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Godot Goes to Montana
By Ellaraine Lockie
My farmer father waited to see
if crops would hail out or dry up
If coyotes would tunnel the chicken coops
If the price of grain could keep
me out of used clothes
If the bank would waive foreclosure
for another year
After hay baling and breech delivering
from sunrise to body's fall
He slept in front of the evening news
Too worn out to watch the world squirm
Too weary to hear warnings from ghost brothers
who were slain by beef, bacon and stress
Too spent to move into the next day
when he couldn't afford to forget
how Brew Wilcox lost his left arm to an auger
How the mayor's son suffocated in a silo
Too responsible to remember the bleak option
my grandfather chose for the rope
hanging over the barn rafters
Never too lonely because every farmer
had a neighbor to bullshit with
To share an early a.m. pot of Folger's
To eat fresh sourdough doughnuts
To chew the fat of their existence
Reprinted from Where the Meadowlark Sings (Encircle Publications, forthcoming 2015); first published in SLAB as the winner of the Elizabeth R. Curry Poetry Contest
A Friend in Need
By Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
Liuling is pottering around naked because he lives between heaven and earth. He feels his house suffices in bundling him up. Da-Ren is in the house too, reshelving The Homeric Hymns under Depth Psychology. He likes the way verse translations help him hum about things he would never hum about like subway tokens and bad directions. Old journals end up in the in-tray and the dictionaries? They now line up under Creative Nonfiction. Liuling hasn't taken a bath in a long time because he perspires into no shirts that put his own dirt back on himself. "They must go back a long way," the archivist thinks to himself, reading a Thank You card that was never sent out. There are food coupons and utility bills and warranty cards strewn across the sideboard. The dishwasher is plugged into the kitchen tap where water flows in and siphons out. The computer monitor is covered with stickers like a screensaver that never blinks. "I made that myself," Liuling gesticulates towards the wind chime of cowbells, seashells and paper cranes. In his wine, Liuling sees the entire world for what it is and then tries to drink the memory.
Writing Always Finds Me
By Amy S. Pacini
Writing always finds me...
In the clustered cells of my restlessly racing mind
In the lonely longings and aching apprehensions of my heart
Weaving a whirling web of whimsical words and a wishful well of wisdom.
Fancily floating like a carefree cardinal red feather in the blissful breezes
On a spring Sunday afternoon looking up at the cloudless robin's egg blue sky
Pondering the purpose and meaning of life and how I fit in to the universal master plan.
Through streaming sensations, trickled thoughts, and cascading cares
Of woodland creeks, mountain lakes, and rainforest waterfalls
It percolates the perceptions, ignites burning passions, and unleashes my chambered creativity.
Writing always finds me...
In the radiant rays of sultry summer days and the witching hour of harvest moonlit nights
It never lets me down and is always there for me no matter the day or hour
It doesn't have to check its daily planner book for an opening or need to pencil me in.
It silently waits for me to open my artistic arms
To euphorically embrace its literary lines with artistic agility
When I am mentally blocked or drained, it journalistically jolts my linguistic lightning.
It allows me to completely and wholeheartedly be myself
And clearly sees the transparent totality of my intricate individuality
With its strongest sensibilities and weakest witherings.
Writing always finds me...
It speaks to me through the daily interactions of the people I meet and greet
While taking a relaxing drive through the country or exploring a new city
On cemetery epitaphs of those who are remembered for their final inspirational inscriptions.
While reading breaking news articles and controversially edgy editorials
Reading romantic love stories, suspense thriller novels, and farcical comic strips
Through biblical scripture, devotional divinity, and prayerful penitence.
It does not mock or snicker at the silly, stupid or strange things I say
It does not unjustly judge or bluntly criticize my opinions, actions, mistakes, and failures
But alternatively offers me a safe sanctuary of solitude and serenity.
Writing always finds me...
In the chaotic chasms, majestic moments, and sacred spaces of each morning sunrise
In the surreal subconsciousness of castle cloud dreams
And monster chasing nightmares of every nightfall's repose.
Between the sidewalk cracks, cobwebbed corners, masquerading mirrors and open doorways
Down familiarly traveled roads, unforeseeable twists and turns, and uncharted territories
Through rivuleted rumination, meadowed meanderings, and oceanic odysseys.
Recurrently roaming like an apparitional abstraction
In the echoing halls of home and the unoccupied rooms of chimerical childhood
Yearning for love and acceptance, understanding and respect.
Writing always finds me...
It quietly whispers in the silhouetted shadows of my melancholic moods
And patiently listens to me unveil my deepest and darkest desires, shameful and sinful secrets
On the unfilled pages of personal pain, anguish, and sorrow.
In trying times of dire desperation when I feel hopelessly hollow and forlornly fractured
It brings me to a much better place than where I originally came from
It uplifts my sinking soul and transcendentally transforms my being into a liberated literate.
Like a lost dog fervently finding his way back home again because that is what writing feels like
A pleasant place to call home and that is where I always retreat when I want to find
Calming peace, cozy comfort, Hallmark happiness, lively laughter and lavishing love.
Writing always finds me...
This poem was originally published by the TL Publishing Group in Torrid Literature Journal, Volume XII – Tension (October 2014).
Christopher Fielden’s Writing Advice and Competitions Listings
The blog of Christopher Fielden, author of the thriller Wicked Game and numerous short stories, includes several pages of useful resources for fiction writers. In addition to Fielden's writing advice and editorial services, there are links to the top English-language competitions for short stories, unpublished novels, and published and self-published books.
Manoleria
By Daniel Khalastchi. Winner of the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize, this collection is a memorable addition to the literature of horror poetry, as well as the poetry of political witness. The narrator of these poems obediently submits to an endless sequence of bizarre procedures that are part surgical invasion, part public spectacle of punishment. Like someone brainwashed or anesthetized, he is quite clear about what is physically happening but has numbed out the normal reactions of fear, anger, or confusion. There is no narrative movement toward freedom or enlightenment, but a strange kind of beauty arises from the speaker's attention to detail.
Advice from the Judges of the North Street Book Prize
by Jendi Reiter and Annie Mydla
We started this contest for the same reason that you wrote your book: We love a good story. We believe that creative writing has a unique ability to awaken empathy and illuminate complex truths of human nature.
Rapid changes in technology and the book industry are blurring the lines between self-publishing, print-on-demand, and traditional publishing. More and more, experienced authors are choosing nontraditional routes to find readers. However, most prizes for published books still exclude the self-published, sticking them with an outdated stigma of amateurism. Through the North Street Book Prize, we hope to boost the visibility of excellent writers whose books simply didn't fit into the big conglomerates' marketing plans.
We're holding your books to the same standard as the best titles from conventional publishers: polished writing, believability, dramatic tension, a story structure that foregrounds the major plot elements, and characters worth following. "Originality" is, shall we say, not such an original thing to ask for. In any case, like happiness, it's not something you can aim at directly. That freshness we seek in a story is better described as urgency: a book that convinces us that it had to be written.
We're committed to running the most transparent and ethical contest possible. Some services marketed to self-published authors are overpriced and make inflated claims. We've carefully vetted our business partners to offer our winners a high-quality marketing support package, in addition to our sizeable cash prizes. Unlike some contests that use anonymous "judging panels", the Winning Writers judges' names and credentials are up-front so you can make an informed decision about submitting your work.
Some notes on genre and the judges' tastes
We decided to judge "genre/commercial" and "mainstream/literary" fiction separately because, by and large, these categories assign different weight to artistic considerations versus entertainment, and are working within different traditions. What is innovative in a romance novel, for instance, is measured by reference to other romances, not Finnegan's Wake.
However, we feel that the standard list of genres considered "commercial" (mystery, horror, science fiction, romance, Western) unfairly privileges the bourgeois realist novel. Is Lonesome Dove not literature because it's about cowboys? Is Romeo and Juliet just a YA teen romance? No subject matter is inherently more literary than another.
In our view, commercial fiction is characterized by an emphasis on plot and action, a greater reliance on stock characters and clearly delineated heroes/villains, an intention to follow familiar conventions (e.g. a mystery novel ends with solving the crime), and a workmanlike writing style that prioritizes accessibility over lyricism. Young Adult books may be entered in either category. Depending on the mix of entries received, the judges reserve the right to re-categorize books that seem to straddle the commercial-literary divide.
For all kinds of fiction, our judges appreciate storytelling that shows critical awareness of our current cultural prejudices. Fictional characters or narrators of persona poems may have as many flaws and blind spots as you like, but the author should demonstrate a broader understanding. For example, the 1960s businessmen in the popular TV series "Mad Men" are gleefully, obliviously sexist, but the scriptwriters expect their contemporary audience to be shocked by the difference in pre-feminist corporate culture. The male characters objectify women, but the writers re-center the female characters as subjects deserving empathy and dignity.
We would rather not read lengthy graphic descriptions of violence. (Even in the horror genre, remember Stephen King's dictum that terror-inducing writing is a higher art form than "going for the gross-out".) While we do appreciate good writing about sexuality, please remember that sexual scenes or musings—like all other scenes and musings—should enhance and be integral to the narrative. If your book includes sexual violence or nonconsensual sex, please be aware that we strongly disfavor victim-blaming and "rape culture" myths.
In creative nonfiction, we seek true-life writing with a personal angle—a memoir or a collection of personal essays. We prefer nonfiction that connects the individual's story to an issue of wider cultural relevance, or gives us an inside look at an interesting subculture or historical moment. That said, remember that the heart of your narrative is the people, not the data.
Graphic novels and comic books need to work equally well at the visual and verbal levels. There should be a reason why this story is being told in this format. Proofreading and legibility are essential. Watch out for appearance-based stereotypes that stigmatize certain ethnicities or body types; the fact that such prejudices persist in modern comics culture is no excuse for replicating them here.
Collections of poems, stories, essays, or artwork should be unified by something more than their authorship. We like to see an emotional or narrative arc that makes it clear why these pieces belong together in this order.
Children's picture books and middle-grade books (readers aged 8-12) should show an understanding of their age group's vocabulary level and the relationship issues that concern children at this developmental stage. Illustrations should look professional, but not coldly computer-generated. For picture books, choose a font that is large and expressive, well-integrated into the illustrated page, and printed in a color and location on the page that makes it easily readable. Books about serious topics are fine, but don't let the message overwhelm the entertainment value. We're looking for books that the children themselves will ask to read again and again.
Self-help and inspirational nonfiction should be appropriate for a general-interest audience (no specialized financial or medical advice). For spiritual writing, we appreciate books that are grounded in a specific tradition or set of practices, but that don't require the reader to accept all of those premises in order to benefit from the author's advice. We need to see fresh perspectives on common challenges or milestones such as parenting, illness, divorce, bereavement, or career changes. Mind-body healing books that dismiss the physical causes of illness and disability are not a good fit for us. Watch out for classism and ableism in your assumptions about whether your advice is feasible for all readers.
See the judges' list of favorite books in your genre for examples. (We would like to thank final judge emerita Ellen LaFleche for her contributions to this list and essay.) We look forward to discovering our next favorite—yours!
Book Recommendations By Genre
Self-Help and Inspirational
Byron Brown, Soul Without Shame: A Guide to Liberating Yourself from the Judge Within
[Mindfulness exercises and psychological parts work to understand why your inner critic is protecting you in a way that's no longer helpful.]
Thomas J. Stanley, The Millionaire Mind
[Personal, moral, and financial habits to build wealth prudently, based on interviews with over 1,300 millionaires.]
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
[Beloved Buddhist teacher gives simple guidance for readers of all ages and faith backgrounds.]
David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear
[An essential little handbook for overcoming imposter syndrome and other blocks to doing your creative work.]
Alice Miller, Banished Knowledge: Facing Childhood Injuries
[Psychoanalytic expert on child abuse takes aim at the myths in literature and psychology that silence trauma victims.]
Garret Keizer, The Enigma of Anger
[Episcopal priest, poet, and teacher explores an emotion that can be channeled towards justice or harm.]
Memoir
Martha Beck, Leaving the Saints
[A good example of the memoir that's also about a wider issue, in this case the troubled history of the Mormon Church and how some aspects of its culture contribute to child abuse.]
Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
[Entertaining and educational, this TV comedian's story of his early years is a model for how to structure a memoir that hits the high points of a multi-year time span, deftly interweaving personal anecdotes with background about the injustices and absurdities of apartheid in South Africa.]
Spencer Reece, The Secret Gospel of Mark
[Award-winning poet's memoir about overcoming family patterns of alcoholism through his devotion to writing and his discovery of his vocation to be an Episcopal priest.]
Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory
[Mexican-American public intellectual tells his personal story about the tradeoffs of education, assimilation, and alienation from his Spanish-speaking family.]
Jennifer Rosner, If a Tree Falls: A Family's Quest to Hear and Be Heard
[Lovely "braided" memoir structure juxtaposes the author's experience raising deaf children, her quest to uncover family medical history, and her fictionalized reconstruction of the lives of her Jewish immigrant ancestors.]
Dan Savage, The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant
[One of the first gay adoption memoirs depicts the funny and scary aspects of new parenthood in terms everyone can relate to, while also illuminating social changes in the definition of family.]
Jeannette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
[Razor-sharp writing combines fantasy sequences and realistic satire in this lesbian coming-of-age story.]
Romance
KJ Charles, The Magpie Lord
[Paranormal historical gay romance with a well-developed magical system. Charles is a successful and prolific self-published author whose books feel true to their time period.]
William J. Mann, Where the Boys Are
[A group of gay friends try to balance true love and sexual freedom, while haunted by memories of friends lost to AIDS.]
William Masswa, Toughskins
[Romance between two young wrestlers explores issues of masculinity, healing from abuse, and the ethics of professional sports.]
Courtney Milan, The Brothers Sinister
[Set in Victorian England, this informative and heartwarming series features strong female characters and good representation of neurodiversity.]
Ann Victoria Roberts, Louisa Elliott and Morning's Gate
[Two-part historical romance with a paranormal twist, bringing together the stories of star-crossed lovers in Victorian England and their modern-day descendants.]
Thriller
Megan Abbott, The Turnout
[Set at a family-run ballet school, this modern Gothic novel is tense with generational secrets and self-punishing artistic discipine that breaks into violence.]
S.A. Cosby, Razorblade Tears
[Cosby's crime novels feature rural Southern Black men who try and don't always succeed to be honest business owners and family men in a violent world.]
Peter O'Donnell, Modesty Blaise
[Witty 1960s British spy series is refreshingly free of the sexism and gratuitous violence that often plague this genre.]
Mystery
James Lee Burke, Dave Robicheaux series
[Robicheaux, an aging policeman from New Iberia, Louisiana, is a Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic who narrates the stories. The descriptions of the Louisiana landscaping are lyrical and memorable. While there is a certain amount of violence in the series, Robicheaux always places it in context, reflecting on it and making connections with crime and social issues.]
Thomas Cook, Red Leaves and Instruments of Night
[In Cook's lushly written, brooding novels, ordinary people face unthinkable choices that expose the good or evil in their hearts.]
Patricia Cornwell, Kay Scarpetta series
[Dr. Scarpetta is one of the most intelligent female characters in crime writing today. She is a lawyer as well as a skilled forensic pathologist. Cornwell not only deftly handles the complex science of forensic medicine, she provides Scarpetta's character with emotional and psychological dimensions that deepen as the series continues.]
Elizabeth Daly, Somewhere in the House and others in series
[These mysteries set in late-1940s New York have a quiet elegance and a likeable sleuth, the rare-book expert and amateur detective Henry Gamadge.]
Ruth Rendell, The Bridesmaid and Make Death Love Me
[Rendell's prolific output reached its peak in quality in the 1980s, exemplified by these suspenseful, tragic novels about love and madness.]
Minette Walters, The Shape of Snakes and others
[Gritty psychological British procedurals intersperse the narrative with "official" reports and source documents, making readers feel they are solving the crime in real time with the detectives.]
Fantasy & Sci-Fi
Nancy Kress, Beggars in Spain trilogy
[Genetic engineering and unlimited renewable energy erase some social inequalities and create new ones. A compelling thought experiment in political philosophy, with characters you care about.]
J.M. Miro, Ordinary Monsters
[Dark academia about paranormally gifted children in Victorian England.]
Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow and Children of God
[Members of a Jesuit-led expedition to another planet face the ultimate test of their faith when they encounter two intelligent alien species, one of which uses the other as both servants and prey.]
Horror
Poppy Z. Brite, Drawing Blood
[Part psychological horror, part gay romance. Sole survivor of a family massacre falls in love with computer hacker on the run from the FBI.]
Douglas Clegg, The Hour Before Dark
[When their father is murdered, three siblings return to their family home and uncover a terrible repressed memory.]
Harlan Ellison, Deathbird Stories
[Dark, erotic, and satirical modern myth-making that rages against the senseless sufferings of humanity.]
Robert Marasco, Burnt Offerings
[Haunted-house pulp classic from the 1970s depicts the power of greed to make people disregard all the red flags.]
Literary Fiction
Sally Bellerose, The Girls’ Club
[Set in Western Massachusetts, this book tackles the themes of illness, poverty, and growing up lesbian in a small working-class town. Cora Rose is witty and observant, taking us through a series of first-person coming of age adventures. Rich and revealing dialogue capture time and place to perfection.]
Tara Isabella Burton, The World Cannot Give
[A shy girl at an elite boarding school falls under the sway of a pious neo-conservative fellow student and her cultish followers.]
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
[The golden age of superhero comics gives Chabon's characters a vehicle to process the trauma of the Holocaust and repressive postwar social mores.]
Louise Erdrich, Tracks
[The protagonist in this lyrical novel about the genocide of Native Americans is Fleur Pillager, one of the most enduring female characters of our time. The book opens with a harrowing winter scene that centers on a smallpox epidemic. The language in this novel is lush and lyrical, providing an ironic contrast to the theme of genocide and survival.]
Kathie Giorgio, The Home for Wayward Clocks
[In this lyrical, innovatively structured novel, an abused boy becomes a reclusive clock-collector whose healing journey is interwoven with short stories about the clocks' owners.]
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
[A dangerously naive American missionary family is swept up into the turmoil of the Congo's independence from Belgium in 1960. Each of the multiple narrators speaks with a poetry all her own, and voices a different way to make sense of this clash of cultures.]
Wally Lamb, I Know This Much is True
[Dominick Birdsey is the twin brother of a schizophrenic. At once funny and sad, this epic novel explores the complex layers of family life. Set in a small town in eastern Connecticut, this novel entertains while educating readers about mental illness. The scenes between Dominick and his therapist provide well-written dialogue, emotional depth, and a back story that helps him to come to terms with his schizophrenic twin and abusive stepfather.]
Toni Morrison, Beloved
[This is Ellen's favorite novel of all time. Morrison's novel about slavery through the mythical character of Beloved is rich in symbolism and history, and it's a haunting exploration of the mother-daughter relationship.]
GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot
[The American descendants of Eastern European forest witch Baba Yaga inherit her chicken-legged hut, which holds Jewish memories of the pogroms that a sinister figure is trying to rekindle.]
Wesley Stace, by George
[A shy boy delves into the secrets of his family of vaudeville performers when he finds a ventriloquist's dummy belonging to his late grandfather.]
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
[A perfect example of a genre-defying novel, this epic tale borrows plot elements from commercial fiction (art theft, a terrorist bombing, organized crime) and is also a beautifully written meditation on the search for meaning in the face of death.]
Graphic Novel and Memoir
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
[Text and image work perfectly together in this tragicomic memoir of the cartoonist's childhood, focusing on how she came to understand her own queerness through her closeted father's double life and possibly self-inflicted death.]
Greg Fox, Kyle's Bed & Breakfast
[The collected volumes of this ongoing gay romance webcomic series stand out not only for their charming and amusing storylines, but for their artwork informed by classical figure-drawing training and their well-composed panels.]
Joe Sacco, Palestine
[Reporter's illustrated interviews from the Occupied Territories in the 1990s tell disquieting stories of Israeli police brutality and economic apartheid.]
Bryan Talbot, The Tale of One Bad Rat
[Graphic novel effectively uses the framework of a Beatrix Potter book to tell a moving story about a girl's healing from child abuse.]
Middle Grade
John Bellairs, The House with a Clock in Its Walls
[Bellairs wrote many antiquarian ghost stories for tweens, all featuring bookish young people who team up with elderly neighbors to solve mysteries involving haunted artifacts.]
Russell Hoban, The Mouse and His Boy
[Damaged toys go on a quest to become self-winding and reunite with their found family from the toy shop, in this emotionally gripping novel that includes intelligent political satire for adults.]
Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
[Prolific middle-grade author's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series is action-packed and full of wry updates of Greek myths, featuring demigod teenagers who get caught up in battles between good and evil deities.]
Children's Picture Book
J.J. Austrian and Mike Curato, Worm Loves Worm
[Critters plan a gender-inclusive wedding.]
DuBose Heyward, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
[A hard-working bunny mom overcomes racism and sexism to become the Easter Bunny in this 1939 classic with quaint illustrations by Marjorie Flack.]
Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri, Robo-Sauce
[Inventive book design enhances this funny story about coping with big feelings by indulging your superpower fantasies.]
Dawn Drums
By Robert Walton. Set in 1864, this historical novel tells the story of the bloodiest year of the American Civil War, brought to life with a chorus of voices both real and fictional. The cast of narrators includes President Lincoln, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and the women and escaped slaves who fought for the Union and cared for the wounded in field hospitals. This book would be a good addition to a history curriculum for young adults.
Last Rites
By Roberta Beary
chest pains
breathing in
the sunset
hospice bed
the get-well roses
stunted bloom
thin sunlight
eyelids flutter
in morphine sleep
deathwatch
the arrival of fresh
coffee
day moon
we windowshop
caskets
day of the obit
inside his wallet
me at eleven
This poem is reprinted from her chapbook Deflection (Accents Publishing, forthcoming 2015).
Sibling Rivalry Press
Founded in 2010 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Sibling Rivalry Press is a well-regarded independent publisher of poetry and literary fiction. In addition to publishing award-winning poetry collections, SRP is home to Assaracus, a journal of poetry by gay men; Jonathan, a journal of gay fiction, and Adrienne, a journal of poetry by queer women. Writers of all identities are welcome to submit to the press. Authors in their catalog include Wendy Chin-Tanner, Collin Kelley, Megan Volpert, and Julie R. Enszer.
Fig Tree Books
Launched in 2014, Fig Tree Books publishes and promotes high-quality, commercially viable literary works that chronicle and enlighten the American Jewish Experience. They encourage submissions from both new and established writers. Fig Tree Books will also be re-publishing works that have fallen out of print or were not previously available as e-books. The press began with a focus on literary novels; as of 2015, they are also open to memoirs, graphic novels, and young adult literature.
Welcome Table Press
Welcome Table Press publishes anthologies of contemporary and classic literary essays, and the periodical pamphlet series Occasional Papers on Practice & Form, which features transcripts of lectures on writing and teaching the essay form. See website for free downloads of excerpts from these publications, as well as an annual contest judged by Robert Atwan, series editor of The Best American Essays.
Thirst
By Tricia McCallum
The sun was hotter.
You can tell.
Look at us squinting against it in photos then.
Everything washed out by the glare,
cheekbones, jawlines,
all detail surrendered.
Dazzled,
we could be anybody.
The gardens, look, they're parched.
It hurt to walk on the grass.
We lay in scorched backyards
slathering butter on our chests,
chain-smoking, eating fluorescent cheesies,
swilling bright red soda.
Everyone burned raw.
And we knew
nothing could go wrong.
Our lives lay ahead of us.
Men were above us,
landing on the moon.
This poem is reprinted from The Music of Leaving (Demeter Press, 2014). It was first published at Goodreads.com as the winner of their December 2011 poetry contest.
Amorak Huey on Writing Funny
In this essay on the blog of Sundress Publications, an innovative small press, poet and writing teacher Amorak Huey surveys the work of some contemporary poets who use humor effectively, and reflects on the overlap between these genres. "Humor and poetry both rely on verbal surprise, the pairing of the unexpected. Humor in poetry works best when it's juxtaposed against some other mode: anger, insight, sadness, tenderness. Poetry happens when a poet presses up against the limits of language when it comes to capturing the human condition. Poetry is utterance, is act, is disruption, is the reaching for that which is understood but previously unarticulated. Humor is these things as well...Humor, like poetry, is how we cope with the fact of our aloneness in this world."
Algonkian Writer Conferences
Algonkian Writer Conferences bring together authors, agents, and editors in different locations across the US to help emerging novelists create marketable commercial fiction. Their workshops cover the elements of successful fiction and how to revise and pitch a manuscript. The faculty has included notable authors such as Robert Bausch and Robert Olen Butler.
Necessary Fiction
Necessary Fiction is an online journal publishing original short stories, book reviews, and essays on writing. In their "Research Notes" column, published authors share informative and quirky stories about doing research for their recent books. Writers in the "Translation Notes" column describe the process of bringing a recent book of fiction into English.
Laura Thomas Communications
Laura Thomas Communications hosts a blog with writing opportunities for authors aged 21 and under. There are free poetry and fiction contests (no cash awards) and a personal essay prize based on Thomas's book Polly Wants to Be a Writer, a YA fantasy novel that is also a creative writing manual. The LTC online store sells workbooks inspired by the novel, with writing prompts and an overview of basic concepts.
Woman with Crows
By Ruth Thompson. This poetry collection, earthy yet mythical, celebrates the spiritual wisdom of the Crone, the woman with crows (and crows' feet). Because of her conscious kinship with nature, the speaker of these poems embraces the changes that our artificial culture has taught us to dread. Fatness recurs as a revolutionary symbol of joy: a woman's body is not her enemy, and scarcity is not the deepest truth. For her, the unraveling of memory and the shedding of possessions are not a story of decline but a fairy tale of transformation.
The Maine Review
Launched in 2014, The Maine Review is an online quarterly literary journal publishing poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and artwork. The first issue featured work by Maine authors, including celebrated poet Annie Finch, Authors Guild President Roxana Robinson, Maine Senior Poet Laureate Roger Finch, and Ellie O'Leary, host of WERU-FM's Writers Forum. Currently they are open to English-language submissions from around the world. There is also a writing contest with modest prizes.
Keeping It Legal
Lawyer and self-published author Helen Sedwick writes this blog to help writers, particularly self-published ones, navigate the legal issues involved in publishing, promoting, and protecting their work. Topics include fair use, defamation, and copyright.
A Woman’s Write
The website A Woman's Write offers writing advice, editing and reviewing services, links to other useful sites for women writers, and an annual Good Read Novel Competition with a $500 prize for unpublished manuscripts. The contest fee includes a critique.
Black and White Gets Read
Kind of a Hurricane Press publishes this webzine devoted to reviews of poetry books and chapbooks.
Celebration
By Martina Reisz Newberry
The morning's birthday rang through us like
a gong. Outside, no one believed there
was such a thing as mortality
and there was a perpetual grin
on the windshields of the cars down
in the street. Someone may have been
dreaming us, but we hoped they would not
wake up; our happiness was that
feral. We were safe and slipped into
the day on the remnants of last night's
moon. Over glasses of tea, we read
each other's palms to see where we were
going, but we could see only that
there is more than one truth in this world.
The morning's birthday showed us where to
how to begin the celebration,
where to put our things and where to go out
so that others could come in and find ease.
First published in Where it Goes (Deerbrook Editions, 2014)
Robert McDowell
Poet, workshop leader, and activist Robert McDowell writes and teaches about the spiritual side of creativity and reclaiming the divine feminine. McDowell's books include Poetry as Spiritual Practice and The More We Get Together: The Sexual and Spiritual Language of Love. He has edited anthologies on topics as diverse as cowboy poetry and the postmodern poet-critics of the 1980s.
We Are You Project
The We Are You Project is the first comprehensive 21st Century coast-to-coast exhibition depicting current Latino socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions, reflecting triumphs, achievements, risks and vulnerabilities, affecting all Latinos "within," as well as "outside" the USA. It is also the first 21st Century art movement that cohesively combines Visual Art, Poetry, Music, Performance Art, and Film making, amalgamating these diverse art-forms into one ("united") socio-cultural artistic Latino voice, which utilizes ART to confront current challenges and opportunities that are faced by contemporary Latinos and Latinas throughout the USA and Latin America. Featured poets include Raphael Montañez Ortíz, Colette Inez, George Nelson Preston, and Gloria Mindock.
New York Shakespeare Exchange: The Sonnet Project
The New York Shakespeare Exchange's mission is to expand the audience for Shakespeare's plays and to support innovative presentations. One of their ventures is The Sonnet Project, a series of short films juxtaposing a Shakespeare sonnet and a vignette set in a distinctive NYC location.
Water, rising.
By Sally Stewart Mohney
for Vinings
Waking in the night to a thunder-full
of dark. Green stage rises as you sleep,
crests a high angry orange. Rushing sluice
groans and juices over moss banks. River feels
coarse grain of pasture grass on its underbelly.
Horses pulled from half-graze. Neighbors in
sudden red kayaks witness mattresses, chairs
and sofas tossed in a slow, painful ballet. Stormwater
mud-gullies into your street belly-level. Like watershed
creatures, you find alternate egress. Folks collect in pluff
mud at tide's edge to watch churn boil: dam of net,
leaves, rope. Warped door. Pool toys. Hopeful raft.
Copters cast shaking shadows. Your fingers trace
the dull floodmark on a bowering honeysuckle stand,
nurse the remains.
Kids’ Book Review
Kids' Book Review is an online journal that showcases authors, illustrators, and publishers in the children's literature field. They publish news, reviews, interviews, articles, guest posts, events, and specialist literacy articles. The site also hosts monthly themed creative writing contests.
Nullipara
By A.M. Thompson
nul·lip·a·ra (noun) A woman who has never given birth.
I am gill-less in a sea of the alive,
an ocean of female forces, dark and green.
This deprivation is ancient, biblical,
back to the days of fire pillars, ashes.
I feel too modern to be sistered back
to Sarah, to Elizabeth to time...
yet time is the deep that drowns the heart:
I see a burgeoning belly and cannot breathe.
Too basic to explain or understand,
I can only strive not to inhale the sea
then struggle up to gasp unholy air
and catch lost lullabies above the surf,
A primal music sorrowing this loss:
My songs of unforming—
ungrowing, and unborn.
One Throne Magazine
Founded in 2014 at Dawson City, Yukon, One Throne is an online literary magazine published quarterly (always on the first day of each season). Editors say, "We showcase the foremost in writing, spanning genres, and running the gamut from elegant prose and poetry, to plot-driven stories, to speculative fiction." One Throne also hosts contests where entrants receive a writing prompt and have 24 hours to write their entry. The prize is a percentage of entry fees.
Now What? The Creative Writer’s Guide to Success After the MFA
Published by Fairfield University's MFA Program, this multi-genre writer's guide features essays from numerous published authors about their postgraduate career paths.
Valancourt Books
Founded in 2005 by partners James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle, Valancourt Books is an independent small press dedicated to the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction. They specialize in gay titles, Gothic and horror novels, and literary fiction.
Rhyme Desk
Rhyme Desk is an interactive writing tool for poets, songwriters, and copywriters. Type in a word or phrase, then use the search buttons to count syllables, generate exact and slant rhymes, or find synonyms and antonyms. You can also use it to share your writing on Facebook and Twitter.
Fogged Clarity: An Arts Review
Fogged Clarity is a Chicago-based print and online journal that has published original work by Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and Guggenheim fellows, as well as emerging writers. They accept submissions of literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and music. The online edition comes out quarterly, the print edition every two years. Submit online.
Prayers & Run-On Sentences
By Stuart Kestenbaum. This affable, Buddhist-inflected poetry collection invites gratitude for the daily rhythms of life. As if through the imaginative, unbiased eyes of a child, Kestenbaum's poems find wonder in ordinary things like clotheslines, oil slicks, and even a plastic trash bag left in the woods.
Rawboned
Rawboned publishes flash fiction and nonfiction, poetry, and hybrids up to 750 words. The magazine is published monthly online, and the editors' favorites are reprinted in a biannual print journal. They offer a weekly Twitter micro-essay contest and an annual themed flash fiction and essay contest with cash prizes. Their motto is "the marrow of the story".
Verses Scribbl’d in My Burning House
By Katherine J. Leisering
While reviewing 17th c. surveyor map holdings, Massachusetts librarian Emma Loade discovered this first draft of Anne Bradstreet's "Upon the Burning of Our House". Footnotes are Miss Loade's.
Asleep was I, to dream of love
When three floors below to me above
Rose cries of, "Fire! Fire! my dear!
Get thy derriere outta here!"
Before I flew, toward door as dart,
My pen grabbed I close to my heart,
And put to scorch'd paper few brief verses,
In between some well placed curses.
Thought I, nightie now well heated,
"The hell with poems!" I'd become unseated.
Rising swiftly pray'd I to God,
"Please! Spare for me my bod!
And allow me like, you know, to step
Outside real quick and call a Geico rep."
We are covered well 'tis sure
For occasions ill, e'en backed up sew'r.
And should no payment come or stall late,
I shall but compare costs with Allstate.[1]
How didst such flames begin a-firing?
Was it ubiquitous faulty wiring?
Or mayhap pyromaniac parson[2]
Who lately'd been accused of arson?
My goods turned to ashes thus
Will ne'er make me Gloomy Gus.[3]
Though friends they may become aloof
Refusing meals if there's no roof.
Then shall we simply move up windward
To summer digs on Martha's Vineyard.
________________________________
[1] I, too, have Allstate.
[2] Parson Thurgood Mulch racked up a record thirty-three trips to the neck pillory in 1652 for setting trash can fires all over Plymouth.
[3] "Gloomy" Gus Standish (Miles' nephew) briefly dated Anne Bradstreet before tragically choking on a Thanksgiving turkey bone and succumbing in the arms of an Indian.
childplay
By The Poet Spiel
you learn to touch the knob with your eyes closed
so you may believe it cannot hurt you—twisting it silently—
like you are not touching it at all
you learn to release the latch
by pressing your small body against such a heavy door—delicately—
so the hinges will not groan like he makes them groan
you learn to shift your tiny feet whisperlike—
the way you imagine an angel might shift its wings—
as if your feet never touch the floor
while he is in his deepest sleep
you learn to become as invisible
as a grass snake escaping the garden—
so you may play in the dark
you eventually learn—
even in sunlight—
not to cast a shadow
—but before all this
you had to learn
not to scream
#
First published in the 2013 Ascent Aspirations Anthology
Tattooed Poets Project
Launched in 2009, the Tattooed Poets Project blog features photos of artistic tattoos paired with a poem by the wearer. Some of the tattoos are also portraits of notable poets such as Whitman and Dickinson. Contributors to the site include award-winning authors Kim Addonizio, Kazim Ali, Charlie Bondhus, Joy Harjo, Noelle Kocot, Simone Muench, Carl Phillips, and many others.
Google Lit Trips
Google Lit Trips is a computer-based resource that uses satellite and street view data from Google Maps to visualize the travel routes of characters in hundreds of great books for readers of all ages. Parents and educators can use Google Lit Trips to enliven lessons about geography, history, and foreign cultures.
Unbeknownst to You, My Brother
By Lucia May
Downtown the coroner speaks
with averted eyes about the bullet
and its path from your hand to your head.
He whispers his request
to kindly remove my child from the room.
For your funeral your wife dresses
in plastic shoes and a tight ruby dress.
You don't know that she will never give
our mother your ashes in the cardboard box.
She will scatter them to your son's horror.
You don't know that one morning
our mother will be found
lying in a field in the muddiness
of her stroke.
Your young son sits in the back row
during the service at the funeral home.
You don't know that he too will die
at your age.
In my Bible
there is no holy card from your funeral
but I have saved a yellow lined
memo sheet from the coroner
with the heading William J. Brown.
In my handwriting is
One spent, 5 extra
Smith and Wesson
The coroner, Dr. Edelstein, wrote
S&W Revolver
357 Magnum
Ser # S-305856
The minister glanced down to his notes
during the final prayer
to remind himself of your name.
#
(Reprinted from Blond Boy (Evening Street Press, 2014); originally published in The Awakenings Review, Fall 2012)
Two Sides of a Ticket
By Helen Leslie Sokolsky. This distinctive poetry chapbook from Finishing Line Press contains a portrait gallery of urban characters. Their alienation is healed, momentarily, by the author's mature and compassionate re-imagining of the lives she glimpses in passing. These narratives show us recognizable scenes made fresh by Sokolsky's original metaphors.
The Difficult Farm
By Heather Christle. The haunted-looking one-eared rabbit on the cover is an apt mascot for these poems, whose randomness can be both sinister and humorous. The title carries echoes of "the funny farm", slang for an asylum, the place where persons deemed "difficult" are shut away, laughed at for the nonsense they speak. But is it nonsense? Christle's poems are held together by tone rather than logic. They have the cadence and momentum of building an argument, but are composed of non sequiturs. But the individual observations within that stream of consciousness often ring so true that you may find yourself nodding along. The speakers of these poems are eager for connection through talk, while recognizing that we mostly use language for social glue rather than sincere information exchange. So why not serve up a "radiant salad" of words?
The Barricade
By Ned Condini
I would be glad to take his place
like a prince of orphans, to enjoy
my pinch of power in the royal hall.
But this elusive king leaves the door
ajar, warm coffee on the table,
the lights on & the book still open.
I lunge thinking there's the answer
& find a whiff of incense wafting
beyond the room into the dark where he vanished.
I know he will always be
millions of years away from me,
isolated on the remotest star;
yet the fact that he seems to move
when I, too, move makes me believe I'm on his track.
Fulfilling myself yet struggling
to get rid of the self that's me,
I am the Pompei man who saw
what was coming yet stretched out his hand to save
one piece at least of the barricade erected
against you, fighting you tooth and nail,
gripping the axe of his youth.
For Ned Condini, Poet
By D. Elaine Calderin
You made allusions to lost Gods
over cups of NesCafe
in rural coffee shops.
Your eyes never failed to smile.
There were moments when
the wrong word
made you wince,
but the right one made your soul sing.
The rest of us, lost children,
prayer books in hand
looked to you
for the pronunciation of Elysium.
But you were one of us too.
You loved your Micia
and your Marilyn,
the truth self
evident in the gracefulness of your shrug.
You spoke the vernacular
and the vulgate even
as you thought
in glorious septet, sextet, and hexameter.
You shared our jokes with
us even when we were
the joke, a cosmic
a'muse, an aperitif in Life's banquet.
In talent and talents, coin
and culture, you stood
above us but you
never failed to stoop down and aid
us in our struggles and vainglorious dreams.
Goodbye, Ned, dos voydonya,
and yes, Ave Atque Vale.
Hail, and farewell.
We will see you in Ee-lee-see-um.
Your friend for too short a space,
Elaine
Open Minds Quarterly
Open Minds Quarterly is a publication of The Writer's Circle, a project of NISA/Northern Initiative for Social Action. Open Minds Quarterly is dedicated to writers worldwide who have survived depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. The journal publishes fiction, book reviews, poems, and first-person narrative accounts, and sponsors the annual BrainStorm Poetry Contest for mental health consumers and survivors.
Pentimento Magazine
Pentimento publishes poetry, short fiction, essays, and artwork by writers with disabilities (including children), and authentic, well-written essays and poetry with a disability-related theme. Submissions may be by a individual with a disability or an individual who is part of the community such as a family member, educator, therapist, etc. Please indicate in your submission which category you are in. "Pentimento" is the term for an underlying image that shows through the top layer of a painting. The journal's name reflects their mission of "seeing beyond the surface". Currently a print magazine, with an online edition in the works.
Advice from Ellaraine Lockie, Judge of the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter asks Ellaraine Lockie what she's looking for in the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
What, for you, makes a poem in traditional verse feel fresh and contemporary?
The trend in contemporary traditional verse is to interpret form rules loosely, sometimes to the point where the spirit of the form is there, but the body isn't. So I consider a traditional verse poem that takes some liberties with the original rules to be one way of making the verse contemporary. I should add here that as a judge, I will categorize a poem as free verse if it veers absurdly far from the classic form it represents.
There are also other ways that a traditional form can feel more up-to-date, such as using today's vernacular instead of obsolete language, such as thee, thou, whilst, etc. Or, the poet can introduce a modern slant on an historical event or person. There were several excellent examples of villanelles and sonnets that employed this approach in last year's Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Also, a modern happening or person can be placed in an earlier era through traditional verse. I haven't seen this as much, but it can be very effective, and it's a innovative way to make a poem feel fresh.
What poetic qualities do you look for in free verse, to differentiate it from prose?
In free verse, I look for conciseness and use of poetic devices, such as metaphors, similes, alliteration, assonance, and internal rhyme. I also look for sound and rhythm in the words, which delight the ears as much as the mind. Free verse, along with all other forms, often has more of an intensity, an excitement, than prose. It's the gelato where prose is the ice cream. In addition, there's a maverick quality to free verse, a willingness to break the rules of convention.
How can poets figure out whether our contest is a good fit for their work?
That's easy. Winning Writers Poetry Contests are a good fit for all poets. They are professionally and ethically run and have historically chosen fine poems as winners who receive high-end monetary prizes. Plus, the winning poems stay indefinitely on the Winning Writers website.
It could be important, however, to be sure that a poem is entered in the appropriate Winning Writers Contest. For example, strictly humorous poems probably would be better entered in Winning Writers' Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest rather than in the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest.
As a judge and reader, I'm not opposed to humor. There were many excellent rhyming humorous poems entered this last year, and I enjoyed them greatly. However, a solely humorous poem, no matter how good the form or its "funny factor", loses much of its effect after the first one or two readings, while poems that are multi-layered have the potential to become more meaningful with each reading. That to me is one of the more important qualities in a winning poem. Winning poems get multiple readings before ending placements are made.
Of course, it's possible to combine humor with more serious subject matter in the same poem, and that can create a powerful piece. These would be very competitive in the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Contests.
Do you have any pet peeves as a contest judge? E.g. over-used themes, clichés, awkward line breaks...
I'm not a fan of poems that tell me directly, as a reader, what to think or feel. I want to see language used in a way that allows me to come to my own conclusions. This kind of writing can be summed-up by the commonly-used phrase, Show/Don't tell.
Impact will be far greater if the poet empowers the readers in this way. It's accomplished through the use of examples, action, and dialogue rather than through directives. Description also can be effective if there is minimal use of adjectives. In place of most adjectives, I like to see similes and metaphors that let the reader come up with the words beautiful, ugly, bossy, etc.
What are the greatest rewards of being a contest judge?
I like having a tiny influence on what defines good poetry in our time. I love poetry, so when I judge, I'm living right in the center of one of my greatest passions. Almost as important to me, though, is how much I learn during the process. When I evaluate a poem and come across a word, phrase, place, social custom or poetic form that's unfamiliar to me, I research it. In so doing, I often come away from a judging experience, especially after a big contest, feeling as though I've completed an intensive college class. This is especially the case with international contests such as Winning Writers and Voices Israel's Reuben Rose Poetry Competition.
And then there's the knowledge gleaned from the poems themselves; I've learned in depth about worlds I barely knew existed. I also feel a kind of kinship with each poet whose poem I read. I like that too. I have a tendency to talk out loud to the poets during or after a read, giving feedback, etc., and since I do much of my poetry-related activities at coffee shops, I imagine other customers think I'm slightly unbalanced. I do confess to laughing and crying over a lot of poems, both in and out of coffee shops.
Do you encourage writers to re-submit the same poems in future years (or revised versions thereof), or would you prefer new work each time?
Absolutely I'm open to reading repeat poems. Poetry contests are like perfect storms, in that so many variables have to fall into place for a winning poem to happen. And the quality of the poems as a whole will vary from year to year. A poem that didn't quite make it to the finals list one year may very well do so the following year, even with the same judge. Winning a prize is as much about who and what else has entered as it is about the quality of a poem.
I particularly like to see revised poems.
How do you know when a poem is "done"? What are the signs of over-revision?
Well, I never consider a poem finished. Recently, I made a minor change in a poem after its twelfth publication. I encourage this kind of growing a poem as we grow as poets. Why not? Our poems belong to us as long as copyrights have been returned.
But of course, we must have some way of knowing when to introduce a poem to the world. Here is the list of steps I take before I submit a poem for publication or contest consideration:
- Ask one or two trusted poets to read and honestly comment on the poem and then welcome constructive criticism. I trade new but final draft poems with a couple of poets whom I respect. Often we don't see our own mistakes when we proof because we read what we intended to write rather than what we actually wrote.
- Print the poem in a significantly different font and size from the usual one. It will look as though it's been written by someone else. I started this exercise when my poems came back in published journals, and I could immediately see problems that I hadn't seen when the poems were in my familiar format.
- Read the poem out loud several times. Doing so exposes problems, especially with rhythm. Musicality is as important, although not as formally dictated, in free verse as it is in other forms. Some computers have options where documents can be read out loud by different voices with varied accents. This can be helpful and also fun to hear your poem read by various computer voices.
- Then read the poem for an audience. This is important because it causes the reader to hear the poem through the ears of others. Syntax or awkward line-length problems will announce themselves as stumbling blocks.
I change something in a newly-written poem nearly every time I read it in front of people. This is one of the valuable benefits to participating in poetry readings. Of course it is possible to over-revise. To check for that, I read the poem and sometimes ask someone else to read it as well, to check for the following:
- Has the poem become boring or tedious to read?
- Is it too long or too filled with details that would be better saved for prose?
- Is it repetitive (outside of repetition used as a poetic device) or too explanatory?
How Books Win Awards: Advice from C. Hope Clark
C. Hope Clark is the author of the Carolina Slade mystery series from Bell Bridge Books, and the editor of the FundsForWriters newsletter and website. In this guest post at author Glenda C. Beall's blog, Clark describes what judges look for in contests for small press and self-published books. Also included are her tips for spotting scams and protecting your rights.
What He Left
By Charlie Bondhus
I know it's broken,
but the cool, dark potential still unnerves me.
Many things are wrong:
something (the bullets?) rattling
like coins in a jar, the bright silver firing pin
snapped like a link in an old rosary.
Its black weight makes my hands
crinkle, two leaves flaking apart;
the only way I can hold a thing so potent
is with the knowledge that the moving parts
are immobilized.
It's always been this way,
loving chrome-cut men,
so solid there's not a hollow space to accommodate
the rising contractions of the heart.
You showed it to me one day,
explained hammers, pins, and primer;
cartridges and sparks, mechanical energy
and chemical reactions, you said
firing a gun is a little like writing fiction;
there's an initiating action,
a chain of events, the moment of crisis,
and then the falling tension,
the irrevocable resolution, but,
I know ours is not that kind of story.
No climax: you simply packed
what was useful and indisputably yours,
leaving me everything that might have been
ours, so why abandon this broken, deadly bit
of memory you carried
through Afghanistan?
Hard and cold as canteen water,
a memento of more than one desert,
I cradle it as though it were your heart.
Foothill: A Journal of Poetry
Foothill, a publication of Claremont Graduate University, accepts unpublished poetry by graduate students enrolled anywhere in the world. Submit 1-5 poems by email. CGU administers the prestigious Kingsley Tufts and Kate Tufts Awards for poetry books.
