Genre: Poetry
Brooklyn Poets
Brooklyn Poets offers small, intensive poetry workshops taught by award-winning poets, both online and in person at their space in Brooklyn Heights. Workshops are offered in three seasons (winter–spring, summer and fall) at three different levels and typically run five to seven weeks. In addition to workshops, they offer drop-in classes, virtual craft labs, and a mentorship program.
Brooklyn Poets also hosts a reading series and their popular Yawp series, a monthly poetry workshop and open mic held on the second Monday of every month from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM.
Convex Mirror
The late poet and critic John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (Viking, 1975) is considered his masterpiece, having won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. The long title poem is a meditation on sixteenth-century Italian artist Parmigianino’s painting of the same name. Ashbery writes: “The surface / Of the mirror being convex, the distance increases / Significantly; that is, enough to make the point / That the soul is a captive.” This week write a poem about your reflection. Whether seen through a traditional mirror, a body of water, or a distorted lens, begin with a description of what you see and follow through with an inner reflection.
Upcoming Contest Deadlines
It’s hot out there, folks! Stay cool—or cooler, anyway—indoors while applying to some contests with deadlines of August 8, 9, 15, and 20. Among the awards are a $3,000 prize for a poetry collection; a $1,500 prize for a poem and a short story; a $1,000 prize for a book of innovative poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid-genre work; and $1,000 prizes for individual poems, works of flash fiction or nonfiction, and short stories. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more. Good luck!
Futurepoem Other Futures Award: A prize of $1,000, publication by Futurepoem, and 25 author copies is given annually for a book of innovative poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid-genre work “that challenges conventions of genre and language, content, and form.” The editors will judge. Entry fee: $28.
Gival Press Short Story Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication on the Gival Press website is given annually for a short story. Entry fee: $25.
Grayson Books Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Grayson Books is given annually for a poetry collection. John Sibley Williams will judge. Entry fee: $26.
Indiana Review’s 1/2 K Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Indiana Review is given annually for a poem or a work of flash fiction or creative nonfiction. Geffrey Davis will judge. All finalists will be considered for publication. Entry fee: $20 (which includes a subscription to Indiana Review); no fee for Black and/or Indigenous writers.
Kallisto Gaia Press Poetry and Short Fiction Prizes: Two prizes of $1,500 each and publication in Ocotillo Review are given annually for a poem and a short story. Zoë Fay-Stindt will judge the Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize and Jen Knox will judge the Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Prize. Entry fee: $20.
Omnidawn Publishing Open Book Prize: A prize of $3,000, publication by Omnidawn Publishing, and 100 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Shane McCrae will judge. Entry fee: $27; for an additional $3, entrants will receive a book of their choice from the Omnidawn catalogue.
TulipTree Publishing Stories That Need To Be Told Contest: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a poem, a short story, or an essay that “tells a story that needs to be told.” The winner will also receive a two-year subscription to the literary database Duotrope and publication in the annual Stories That Need to Be Told contest anthology. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20.
Seamus Heaney on Human Chain
Pure Verb
In Seamus Heaney’s poem “Oysters,” which appears in his 1979 collection, Field Work, the speaker faces an internal conflict in which he relishes in the “perfect memory” of eating oysters with friends while also dealing with the anger and “glut of privilege” that allows him such refined experiences. In the final sentence, as if avoiding the lingering guilt, Heaney writes: “I ate the day / Deliberately, that its tang / Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb.” Write a poem in which a moment of pleasure is met with guilt or shame. Bring both feelings into focus, digging into the complexity of the scene.