Resources
From Category:
The Museum of American Poetics
Seeks out diverse subcultures and genres. Special attention to multimedia presentations. Free video performances and lectures.
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)
AWP's bimonthly magazine, The Writer's Chronicle, is well worth a subscription, and includes information on grants, awards and publishing opportunities. AWP members may access a special Job List of academic and non-academic jobs. Search AWP's extensive program directory for a writing program near you, and consider attending AWP's popular annual conference, a good value for its seminars, networking and readings.
Tennessee State Poetry League
The League publishes an annual anthology (with special editions for the blind and deaf), hosts monthly readings, and offers two annual fellowships for poets and artists. The poetry fellowship gives the author a choice of $1,000, a reading tour in Nashville, or publication of their manuscript in an edition of 500 copies. No website; email John D. Gosslee for more information.
Science Fiction Poetry Association
SFPA publishes the literary journal Star*Line. Their website has many useful links to journals specializing in SF poetry, anthologies, and individual author websites, as well as a free contest with small cash prizes.
Saison Poetry Library
SPL is the major British library for modern and contemporary poetry and is funded by the Arts Council England. Visit the Competitions page for listings of British poetry contests, updated monthly.
NewTown Writers
NewTown also offers workshops for local writers and sponsors literary events.
New Zealand Poetry Society
Their website includes numerous listings for literary events, resources and contests for writers in New Zealand and abroad.
National Association of Writers in Education
Resources include an annual conference for writing teachers and an online bulletin board of jobs and publication opportunities.
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Good source for grant opportunities.
Lowell Celebrates Kerouac
The festival, held each autumn, celebrates the life and work of novelist Jack Kerouac.
Lambda Literary Foundation
The LLF hosts a book review blog, readings and workshops, and the annual Lammy Awards for the best LGBT books.
John Clare Literary Festival
The John Clare Cottage Trust now hosts an annual literary festival each fall in his onetime home in the village of Helpston. Events include the Bard of the Fens Competition, a storytelling and performance poetry contest for authors who live or work within an hour's distance of the Fens region.
James Merrill House
The James Merrill House offers workshops for adults and youth, lectures, and a writer-in-residence program.
Irish Writers’ Centre
The IWC provides a database of contemporary Irish authors and links to literary sites. Admirers of Irish culture will also enjoy the site of the Yeats Society Sligo.
Hidden River Arts
HRA offers workshops, readings, an annual writers' conference, and fiction and drama contests.
Florida Writers Association
President Glenda Ivey is a great person to have on your side.
Electronic Literature Organization
The ELO site includes listings of academic jobs and conferences, plus a growing archive of multimedia e-literature.
Colorado Independent Publishers Association
CIPA offers book awards, sponsors literacy programs, and helps promote members' books at literary conferences and trade shows.
Center for Fiction
The Center's website features audio and video recordings of their events.
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
AAWW sponsors the annual Asian American Literary Awards Ceremony to recognize outstanding literary works by Americans of Asian descent. Their reading room contains notable works of Asian American literature through the decades.
Arkansas Writers’ Conference
The top prizes are only open to conference attendees; other themed contests offer smaller prizes (typically $25-$50) and are open to all writers, or to Arkansas writers only.
American Association of Community Theatre
AACT's website includes drama contest listings, directories of theatre programs in various US regions, articles about theatre, and rights management resources.
Alliance of Artists Communities
Visit their site to find a writing retreat near you, and to learn about great new work being created around the world.
African American Literature Book Club
Founded in 1997 by Troy Johnson, AALBC.com is a widely recognized source of author profiles, book recommendations, active discussion boards, writer resources, informative articles, videos, and book reviews.
(In)Visible Memoirs Project
Editors say, "Our focus is on communities traditionally underserved by literary programming and underrepresented in contemporary literature. We recognize that the exclusion of so many voices from literary programming limits our understanding of the world in which we live and deprives us all." They are seeking workshop proposals to bring the project to more communities in the US, with a special interest in the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley areas of California.
Timothy Steele
Dr. Steele is a professor emeritus of English at California State University, Los Angeles. See his website for selections from his poetry and critical essays as well as a useful introduction to traditional poetic forms and meters.
Walt Whitman
This scholarly archive includes complete text of Leaves of Grass plus biographical materials and literary criticism.
Karen J. Weyant
Ms. Weyant's chapbook Wearing Heels in the Rust Belt was a contest winner from Main Street Rag.
Sean Patrick Hill
Mr. Hill's poetry has appeared in such journals as DIAGRAM, High Desert Journal, and the Zoland Poetry Annual.
Susan Tepper
Ms. Tepper is the author of DEER and Other Stories (Wilderness House Press, 2009) and the poetry chapbook Blue Edge (Cervena Barva Press, 2006).
Nick Antosca
"Movies and Kids", winner of the 2004 fiction contest from Painted Bride Quarterly, is a brilliant, disturbing story that could have been written by Shirley Jackson or Patricia Highsmith.
Shelly Jackson
See "The Body" for linked prose poems and short-shorts in a novel use of the Internet.
Stanley Joel Crown
See website for flash fiction and Mr. Crown's favorite sports novels and movies.
Russell Edson
A quirky and memorable poet; one of Jendi Reiter's favorites. See selected poems on Web Del Sol.
Patricia Smith
Ms. Smith has won four National Poetry Slam individual championship titles, as well as a National Poetry Series prize for her book Teahouse of the Almighty.
Steve Fellner
Mr. Fellner's blog features book reviews and critical essays about contemporary LGBT poets.
M. Miriam Herrera
See Ms. Herrera's website for mystical, earthy poems from Kaddish for Columbus and Witch Wife.
Kwame Dawes
This site, Live Hope Love, features the profound and lyrical poetry of Kwame Dawes as well as video interviews and background stories of the people who inspired him.
Linda McCullough Moore
Winner and finalist of numerous national short fiction awards including New York Stories, the Nelson Algren Award, the Tobias Wolff Award, and the Pushcart Prize XXXV. Ms. Moore is the author of the literary novel The Distance Between (Soho Press), the short story collection This Road Will Take Us Closer to the Moon (Levellers Press), and more than 300 shorter published works, appearing in such places as The Sun, The Massachusetts Review, Glimmer Train, The Boston Globe, The Alaska Quarterly Review, House Beautiful, Queen's Quarterly, The Southern Review, and Books and Culture. She lives and writes in western Massachusetts where she teaches creative writing and mentors aspiring writers. Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter recommends her workshops.
Kathryn Magendie
"Kick-ass woman who says and does what she wants cause she can."
Judith Goldhaber
Her collection Sonnets from Aesop, a retelling of 100 fables in verse (beautifully illustrated by Gerson Goldhaber), is available from Ribbonweed Press.
Jendi Reiter
Editor of Winning Writers and author of the poetry books Barbie at 50, Swallow, and A Talent for Sadness. Follow her on Twitter (@JendiReiter) for poetry videos, upcoming readings, blog posts, new book releases, and articles of interest to writers.
Leonard Gontarek
God rubs shoulders with ghosts and mailmen in Gontarek's dreamy verses, which hover on the edge of abstraction like a Turner painting, and are often suffused with the same melancholy golden light. As he writes in "Amnesty": "When the earth & snow is apricot for seconds & your dreams fall fast as water Out the window, wouldn’t you say in the middle of that uncontestable joy, is sorrow, Like a metal sliver?"
Gary Introne
Sample Mr. Introne's poems on his blog.
Gail Golden
Activist poet speaks with eloquence and compassion about war and peace, the blessings of family life, and her Jewish heritage. Visit Gail Golden Consulting for her prose writings about racism, domestic violence and social justice.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
This fan site maintained by British computer scientist Martin Ward offers the full texts of books and articles by Gilbert K. Chesterton, best known today for his "Father Brown" mystery stories.
Saeed Jones
Pushcart-nominated poet Saeed Jones, author of the chapbook When the Only Light is Fire (Sibling Rivalry Press), blogs about writing and contemporary culture.
F.J. Bergmann
Non sequiturs like bear traps plunge you through the surface of this poet's world into an absurd, slightly sinister, often funny alternate reality. We especially love the William Carlos Williams parody "An Apology". Buy her prizewinning chapbook, Sauce Robert, from Pavement Saw Press.
Ewuare X. Osayande
Black activist, poet and social critic applies his rhetorical powers to fighting oppression in all its forms. Hard-hitting essays on his website include "Spittin' Acid at the Sistahs: Rap(e) and the Assault of Black Women" and "Bling Bling into Oblivion: Hip Hop, Globalization and Third World Oppression". Capitalists and gangsta rappers, beware.
Elizabeth Bear
Visit her website to read her short stories and find out about upcoming publications.
