The Million-Dollar Poem, David Mitchell’s Unread Text, and More
The first-ever virtual-reality reading; the political necessity of apocalyptic fiction in the Middle East; sad birthday poems; and other news.
Genre: Poetry
Mothers and Fathers
"Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them," writes Oscar Wilde in his 1891 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Drawing upon your own experiences with parents, guardians, mother or father figures—or your personal history as a parent yourself—compile a short list of specific memories and observations divided into three categories: love, judgment, and forgiveness. Would you agree with Wilde that children's love for and judgment of parents are inevitable, but forgiveness of them may be less so? How might you see forgiveness as a more conscious component of a parent-child relationship? Write a three-part poem that explores the many nuances of a parent-child relationship as it evolves with age.
Parenthood and Writing, Rejection Letters, and More
A Shakespeare-inspired card game; Macmillan has acquired Pronoun; internal legibility in poems; and other news
826 Valencia
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"When I was little, I would always be inspired by books that my mom gave me and I always wanted to be a writer. And that dream has come true, at a really young age!" Students, volunteers, and cofounders Nínive Calegari and Dave Eggers of 826 Valencia talk about the opening of a second branch in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco. The center will offer free creative writing and tutoring programs for young writers.
End of May Contest Roundup
As the month of May winds down, the deadlines for several book contests in poetry and fiction are quickly approaching. Each prize compiled below offers at least $1,000 and publication of the winning manuscript.
For fiction writers, the BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize and the University of Georgia Press Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award both offer a prize of $1,000 and publication for a short story collection. Peter Conners will judge the BOA Short Fiction Prize, while Lee K. Abbott will judge the Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award. The deadline for both contests is May 31.
Meanwhile, the Elixir Press Fiction Award offers $2,000 and publication for a short story collection or novel. The press’s editors will judge; the deadline is May 31. The annual Gival Press Novel Award offers publication and $3,000 for a novel; the judge is anonymous and the deadline is May 30.
On the poetry side, three contests—the Anhinga Press Anhinga–Robert Dana Prize for Poetry, the Backwaters Press Backwaters Prize, and the Oberlin College Press FIELD Poetry Prize—each offer publication of a full-length poetry manuscript. Evie Shockley will judge the $2,000 Anhinga–Robert Dana Prize for Poetry; the deadline is May 30. Henri Cole will judge the $2,000 Backwaters Prize, and the editors of Oberlin College Press will judge the $1,000 FIELD Poetry Prize; the deadline for both contests is May 31.
For a look at more writing contests with upcoming deadlines, visit our Grants & Awards database and submission calendar. Full submission details, including eligibility guidelines, manuscript length requirements, and entry fees, are available on the contest websites.
Jericho Brown
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"You get to the end of a line in a poem, and you have no idea what's going to happen." In this TEDx Talk, Jericho Brown reads a selection of his poems, and speaks about his childhood, his ideas on faith, and what being a poet means to him. Brown is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.
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Writing and Resistance
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"In the spleen, an oasis / an oasis as mirage / all my people burned / on either side of me." Listen to poet Charif Shanahan, along with Matt Petronzio, Hafizah Geter, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and Danniel Schoonebeek read for a National Poetry Month event called Writing and Resistance, presented by MashReads and the Strand Book Store.
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Postal Poem
Get out of town. Take a drive, a train, or a bus. It doesn’t matter how. It doesn’t have to be far. Just get away. Once you’re there, buy a postcard, address it to yourself, and write a poem on it. Fill up the whole card. Don’t edit yourself too much, just let it roll, then drop it in the mail. When it finally arrives back home, transcribe it onto a notebook and see if you can build from it. It may already be well on its way to a finished product, or it may only have one or two lines worth keeping. Regardless, stepping away from what’s familiar and writing a poem to your future self can help guide you to new images and thoughts that the daily writing life may not inspire.
Wislawa Szymborska
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"Nothing can ever happen twice." Listen to a selection of poems by Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, read by her translator Clare Cavanagh, as well as poets Charles Simic and Krystyna Dabrowska, at a celebration of her life and work hosted by the 92nd Street Y. The event also celebrated the publication of Szymborska's posthumous collection, Map: Collected and Last Poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015).
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Personal Possessions
Beginning next week, a collection of Marilyn Monroe’s personal possessions—including handwritten notes and receipts, an address book, lipstick and cigarettes—will be displayed on a worldwide tour before being put on auction. Choose one of Monroe’s items and write a poem imagining the story behind her connection to the item. You might even want to try writing from the point of view of the inanimate object.
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