Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I will be taking a short break while I'm at my graduation residency for my MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season.

Look for more posts after the first of the year!

Call for Poems: Lunarosity

Call for Poems: Lunarosity

Lunarosity has changed some of its policies and procedures, updated
its design, and is calling for submissions of poetry for upcoming
months. Please check it out at the link above. Thank you.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Fiction, Essay, Poetry Competition: New Letters Awards

Call for Writing
New Letters: A Magazine of Writing and Art

$1,500: The New Letters Poetry Award
$1,500: The Dorothy Churchill Cappon Essay Award
$1,500: The Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Award

All entrants will be considered for publication and will receive a one-year subscription to New Letters.*

Deadline: postmark by May 18, 2010, or enter online

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please notify us if work is accepted elsewhere. Submit unpublished work only. No refunds will be issued.

Guidelines:

$15 for first entry; $10 for each entry after. Entry fee includes cost of a one-year (four issues) New Letters subscription, an extension of a current subscription, or a gift subscription. Make checks payable to New Letters Literary Awards. *Entries from outside the United States receive all contest privileges except the subscription.

Two cover sheets—the first with complete name, address, e-mail/phone number, category, and title(s); and the second with category and title(s) only. Personal information should not appear anywhere else on the entry.

A stamped, self-addressed postcard (optional) for notification of receipt and entry number.

A stamped, self-addressed envelope (optional) for a list of the winners.

Manuscripts will not be returned. No refunds will be issued. No substitutions or revisions.

Entries in fiction and essay are not to exceed 8,000 words. Poetry entries may contain up to six poems. They need not be related.

Multiple entries are welcome with appropriate fees.

Current students and employees at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and current volunteer members of the New Letters and BkMk Press staffs, are not eligible. All entries are considered for publication • First runners-up will receive a copy of a recent book of poetry or fiction from our affiliate BkMk Press • One winner and one runner-up will be selected in each category. •Winners will be announced mid-September 2010. • $1,500 prize money paid to each winner upon publication in our awards issue. •

New Letters is an international magazine of writing and art. Previous final judges include Philip Levine, Maxine Kumin, Gerald Early, Joyce Carol Oates, Rishi Reddi, Mary Jo Salter, Floyd Skloot, Carole Maso, Cornelius Eady, and Margot Livesey.

Submit electronically or mail entries to:

NEW LETTERS LITERARY AWARDS
University House, 5101 Rockhill Road
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, MO 64110

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Literary Journal Seeking New Editor: Shape of A Box

After publishing 62 weekly issues, Shape of a Box (youtube.com/shapeofabox) is looking for a new editor or editors to take over the enterprise.

If you are interested please email current editor, Jessie Carty at shapeofabox(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @).

Ideally, Jessie would like someone to take over the online journal 100% but she would be willing to stay on and help with the transition.

If we are unable to find someone to take over the journal 100% then we would like to work with individualswho would be interested in
1 - handling the website, including assisting with registering the domain OR
2 - making videos from contributor supplied footage (any software to compile - iMovie, Movie Maker etc)

We will be taking interest on a first come first serve basis but we would like to announce our decision oneditorship/ownership of the project by January 15th. You can also stop by the wordpress blog here

Thanks for your interest!

staff of Shape of a Box

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Prairie Schooner Book Prize: Fiction and Poetry

The Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series welcomes manuscripts in poetry and fiction from all living writers, including non-US citizens, writing in English. Both unpublished and published writers are welcome to submit manuscripts. Writers may enter both contests. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your manuscript is accepted for publication somewhere else.

Winners will receive $3000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press.

Manuscripts should be mailed with a postmark between January 15th and March 15th, 2010 to:

Prairie Schooner Prize Series
Attn: Fiction or Poetry
201 Andrews Hall
PO Box 880334
Lincoln NE 68588-0334

Any questions, please send an email to Managing Editor James Engelhardt at or Prize Book Series Coordinator Cody Lumpkin at (replace at with @).

For information and a complete set of guidelines, please see our website

Friday, December 11, 2009

Glass Woman Prize: fiction or creative nonfiction

GUIDELINES FOR THE SEVENTH GLASS WOMAN PRIZE

The Seventh Glass Woman Prize will be awarded for a work of short fiction or
creative non-fiction (prose) written by a woman.

Length: between 50 and 5,000 words.

No entry fee.

The top prize for the seventh Glass Woman Prize award is US $600 and possible (but not obligatory) online publication; I will also award one runner-up prize of $100 and one runner-up prize of $50, together with possible (but not obligatory) online publication.

Subject is open, but must be of significance to women. My criterion is passion, excellence, and authenticity in the woman’s writing voice. Previously published work and simultaneous submissions are OK. Previous Glass Woman Prize winners are welcome to submit again. Copyright is retained by the author.

Submission deadline: March 21, 2010 (receipt date; anything received after that date will be considered for a future prize). Notification date: June 21, 2010.

The winners will be announced on this website. Submissions will not be returned, rejected, or otherwise acknowledged except for the winner announcement. I promise that every submission will be read with respect and with my commitment to the voices of women in this world.

One submission per person per prize submission period, by email, with "Glass
Woman Prize Submission" in the subject line and the text pasted in the body of
the email (no attachments!) to:

glasswomanprize(at)comcast.net (replace (at) with @)
or in hard copy and via regular mail, to:

Beate Sigriddaughter
333 East 16th Avenue, #517
Denver, CO 80203

IMPORTANT:
If submitting by email:
- "Glass Woman Prize Submission" in subject line
- Text in body of email
- Please put your email address in the body of the email as well
I will regretfully ignore and delete submissions of anything other than specified above, for example: submissions with any kind of attachment*, more than one piece of writing in a given prize reading period, more than 5,000 words, poetry, or submissions without "Glass Woman Prize Submission" in the subject line of the email.
*Please note that some fancy email stationery comes across as attachment; try to avoid using that, as you run the risk of having your entry deleted.

SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Who judges the contest?

At the moment I am the final judge, but a number of women writers volunteer to read submissions and make selections. I am very happy about this because my personal tastes and passions will no longer be the sole criteria for selecting future winners.

How is the prize funded?

The prize is funded with ten percent of my personal income. It therefore has a chance of increasing in the future.

Why?

Because this is something I would have liked to have received for myself. Since I haven’t, at least not recently, and in order to make things right with the world all the same, I feel I have to offer it to someone else.

Why the name Glass Woman Prize?

I’ve been playing with the glass woman concept for a while. I want women to be able to acknowledge, transparently, who we are, and that who we are is not trivial and unimportant, despite the fact that it is not typically rewarded in a man-made and money-motivated world.

Here’s my original description of a glass woman as I would depict her if I were a visual artist: a woman of glass, with a blood system and gut system visible inside her, pipes and veins, and in those there would be bits of poetry, newspapers, roses, sentimental things, baby’s teeth, locks of baby hair, all kinds of lace bits, birds, and foxes, ice-picks, wedding rings, veils, and wedding cake doves, graduations gowns, tarot cards, sacred stones, pressed flowers, and a whole lot of joy and a whole lot of sorrow. She’d have a flute and a piano key, an ankh, everything, anger and joy, hope, hiking gear, rock climbing gear, motorcycle gear, dirt, fear, bras, lilacs, mirrors, underwear.

What about the brittleness of glass? I would make it unbreakable glass, of course: transparent, but shatter-proof.

Kathee from Golden provided the following additional food for thought about the mysterious quality of glass: Glass is tremendously mysterious, neither solid nor liquid; the scientific world, at least, still does not know quite what to make of it, but suspects that even beyond its practical and nurturing ability to allow light through yet keep the harsh elements out, glass promises further understanding regarding the very nature of how things interact:

--from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29glass.html:“They’re the thickest and gooiest of liquids and the most disordered and structureless of rigid solids,” said Peter Harrowell, a professor of chemistry at the University of Sydney in Australia, speaking of glasses, which can be formed from different raw materials. “They sit right at this really profound sort of puzzle.”

--Philip W. Anderson a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at Princeton, wrote in 1995: “The deepest and most interesting unsolved problem in solid state theory is probably the theory of the nature of glass and the glass transition.”

Why no reading fee?

Because I absolutely hate the way every other journal or other entity nowadays uses reading fees for contests as fundraisers. I can see their point. I still hate it.

What am I trying to accomplish with this?

I want to help along the cause of women expressing themselves authentically and fearlessly and passionately. It has something to do with a contribution to justice and soul growing in the world.
One of my ex-husbands once said that women don't support each other. I want to either change that or prove it wrong. This is my small gesture of changing the world.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Poetry and Fiction Book Contest: BkMk Press

BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Announces

The G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and The John Ciardi Prize for Poetry for the best book-length collections of poetry and of short fiction in English by a living author.

Postmark deadline: January 15, 2010

Prize: $1,000 and publication of winning book for each prize

Submissions:

• Manuscripts must be typed on standard-sized paper, in English. Poetry manuscripts should be approximately 50 pages minimum, 110 pages maximum, single spaced. Short fiction collections should be approximately 125 pages minimum, 300 pages maximum, double spaced.

• Entries must include two title pages: one with author name, address and phone number; and one with no author information. Any acknowledgments should appear on a separate piece of paper.

• Entries must include a table of contents.

• Author's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.

• Please submit your manuscript in loose pages, bound only with a clip or rubber band. We prefer that you do not staple or permanently bind your manuscript. Do not submit your manuscript by fax or e-mail.

• Simultaneous and multiple submissions are acceptable. Please notify us of acceptance elsewhere.

• A SASE should be included, for notification only. Note: No manuscripts will be returned.

A non-refundable reading fee of $25 in US funds (check made payable to BkMk Press) must accompany each manuscript. Entrants will receive a copy of the winning book in their genre when it is published.

• Manuscripts must be postmarked no later than January 15, 2010. Manuscripts will not be returned. No refunds will be issued.

Judging will be blind at all levels. Initial judging will be done by a network of published writers and editors. The final judging will be done by a poet and a fiction writer of national reputation. Winners will be announced in July 2010 and the winning entries will be published in 2011.

These competitions are held annually.

Address To:

John Ciardi Prize for Poetry or Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction
BkMk Press
University of Missouri-Kansas City
5100 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499

(816) 235-2558
Fax (816) 235-2611
bkmk(at)umkc.edu (replace (at) with @)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Call for CNF Submissions: Symposium on Place

Symposium on Place – Call for Entries

Center: A Journal for the Literary Arts invites submissions for a symposium on the importance of place in creative nonfiction, to appear in its next issue.

We encourage you to consider place from a variety of perspectives. What is its role in the essay? in memoir? in literary journalism? How do concerns about conveying a sense of place affect your own work? In what ways do you see issues of place animating the work of others? How is place specific or general? Must place be physical or is it temporal as well?

Submissions should be between 750 and 1000 words. Email your submission, in a .doc format with "symposium" in the header line, to:

cla(at)missouri.edu (replace (at) with @)

Please include a short bio in the body of the e-mail. Inquiries to:

barberse(at)missouri.edu (replace (at) with @)

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Fiction and Poetry Contest: Meridian Editors' Prizes

Meridian Editors' Prizes

Just a reminder that Meridian is now accepting entries for its 2010 Editors’ Prize Contests in Fiction and Poetry. Please note the looming submission deadline: December 15, 2009.

For a $16 entry fee, you receive a one-year subscription to Meridian (entries from outside the U.S. will receive only the prize issue due to additional mailing costs). Of course, you're also in the running for the $1,000 prize in each genre.

Meridian expects to announce winners in early March 2010, and all submissions will be considered for standard publication in Meridian.

Fiction writers may submit one story of 10,000 words or fewer. Poets may submit up to 4 poems.

You may enter more than one time; however, in the past, entering multiple times has not significantly increased a contestant’s odds. Additional entries extend your Meridian subscription by one year.

Submit your work here. Make sure that your account includes a working e-mail (one valid through March of 2010).

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Call for Submissions: SLOPE

Issue 47: Submission Info

SLOPE is currently requesting submissions for Issue 47—works loosely or strictly related to and investigating the intersection of film and poetry—either loosely or strictly, in the form of film and video, poetry, essays, interviews, hybrids, ( ), ( ), and ( ).

Think of Cocteau's Orpheus Trilogy. Cocteau as Poet. Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep. Marianne Moore. Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, NY. Kurosawa’s Dreams. Blake’s The Tyger. Guilherme Marcondes' The Tyger. William Carlos Williams. Rabbit Light Movies. Leger's Ballet Mecanique. Zukofsky. Elizabeth Willis' Turneresque. Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Linh Dinh's What's Showing?Anne Carson's TV Men. HD the film critic. HD the actress. HD the Imagist. Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour. Frank O'Hara. FRANK O'HARA! Godard's Alphaville and Breathless. Stretch each connection to its most magnanimous.

Submission Period: 12/1/09 - 2/15/10
Send all submissions to:
slope.editors(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)
with the words “Submission: Slope 47” in the subject line. Address all questions to the above email address,"Attn: 47 Editor."

Masthead
Guest Editor: Amber Nelson