Genre: Poetry

The Slam at the Cube

United States of Writing
9.9.19

LaShaun “Phoenix” Kotaran is a longtime figure in the slam community and has recently been chosen to host a new poetry slam series in Detroit. It is exciting to see poetry back in a venue that hasn’t had a poetry event in over ten years—Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This immaculate building offers a dynamic recital hall known as the Cube for performances.

I had a chance to speak to Phoenix about adding this new gig to her extensive hosting career. While Phoenix is excited about the opportunity, she feels that the literary offerings in the city have shrunken, especially since the city’s bankruptcy. “It’s been tough to partner with venues in downtown Detroit and Cass Corridor,” Phoenix says. However, the new slam series at the Cube brings hope of fresh growth. “Detroit Symphony Orchestra is very Detroit, very white and blue collar. It is Detroit grit. This is the perfect space to cultivate culture,” she says.

The first Cube Poetry Slam went down last month and featured incredible local poets and an acoustic set by singer and songwriter Peter Collins who made his Detroit debut. This fall, the series continues with an all-female lineup. I will be watching this series very closely and reporting about it in the near future!

LaShaun “Phoenix” Kotaran and poets read at the Cube. (Credit: Justin Rogers)
 
Justin Rogers is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Detroit. Contact him at Detroit@pw.org or on Twitter, @Detroitpworg.

American Poetry Museum

Literary Archive, Reading Venue, Writing Center

The American Poetry Museum is an outreach museum that serves as a space for exhibitions and education centered on the subject of American poetry. The Museum collects objects centered around American poetry and presents events and educational poetry writing workshops for learners of all ages. The Museum also hosts an annual exhibition each year comprised of art, photography and video about different subject matter using poetry as a tool for discussion.

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reading

Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize Open for Submissions

G&A: The Contest Blog
9.6.19

Submissions are open for the inaugural Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize. Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, with support from Treehouse Investments, the award will honor “exceptional poems that help make real for readers the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment at present.” The award for first place is $1,000; a second-place prize of $750 and a third-place prize of $500 will also be awarded. The winners will all be published in the Academy of American Poet’s Poem-a-Day series.

Using only the online submission system, submit a poem of any length by November 1. Submissions in Spanish will be allowed if they are accompanied by an English translation. Performance or spoken word poets may submit video of their work. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

This year’s contest will be judged by environmentalist Bill McKibben and poet Julia Alvarez. “We’re grateful to have the opportunity to address the climate crisis through poetry and hope the poets’ poems we’ll publish might inspire people to learn more about the issue and how they can help,” says Jennifer Benka, executive director of the Academy of American Poets. 

Established in 1934, the Academy of American Poets is one of the largest nonprofits in the United States dedicated to supporting contemporary poetry. In addition to the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize, the organization annually awards more than $1 million to poets through its American Poets Prizes.

A Group Effort

The Time Is Now
9.3.19

How many people does it take to make a community? At Station Nord, a Danish military outpost and research facility located in Greenland just over five hundred miles from the North Pole, only six people and two dogs live there year-round. Even with such a limited population, isolated locale, and frigid temperatures, inhabitants establish a convivial sense of home and community with shared meals, silly rules, pig roasts, and game nights. Write a poem about a group of people who provided you with a warm sense of community. What small, perhaps mundane, moments do you recall that have helped create a sense of belonging, support, and bonding?

Submissions Open for Peter Porter Poetry Prize

G&A: The Contest Blog
8.30.19

One of Australia’s most prestigious literary awards, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, is open for submissions. The annual award, which is given for a single poem, honors Australian poet Peter Porter, who wrote more than fifteen collections of poetry and was celebrated with the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. Porter was also a longtime contributor to the Australian Book Review, which sponsors the eponymous prize. This year’s winner will receive $7,000 AUD (approximately $ 4,713) and will be published in an issue of the review.

Using only the online submission system, submit a poem of up to 70 lines with an entry fee of $25 AUD (approximately $17) by October 1. All poets writing in English are eligible. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

John Hawke, Bronwyn Lea, and Philip Mead will judge this year’s prize. Its most recent winners are Belle Ling and Andy Kissane, who jointly received the 2019 prize. Ling won for “63 Temple Street, Mong Kok” and Andy Kissane won for “Searching the Dead.”

Ariana Reines

Caption: 

“My heart had recently cracked // Open. Fear had departed me.” Ariana Reines reads “To the Reader” from her poetry collection, A Sand Book (Tin House Books, 2019), and talks about the origins of the book, her writing background, and the power of poetry to reach the deepest levels of human experience in this Louisiana Channel interview.

Genre: 
Poetry
Tags: 
Ariana Reines
To the Reader
A Sand Book
Tin House Books
2019
interview
reading
Louisiana Channel

Pick Up Poetry

The Time Is Now
8.27.19

“Autumn nibbles its leaf from my hand. / We are friends. // We shell time from the nuts and teach them to walk. / Time returns into its shell.” In an essay on Lit Hub, Sara Martin writes about compulsively reciting Paul Celan’s poem “Corona” on first dates as a “beautiful but impersonal” way to expedite intimacy. This week, write a poem you can imagine reciting to a new romantic prospect or lover, one that doesn’t necessarily dwell on traditional images or vocabulary of seduction but strives for a subtle sense of hope and urgency. What kind of language do you use to invoke an immediate intimacy?

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