Resources
From Category:
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Sestinas
Luscious witty sestinas on topics great and small. "Anna Karenina (Or Like, Most of It)" is not to be missed. Submissions are accepted, if they're sestinas (definition and examples).
MC Nuts: William Wordsworth Rap
This YouTube video reinterprets the 19th-century poet's famous "Daffodils" as a hip-hop performance.
Marie Osmond Performs Dadaist Poetry
In this charming and peculiar video clip, rediscovered at the Lambda Literary website, television personality Marie Osmond reenacts the origins of Dadaism with Hugo Ball's "sound poem".
Lyttle Lytton Contest
This website collects and publishes the worst first sentences of imaginary novels (and some equally bad quotes from real ones).
LiveJournal: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Haiku
Hilarious "executive summaries" of the Bard's first 20 sonnets, which show that he was obsessed with procreation.
Lighten Up Online
British quarterly webzine of light verse, launched in 2008. Both published and unpublished work accepted. Read back issues before submitting.
Light Quarterly
Pleasant and witty, "a quarterly of light and occasional verse, squibs, satire, puns, and word-play." Free excerpts online.
Le Jaseroque
Frank L. Warrin's translation of "Jabberwocky" into French weds nonsense to high culture. "Il brilgue: les tôves lubricilleux/Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave." Whatever it means, it sounds very important in the language of Racine and Moliere.
Idiots’ Books
Idiots' Books is a Maryland-based indie press that publishes offbeat, satirical illustrated books featuring the work of writer Matthew Swanson and illustrator Robbi Behr. Books are distributed through a subscription service. Titles include 'Dawn of the Fats', billed as "the oft-neglected examination of that special place where funnel cakes and zombiism collide"; 'Ten Thousand Stories', a book whose split pages can be recombined into 10,000 absurd but still grammatical narratives; and 'After Everafter', which gives ten classic fairy tales the same (mis)treatment.
Holy Tango of Literature
Francis Heaney's brilliant poetic parodies with a twist: the subject of the poem is an anagram of the famous writer's name. Hence T.S. Eliot opines on "Toilets" ("Let us go then, to the john..."), Coleridge's ancient mariner goes on an acid trip in "Multicolored Argyle Sea", Blake lauds Fred Flintstone's wife in "Likeable Wilma", and Ogden Nash wonders why his chickens aren't breeding in "Hen Gonads".
Harryette Mullen Raps with the Bard
You've probably heard "My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun" by Mr. Shakespeare. Now hear from Ms. Mullen... My honeybunch's peepers are nothing like neon. Today's spe-/cial at Red Lobster is redder than her kisser. If Liquid paper is/white, her racks are institutional beige....
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Poet
Destined to become a classic among T.S. Eliot parodies.
Fun With Words
Anagrams, palindromes, rhyming slang, nym words, oxymorons, pangrams, Tom Swifties and all the many other oddities of the English language. Don't miss the stirring tale of Beeping Sleauty.
Zoetrope Virtual Studio
In 1998, acclaimed film director Francis Coppola launched a website where writers could submit their short stories to his magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story. A community of writers quickly formed around the website. It became so popular so quickly that a few months later he created sites for novellas and screenplays. The Virtual Studio, which launched in June 2000, brings together the original sites as departments, plus includes new departments for other creative endeavors. Members can workshop a wide-range of film arts, including music, graphics, design, and film & video, as well as access some of the best e-collaboration tools.
Wompo - A Women in Poetry Listserv
Wompo is a listserv devoted to the discussion of Women's Poetry. Membership is open to all individuals who are interested in discussing poetry written by women. The discussion covers women poets of all periods, aesthetics, and ethnicities.
Poetics Listserv
High-level poetic debates abound at this listserv populated by published authors and professors, which was launched in 1993 by Charles Bernstein, a founder of the avant-garde Language Poetry movement. As of January 2014, the forum is no longer accepting new posts, but the archives are worth reading.
PenTales
Online writers' forum PenTales strives to empower people to share and discover stories through live events, collaborative books, and a curated online platform. They publish narrative poetry, flash fiction, and artwork. See website for currently open themes.
Mr. Africa
Site focusing on poetry by African-Americans includes general-interest and Christian-themed poetry forums, as well as profiles of notable black poets.
MosaicMusings
Online forums to post your poetry and prose, as well as several contests per year for the best work on the site.
Getting Along with Grief
Author and artist Ysabel de la Rosa launched this blog in 2011 to collect poetry, prose, brief essays, book reviews, and artwork on the theme of living with loss. She writes, "Grief is more a recovery process than a traditional 'healing' process. It is not something we get over, as much as it is a set of experiences and emotions that we learn to live with, as we live on in our own lives." Check website for monthly themes for submissions.
Flash Fiction World
British site for writers of short-short fiction includes advice for writing in the genre, listings of markets and contests, and a peer critique forum.
FanStory
Online forum for poetry and short fiction offers frequent contests for members, with creative and offbeat writing prompts.
Eratosphere
This discussion forum hosted by the literary journal Able Muse is a place where writers can share work in a variety of genres, including free verse, formal verse, literary criticism, fiction, humor, and translations. This community is most appropriate for experienced writers (i.e. not an amateur poetry forum).
Disability Writes
Online forum for disabled writers to post poetry, fiction and articles, and receive feedback and news of writing opportunities. Website is managed by Just Services, with funding from Arts Council England.
BookRix
BookRix is an online community where authors of poetry and prose can upload their work and receive feedback. Membership is free. The site is based in Germany but has an English-language section. BookRix offers several free contests throughout the year, with prizes up to $1,000; winners are decided by members' votes.
Allpoetry.com
Friendly amateur poetry forum allows authors to comment on each other's work, advertise their websites and host contests on their pages. Basic membership is free. For an additional $4.95, you can add graphics to your poem. Most useful for beginning writers. Some of the featured poems on the homepage are quite entertaining.
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz Blog
Book Marketing Buzz Blog editor Brian Feinblum interviewed our editor and VP about the rewards and challenges of being a writer today, and the future of book publishing in the age of social media and e-books. This website is a useful resource for authors seeking to leverage their online presence into book sales and publicity.
Web Del Sol
Locus of the new literary art. This enormous site publicizes outstanding new poetry and fiction.
Publishers Weekly
Daily bulletins from the world of book publishing. Good attention to sectors poorly covered elsewhere, such as religion. Browse ads for jobs at publishers and libraries.
mediabistro.com
Daily corporate strivings and struggles in magazines, newspapers, TV, new media and book publishing.
United States Copyright Office
Find out how to register your work. Copyright search engine is easy to use. Note that mailed submissions to the Copyright Office may be severely delayed. Use a private carrier like FedEx or UPS instead.
Recommended Law Firm: Bird & Bird
Offices in London, Brussels, Hong Kong, Paris, Stockholm and The Hague. Bird & Bird rescued the URL of The Poetry Society when it was snapped up by a commercial firm. They also have copyright expertise and were recently successful in the High Court acting on behalf of the estate of James Joyce in a copyright infringement case against Macmillan Publishers. The latter had published a "reader's edition" of Ulysses. Ask for Jane Mutimear, intellectual property and Internet expert, jane.mutimear@twobirds.com.
R.R. Bowker, the US ISBN Agency
R.R. Bowker is the authorized ISBN Agency in the United States, responsible for assigning ISBNs as well as providing information and advice on the uses of the ISBN system to publishers and the publishing industry in general. (An ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.) Their website includes instructions for publishers or self-published authors to obtain an ISBN for their titles.
Nolo Press Information on Trademarks & Copyrights
Articles on copyright basics, plus how to get maximum protection from the federal copyright laws. Learn the difference between trademarks and copyrights.
NameProtect’s Free Online Trademark Search
Thinking of starting a new publication or service? Try out various names with NameProtect's free online trademark search. Avoid wasting legal fees pursuing names that are already taken.
FindLaw Articles on Copyrights
Clear and concise articles on what is copyrightable, why to register your work, ownership of rights and enforcing your rights. A good place to visit before registering with the US Copyright Office.
Electronic Copyright Office
As of July 1, 2008, the US Copyright Office has a new online registration system, electronic Copyright Office (eCO), which offers lower filing fees and quicker processing as compared with traditional paper applications.
Documatica Forms: Publishing & Copyright Agreement
Online store for legal forms offers this simple publishing contract for free.
World Haiku Review
Sophisticated presentation and analysis of haiku and haiku-related genres. Newsboard posts promote events and resources for Asian verse. Send handsome ecards for free.
With Words
With Words is a UK-based nonprofit that offers writing workshops and literary events for adults and youth, as well as an international haiku competition. Visit their website for basic advice on writing haiku poetry, with examples.
tinywords
tinywords is a daily online journal of haiku and micropoetry (150 characters maximum). Sign up to receive a poem a day by email or text message.
The Haiku Society of America
Large collection of award-winning haiku. Calendar of haiku-related contests. Quarterly newsletter reports on national and international events.
Modern Haiku
An independent journal of haiku and haiku studies. Publishes original poetry in Japanese forms, book reviews, and essays. Also sponsors the Robert Spiess Memorial Award ($100), annual deadline in March.
Mayfly
Biannual journal of haiku poetry, established in 1986. Mayfly is a paying market. Editors say, "We feel it is the duty of the editors and writers to make careful selection and proper presentation of only the very best, the most evocative, the truly effective haiku. We publish only 14 or 15 haiku per issue, but each haiku is printed on its own page."
Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine
Literary webzine with a specialized focus on Japanese short form poetry. Several contests throughout the year offer modest prizes for haiku, senryu, free verse, and flash fiction.
HaikuOz
Hosted by The Australian Haiku Society. Click the anthology link from the home page for plenty of good haiku. Click here for their links to haiku-related contests, publications and listservs.
Zona Rosa
Zona Rosa began in Savannah, GA as a female empowerment writing workshop founded by award-winning Southern memoirist Rosemary Daniell. Chapters now exist across the country, with famous graduates including John Berendt ('Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil') and Cassandra King ('Those Same Sweet Girls'). Visit the website for a schedule of workshops and retreats, information on starting your own group, links to Daniell's books, and an excerpt from her new guide 'Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women's Lives'.
Writing It Real
The Writing It Real site is a portal for writing tools and writing instruction developed by master teacher, poet and author Sheila Bender. Her e-newsletter and online courses offer writing exercises, discussion and instruction to sharpen your use of the craft in memoir, personal essays and poetry. WIR also offers a personalized critique service and an annual conference in Port Townsend, WA.
Writer’s Digest: 18 Contest Dos & Don’ts for Writers
Basic advice on contest etiquette, record-keeping, proofreading, and making your submission look professional.
Writecorner Press
Online publisher and writers' resource site offers a selection of well-crafted short fiction and nonfiction by emerging and established writers, including the winners of Writecorner's E.M. Koeppel Short Fiction Award. The site seems to have ceased being updated in 2014 but the archives are worth reading.
