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In this 2015 reading at Harvard University’s Woodberry Poetry Room, poet Jackie Wang introduces Bhanu Kapil, who reads from her book Ban en Banlieue (Nightboat Books, 2015), and Fred Moten, who reads from his collection The Feel Trio (Letter Machine Editions, 2014).
“Working with poetry is really stimulating because it can take you to a limit of human experience, it’s using language in the way that it exists in our minds and in the psyche,” says Moheb Soliman in this TPT Originals video on exploring place, identity, and the natural world in his debut collection, HOMES (Coffee House Press, 2021). Soliman is featured in “A Freeing Space: Our Seventeenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
The 2022 Writer’s Hotel “Mini MFA” Conference in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry was held virtually from June 8 to June 15. The conference featured two full manuscript readings with two sets of editorial comments offered per reading, one pre-conference and the other post-conference, craft labs, workshops and lectures, attendee and faculty readings, and agent pitching sessions.
The Writer’s Hotel “Mini MFA” Conference, P.O. Box 472, Brunswick, ME 04011. Shanna McNair, Founder and Director.
“From narrow provinces / of fish and bread and tea, / home of the long tides / where the bay leaves the sea,” writes Elizabeth Bishop in her iconic poem “The Moose,” in which she writes about a bus ride through Nova Scotia, describing in detail both the natural landscape and the conversations happening inside the bus. The poem takes its title from the final scene, in which the bus stops in front of a moose in the middle of the road. Write a poem that takes place entirely within the stretch of a single journey. Be it by plane, bus, or car, how can you use the finite sense of a journey to your poem’s advantage?
In this video, Tom Sleigh reads “The King’s Touch,” the title poem from his new collection published by Graywolf Press this month. The video is part of a series called “Age of Wonder” directed by filmmaker Ed Robbins which features Sleigh reading selections from the book.
Submissions are open for this year’s Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, a unique prize with no entry fee that champions “outstanding poets from the upper Midwest and brings their work to a national stage.” Administered by Milkweed Editions, the prize offers $10,000 and publication for a collection by a poet currently residing in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wisconsin.
Using only the online submission system, submit a poetry manuscript of at least 48 pages by February 15. There is no entry fee. Tyehimba Jess will judge. The winner and finalists will be announced in April. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Founded in 1980, Milkweed Editions is a nonprofit independent press of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry based in Minneapolis. The Ballard Spahr Prize is one of several awards offered by the press, including the Jake Adam York Poetry Prize, which is presented in partnership with Copper Nickel, and the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. Recent books published as winners of the Ballard Spahr Prize include Return Flight by Jennifer Huang and Wound From the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse; greathouse was featured in the sixteenth annual look at debut poets from Poets & Writers Magazine.
“In my dream I know that we are all gone, our cities are gone, our art is gone, our language and machines are gone,” reads Hannah Black, author of Tuesday or September or The End (Capricious, 2022), in this 2021 Poetry Project event with Jackie Wang, author of The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us From the Void (Nightboat Books, 2021).
In Lee Young-ju’s “A Girl and the Moon” from her collection Cold Candies (Black Ocean, 2021), translated from the Korean by Jae Kim, image and story are woven together into a spellbinding prose poem that maintains its steady rhythm through the consistent use of commas. “Mid-night, swinging upside down on a pull-up bar, the girl says, Mother, this bone growing on my back, white in the night, protruding out of my skin, long and endlessly this bone,” writes Young-ju. This week, write a poem that uses commas as its only punctuation. Does this formal constraint challenge your syntax and word choice?
February may be the shortest month of the year, but there are still plenty of writing contests to go around. These grants and awards close on either February 14 or February 15 and include three contests from the Academy of American Poets with no entry fee. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more.
Academy of American Poets Ambroggio Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by University of Arizona Press is given annually for a book of poetry originally written in Spanish by a living writer and translated into English. Raina J. León will judge. Deadline: February 15. Entry fee: None.
Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Translation Award: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a book of poetry translated from any language into English and published in the United States during the previous year. David Shook will judge. Deadline: February 15. Entry fee: None.
Academy of American Poets Raiziss/De Palchi Book Prize: A prize of $10,000 is given biennially for the translation into English of a significant work of modern Italian poetry published in the United States. Books by living translators are eligible. Nick Benson, Moira Egan, and Graziella Sidoli will judge. Deadline: February 15. Entry fee: None.
Arrowsmith Press Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry: A prize of $1,000 will be given annually for a poetry collection published in English by a writer who is not a citizen of the United States. The winner will also receive an invitation to read at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Poets who are living in the United States as green card holders are among those eligible. Poets whose work appears in translation into English are also eligible. Carolyn Forché will judge. Deadline: February 15. Entry fee: $20.
Furious Flower Poetry Center Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Obsidian, the literary journal of Illinois State University, is given annually for a group of poems. The winner also receives a $500 honorarium to give a reading at James Madison University (either virtually or in-person, as public health allows). Poets who have published no more than one collection of poetry are eligible. Tim Seibles will judge. Deadline: February 15. Entry fee: $15.
Hippocrates Prize Prizes for Poetry and Medicine: A prize of £1,000 (approximately $1,379) and publication in the Hippocrates Prize anthology and as a video recording on the Hippocrates website is given annually for a single poem on a medical theme. A prize of £1,000 (approximately $1,379) and publication in the Hippocrates Prize anthology and on the website is also given for a single poem on a medical theme written by a health professional. Deadline: February 14. Entry fee: $10 ($15 for postal submissions).
New American Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,500, publication by New American Press, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Eduardo C. Corral will judge. Deadline: February 14. Entry fee: $20.
Sarabande Books Morton and McCarthy Prizes: Two prizes of $2,000 each and publication by Sarabande Books are given annually for collections of poetry and fiction. Terrance Hayes will judge in poetry and Susan Minot will judge in fiction. Deadline: February 15. Entry fee: $29.
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.
“I know most people try hard / to do good and find out too late / they should have tried softer.” Andrea Gibson reads “The Year of No Grudges, or Instead of Writing a Furious Text, I Try a Poem” from their latest poetry collection, You Better Be Lightning (Button Poetry, 2021), in this video from a stage in Longmont, Colorado.
