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Tommy Pico speaks with Kasie Griffitts for Duende District’s Duende Conversations series about life as a poet, tribal storytelling, and the shifty definition of literary success. Pico is the author of Junk (Tin House Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In her fourth poetry collection, Oceanic, published by Copper Canyon Press in April, Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores themes of love, discovery, family, motherhood, and home, often through a lens of connectedness with the natural world, focusing on the wonders of the ocean and the shapes, movements, and behaviors of flora and fauna. In “Penguin Valentine,” a penguin waits for his partner, and the speaker asks, “During those days of no sun, does he / remember the particular bend / of his mate’s neck, that hint of yellow / near her ears?” As spring transitions into summer, look to the flora and fauna in your local neighborhood, at the park or the beach, or on a vacation or a trip, for inspiration. Write a love poem that uses animal or plant behavior as a lesson about how we interact as humans. How might tendencies or characteristics of nature resonate with your own relationships?
Writers on bookstores worth traveling for; National Book Awards moves to include noncitizens; poet Carl Phillips on revision; and other news.
Jane Chu, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, will step down in June; tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day; tips on applying for grants; and other news.
April showers bring May poetry contests! If you have a single poem or full-length collection ready to submit, check out the following contests with May 15 deadlines, each of which offers a prize of at least $1,000 and publication.
American Poetry Review Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in American Poetry Review is given annually for a poem by a poet under the age of 40. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $15
Breakwater Review Perseroff Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Breakwater Review is given annually for a single poem. Jill McDonough will judge. Entry fee: $10
Georgia Review Loraine Williams Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Georgia Review is given annually for a poem. Entry fee: $15
Lynx House Press Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry: A prize of $2,000 and publication by Lynx House Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $28
Ruminate Magazine Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Ruminate Magazine is given annually for a poem. Ilya Kaminsky will judge. Entry fee: $20
Lost Horse Press Idaho Prize for Poetry: A prize of $1,000, publication by Lost Horse Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. poet. Piotr Florczyk will judge. Entry fee: $28
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
“It’s what poetry can do—it can take us to other places, in a moment.” Cynthia Nixon and other cultural figures including Yo-Yo Ma, Joe Biden, Sonia Sanchez, Shaquille O’Neal, Edward Hirsch, and Bono are featured in this trailer for the public television series Poetry in America. Hosted by Harvard professor Elisa New, each episode explores and interprets a single American poem.
Jason Reynolds speaks about his new books, Sunny and For Every One, both published last month by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, reading for the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the importance of daring to dream on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
In “The Love of Labor, the Labor of Love,” Rigoberto González’s interview with Carmen Giménez Smith in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, she talks about the experimentation in her new book, Cruel Futures (City Lights Books, 2018). Smith discusses releasing her writing from her usual “taut lyric voice” and allowing herself to “fly without punctuation...employing more cloudiness, maybe more impressionism.” This week, make an effort to let go of your own poetic safety blanket, and do away with the most clearly defined aspects of your lyric voice. Dispel with punctuation, wreak havoc with line breaks and syntax, and write a hazy series of impressionistic, cloudy poems.
The author of Still Life With Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl talks about her formative time at Hedgebrook, the relationship between poetry and the Internet, and more.
Submissions are currently open for BOMB Magazine’s 2018 Poetry Contest. A prize of $1,000 and publication in BOMB’s literary supplement, First Proof, is given biennially for a group of poems by an emerging writer. Dawn Lundy Martin will judge.
Using the online submission system, submit up to five poems totaling no more than ten pages with a $20 entry fee, which includes a one-year subscription to BOMB for U.S. entrants, by May 6. The winner will be announced on July 31.
Previous winners of the contest include Marwa Helal, Daniel Poppick, and Steve Dickison. BOMB’s literary prize is given in alternating years for fiction and poetry; the 2019 award will be given in fiction. Visit the website for more information.
(Photo: Dawn Lundy Martin)
