Linda Nemec Foster blogs about the P&W supported event at UDetroit Cafe. Author of nine collections of poetry, including Talking Diamonds (finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year) and Amber Necklace from Gdansk (finalist for the Ohio Book Award). Linda Nemec Foster's work has been published in the Georgia Review, Nimrod, North American Review, and New American Writing. Cry of Freedom, her collaboration with musician Laszlo Slomovits, inspired by the poems in her chapbook, Ten Songs from Bulgaria, was released as a CD in 2013. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College.

The same day that the public announcement of Detroit’s bankruptcy was blasted around the world, I was invited to write this blog. Pretty ironic, eh? Not if you know anything about the D’s thriving and dynamic poetry scene. I currently live in west Michigan (Grand Rapids, to be exact), but I lived in Detroit for ten pivotal years in the ’70’s and ’80’s. Those were the years when I started writing poetry and began working on my degree in the country’s first low-residency MFA Program at Goddard College (this program that Ellen Bryant Voigt founded has subsequently moved to Warren Wilson College). There is another reason why the city has played a special role in my life--my first child, Brian, was born there in 1979.

Because of my personal connection to the D, I have maintained close relationships with a number of Detroit’s poets and writers. Through those connections, I have been invited to give readings, workshops, and conference presentations several times a year. Many of those events have been sponsored by Poets & Writers including my appearance on August 15, 2012, at the UDetroit Cafe. That was one very special night.

The venue was packed, the crowd was enthusiastic, and the host--Detroit poetry impresario M. L. Liebler--was a great M.C. His introductions were lively and so were the readers and performers. Besides your humble blogger, the program included the music of the RJ Spangler Trio with Larry Smith, performance poet Wardell Montgomery Jr., Detroit musician Keith Gamble, and poet Mary Jo Firth Gillett. Reading with Mary Jo was particularly wonderful: She’s a fine poet and a former student (she participated in a master level poetry workshop I taught at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1999). Everyone who took the stage was in terrific form. I read five poems including a long piece on my favorite movie star of all time, Barbara Stanwyck. It brought down the house. Who knew that I had a bit of the performance poet in me?

It certainly was a grand evening. Besides, there was someone in the audience that made it even more of a memorable event. Brian (yes, my son who was born in the D) was able to come to the reading and be part of that enthusiastic crowd. Unbeknown to both of us, there was an artist sitting nearby who drew a pen and ink sketch of us while we were talking before the readings: mother and son with the Detroit skyline in the background. He gave us the drawing gratis--”a gift from the D.”

Poets & Writers, with its Readings/Workshops Program, is the epitome of The Gift. The impact of its support that has benefited communities throughout the country is immeasurable. And for a community like Detroit--with everything it’s been through--the Program is a significant affirmation of the vibrant voices of poets and writers that care deeply about their city.

Photo: Linda Nemec Foster. Credit: Robert Turney.

Support for Readings/Workshops events in Detroit is provided by an endowment established with generous contribution from the Poets & Writers Board of Directors, and others. Additional support comes from the Friends of Poets & Writers.

Asymptote, an online quarterly dedicated to literary translation, is currently accepting submissions to its inaugural Close Approximations translation contest. Two emerging translators will each receive $1,000 and publication in Asymptote.

Using the online submission system, submit five to ten pages of translated poetry or up to twenty-five pages of translated fiction with a ten-dollar entry fee by September 1.

Submissions must also include the original text, a cover page including the names and bios of both the author and translator, and—if the author’s work is not in the public domain—a statement confirming that the translator has obtained permission from the author or rights holder.

Translations from any language into English are eligible. Works must be previously unpublished in English, and written by authors who have yet to appear widely in English. Preference will be given to translators early in their careers, who have published no more than one book-length work of translation.

Eliot Weinberger, known widely for his translations of Octavio Paz and Jorge Luis Borges, will judge in poetry. Howard Goldblatt, the translator of Nobel Prize–winner Mo Yan, will judge in fiction. The winners and finalists will be announced in the January 2014 issue. 

Founded in 2011 by Singaporean writer and artist Lee Yew Leong and coedited by an international team of editors, Asymptote publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama in translation, as well as visual art, criticism, and interviews. The journal has published works from fifty-four languages and seventy-five countries. Visit the website for more information and complete submission guidelines.

Mankind has often wrestled with the relationship between fate and self-determination. Write about a time in your life when your inner strength and perseverance changed the outcome. Next write about a time in your life when you believe fate played a role. Then write an essay about how this complex dynamic is manifested in your characters and creative nonfiction.  

Sometimes we are emotionally imprisoned by the ones we love. Overbearing parents, paranoid spouses, and needy children can make us—and our characters—feel trapped in an intolerable life. Write a scene where an antagonist in your writing leaves a loved one behind and begins life anew. Use details to express relief, guilt, and anger.

Beginning this year, Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England, will double the amount of its international literary prizes. The Manchester Writing Competition, which originally awarded one annual prize of £10,000 to a poet or fiction writer in alternating years, will now give two prizes of £10,000 (approximately $15,350) each to a poet and a fiction writer each year.

Poets may submit three to five poems totaling no more than 120 lines and fiction writers may submit a story of up to 2,500 words with a £17 (approximately $26) entry fee by August 30. Submissions are accepted via the online submission system or by postal mail. Writers from any country are eligible to enter.

Bernard O'Donoghue, Adam O'Riordan, and Fiona Sampson will judge in poetry; Alison Moore, Nicholas Royle, and Robert Shearman will judge in fiction. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Manchester on October 18.

Overseen by British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University has sponsored the writing prizes since 2008. Visit the website for more information and complete submission guidelines.

Writing poetry is an act of empowerment. Sit quietly at your desk. Think about what you’re most insecure about in life: being a good parent, making enough money, not being able to love fully. Write a poem about how you plan to overcome that insecurity.

StoryQuarterly, the literary magazine of Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, is currently accepting submissions to its third annual fiction contest. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication.

Using the online submission system, fiction writers may submit a previously unpublished story of up to 8,000 words with an $18 entry fee by October 31. Jess Walter, the author of six novels and, most recently, the short story collection We Live in Water (Harper, 2013), will judge.

The winning story, along with the first and second runners-up, will be published in StoryQuarterly 46/47, a special double issue that will be overseen by author Paul Lisicky and released in Winter 2014. Christine Grillo of Baltimore, Maryland, won the 2012 prize for her story "Legendary and Non-Evolving." Amy Hempel judged.

Founded in 1975 as an independent literary journal based in Illinois, StoryQuarterly has been published by Rutgers University in Camden since 2008. Regular submissions are considered from September 1 through October 31. Visit the website for more information and complete guidelines, and check out StoryQuarterly Online to read stories from recent contributors.

Sit quietly at your writing desk and look at an old photograph of a relative who has passed on. Examine the person's face. Study the person's expression. Analyze the person's posture. What about this person still lives on through your family? What about this person still lives on through you? Write without editing your thoughts.