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In this PBS NewsHour video, NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada highlight their favorite books for summer reading, which include Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press, 2019), Jill Ciment’s The Body in Question (Pantheon, 2019), and José Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal (Haymarket Books, 2018).
“To deprivatize is not the same as to make public. A field is only natural or private after so much hurt.” In this short film, Jos Charles offers a preface for her poetry collection feeld (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
Enclosed within black iron gates in the Alnwick Garden in northern England is the Poison Garden, a collection of one hundred deadly plants dreamed up by the Duchess of Northumberland as a unique way to entice and educate visitors about the medicinal and toxic quality of plants. This week, browse through Encyclopedia Britannica’s list of world’s deadliest plants and select one to read and think more deeply upon. Write a poem inspired by the unique capabilities of the plant, meditating on both its superficial characteristics and its potential to heal, harm, or do both.
“I have withheld more than I have written. I have restrained more than I have given. I have left unsaid more than I have said.” In this Granta video, Dionne Brand reads from her collection The Blue Clerk (McClelland & Stewart, 2018), which was shortlisted for the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize.
“It is not what drove your body here like a stolen car. / why you abandoned it on this unreasonable ledge....” This Button Poetry video features sam sax’s poem “Gay Boys & the Bridges Who Love Them” from his second collection, Bury It (Wesleyan University Press, 2018), and is directed by Seth Moore and Cole Smothers with choreography by Matthew Bovee and Sarah Adam.
“When I did begin to make connections with poets, everything opened up for me,” says the late Holly Prado in this Poetry.LA video interviewing noted Southern California poets, including William Archila, Chiwan Choi, Marcia de la O, and Douglas Kearney, on how they got started in their writing careers. Prado died at the age of eighty-one on June 14, 2019.
The Poetry Society of America honored its longtime executive director, Alice Quinn, and singer-songwriter Paul Simon at its annual benefit.
Who were you when you first fell in love with writing? In “Be Bold,” Rigoberto González’s profile of Ocean Vuong in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, Vuong describes the importance of consistently reminding himself of who he was when he first discovered his passion for writing, explaining, “I bring him to the present, not the person who won the awards—he has nothing to teach me.” Spend some time thinking of the person you were when you first came to writing. What were your intentions? What did writing provide that nothing else did? Write an ode to your younger, novice self inspired by the emotions and intentions that still excite you.
“I watched a dandelion lose its mind in the wind / and when it did, it scattered a thousand seeds.“ Andrea Gibson, author of Lord of the Butterflies (Button Poetry, 2018), reads their poem “The Nutritionist” for this animated TED-Ed film directed by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat.
Have a poem or poetry manuscript ready to submit? Don’t miss out on these contests offering prizes of at least $1,000 and publication—all with a deadline of June 30.
Autumn House Press Literary Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Autumn House Press is given annually for a poetry collection. The winner also receives a $1,500 travel and publicity grant. Cornelius Eady will judge. Entry fee: $30.
Barrow Street Press Book Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication by Barrow Street Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Jericho Brown will judge. Entry fee: $28.
Bauhan Publishing May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Bauhan Publishing, and 100 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Deborah Gorlin will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Cider Press Review Editors’ Prize Book Award: A prize of $1,000, publication by Cider Press Review, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $26.
Conduit Books & Ephemera Minds on Fire Open Book Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Conduit Books & Ephemera, and 25 author copies will be given annually for a poetry collection. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Los Angeles Review Literary Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Los Angeles Review is given annually for a poem. Matty Layne Glasgow will judge. Entry fee: $20.
Milkweed Editions Max Ritvo Poetry Prize: A prize of $10,000 and publication by Milkweed Editions is given annually to a U.S. poet for a debut poetry collection. Henri Cole will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Munster Literature Center Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition: A prize of €1,000 and publication by the Munster Literature Center is given annually for a poetry chapbook. The winner will also receive accommodations to give a reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival in March 2020. Entry fee: €25.
Parlor Press New Measure Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Parlor Press in the Free Verse Editions series is given annually for a poetry collection. Peter Gizzi will judge. Entry fee: $28.
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize: A prize of AUD $15,000 and publication in the prize anthology is given annually for a single poem. A second-place prize of AUD $5,000 and publication is also given. Tricia Dearborn, Kei Miller, and Paul Munden will judge. Entry fee: AUD $25.
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
