GalleyCrush: Machete
Tomás Q. Morín’s Machete, forthcoming from Knopf on October 12, 2021.
Genre: Poetry
Terrance Hayes on the Craft of Obsession
Caption:
In this 2017 craft talk for Hugo House, Terrance Hayes reads from his book American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Books, 2018) and discusses the work and writing strategies of the late poet Lynda Hull.
Genre:
Richard Zenith on Pessoa
Caption:
“Fernando Pessoa in many ways was a writer of not so much his own time, but even more of a future time.” Translator and scholar Richard Zenith speaks about the life and work of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa collected in his new book, Pessoa: A Biography (Liveright, 2021), in this conversation with poet, editor, and translator Patricio Ferrari for Powell’s Books.
Genre:
Forms
In Paul Tran’s “Progress Report,” published on Literary Hub and featured in their forthcoming debut poetry collection, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets, 2022), the poem catalogues the speaker’s life while filling out a form: “Photograph of the ’93 Mazda MPV he reportedly turned into an ice cream truck. / I marked Humor. / Holes where the nails had been in the wall. / I marked Self-harm.” The poem, made up of single end-stopped lines, uses a call-and-response technique to reveal new information as it progresses. Write a poem in which the speaker is filling out a form—perhaps a progress report, an immigration document, or a demographic survey. How can you use the poem’s form as a way of highlighting an important event?
Reading Together With Paul Muldoon
Caption:
“As with all great works of literature, each time we go back to it, we learn something new, we notice something new,” says Paul Muldoon in this video speaking about one of his favorite writers Robert Louis Stevenson for the Literature Matters: Reading Together series created by the Royal Society of Literature.
Quotable
In C. K. Williams’s poem “Marina,” published in the New Yorker in 2005, the speaker is reading essays by Marina Tsvetaeva as a bug makes its way across the table. As the poem progresses, lines from Tsvetaeva’s essays are interlaced with descriptions of the bug dragging its transparent wings behind it, and the bug becomes a metaphor for her difficult life. “‘The soul is our capacity for pain.’ // When I breathe across it, / the bug squats, quakes, finally flies. / And couldn’t she have flown again, / again have been flown?” Write a poem involving lines from a writer you admire. Try, as Williams does, to elucidate or challenge the featured lines.
Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry
African Poetry Book Fund
Entry Fee:
$0
Deadline:
October 1, 2021
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a book of poetry by an African poet published in the previous year. Writers who were born in Africa, who are a national or a resident of an African country, or whose parents are African are eligible. Chris Abani will judge. Submit four copies (or unbound proofs) of a poetry collection of at least 48 pages published in 2021 by October 1. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for an entry form and complete guidelines.
Disruptors Issue Contest
TulipTree Publishing
Entry Fee:
$20
Deadline:
October 17, 2021
A prize of $1,000 and publication in TulipTree Review is given annually for a poem, story, or essay. The theme for this fall’s contest is “disruption.” Submit a poem of up to 100 lines or a work of prose of no more than 10,000 words with a $20 entry fee by October 17. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Poetry and Fiction Prizes
Washington Writers’ Publishing House
Entry Fee:
$25
Deadline:
November 15, 2021
Two prizes of $1,500 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., Maryland, or Virginia are eligible. Using only the online submission system, submit a poetry manuscript of 50 to 70 pages or a novel or story collection of 150 to 350 pages with a $25 entry fee by November 15. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize
Missouri Review
Entry Fee:
$25
Deadline:
October 1, 2021
Three prizes of $5,000 each and publication in Missouri Review are given annually for a group of poems, a short story, and an essay. Submit up to 10 pages of poetry or no more than 8,500 words of prose with a $25 entry fee, which includes a subscription to Missouri Review and a complimentary copy of a digital book from TMR Books, by October 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
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