In 2016, Detroit became part of the National Youth Poet Laureate program, a joint initiative of Urban Word NYC and the InsideOut Literary Arts, Penmanship Books, the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, and Cave Canem. With over forty cities participating, the program now honors one youth poet laureate to be named the National Youth Poet Laureate. Each poet must submit writing and a community engagement idea for an opportunity to be chosen by a panel of esteemed judges, which has included former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and National Book Award winner Elizabeth Acevedo.

For the 2018 term, Detroit named Imani Nichele as our city’s youth poet laureate. Since spring of 2018, Imani has led workshops, written two books, and read and performed her work on many stages. I took a moment to speak with Imani about her development as a writer.

“My biggest writing influence has been my internal competition,” said Imani about what inspires her to keep writing. When we spoke about what her community can do to offer writers more support, Imani said, “I want the literary community to help by offering more spaces to meetup. I want to know who I can reach out to and how to find them.”

This reminded me of the work that numerous artistic organizers and I are aiming to do in order to build a more connected literary community in Detroit. It’s been motivating to begin making these connections in response to an ask for such community. Sharing information about our Readings & Workshops mini-grants and offering the Detroit Writers Circle workshops are just a couple ways we are aiming to address this need.

When I asked Imani what she thought her work would look like in twenty years, she wisely responded, “It’s impossible for me to know what my art will look like in twenty years—I don’t know who that woman is yet.”

I am excited about the seeds being planted that will blossom in the near and distant future. Imani has recently passed the torch to the 2019 Detroit Youth Poet Laureate, Mahalia Hill, who is continuing to forge this path for young Detroiters. 

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Submissions are open for the Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award. Established in the memory of poet and editor Tony Quagliano, the biennial prize awards $1,000 for an outstanding body of work by a poet who “consistently strives for cutting edge and avant-garde innovation.” Poets who have published at least one full-length collection or who have an extended publication record in literary journals and anthologies are eligible. 

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Submit 20 pages of published or unpublished poetry with proof of previous publications establishing eligibility by December 1. Applications may be made only via email or by mailing a CD or flash drive containing the required materials. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines. 

Administered in partnership with the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities, the Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award was established in 2010 and has been awarded to five writers. The 2018 prizewinner was Eleanor Stanford. 

“I had to write the book for two reasons. The first one was gratitude for all that kept me alive and made life worth living, and the second was vengeance against all that diminishes life,” writes Anne Boyer in an interview about her memoir, The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog. Think of an urgent issue in your own life which has provoked in you both feelings of gratitude and vengeance. Write a personal essay that expresses both of these important emotional states. How do you give voice to these feelings in a complex and productive or healing way?

Queering the Map is an online interactive mapping project where users can post queer stories, memories, and anecdotes that are geolocated on a browsable world map. In Condé Nast Traveler, Melissa Kravitz writes, “Rather than centering the stories around a building or historical monument, it adds a bench carved with the initials of a couple on the west coast, the spot where a person came out to themselves, or the site where a fundraising group collected money for AIDS victims to the collective queer history.” Write a scene in a story that establishes the setting by noting a memory that is attached to a mundane item or physical structure. How does this infusion of a backstory inform the relationships that your character develops?

Is there something in the way you move? A study published last month in the Journal of Applied Physiology presented findings that people have unique movement patterns like fingerprints, ways of walking specific to each individual due to distinct muscular contractions. This week observe the idiosyncratic motions of someone close to you, whose gait you can detect from afar or out of the corner of your eye. Write a poem that attempts to capture this person’s particular way of moving. Utilize sound, rhythm, and spacing in your lines to depict these recognizable footsteps.

November deadlines are approaching for contests in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including the oldest annual literary award in America, the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Each of these contests has a deadline of November 15, and all but one offer a prize of $1,000 or more in addition to publication. 

Hidden River Arts Blue Mountain Novel Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Hidden River Press is given annually for a novel. Hidden River Press staff will judge. Entry fee: $22.

Nightboat Books Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Nightboat Books, and twenty-five author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Kazim Ali, Stephen Motika, Lindsey Boldt, and Andrea Abi-Karam will judge. Entry fee: $28.

North American Review James Hearst Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in North American Review is given annually for a poem. All entries are considered for publication. Ilya Kaminsky will judge. Entry fee: $23, which includes a subscription to North American Review.

Perugia Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Perugia Press, and ten author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a woman. Entry fee: $27.

Pleiades Press Lena–Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize: A prize of $2,000 and publication by Pleiades Press with distribution by Louisiana State University Press is given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. poet. The winner also receives $1,000 for book tour expenses. Tiana Clark will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Pleiades Press Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose: A prize of $2,000 and publication by Pleiades Press with distribution by Louisiana State University Press is given annually for a collection of short stories, short short stories, or essays. CJ Hauser will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Sonora Review Flash Prose Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Sonora Review is given annually for a work of short prose on a theme. This year’s theme is “Encounter.” Hybrid work is encouraged. Lucy Corin will judge. Entry fee: $15.

Sonora Review Nonfiction Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Sonora Review is given annually for a work of creative nonfiction on a theme. This year’s theme is “Encounter.” Hybrid work is encouraged. Rae Paris will judge. Entry fee: $15.

Southeast Missouri State University Press Nilsen Literary Award: A prize of $2,000 and publication by Southeast Missouri State University Press is given annually for a novel, novella, or collection of linked stories by a U.S. writer who has not published a novel. Entry fee: $30.

TulipTree Publishing Genre Issue Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in TulipTree Review will be given annually for a story of genre fiction. Stories in the genres of mystery, crime, romance, science fiction, fantasy, noir, and western are eligible. Entry fee: $20.

Washington Writers Publishing House Poetry and Fiction Prizes: Two prizes of $1,000 each, publication by Washington Writers Publishing House, and 50 author copies are given annually for a poetry collection and a short story collection or novel. Writers who live in Washington, D.C., or in Maryland or Virginia within a 75-mile radius of the U.S. Capitol, are eligible. Entry fee: $25.

Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition: A prize of $3,000 and travel and lodging expenses for a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City is given annually for a short short story. The winner will also be featured in an article in Writer’s Digest. A second-place prize of $1,500 is also awarded. Early entry fee: $25 ($30 for entries made November 17 through December 16). 

Yale University Press Yale Series of Younger Poets: An award of publication by Yale University Press is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has not published a full-length book of poetry. Carl Phillips will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

“We deserve to have our wrongdoing represented as much as our heroism, because when we refuse wrongdoing as a possibility for a group of people, we refuse their humanity,” writes Carmen Maria Machado in her new memoir, In the Dream House (Graywolf Press, 2019), about the need to acknowledge the queer community as human beings who are multifaceted and morally complex. Think of someone who at some point has occupied a heroic role in your life and write an essay that attempts to represent all the dimensions of this person. What possibilities are you allowing for when you articulate a person’s flaws or mistakes instead of simply presenting the best version?