GalleyCrush: Villainy
Andrea Abi-Karam’s Villainy, forthcoming from Nightboat Books on September 14, 2021.
Genre: Poetry
A Failed Map
“A language is a map of our failures,” writes Adrienne Rich in “The Burning of Paper Instead of Children,” a poem that begins by reflecting on an incident involving children burning a book in a backyard. In the five-section poem, several forms and topics are discussed as the scope of the situation is widened to a global scale, then focused onto the intimacies of sexual relations, resulting in a capacious exploration of language and its failures. Write a poem that reflects upon your relationship to your first language and expands upon how communication can fail us.
Jan Garton Prairie Heritage Book Award Accepting Submissions
Submissions are open for the Jan Garton Prairie Heritage Award. Sponsored by the nonprofit organization Prairie Heritage, Inc., the annual award honors a book in any genre “that illuminates the heritage of North America’s mid-continental prairies.” The organization particularly looks to celebrate books that center non-European experiences of life in the region, as well as those that consider how “denizens of the prairie, human and non-human, have lived or can live together without the destruction and exterminations that have characterized the past.” The winner will receive $1,000.
Authors, publishers, and the general public may nominate books for the award. Submit two copies of a book published between 2017 and 2020 by mail by July 31. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
The mission of Prairie Heritage, Inc., is to “preserve the tallgrass prairie and its heritage,” with a particular concern for sharing the stories of the region’s Black settlers. The organization is based in Junction City, Kansas. The 2020 winner of its book award is Phong Nguyen, who received the honor for his novel The Adventures of Joe Harper (Outpost19, 2016).
Walter Mosley on Great Literature
Caption:
“The biggest misconception that people have about the literary life is the romance of it.” In this 2011 Big Think interview, Walter Mosley talks about the influence of comic books and early reading on his writing, and his opinion of great literature.
Anne Sexton on the Brockport Writers Forum
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“That is what poems are: / with mercy / for the greedy, / they are the tongue’s wrangle,/ the world’s pottage, the rat’s star,” reads Anne Sexton from her poem “With Mercy for the Greedy” in this 1973 episode of the Brockport Writers Forum with interviewers William Heyen and A. Poulin, Jr., in which she discusses her work, confessional poetry, and influences.
Genre:
P&W Live: Clint Smith With Destiny O. Birdsong
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In this Poets & Writers Live virtual event, poet and scholar Clint Smith speaks about his new book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America (Little, Brown, 2021), with poet and novelist Destiny O. Birdsong. Smith is featured in a profile written by Birdsong in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Genre:
Desire
In an article for the New Statesman, Andrew McMillan writes about discovering the poetry of Thom Gunn after his death and the impact of his writing on male desire and the male body: “While for the Romantics the sublime might have been an engagement with the vastness and wildness of a landscape, Gunn locates it in encounters with lovers or strangers, a striving towards and never quite achieving transcendence of the self.” This week, write a poem that strives for transcendence through a desirous encounter with a lover or a stranger. For inspiration, browse Gunn’s poetry published on the Poetry Foundation website.
Upcoming Contest Deadlines
The summer literary contest season is in full swing! With deadlines of July 15 or July 16, these opportunities include multiple contests for single poems and a set of prizes for work concerned with health and illness. All offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more.
Bellevue Literary Review Prizes in Poetry and Prose: Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Bellevue Literary Review are given annually for a group of poems, a story, and an essay about health, healing, illness, the body, and the mind. Crystal Valentine will judge in poetry, Amy Hempel will judge in fiction, and Michele Harper will judge in creative nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $20.
Cincinnati Review Robert and Adele Schiff Awards: Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Cincinnati Review are given annually for a poem, a short story, and an essay. Rebecca Lindenberg will judge in poetry, Michael Griffith will judge in fiction, and Kristen Iversen will judge in nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $20 (includes subscription).
Comstock Review Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Comstock Review is given annually for a single poem. Juan Felipe Herrera will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $27.50 for up to five poems (or $5 per poem via postal mail).
Futurepoem Other Futures Award: A prize of $1,000, publication by Futurepoem, and 25 author copies is given annually for a book of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid-genre work. The editors will judge. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $28.
Ledbury Poetry Festival Poetry Competition: A prize of £1,000 (approximately $1,318) and publication on the Ledbury Poetry Festival website is given annually for a single poem. The winner is also invited to read at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in Ledbury, England, in July 2022; travel expenses are not included. Anthony Anaxagorou will judge. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: £5.75 for one poem (approximately $6), and £3.50 (approximately $4) for each additional poem.
Narrative Poetry Contest: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a poem or group of poems. The poetry editors will judge. Deadline: July 16. Entry fee: $25 (includes three months of access to Narrative Backstage).
Rattle Poetry Prize: A prize of $15,000 and publication in Rattle is given annually for a single poem. A Reader’s Choice Award of $5,000 is also given to one of ten finalists. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $25 (includes subscription).
Regal House Publishing Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Regal House Publishing is given annually for a novel. The editors will judge. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $25.
The Story Prize: A prize of $20,000 is given annually for a short story collection written in English and published in the United States in the current year. Two runners-up receive $5,000 each. The $1,000 Story Prize Spotlight Award is also given for an additional short story collection “of exceptional merit.” Larry Dark and Julie Lindsey will select the three finalists and Spotlight Award winner; three independent judges will choose the Story Prize winner. The deadline for books published between January 1 and June 30 is July 15. The deadline for books published during the second half of the year is November 15. Entry fee: $75.
The Word Works Tenth Gate Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by the Word Works, and 50 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has published at least two full-length books of poetry. Lauren Camp will judge. Deadline: July 15. Entry fee: $25 (fee waivers available).
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.
Summertime
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“These poets really took me on a journey. Through each of their poems you got to essentially travel across L.A. into different neighborhoods, into different people’s spaces,” says director Carlos López Estrada about meeting the twenty-seven spoken word poets from the nonprofit Get Lit who cowrote and are featured in his new film, Summertime.
Genre:
Fourteen Lines
The sonnet form dates back to thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italy where it was popularized by the poet Petrarch, whose work was translated and introduced in the sixteenth century to English poets. A new type of sonnet with a different rhyme scheme was then developed and made famous through the work of William Shakespeare. Poets such as Wanda Coleman, Diane Seuss, and Terrance Hayes have given voice to the more contemporary “American” sonnet, demonstrating the flexibility of the fourteen-line form. This week, write your own sonnet—either a traditional sonnet or one inspired by a contemporary poet.
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