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“My great-grandfather held a brain and studied it for signs of music.” In this video, Maya C. Popa reads her poem “A Technique for Operating on the Past,” which won the 2015 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. Popa, the author of American Faith (Sarabande Books, 2019), is featured in “Poetic Lenses: Our Fifteenth Annual Look at Debut Poetry” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Honey Boy, a semiautobiographical film written by and starring Shia LaBeouf, offers an honest and complex portrait of his childhood and relationship with his father. LaBeouf plays a version of his father in this drama, delving into the character’s particular psychology, speech, and mannerisms. Write a persona poem in which you take on the identity of a family member. Step inside this person’s skin and consider what thoughts occupy their mind, what tone and vernacular they might possess on the page. As an additional step, try including pieces of dialogue you can recall having with this person.
“The most challenging thing every time I sit down to write is to make the poem on the page as alive as the poem in my head.” —Barbara Crooker, author of Some Glad Morning
Cameron Awkward-Rich weighs the ethical demands of elegy.
In this PBS Books interview at the 2019 AWP Conference & Book Fair, Keith S. Wilson speaks about his love of video games, Affrilachian poetry, and his debut collection, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love (Copper Canyon Press, 2019). Wilson is featured in “Poetic Lenses: Our Fifteenth Annual Look at Debut Poetry” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
The last contest deadlines of 2019 and the first of the new year offer a wealth of opportunities for poets. These awards honor published books, translations, single poems, and manuscripts. Most offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more, and all have deadlines from December 30 to January 2.
Bayou Magazine Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and a subscription to Bayou Magazine is given annually for a poem. Deadline: January 1. Entry fee: $20.
Before Columbus Foundation American Book Awards: Awards are given annually for books published in the United States during the previous year to recognize “outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community.” Anyone, in addition to writers and publishers, may submit nominations for the awards. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: none.
Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Awards: Four prizes of $500 each are given annually for a poetry collection, a first novel, a book of fiction, and a book of nonfiction (including creative nonfiction) by an African American writer published in the United States in the previous year. The awards honor books that depict the “cultural, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora.” Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: none.
Cleveland Foundation Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards: Three to four prizes of $10,000 each are given annually for a poetry collection, a book of fiction, and a book of nonfiction (including creative nonfiction) published during the previous year that “contribute to our understanding of racism and appreciation of human diversity.” Rita Dove, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Joyce Carol Oates, Steven Pinker, and Simon Schama will judge. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: none.
Codhill Press Poetry Award: A prize of $1,000, publication by Codhill Press, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. James Sherwood will judge. Deadline: December 30. Entry fee: $30.
Crosswinds Poetry Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Crosswinds is given annually for a single poem. Richard Blanco will judge. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: $20.
Gemini Magazine: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gemini Magazine is given annually for a single poem. The editors will judge. Deadline: January 2. Entry fee: $8.
Griffin Trust Poetry Prize: Two prizes of $65,000 CAD (approximately $49,520) each are given annually for poetry collections published during the previous year by a Canadian poet or translator and by an international poet or translator. Finalists in each category receive $10,000 CAD (approximately $7,618) for their participation in the Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlist Readings held in Toronto. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: none.
Mississippi Review Prize In Poetry: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Mississippi Review is given annually for a single poem. Deadline: January 1. Entry fee: $15 ($16 for electronic submissions).
The Moth Poetry Prize: A prize of €10,000 (approximately $11,116) and publication in the Moth is given annually for a single poem. Three runner-up prizes of €1,000 (approximately $1,111) each are also given. The winners will also be invited to read at an awards ceremony at the Poetry Ireland festival in Dublin in spring 2020. Claudia Rankine will judge. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: €15 (approximately $17).
New Issues Poetry & Prose Poetry Prize: A prize of $2,000 and publication by New Issues Poetry & Prose is given annually for a book of poetry by a poet who has not published a full-length collection. Traci Brimhall will judge. Deadline: December 30. Entry fee: $25.
New Rivers Press Many Voices Project Competition: Two prizes of $1,000 each, publication by New Rivers Press, and 15 author copies are given annually for a poetry collection and a book of fiction or creative nonfiction by an emerging writer. Writers who have not published more than two full-length books are eligible. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: $25.
Nowhere Magazine Travel Writing Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Nowhere Magazine is given twice yearly for a poem, a short story, or an essay that “possesses a powerful sense of place.” Porter Fox will judge. Unpublished and published pieces that have not already been chosen as a contest winner are eligible. Deadline: January 1. Entry fee: $25.
Three Percent Best Translated Book Award in Poetry: An award of $10,000 is given annually for a poetry collection translated into English for the first time and published in the previous year. The winning author will receive $5,000; the translator or translators will receive $5,000. Nancy Naomi Carlson, Patricia Lockwood, Aditi Machado, Laura Marris, and Brandon Shimoda will judge in poetry. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: none.
Tupelo Press Dorset Prize: A prize of $3,000 and publication by Tupelo Press is given annually for a poetry collection. The winner also receives a weeklong residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: $30.
Two Sylvias Wilder Series Book Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Two Sylvias Press is given annually for a poetry collection by a woman over the age of 50. Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy will judge. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: $20.
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.
“What streams of light might escape me and reveal / about the things I collect and hide...” This Motionpoems film directed by Tash Tung features Natalie Diaz’s poem “Cranes, Mafiosos and a Polaroid Camera,” which was first published in Spillway and will be included in her second collection, Postcolonial Love Poem, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in March 2020.
If you’re looking for more community and a spirited festival, you should look into Saints and Sinners. Founded in 2003, the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival highlights LGBTQ writers and publishers from the United States and beyond. The three-day event features panel discussions, workshops, and readings and is held each spring in the French Quarter at the Hotel Monteleone—an official literary landmark that has welcomed William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams to its rooms.
The 2020 festival is set for March 27–29 and will feature poet Savannah Sipple, fiction writer Leona Beasley, historian Frank Perez, and many others. Registration is open now with day passes and student rates available.
Saints and Sinners is a project of the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival, which I’ve attended several times in the past. The two festivals overlap so it’s possible to attend events from both. Last year, Saints and Sinners kicked off the festival with the return of their open mic slam and first-ever Drag Queen show. And to conclude the event, there are Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame awards given to those who best embody the mission of the festival.
My poet friend Brad Richard has attended the festival and speaks highly of it: “The Saints and Sinners Festival is a wonderful community within the larger community of the Tennessee Williams Festival. I’ve met writers I’ve always wanted to meet and discovered new ones, and found a publisher, Sibling Rivalry Press, for my third book, Butcher’s Sugar.”
Although I haven’t had the chance to attend Saints and Sinners yet, I look forward to supporting the festival and attendees in the coming year.
“That is a vapor at day’s far edge. That’s Lauren Bacall in a penny / arcade. That’s a streaming video but will not load.” At the 2012 TILTS Summer Workshop at the University of Texas in Austin, Chad Bennett reads “George Dyer” and “Other Weathers” from his first poetry collection, Your New Feeling Is the Artifact of a Bygone Era (Sarabande Books, 2020), which is currently featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“if you ask me where i come from i have to converse with broken wings.” Marwa Helal reads two poems from her debut poetry collection, Invasive species (Nightboat Books, 2019), at the Bronx Museum of the Arts for the Poets for Puerto Rico benefit reading series. Helal is featured in “Poetic Lenses: Our Fifteenth Annual Look at Debut Poetry” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
