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Welcome to Our August Newsletter
We found over
two dozen quality free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between
August 15-September 30.
 In this issue: "Le vaisseau d'or" by Émile Nelligan,
illustrated and translated by Julian Peters.
WERGLE FLOMP
HUMOR POETRY CONTEST WINNERS
Congratulations to S. Michael Wilson, winner
of our 2016 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. Wilson's poem, "Dick
Candles", burned bright and earned $1,000. We awarded
runner-up Christina Myers $250 for "Tampon
Bullet, Direct Hit". Honorable mentions and $100 went
to Danny Caine, Sarah Crowe, Laura Docter, Michael Forester, Ralph
Gagliardo, Debra McQueen, George Northrup, Michelle Reiter, Garry
Somers, and Vicki Wilke. A record-breaking 4,834 contestants
entered. Read all
the winning entries with comments from judges Jendi Reiter and Lauren
Singer. Read the
press release. Our 2017 contest is now open for
entries. As always, this contest has no fee.
Deadline Next
Month
TOM
HOWARD/MARGARET REID POETRY CONTEST
14th year. We will award the Tom Howard Prize of $1,500 for a poem in
any style or genre, and the Margaret Reid Prize of $1,500 for a poem
that rhymes or has a traditional style. Ten Honorable Mentions will
receive $100 each (any style). The top 12 entries will be published
online. Length limit: 250 lines per poem. Entry fee: $10 per poem.
Final judge: S. Mei Sheng Frazier, assisted by Jim DuBois. Deadline:
September 30. Submit
online here.
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Sign
up today and you'll...
·
Learn from feedback that will be
written on everything you write. Share your poetry, stories and book
chapters.
·
Be a part of a community
for writers of all skill levels. Make connections and
friends.
Upcoming contest deadlines:
Minute
Poem Contest
A fun poem to write. It follows the "8,4,4,4" syllable count
structure. Winner receives $100 cash. Deadline: August 15 (today!)
2-4-2
Poetry Contest
This poem has three lines. The first line has 2 syllables, the second
line has 4 syllables and the last line has 2 syllables again. The
subject can be anything. $100 for the winner. Deadline: August 20.
Share
Your Story
A memoir gives us the ability to write about our life. But you can
write about life with the option to create and fabricate and to make
sense of it. The winner takes away $100. Deadline: August 22.
5-7-5
Poetry Contest
This poem should have three lines, similar to haiku. The first line has
5 syllables. The second line has 7 syllables. The third line has 5
syllables again. Write about anything. Cash prize of $100 for the
winner. Deadline: August 27.
Horror
Story Writing Contest
Write a horror or thriller story. Put your readers on edge or terrorize
them. Recommended length is 2,000-3,500 words, 7,000 maximum. Winner
receives $100. Deadline: August 31.
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Congratulations to Tim
Mayo (featured poem, "The
Uncapping"), Wim Coleman, Brett
Busang, Carol Smallwood, Joan
Leotta, Zachary Perry, James
K. Zimmerman, Margaret Gish Miller
(featured poem, "One
Morning"), Madeleine McDonald, Gloria
Mindock, Vivian Khan, and Helen
Bar-Lev.
Winning Writers Editor Jendi
Reiter was longlisted
for the 2016 Exeter Story Prize from Creative Writing Matters, for her
story "Taking Down the Pear Tree".
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Echoes
of Edisto by C. Hope Clark is out and reviews are rolling in rich
and positive. Like this one:
"As always C. Hope Clark
has me at page one! I love her concern for detail. You can feel Callie
Jean Morgan's emotions and struggles, and as she enters back into law
enforcement you keep pulling for her. As soon as you open the book, you
are pulled in by a sudden loss and captivated till the very end. I look
forward to anything this author writes! All of her books transport your
mind to the center of her books' being. A perfected skill we are all
happier for. Keep that magic coming!"
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Jendi Reiter's debut novel, Two Natures
(Saddle Road Press, forthcoming September 2016), is now available for pre-order
from Amazon
and Barnes
& Noble. This genre-bending novel
couples the ambitious political analysis of literary fiction with the
pleasures of an unconventional love story.
Praise for Two Natures
We have had so many coming of
age stories that it seems like that the genre has played itself out. I
figured that if there would be any more written, they would have to be
really spectacular. That is exactly what Jendi Reiter's Two
Natures is...
It is a pleasure to read a
novel that is literary in all of its aspects. I also found that the
issue of faith that is so important to me is beautifully handled here.
For those who are dealing with this issue, there is much to be learned
here. We so often substitute things and events that are near for the
goals that we search and one reviewer put it perfectly when he says
that at that time, "Style has become God, sex has become a contact
sport and jobs, money and survival are always around the corner somewhere
else". We all know someone like Julian and many of us see
ourselves in him. The highest praise that I can give this book is to
say that "I love it" and I do. Julian is an everyman and in
that he is a composite of so many gay personalities. You owe to yourselves
to read this wonderful novel.
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Deadline: August 29. Creative
Nonfiction magazine is seeking new essays for an upcoming issue dedicated
to HOW WE TEACH.
For our spring 2017 issue,
we're looking for original essays about teaching—whether in a
traditional classroom or online; in summer camp or college; in
preschool or in a prison; in the woods or in a workshop.
We welcome personal stories as
well as profiles, and we're open to a very wide range of experiences
and circumstances. Above all, we are looking for narratives—true
stories, rich with scene, character, detail, and a distinctive
voice—that give insight into what it means to teach.
Submissions must be 4,000 words
or fewer.
$1,000 for best essay; $500 for
runner-up.
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Deadline: August 31. Gulf
Coast is now accepting entries for the 2016 Barthelme Prize
for Short Prose. The contest is open to pieces of prose poetry, flash
fiction, and micro-essays of 500 words or fewer. Jim Shepard will
judge. Submit online or by mail. Click
for the complete guidelines.
Established in 2008, the
contest awards its winner $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two
honorable mentions will also appear in issue 29.2, due out in April
2017, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on our
website as Online Exclusives. The entry fee includes a one-year
subscription to Gulf Coast.
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Deadline: August 31. Gulf
Coast is now accepting entries for the 2016 Gulf Coast
Prize in Translation for Poetry. Send up to ten pages of poetry
translated into English. Idra Novey will judge. Submit online or by
mail. Click
for the complete guidelines.
Established in 2014, the
contest awards its winner $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two
honorable mentions will each receive $250. All entries will be
considered for paid publication on our website as Online Exclusives.
The entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Gulf
Coast.
Please enjoy this excerpt
from The Romantics'
Conspiracy by the winner of our 2015 contest, Samantha
Schnee, who translated El complot de los Románticos by
Carmen Boullosa.
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·
$1,000 award and publication
·
Entry fee: $25
·
Submit a manuscript of up to
75-100 pages
·
Previously published works may
be entered
·
$1,000 award and publication
·
Entry fee: $25
·
Submit a novella of up to
50,000 words or a manuscript of short stories of up to 200 pages
·
Any well-written manuscript on
any topic will be considered
·
Previously published works may
be entered
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Deadline: November 16. The
Sarton Women's Book Awards are sponsored by the Story
Circle Network, an international nonprofit association of
women writers. The annual awards are given to women authors in five
categories: memoir, biography, contemporary fiction, historical fiction,
young adult and new adult fiction.
The awards are limited to submissions originally written in English and
published in the United States and Canada by small/independent
publishers, university presses, and author-publishers (self-publishing
authors). Professional librarians not affiliated with the Story
Circle Network select the winners. Guidelines
here.
The award program is named in honor of May Sarton, who is remembered
for her outstanding contributions to women's literature as a memoirist,
novelist, and poet. Go here
to see previous winners.
Go here to enter: http://storycircle.org/SartonLiteraryAward/awardapplication.php
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Some contests are best suited
to writers at the early stages of their careers. Others are better for
writers with numerous prizes and publications to their credit. Here is
this month's selection of Spotlight Contests for your consideration:
Intermediate Writers
Young
Lions Fiction Award. New York Public Library awards $10,000
for the best published book of fiction (novel or short story
collection) by a US author age 35 or under. Must be submitted by
publisher. Due September 2.
Advanced Writers
Griffin
Poetry Prize. Awads two top prizes of Can$65,000 for poetry
books published in the current calendar year. One prize will go to a
living Canadian poet or translator, the other to a living poet or
translator from any country (including Canada). Due December 31.
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·
Lunch
Ticket (creative writing, translations, art) (October 31)
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At 45 years old, Earl Mills was
married with five children, owned his own home, and worked for 25 years
at the same company. Yet he had a secret that few others knew: he could
not read.
His lack of reading skill was
exposed when he was put on the spot at church one night when he was
asked to read a Bible passage. No one knew he couldn't read except his
wife. Earl says, "When you can't read, you keep it under a lock
and a key and you let hardly anyone inside of that part of your
life."
Earl sought the assistance of
the Craven Literacy Council. When he went to them they assessed him at
a second-grade reading level. He had trouble spelling words like girl
and bird. With sheer determination he embarked on a three-year process
of learning how to read. In addition to improving his literacy skills,
Mills developed his ability to capture the frustrations and triumphs
through his poetry. Today, he has published several books of poetry,
including From Illiterate to Poet and From
Illiterate to Author.
 Earl is now a passionate advocate for literacy. He
recently attended the National ProLiteracy Conference in Charleston,
South Carolina where he was asked to read a few of his inspiring poems
to the audience of 500 literacy professionals. ProLiteracy is a
national nonprofit that develops materials and programs for over 1,000
literacy member programs across the country. When people learn to read
and write, they have the power to change their lives and their
communities.
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[translation]
A great ship it was, cut from
solid gold:
Its masts touched the sky, on uncharted seas;
The Goddess of Love, hair loose, chest bare,
Stretched out upon its prow, under an excessive sun.
But one night it came to strike
against the great reef
In the guileful ocean mid the Siren's singing,
And the terrible shipwreck cast its keel
Into the depths of the abyss, an immutable coffin.
A ship of gold it was, whose
diaphanous sides
Revealed its treasures, which the profane seamen,
Disgust, Hate, and Neurosis, have fought for among themselves.
What is left of it in the brief
tempest?
What's become of my heart, that abandoned ship?
Alas! It has sunk into the depths of the Dream!
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Nonbinary Femme
Thoughts
"I am certain of the reality of my masculine other self (he wrote
a whole novel, after all) and my lifelong discomfort with assumptions
that I should feel at home in women-only spaces. Beyond that, though, I
struggle with the fear that this is all ridiculous unless I
operationalize it somehow... When I dress femme, with a curvy female
figure, I brace myself for being challenged that my queer identity
isn’t real."
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