lots more valuable information): Write Ways to WIN WRITING CONTESTS: How To Join the Winners' Circle for Prose and Poetry Awards, NEW EXPANDED EDITION

With all my very best wishes for your writing success!

John

Ash Moon Anthology - short poems on aging

Ash Moon Anthology - short poems on aging

ASH MOON ANTHOLOGY edited by Alexis Rotella & Denis M. Garrison, 315 pages, published by MET Press, is perhaps the largest anthology of tanka in English. It is available in both paperback & hard cover from www.themetpress.com/bookstore/ and may be read free and downloaded as an ebook at Scribd.com. What folks are saying about the book:

Ash Moon Anthology explores and celebrates the later years of life: the “golden years,” to some, and far from it, to others. Senior men and women have a perspective on life that cannot be achieved except by enduring the passage of several decades. Ash Moon Anthology includes poems about all aspects of aging, both the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows; poems that embody the humor, insight, and wisdom of our elders and the ways in which we age with grace and even elegance. This is a tremendous collection of nearly nine hundred poems on aging from 97 poets on five continents.
“If readers can absorb the joy and the intensity of this book, they will be more alive than ever before in their lives. I am stunned by the precision of emotions and the variety of feelings. I want to read one page each day, to be in touch with everything that is truly, vividly alive.”
—Grace Cavalieri, Producer/host, The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress

“These tanka examine the feelings and psychological insights that can only come with a lifetime of surviving into old age, when we recognize the impermanence and transitory nature of our bodies, our minds, our selves. These English tanka of aging celebrate and explore a wide range of moments conveying the feelings of being fully alive in our imperfect, broken, unfinished bodies, minds and souls.” —Dr. Randy Brooks, Millikin University

“Age. It happens to us all. Understanding all that we are and have experienced is difficult enough, but communicating it to others is even harder, especially when the gap is dramatic as the one separating today’s youth from today’s elders. This is the chasm which the poets of Ash Moon cross. Nearly a hundred in number, they are themselves aging or the care-givers and companions of elders. With unblinking honesty they record their age as it is lived—despair and dereliction alongside grace and humor—and what emerges is a true portrait of age with all its awkward complexities.” — M. Kei, Editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka, Editor-in-chief of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008, and author of Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay.

Check it out!

Last Call For Submissions for the Josephine Darner Poetry Award for 2009

Details here.

Subtle Tea October-December 2009 issue

Live now!

Announcing the 3Lights Quarterly Journal

Announcing the 3Lights Quarterly Journal

After three successful years of presenting open and solo exhibitions of haiku, senryu and tanka it has been decided that 3Lights Gallery will close at the end of 2009. However, 3Lights will reopen at http://3lights.wordpress.com and will present a digest of haiku and related forms in the shape of a quarterly e-zine, presented for free courtesy of scribd.com.

The quarterly editions of the 3Lights Journal will not be dissimilar to the exhibitions that we have previously presented, with the importance placed on the visual aspect of haiku and related forms. Each edition will be illustrated and will also present a ‘featured poet’ section. We hope that by presenting our seasonal exhibitions in the form of an ‘ebook’, free of charge and using the latest e-reading technology, we will have the opportunity to share a greater amount of quality short-form poetry in a more user-friendly format.

For those poets who have already submitted work for our ‘3years’ exhibition, or for those who intend to do so, each of the successful poems will feature in our first edition of the new 3Lights Journal as a celebration of three very happy and successful years of our online venture.

We are now taking submissions of haiku, senryu, tanka and kyoka on any theme for our first edition of the 3Lights Journal, to be published online in January 2010. Please send up to ten unpublished poems to threelightsgallery [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk, along with a brief biography. For more information, please visit our submissions page at http://3lights.wordpress.com/submissions.

Previous exhibitions presented at the 3Lights Gallery will no longer be accessible online, but we are already working on a special ‘best of 3Lights’ ebook, which we hope to release next year.

We hope that submissions will continue to pour in and that you’ll visit our new website at http://3lights.wordpress.com to experience the new and improved 3Lights. More information will follow soon.

With very best wishes,
Liam and Diane Wilkinson
Autumn 2009

Moonbathing Announcement

Reminder & Submission

   Deadline Extension:  Nov.15th

 

MOONBATHING

 

A JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S TANKA

 

EDITORS 

Pamela A. Babusci

Cathy Drinkwater Better

 

Published by Black Cat Press

 

 

Founding Editors Pamela A. Babusci and Cathy Drinkwater Better, and Black Cat Press, are proud to announce the first all women's tanka journal: Moonbathing.

 

Moonbathing will publish two issues a year: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer. The journal will be small in size but huge in the quality of the tanka that is accepted and published.

 

Premiere Issue Tanka Contest:

For the Premier Issue (Fall/Winter 2009–10), the Editors are sponsoring a "moonbathing" tanka contest. Tanka poets may submit one tanka on the subject of “moonbathing”—whatever that means to you—for consideration, in addition to their regular submissions. The winner will be featured in the premiere issue of Moonbathing and receive a complementary copy. (Be sure to label your entry “moonbathing contest” if sending along with a regular submission.)

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:  

Moonbathing will feature only women poets. Send a maximum of five (5) tanka per submission period. Submission deadlines:  

 

Fall/Winter Issue: In-hand Deadline: November 1st. Fall/winter or non-seasonal themes only.

 

Spring/Summer Issue: In-hand Deadline: May 1st. Spring/summer or non-seasonal themes only.

 

No previously published tanka or simultaneous submissions; no tanka that has been posted on-line, whether on a personal website/blog or on a tanka discussion group; and no publicly workshopped tanka will be considered or accepted.

 

SUBMISSION ADDRESSES:

Tanka poets with last names beginning: A-M:

Send your tanka IN THE BODY OF AN EMAIL to: Pamela A. Babusci:     moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS. Or mail to: Pamela A. Babusci, 150 Milford St., Apt. 13, Rochester, NY 14615 USA.

 

Tanka poets with last names beginning: N-Z:

Send your tanka IN THE BODY OF AN EMAIL to: Cathy Drinkwater Better:     cbetter(at)juno(dot)com PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS. Or mail to: Cathy Drinkwater Better, 613 Okemo Drive, Eldersburg, MD 21784 USA.

 

Submissions will not be returned, so keep a copy of your poem(s). If sending a submission by snail-mail, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a reply. We cannot respond to submissions without SASEs.

 

Guidelines:

The Editors are looking for the "crème de la crème" in contemporary English tanka being written by female poets. Moonbathing will accept one tanka per poet per issue, and one poem will be featured per page.

 

We are seeking to recognize, honor, and praise the unique "female voice" and perspective in tanka. The Editors are excited about being the first women editors to offer this type of literary venue to female tanka poets, and we hope all women poets will feel honored and enthusiastic as well.

 

Payment:

Unfortunately, at this time the Editors will not be able to provide contributors’ copies.

 

Due to the current economic situation—as well as our shoe-string budget—we hope that all tanka poets who have their work accepted will support Moonbathing by purchasing a copy or a subscription. If we are to succeed, the magazine will need your support—and we will be most grateful for it. 

 

Disclaimer:

Moonbathing does not assume liability for copyright infringement or failure to acknowledge previously published tanka.

 

copies/subscriptions:

Subscriptions: $10 for one year (two issues) U.S. and Canada; $5 for one copy (includes postage). Overseas: $14 U.S. dollars. Make checks—or send cash or international money orders—payable to “Cathy Walker” to: Moonbathing, Cathy Drinkwater Better [Walker], 613 Okemo Drive, Eldersburg, MD 21784 USA.

 

The Editors of Moonbathing are looking forward to receiving your best tanka. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail either Pamela A. Babusci moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com or Cathy Drinkwater Better cbetter(at)juno(dot)com

 

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela A. Babusci,

Cathy Drinkwater Better

Co-editors/Co-founders, Moonbathing

 

Marie Lecrivain and Polly Bee perform at The Poetry Zone October 10

THE POETRY ZONE

Features and Open Mic

 

Date:	Saturday, October 10, 2009
Time:	2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location:	Karpeles Manuscript Library
Street:	21 W. Anapamu
City/Town:	Santa Barbara, CA

Poetry Super Highway contest winners announced

Details here.

Annual $5,550 Short Story, Essay and Prose Contest Is Now Open

Update from John Reid:

The Annual $5.550 Tom Howard Short Story, Essay and Prose Contest Is Now Open!

A big welcome for the many new entrants who submitted work to the Tom Howard Poetry Contest recently. This Newsletter, which will keep you up to-date on the progress of all three of our literary competitions, is usually published on the 1st and 15th of the month. This issue is late, because of the unusually large number of last-week submissions to the Poetry Contest.

As previously advised, The Tom Howard Short Story, Essay & Prose Contest is now open for entries. Although the Contest does not close until March 31, 2010, it's a good idea to start thinking of your entries right now instead of leaving them to the last month or so, Statistics show that, most particularly in prose contests, early entries do have an advantage. 

Last year, I asked our accountant to survey the last seven prose contests and tell me in which month the four major cash-winning entries were lodged. Only 9 of these 28 winning entries were lodged in the closing month of March. Approximately one in three. That might sound like a reasonable equation, but you have to remember the huge number of entries lodged in March. Even if only 200 entries were submitted for each of those 7 months, 9 major cash prizewinning entries from 1,400 is not what I'd regard as encouraging. 

So I asked the accountant to survey entries lodged over an earlier period. Only a trickle of entries are received in the month of November. We had to estimate the number of snail mail entries, but the combined total for the month of November for the past seven years would be around 100. Yet those 100 entries yielded no less than 5 major cash prizewinners, including 2 firsts! 

In our contests, the judges read entries almost as soon as they are submitted. We don't wait until the contest closes. So early entries not only have the obvious advantage of allowing the judges more time to read and evaluate your work, but, as I've just shown, for our prose contest they seem to have a statistical advantage as well. And it stands to reason that a prose entry, written at leisure and carefully revised, will have a greater chance of success than one written in haste close to the deadline. 

This year, the prize pool for the prose contest has been increased to $5,550 (including a First Prize of $3,000). The entry fee will remain at $15 for each short story or essay up to 5,000 words in length. There are ten cash prizes in all, but the judges do reserve the right to award extra cash prizes if they so desire. For the last prose contest, the judges awarded no less than $500 in additional prizes, bringing the total prize pool up to $5,850 instead of the advertised $5,350!

You'll find full details at http://shortstorycontest.0catch.com

An alternative site (click on the contest at the left of the screen) is http://www.winningwriters.com

Although it's certainly not the only way to enter the winners' circle, I recommend taking a look at some of the entries that have won prizes in previous contests. This will give you some idea of the types and varieties of stories and prose pieces that have won prizes in the past. There are are, however, two fields the judges would like to encourage: Humorous and comic stories and essays are very much appreciated; and we would very much like to see more genre entries such as mystery and detective stories, science fiction, romance, etc. A science fiction story won a big cash prize in a recent contest, but we actually receive very few such entries.

WATCHING TIME, our latest short story and essay anthology, has been reprinted and is again on sale at Amazon. The price is $12.95, which is good value for a 207-page trade paperback. The 14 prize-winners include four Firsts, three Seconds, and two Thirds!

WATCHING TIME: Anthology of Prizewinning Essays & Short Stories

Amazon also stock two of our previous collections of winning prose, namely Keep Watching the Skies! An Anthology of Prize-Winning Short Stories and Mr Christian and the Bag Lady: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Stories   

And don't forget my own critically acclaimed book of tips, hints and other essentials: Write Ways to WIN WRITING CONTESTS: How To Join the Winners' Circle for Prose and Poetry Awards, NEW EXPANDED EDITION

With all my very wishes for your writing success!

John

News from Ascent Aspirations

 

Ascent Aspirations Newsletter October 2009

1. Ascent Aspirations October On-line Issue

Short Fiction, Poetry, Visual Art, Essays, Reviews

http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/tableofcontents.htm

 

2. Ascent Aspirations Print Anthology Contest

Flash Fiction and Poetry - Deadline October 15th

http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/ascentfall2009.htm

 

3. What's New

Random Acts of Poetry, WordStorm, Oceanside WordWorx, Qualicum Acoustic Cafe, Poetry Gabriola Festival and More

http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/whatsnew.htm

 

4. One Sweet Ride - An Anthology of Nine Vancouver Isalnd Writers

http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/onesweetride.htm

Cyclames and Swords October Newsletter

Cyclamens and Swords Publishing October Newsletter

For our current issue, please see:

http://www.cyclamensandswords.com

 

2009 Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Contest

 

There’s $450 in prize money waiting to be won: First prize is $300, second prize $100, third prize $50 and seven honorable mentions. 

 

And publication: the winning poems and 7 honorable mentions will be published in a beautiful chapbook.   Closing date: 30th November, 2009. 

 

Some tips on how to do well in contests.

 

§    Read previous winners (here are ours)  http://www.cyclamensandswords.com/main/page_contest_winners_poems.html

§    Be original.

§    Write from your heart. 

§    Keep away from clichés.  Use fresh new descriptions.

§    Be bold and courageous.

 

For complete guidelines to the contest, go here:

http://cyclamensandswords.com/main/page_contest.html

 

Regular submissions to our next issue.

§    The theme for our next issue is “Ticklish Subjects”.

§    Deadline for submissions: November 30th.

§    We’re still accepting short stories and art submissions too.

§    For submission guidelines, please go to:
http://www.cyclamensandswords.com/main/page_submissions.html

 

Johnmichael Simon

Chief Editor

www.cyclamensandswords.com

 

 

October's issue of PIW

October's issue features poets from Colombia, the Netherlands and Japan. Oppression seems to be the main theme of this month's issue. Colombian poets León Gil, Eva Durán, Juan Diego Tamayo and Jairo Guzmán seek refuge in visionary mysticism when faced with a country beset by violence and corruption. Dutch poet Hanny Michaelis lost both her parents in the holocaust and writes elegantly of a difficult life. From Japan we feature the wonderful Kiyoko Nagase who determinedly wrote poetry in a society in which her domestic duties were paramount.
 
To read the editorial visit www.poetryinternational.org


Featured poets:
 
Colombia

Eva Durán

Jairo Guzmán

Juan Diego Tamayo

León Gil

Japan

Kiyoko Nagase

The Netherlands

Hanny Michaelis

Related Articles:

Japan
Poetry as Love, a reading of Kiyoko Nagase

The Netherlands

Hanny Michaelis at the Poetry International festival 2003

New audio files:

Festival recordings from
Mourid Barghouti
Valzhyna Mort
Vera Pavlova
Jacques Roubaud
Piotr Sommer
Matthew Sweeney
George Szirtes



Poem of the Week

MAPPING THE INTERIOR
Eugene O'Connell


Clip of the Month

BELARUSIAN I (poetry clip)
Valzhyna Mort


Newslog

Sep 29, 2009
Paul Laurence Dunbar: African-American poet remembered
Sep 28, 2009
Poets House in NYC moves location

Beyond Baroque - Sunday, October 4, 2009

Beyond Baroque

681 Venice Blvd.

Venice, CA

 

310-822-3006

 

www.beyondbaroque. org

 

1st Sunday of the Month Features and Open Mic

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Sign up 4:45 pm

Start Time 5 pm

 

FREE

 

Features:

 

Dori Marler is a poet and a painter whose work has been published in the various SoCal literary journals. She started writing poetry, drawing and painting at six years old and she has never stopped in her quest for artistic expression, creative knowledge and experimentation.  Her poetic heroes are Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas, Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Pablo Neruda. 

 

Eric Lawson's comedic prose and poetry have appeared in such literary magazines as Falling Star, Word Catalyst, and online zines thecynic.org and salon.com. He is the author of the comedy collection entitled Jackassery. He lives in Santa Monica, CA.

Hosted by Marie Lecrivain

ken*again fall 2009 issue available now!

Viewable here.  Submissions now open for the winter issue.

Shenandoah: Oct. 31 deadline for work on Flannery O'Connor

Shenandoah’s editor seeks essays, poems, short stories, reviews, photographs and other artwork about, related to or in honor of the fiction and life of Flannery O’Connor for a special issue in celebration of the journal’s 60th anniversary.  Deadline: Oct. 31, 2009.  A prize of $1,000 will be awarded to the best O’Connor-related work published in the issue, which is planned for Fall, 2010. Direct queries about particular submissions to rodsmith@wlu.edu.  Materials should be sent to O’Connor Issue, Shenandoah, Mattingly House, 2 Lee Avenue, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA  24450-2116.

6th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival, January 18-23, 2010, Delray Beach, Florida

Six days of workshops, readings, and events featuring America's finest poets. Advanced Workshops: Stephen Dobyns, Carolyn Forché, Marie Howe, Thomas Lux, David Wojahn, Kevin Young, Intermediate: Mary Cornish, and Ilya Kaminsky. Admission by application. Workshops are limited to 12 qualified applicants and three auditors. For more information, visit us online. Deadline to apply: November 2, 2009.

Ninth Annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize Contest

BOA Editions welcomes your submission to the ninth annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize contest. The winner of this first-book award will receive $1500 and publication in our New Poets of America Series. This year's judge is Tony Hoagland. Entries are accepted between August 1 and November 30, 2009. Submit one copy of your manuscript, our entry form, and the $25 entry fee to BOA Editions, PO Box 30971, Rochester, NY 14603. The winner will be announced in March 2010. Order forms and additional information are available.