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“I know a few things about my body, it’s the only one that I have and it becomes everything I say it is.” In this Button Poetry video, Rudy Francisco reads his poem “A Few Things,” which appears in his collection Excuse Me as I Kiss the Sky (Button Poetry, 2023), at Icehouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In an essay by Fady Joudah published on Literary Hub, the first section includes his translated lines of a poem by Palestinian author Hiba Abu Nada, written ten days before she was killed in a bombing in Gaza last month: “I shelter you / from wound and woe, / and with seven verses / I shield // the taste of orange / from phosphorus, / the color of clouds / from smoke.” Write a poem that seeks to shield or shelter something you hold dear to your heart—a person, memory, or idea that has deep value to you. You might experiment with verses that maintain a consistent length, or that increase or decrease in size. How can you modulate a balance between a tone of protectiveness and one of “wound and woe?”
In this virtual Poets & Writers event, 2023 Jackson Poetry Prize winner Sandra Lim reads a selection of poems from her latest collection, The Curious Thing (Norton, 2021), and speaks about her writing process with poet Carl Phillips, the 2021 winner of the prize.
“Write toward what you want to discover.” —Jim Redmond, author of Because You Previously Liked or Played
During the months of October and November, the color orange seems to be everywhere you look: the tree leaves turning burnt sienna, the honeyed glint of autumn sunlight, jack-o’-lanterns set out on stoops and stairways, pumpkin spice flavored beverages, persimmons ripening on trees, Mexican marigolds decorating Dia de los Muertos altars, the multicolored hues of calico corn, the bronze and amber of decorative gourds galore. These golden months are typically associated with a tendency toward slowing down, nostalgia, and moving inward—whether looking within oneself or spending more time indoors. Write a poem that attempts to capture the feeling of this autumnal color. How do its many hues contribute to the elegiac sensations of the season?
Christopher Soto, author of Diaries of a Terrorist (Copper Canyon Press, 2022), talks about his origins as a poet growing up in Los Angeles and the connection between poetry and activism in this installment of the Line / Break series hosted by Copper Canyon Press publicist Ryo Yamaguchi. “Making Space: A Farewell Ritual for the Debut Book” by Soto appears in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Before the holiday season bogs you down, submit to some writing contests with a November 15 deadline. Prizes include $20,000 for a published story collection, $5,000 for published books that relate to California, $2,000 and publication for a poetry manuscript by an author who identifies as a woman, and a seven-month residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Three awards have no entry fee. Read on for more information, and good luck!
Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival
Brooklyn Nonfiction Prize
A prize of $500 and publication on the Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival website will be given annually for a work of nonfiction that is set in Brooklyn, New York, and renders the borough’s “rich soul and intangible qualities through the writer’s actual experiences in Brooklyn.” Entry fee: None.
Commonwealth Club of California
California Book Awards
Five prizes of $5,000 each are given annually for a poetry collection, a book of fiction, a first book of fiction, a book of creative nonfiction, and a book of nonfiction that relates to California. Three additional prizes of up to $2,500 each are also given in the fiction, first fiction, and nonfiction categories. Books written by authors residing in California are eligible. Entry fee: None.
Fine Arts Work Center
Writing Fellowships
Fellowships for a seven-month residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, are given annually to four poets and four fiction writers who have not published a full-length book in any genre. Each fellowship includes a private apartment, a monthly stipend of $1,250, and an exit stipend of $1,000. Entry fee: $40.
Nightboat Books
Poetry Prize
Up to four prizes of $1,000 each and publication by Nightboat Books are given annually for poetry collections. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $28.
Perugia Press
Perugia Press Prize
A prize of $2,000, publication by Perugia Press, and 10 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a writer who identifies as a woman. Entry fee: $30.
Pushcart Press
Editors’ Book Award
A prize of $1,000 is given occasionally for a fiction or nonfiction manuscript that has been rejected by a commercial publisher. The award recognizes “worthy manuscripts that have been overlooked by today’s high-pressure, bottom-line publishing conglomerates.” Entry fee: None.
National Federation of State Poetry Societies
Barbara Stevens Poetry Book Manuscript Competition
A prize of $1,000, publication by National Federation of State Poetry Societies Press, and 50 author copies will be given annually for a poetry collection. The winner will also receive an invitation to read at the National Federation of State Poetry Societies convention, with a travel stipend of $300. Edward Hirsch will judge. Entry fee: $25.
The Story Prize
The Story Prize
A prize of $20,000 is given annually for a story collection written in English and first published in the United States in the current year. Two runners-up will receive $5,000 each, and one entrant will receive the $1,000 Story Prize Spotlight Award, given for a collection that merits further attention. Larry Dark and Julie Lindsey will select the three finalists and the Spotlight Award winner; three independent judges will choose the Story Prize winner. Entry fee: $75.
Writer’s Digest
Short Short Story Competition
A prize of $3,000 and travel and lodging expenses for a trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference is given annually for a short short story. A second-place prize of $1,500 is also awarded. The winners will both be published in Writer’s Digest. Entry fee: $30.
Yale University Press
Yale Series of Younger Poets
A prize of $1,000, publication by Yale University Press, and a writing fellowship at the James Merrill House in Stonington, Connecticut, is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has not published a full-length book of poetry and who resides in the United States. Rae Armantrout will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.
“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” “The Masque of the Red Death.” Each episode in filmmaker Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, a new television miniseries based on Edgar Allan Poe’s eponymous story, is named after a famed poem, story title, or line penned by the master of the macabre. While Poe lived and wrote during the first half of the nineteenth century, his lyrical words continue to resound in all their gothic-horror glory in contemporary times. Browse through Poe’s works—all of which are in the public domain and freely available to read online—and write a poem inspired by his favorite themes of love, death, uncertainty, guilt, sickness, regret, revenge, and the subconscious. If you’re having trouble getting started, choose one of Poe’s famous lines as the first line of your poem.
The translator of Luis Felipe Fabre’s Recital of the Dark Verses considers the nuances of crafting a faithful translation.
Poetry translators: Try for a treat this Halloween by submitting to the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize by October 31. The award of $2,000 and publication by Saturnalia Books is open to translators who identify as female (including those who are assigned-female-at-birth [AFAB] nonbinary, genderfluid, agender, and intersex) and who are translating the work of a woman poet (including those who are AFAB nonbinary, genderfluid, agender, and intersex).
Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 48 to 120 pages with an entry fee of $25. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Founded in 2002 to offer “an edgy alternative to traditional public narratives around poetry and visual art,” Saturnalia typically publishes five books a year by established and emerging poets. Chronicler of the “gurlesque” poetry movement with the 2010 publication of Gurlesque: The New Grrly, Grotesque, Burlesque Poetics, edited by Lara Glenum and Arielle Greenberg, the press is known for challenging the status quo. It has published Cortney Lamar Charleston’s Telepathologies (2017), Diamond Forde’s Mother Body (2019), Kayleb Rae Candrilli’s All the Gay Saints (2020), and other innovative poetry collections.
