Jump to navigation Skip to content
In this Poets House video for their Hard Hat Reading series, Monica Youn reads from her collection Blackacre (Graywolf Press, 2016) and from A Woman’s Mourning Song (Writers & Readers, 1993) by the late bell hooks.
In this interview with Charlene Wang for Foster, an online platform for writers to craft stories together, Yanyi discusses answering letters from writers for his online advice column the Reading and his second poetry collection, Dream of the Divided Field (One World, 2022), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“My materialist mind, I can’t / shake it,” writes Solmaz Sharif in her poem “Now What” from her second collection, Customs, forthcoming in March by Graywolf Press. The speaker of the poem sits in a hotel in Ohio eating takeout and meditating on the origins of the meal, tracing connections back into history and the people whose hands made this food possible: “Within a perfect / little tub of garlic / butter // a relief of workers, of sickles / fields of soy.” Write a poem that meditates on the origins of a favorite condiment, seasoning, or meal. Try to establish a time and place in the poem by beginning in the present, then leap into the anecdotal or historical stories that come to you.
In this 2021 reading at the Poetry Center in San Francisco State University, Angel Dominguez reads two letters to Diego de Landa from their first poetry collection, Desgraciado (the collected letters) (Nightboat Books, 2022), which is featured in Page One in the March/April 2022 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“All lions must lean into something other than a roar,” reads Roger Reeves from his poem “Grendel” included in his new collection, Best Barbarian (Norton, 2022), in this short film directed by Osvaldo Cuevas. Reeves’s collection is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“Who doesn’t know how / doubt lifts the hem of its nightgown // to reveal another inch of thigh / before the face of faith?” In this video filmed at Washington University in St. Louis, Paul Tran reads their poem “Copernicus” featured in their debut collection, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Books, 2022). A profile of Tran written by Rigoberto González is featured in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“Instead begin with the body—itself a kind / of ending.” In this Poetry.LA video, torrin a. greathouse reads from their debut collection, Wound From the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020), and speaks to Mariano Zaro about writing through multiple identities and connecting trauma, disability, and transness.
As with this past weekend’s Super Bowl, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States, before the start of sports events is a time-honored tradition. Poet Ada Limón has made that eventful moment the center of her poem “A New National Anthem,” which is included in her collection The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018). “The truth is, I’ve never cared for the National / Anthem. If you think about it, it’s not a good / song,” writes Limón. “And what of the stanzas / we never sing, the third that mentions ‘no refuge / could save the hireling and the slave’? Perhaps, / the truth is, every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza.” Write a poem inspired by a country’s national anthem. What are your feelings about it? Is it a good song?
In honor of the seventh anniversary of poet Philip Levine’s passing, Tom Sleigh speaks about their friendship and reads “That Word,” a poem from his latest book, The King’s Touch (Graywolf Press, 2022), dedicated to Levine in this video directed by Ed Robbins. Sleigh says of Levine: “Phil’s intelligence was as brilliantly acerbic as it was heartbreaking.”
Opportunities abound in the last contests of February. Awards with a deadline of February 28 include a celebration of self-published books by Black authors and a prize honoring a story set in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. Several others award book publication by an independent press. All contests offer a cash prize of at least $500 and two charge no entry fee. Good luck, writers!
Association of Writers & Writing Programs Award Series: Two prizes of $5,500 each and publication by a participating press are given annually for a poetry collection and a short story collection. In addition, two prizes of $2,500 each and publication by a participating press are given annually for a novel and a book of creative nonfiction. Presses participating in the 2022 award series are New Issues Press, Red Hen Press, University of Georgia Press, and University of Pittsburgh Press. Entry fee: $30.
Austin Community College Balcones Prizes: Two prizes of $1,500 each are given annually for a poetry collection and a book of fiction published during the previous year. Entry fee: $25 for poetry and $30 for fiction.
Black Caucus of the American Library Association Self-Publishing Literary Awards: Two prizes of $1,000 each are given annually for a poetry e-book and a fiction e-book by an African American writer self-published in the United States during the previous year. The awards honor books that depict “cultural, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora.” Entry fee: None.
Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize: A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,164) and publication in the Fish Publishing anthology is given annually for a short short story. The winner is also invited to give a reading at the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2022. Tracey Slaughter will judge. Entry fee: €14 (approximately $16) for online entries or €16 (approximately $19) for postal entries.
Little Tokyo Historical Society Short Story Contest: A prize of $500 and publication in Rafu Shimpo and on the Discover Nikkei website is given annually for a short story that takes place in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. Entry fee: None.
Omnidawn Publishing First/Second Poetry Book Contest: A prize of $3,000, publication by Omnidawn Publishing, and 100 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. Mary Jo Bang will judge. Submit a manuscript of 40 to 120 pages with a $27 entry fee ($30 to receive a book from the Omnidawn catalogue) by February 28.
Red Hen Press Women’s Prose Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Red Hen Press is given annually for a book of fiction or nonfiction by a writer who identifies as a woman. Melanie Conroy-Goldman will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Tupelo Press Snowbound Chapbook Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Tupelo Press is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Entry fee: $25. All entries are considered for publication.
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.
