|
|
We found over
three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with
deadlines between May 15-June 30. In this issue, please enjoy "Choices" by
Tess Gallagher, illustrated by Julian Peters.
Deadline Next
Month
NORTH
STREET BOOK PRIZE FOR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS
Deadline: June 30. 7th year. Co-sponsored by Carolyn
Howard-Johnson, author of The Frugal Book Promoter, and BookBaby.
Prizes increased to $13,750, including a top award of $5,000. This
year's categories: Mainstream/Literary Fiction,
Genre Fiction, Creative Nonfiction &
Memoir, Poetry, Children's Picture Book, Graphic
Novel & Memoir, and Art Book
(new!) Fee: $65 per entry. Jendi
Reiter and Ellen
LaFleche will judge, assisted by Annie
Mydla and Sarah
Halper. See the
previous winners and enter here.
Also open now, our Tom
Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest will award $8,000 in
prizes, including two top awards of $3,000 each. Deadline: September
30.
View past newsletters in our archives.
Need assistance? Let us
help. Join our 135,000 followers on Twitter and
find us on Facebook.
Advertise
with us, starting at $40.
|
|
Congratulations to Modou
Lamin Age-Almusaf Sowe, Threa Almontaser,
Alicia Doyle, Mike Tuohy,
Annie Dawid, Steven Mayfield, Armen
Davoudian, Antoinette Carone, Robin
Schwarz, Erika Dreifus, Duane L.
Herrmann, Susan Stinson, The Poet
Spiel, and Neil Perry Gordon.
Winning Writers editor Jendi
Reiter's prose-poem "Tired of My Own Vagina"
will be published in the Spring 2021 issue of Quarter
After Eight. Their poem "White Season" was a
semifinalist in the Knightville
Poetry Contest and will be published in The New Guard, Vol.
X.
Winning Writers contest judge Ellen
LaFleche was interviewed in April in Chris Rice
Cooper's blog series "Backstory
of the Poem". Ellen talked about her poem "Prayer
for Weeping", which was inspired by her husband's death from ALS
(Lou Gehrig's Disease). The piece is included in her most recent
collection, Walking into
Lightning (Saddle Road Press, 2019).
Learn
about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their
work.
Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com.
|
|
• First Prize,
Graphic Novel & Memoir, 2020 North Street Book Prize
• Grand Prize Winner, Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo Mini
Grant
North Street judge Ellen
LaFleche writes,
"The plot is compelling: a young woman having a difficult time
accepting her boyfriend John's death from cancer is at first overjoyed
when he comes back from the dead. But even as the reunited couple make
love and bathe and continue on with daily activities, the man's body
begins to decompose. The physical degradation of rot is drawn in a way
that is at once horrific and respectful. The couple's efforts to
control their leaky ceiling reinforces the symbolism of bodily ooze.
"As the boyfriend's
re-animated body continues to vanish, the couple work hard to come to
terms with how they behaved toward each other in life, grappling with
urgent haste to understand and honor their lost relationship in all its
complexity: the good, the bad, the mundane, the loyalties, the
betrayals, the joys, the losses. Readers who have experienced grief
will recognize this process."
See an excerpt
from the book (PDF).
Buy it now from
the author's website.
|
|
Deadline: May 18
The Oprelle Masters
Poetry Contest is an exclusive contest for
previously published authors with at least one writing/poetry award.
The 2021 Masters Contest is the first top-tier contest
offered by Oprelle Publications LLC. Five authors will get to showcase
up to 20 of their personal works in a Poetry Masters Anthology.
Winners receive a Crystal Trophy, a featured position on Oprelle.com,
and $1,500, $1,000, or $500 in cash, plus one or more copies of the
anthology with their picture, biography, and inspiration inside. Entry
fee: $40.
See the
complete guidelines and enter here.
Oprelle's mission is to share
the works of those who are growing and rising in the poetry, art, and
written word industries. Through ongoing contests, we provide resources
and exposure for poets, artists, and authors. We hope to not only
provide these opportunities, but to inspire new talents to press
forward with their extraordinary gifts.
|
|
Writer's Market, the most
trusted guide to getting published, is compiling its annual volume to
include the chapter, "How Much Should I Charge?" Whether you
freelance, edit, proofread, blog, copywrite, manage a newsletter, write
scripts, or provide journalism, we would love to know how much you
charge. By compiling this annual update, you assist writers everywhere
in sustaining themselves on a freelance income.
I am C. Hope Clark, founder of FundsforWriters
and a steadfast friend of Winning Writers, and while I write novels and
produce a newsletter, I also freelance. I've used this guide for years
and was honored when the Writer's Digest family asked me to compose
this year's chapter for Writer's Market. And I need your help.
Please complete
the survey and
share. Thanks!
|
|
Apply during May 17-31
Love writing but need
professional guidance to help you develop your voice? Apply to the 2021
Daphne Online Mentorship Program! We will be selecting 5-7
dedicated students to work with caring, accomplished professional
writers on a 1-on-1 basis.
Recent Daphne mentees have been
accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and top
creative writing programs, e.g., Iowa!
Session I: June
14–July 2
• 4 weeks of working 1-on-1 with a professional writer
• Zoom sessions and online editing/feedback to help hone your craft
Currently seeking online
MENTORS! Please send resume to theeditor@daphnereview.org.
Any questions, please email us
at theeditor@daphnereview.org.
|
|
Deadline: June 15
The reading period for the 2021
Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry is open. The competition awards $2,000 plus
publication for an unpublished, full-length poetry collection by a US
author, which includes foreign nationals living and writing in the US
and US citizens living abroad. Each entrant will receive a book from
our back catalog.
Past winners include Heather
Sellers, Kirsten Kaschock, Joe Wilkins, Jim Daniels, Carolyne Wright,
Suzanne Lummis, and Lou Lipsitz. Judges have included Yusef Komunyakaa,
Melissa Kwasny, Christopher Buckley, Dara Wier, Dorianne Laux, and
Robert Wrigley.
Lynx House Press has been
publishing fine poetry and prose since 1975. Our titles are distributed
by the University of Washington Press.
Manuscripts may include poems
that have appeared in journals, magazines, or chapbooks. Poems that
have previously appeared in full-length, single-author collections are
not eligible. Acknowledgments pages and author names may be included.
Entries must be at least 48 pages in length.
Mail your manuscript and $28
reading fee (payable to Lynx House Press) to Blue Lynx Prize for
Poetry, P.O. Box 96, Spokane, WA 99210 or submit online via Submittable.
|
|
Submit during April 1-June 15
One first place winner will
receive $500 and publication in a future issue, along with up to two
Honorable Mention selections. We're excited to welcome Indigo
Moor to serve as this year's guest judge!
We'll accept up to five poems
per $15 entry fee. Please begin your submission with a cover page listing
your name, email address, mailing address (for one issue, included with
entry), and poem titles. On the following pages, include your poems,
with each poem beginning on a new page and devoid of any personally
identifiable information to preserve the blind review. That's it!
See the full
rules on our website,
then enter by mail or online
at Submittable.
|
|
Deadline: June 30
Enter your self-published book
into the seventh North Street competition, sponsored by Winning Writers
and co-sponsored by BookBaby and Carolyn Howard-Johnson (author of The
Frugal Book Promoter).
Choose from seven categories:
·
Mainstream/Literary Fiction
·
Genre Fiction
·
Creative Nonfiction &
Memoir
·
Poetry
·
Children's Picture Book
·
Graphic Novel & Memoir
·
Art Book (new!)
The top winner in each category
will win $1,000, one grand prize winner will win $5,000,
and all eight winners will receive additional benefits to help market
their books. Any year of publication is eligible. Entry fee: $65 per
book. Submit online or by mail. Learn more.
|
|
Deadline: July 15
Submissions are now open for
the Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, which honor the work of
writers at the beginning of their careers. The Francine Ringold Awards
are open only to writers whose work has not appeared or is not
scheduled to appear in more than two publications in the genre in which
they are submitting. $500 prizes will be awarded in both the fiction
and poetry categories, and the winning work will appear in the spring
issue of Nimrod. Work by all finalists will also be
published, and finalists will be paid at a rate of $10/page, up to
$200.
Established in 1956, Nimrod
is dedicated to the discovery of new voices in literature, and the
Francine Ringold Awards are a special way to recognize talented new
poets and fiction writers.
• Poetry: Up to 5 pages of
poetry (one long poem or several short poems)
• Fiction: 5,000 words maximum (one short story or a self-contained
excerpt from a novel)
• Submission Fee: $12 per entry (plus $1.70 admin fee when submitting
online); includes a copy of the spring issue
• No previously published works or works accepted for publication
elsewhere.
Author's name must not appear
on the manuscript. Include a cover sheet containing major title(s),
author's name, full address, phone, and email. Entries may be mailed to
Nimrod
or submitted
online. Open internationally.
For complete
rules, visit Nimrod's website.
|
|
Deadline: July 15 (11:59pm
Pacific Time for online entries)
The annual Rattle
Poetry Prize celebrates its 16th year with a 1st prize of
$15,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each
and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers' Choice Award,
to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All of these poems will
be published in the winter issue of the magazine.
With the winners judged in a
masked review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection,
an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and
a runner-up Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers
themselves—the Rattle Poetry Prize aims to be one of the most
writer-friendly and popular poetry contests around.
We accept entries online and by
mail. See Rattle's
website for the complete guidelines and to read all of the
past winners.
Please enjoy the first Rattle
Poetry Prize winner by Sophia Rivkin, published in Rattle
#26, Winter 2006:
CONSPIRACY
The husband calls from two hundred miles away
to say he cannot stand it, his wife is dying
in a rented hospital bed in their living room
and he must put her away, somewhere, anywhere,
in a nursing home and she is crying looking up at him
through the bars like a caged animal—
she is an animal with foul green breath
and buttocks burnt raw with urine—
he cannot lift her, he cannot change her often enough,
and she is crying for the children’s pictures on the mantle,
she cannot leave the silver candlesticks,
the high school graduation pictures.
And I say, yes, it is time to put her away,
I am the friend and I say it,
the living conspiring with the living,
death standing like a Nazi general or a stormtrooper
with a huge cardboard chest covered with metals,
and he leans over her and pins a gold star
through her skin and it pricks us,
pricks us through the brain,
through our skin
but we do not bleed
when death is pushing her
out of her bed, marching her away,
while everyone stands white-faced
among the white-faced crowd,
blending in, blending in.
|
|
Deadline: July 31
The Press 53
Award for Poetry is awarded annually to an outstanding,
unpublished collection of poems. This competition is open to any
writer, regardless of his or her publication history, who is 18 years
of age or older, provided the manuscript is written in English and the
author lives in the United States or one of its territories.
Submit a manuscript that is
approximately 60 to 120 pages in length. Entry fee: $30.
Award includes: Publication by
Press 53 of the winning poetry collection as a Tom Lombardo Poetry
Selection; $1,000 cash advance; 50 copies (total prize valued at
$2,000). The winner will be announced on or before November 1.
Press 53 Poetry Series Editor Tom
Lombardo will be the only judge for this contest; the
contest will be judged solely on the strength of the poems as a
collection.
Learn more and
submit online or by mail.
We congratulate our most recent
winner, Chanel Brenner. Lombardo said of Brenner's
manuscript, "Smile or Else
is a masterpiece in the elegiac genre, a collection that examines a
mother's mourning over the death of her son, and chronicles her
recovery through the life of her surviving younger son. There is deep
grieving, but also a contrasting sense of hope. The poet weaves through
her collection excellent poems of mourning, separation, and
recovery."
|
|
Deadline: October 30
The Southern Collective
Experience is honored to host our new chapbook
contest for the Asian American community. Lee Herrick is this
year's judge.
·
1st Place: $200 and 100 book
copies
·
2nd Place: $100
·
3rd Place: $50
Winner and
honorable mention announcements will be made on December 30, 2021. All place-winners will be interviewed in the Blue
Mountain Review and on the NPR show, Dante's
Old South.
Entry fee: $25. Authors
must be Asian American or Pacific Islander. Please
submit up to 20 pages of poetry (including any acknowledgements and
dedication). Note any previously published poems in the
acknowledgements.
The contest is judged blind. Do
not put your name or any identifiers on your manuscript. Former
students and close friends of the judge are not eligible.
Learn more and
enter.
|
|
Deadline: December 1
Named for the distinguished
poet who taught for many years at Ohio University and made Athens,
Ohio, the subject of many of his poems, this annual competition invites
writers to submit unpublished collections of original poems.
Ohio University Press will
publish the winning manuscript and the author will receive a $1,000
cash prize.
Submissions are
being accepted now at Submittable.
There is a $30 entry fee. Previous winners include Idris Anderson,
Fleda Brown, Michelle Y. Burke, Joseph J. Capista, Kwame Dawes, Jason
Gray, Julie Hanson, Joshua Mehigan, Alison Powell, Roger Sedarat, and
Michael Shewmaker.
For further
details and instructions, please visit our website.
|
|
Jendi Reiter's novel Two
Natures (Saddle
Road Press) is the spiritual coming-of-age story of a NYC
fashion photographer during the 1990s AIDS crisis. Two
Natures won the Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary
Fiction and was a finalist for the Book Excellence Awards, the Lascaux
Prize for Fiction, and the EPIC e-Books Awards.
In her 5-star Goodreads
review, award-winning fiction writer Sandra Hunter (Trip Wires:
Stories) writes: "Jendi Reiter has delivered a
complex, nuanced, heartbreaking, and intellectually engaging novel
about life in the 90s for the gay man, along with a wittily scathing
putdown of the fashion industry and its fragile pretentious
foibles."
Read an excerpt
from the novel.
Buy it now at
Saddle Road Press.
|
|
|
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:
Emerging Writers
Speculative
Literature Foundation Older Writers Grant.
The foundation will issue one grant of $1,000 for an unpublished
writing sample (poetry, drama, fiction, or nonfiction) by a writer aged
50+ who is just starting to write professionally. Submit a sample of up
to 10 pages of poetry or drama, or 5,000 words of fiction or creative
nonfiction. Along with your writing sample, send a 500-word personal
statement as well as a one-page bibliography of any previously
published work. If sending a segment of a novel or novella, include a
one-page synopsis. Due May 31.
Intermediate Writers
bpNichol
Poetry Chapbook Award. Meet the Presses will
award C$4,000 to the Canadian author and C$500 to the publisher of the
best English-language poetry chapbook, 10-48 pages long, published in
Canada in the preceding year. Author or publisher should submit 3
copies of book plus author's curriculum vitae and completed submission
form by Canada Post or courier. Named for the late poet, novelist, and
indie publisher bpNichol. Due May 31.
Advanced Writers
Eugene
C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing.
The Society of Professional Journalists will award one $75,000
fellowship to an outstanding mid-career editorial writer or columnist
to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research by
taking courses, pursuing independent study, traveling, and
participating in other endeavors that enrich their knowledge of a
public interest issue. Candidate must currently be a part-time or
full-time editorial writer or columnist at a US news publication and
have worked in this capacity for three years minimum. Freelancers are
also eligible. The recipient must provide a post-fellowship written
report on how funds were used, and work resulting from the fellowship
must be published within 18 months of receiving the award. The fellow
must agree to become a mentor to the following year's recipient.
Complete nomination form online and upload your application materials
(cover letter, editor's endorsement, professional biography, and five
samples of editorials/columns). Due June 22.
See more
Spotlight Contests for emerging,
intermediate,
and advanced
writers within The Best Free Literary Contests database.
|
|
|
|
Winning Writers finds open
submission calls and free contests in a variety of sources, including Erika
Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, FundsforWriters,
Trish
Hopkinson's blog, Erica
Verrillo's blog, Authors
Publish, Lambda
Literary, Lit Mag
News Roundup, Poets
& Writers, The
Writer, Duotrope,
Submittable,
and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.
• Pensive:
A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts
(poetry, fiction, essays, art, and translations - May 15)
• Queer
Survivor e-Zine
(creative writing and art from LGBTQ survivors of sexual violence - May
24)
• Cider
Press Review
(poems, translations, and brief reviews of poetry books - May 31)
• Tint
Journal
(creative writing and art by non-native English speakers - May 31)
• World
Enough Writers: Cephalopod Anthology
(poems and flash prose about octopus and related species - May 31)
• The Best
New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime
(narrative journalism about lawbreaking couples - June 1)
• Sequestrum
"Family" and "Place" Issue
(poetry, fiction, and essays on selected themes - June 15)
• Black
Lawrence Press: Black Womanhood Anthology
(essays critiquing the "strong Black woman" stereotype - June
30)
• Voices
of Lincoln Poetry Contest
(poems on "If Life Were A Game Show, What Would Poets Say?" -
July 20)
• Uncharted
Magazine
(speculative, mystery, and horror fiction - July 31)
• Flowers
& Vortexes
(unpublished poems - August 30)
• The Best
New True Crime Stories: Unsolved Crimes and Mysteries
(narrative journalism about cold cases - September 1)
|
|
ProLiteracy's mission extends
beyond the United States to create a more literate world. To do this,
we work directly with 21
partner programs in 35 countries to bring literacy training
to local programs through teacher training, technical assistance with
materials, and by using our Literacy
for Social Change model. By framing literacy instruction
around topics relevant to the learners such as health, economic
empowerment, human rights, the environment, or other social needs, we
are able to also give people the knowledge they need to improve their
lives.
In an effort to serve adult
literacy programs worldwide, we strive to be aware of the global state
of adult literacy. Recently we re-examined our statistics to provide a snapshot
of where literacy stands worldwide. Some of the most
staggering statistics include:
·
750 million adults around the
world lack basic reading and writing skills
·
Women are disproportionately
burdened by low literacy and account for two-thirds of the world's
low-literate population
·
As of 2019, only 47 percent of
people in developing countries had access to the internet
·
49 percent of the world's
low-literate population can be found in one place—southern Asia
·
Nearly 200,000 maternal deaths
could be avoided if girls completed primary school
As we work to improve these
statistics and advance literacy around the world, our approach will
continue to focus on equipping programs with the training and materials
they need to address literacy in the areas of fundamental skills,
critical thinking, cultural expression, and learner-initiated action.
By meeting people where they are and addressing their basic needs, we
can empower them to improve their lives.
Learn more about our
international initiatives on our website.
To help literacy programs
worldwide take advantage of all of ProLiteracy's available resources,
we offer an International
Membership option.
|
|
This month, editor Jendi Reiter
presents selected books that deserve your attention. There are many
more in our Books
resource section.
Harry Bauld
HOW TO PAINT A
DEAD MAN
With mordant wit and erudition, the poems in this chapbook dissect
artistic masterpieces from Rembrandt to Basquiat, to analyze the nature
of fame, genius, and mortality. Several pieces are from the perspective
of cogs in the commercial art machine—docents, consumers, or anonymous
assistants to the famous painter (who are actually doing most of the
work). Others remix words from news stories, textbooks, and artists'
monographs, as if to warn that no body of work is immune to being
decomposed.
Jackie Kay
TRUMPET
Lyrical writing distinguishes this multivocal novel about a trans male
jazz musician in 1950s-'90s Scotland and the many ways that people
process the revelation of his queer identity after his death.
Joshua Michael Stewart
BREAK EVERY
STRING
This poetic autobiography is a blues song for the dead-end economy of
Midwestern towns and the family wreckage they harbor. His characters
crackle with energy that could find its outlet in verses or fists,
parenting your own children or stealing someone else's, a guitar or a
bottle. As the one who escaped, Stewart plays through all the octaves
of emotion, from gratitude to judgmental pride, to survivor guilt, to
wary compassion: "of loving/the lost with raucous praise, of
letting the gone go."
John Allen Taylor
UNMONSTROUS
Bold, tender poetry chapbook depicts a Southern childhood marked by
sexual abuse from his Sunday school teacher, and the grace and
gratitude he finds in reclaiming his body as part of the natural world.
|
|
Here Comes
Mommy-Man
Several of my trans male and nonbinary acquaintances were mothers
before they transitioned, and are now exploring alternative ways for
their children to address them. I've started to introduce myself to new
people as "Shane's parent" but I haven't asked him to call me
anything different. On his own, my creative boy decided to call me
"Mommy-Man", or sometimes "Mommy-Sir".
Read
more
Jendi
Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers.
Follow
Jendi on Twitter at @JendiReiter.
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment