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Leadership changes at Penguin Random House; Khadija Abdalla Bajaber wins inaugural Graywolf Press Africa Prize; an unconventional bookshop in a knitting factory; and other news.
The editor of Black Renaissance Noire on the importance of publishing new and emerging writers.
Anelise Chen defines autofiction; Twitter accounts that impersonate writers; the most well-preserved section of the Iliad; and other news.
“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.” In this SuperSoul Sunday video from 2013, poet, teacher, and activist Maya Angelou recites her inspirational and engaging poem “Phenomenal Woman.”
Joan Silber Wins PEN/Faulkner Award; Chinese government cracks down on Hong Kong booksellers; women on male authors describing women; and other news.
Poets! If you have a single poem or a full-length manuscript ready to submit, consider the following contests with upcoming deadlines, each of which offers a prize of at least $1,000 and publication.
Oberon Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Oberon is given annually for a poem. Entry fee: $18. Deadline: April 10
Chautauqua Editors Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Chautauqua, the Chautauqua Institution’s literary journal, will be given annually for a poem, a short story, an essay, or a piece of flash fiction or nonfiction that captures the issue’s theme as well as the spirit of the Chautauqua Institution. The theme of the 2019 issue is “Moxie.” The editors will judge. Entry fee: $3. Deadline: April 15
Spoon River Poetry Review Editors’ Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Spoon River Poetry Review is given annually for a poem. Entry fee: $20. Deadline: April 15
New Ohio Review Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in New Ohio Review is given annually for a poem or group of poems. Kevin Prufer will judge. Entry fee: $20. Deadline: April 15
Press 53 Prime Number Magazine Poetry Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Prime Number Magazine is given annually for a poem. Terri Kirby Erickson will judge. Entry fee: $15. Deadline: April 15
Cave Canem Foundation Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Northwestern University Press is given biennially for a second book of poetry by an African American poet. Matthew Shendoa will judge. Entry fee: $20. Deadline: April 16
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.
The book trailer for Zachary Schomburg’s collection Fjords Vol. 1 (Black Ocean, 2012), filmed by Joe Riina-Ferrie, is based on live performances of the poems, which were created in collaboration with Manual Cinema, Chicago Q Ensemble, and composer Kyle Vegter. Schomburg is a founding editor of Octopus Books, a small poetry press in Portland, Oregon, and his debut novel, Mammother, was published by Featherproof Books in 2017.
The “literary heart of America” is in Virginia; Barnes & Noble launches book app; Weike Wang wins PEN/Hemingway Award; and other news.
Manipulating the shape of a poem on the page has a long history, from George Herbert’s seventeenth-century religious verse “Easter Wings,” which was printed sideways, its outlines resembling angel wings, to the “concrete poetry” of the 1950s in which the outline of poems depict recognizable shapes. More recently, Montana Ray’s gun-shaped poems in (guns & butter), published by Argos Books in 2015, explore themes of race, motherhood, and gun violence, and Myriam Gurba uses a shaped poem in Mean (Coffee House Press, 2017) to probe acts and cycles of assault on and abuse of women’s bodies. Write a series of concrete poems, perhaps first jotting down a list of resonant images, subjects, or motifs that already recur frequently in your work. How can you subvert or complicate the reader’s initial response to the shape of the poem? How does your word choice shift when you’re confined to predetermined shapes and line breaks?
Fifty new writers to watch; Elizabeth Ebert, the “grand dame of cowboy poetry,” has died; NPR’s Twitter poetry challenge; and other news.
