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The Strand, beloved bookstore of New York City's resident and visiting literary types, will award a trio of prizes for original poems on the theme "love of the Strand." The winner will receive a Strand gift card worth $250, and the winning work may be featured on the bookstore's Web site and merchandise. The second-place prize is a bundle of books and swag worth $175, and the third-place prize is a $50 gift card.
The "fiercely independent family business" was opened nearly eighty-three years ago in New York City's former Book Row, among forty-seven other booksellers, all of which have ceased operation. The Strand, now located on Broadway near the city's Union Square, boasts an inventory of eighteen miles of rare, used, and new books, not including the selection at their kiosks in Central Park.
There is no cost to submit to the competition, and entries may be made via e-mail, with "Poetry Contest" as the subject line. The deadline is February 11 at 6 PM.
In the video below, Strand owner Fred Bass gives a tour of the bookstore.
If you catch wind of a free writing contest in your area, please drop us an e-mail letting us know about it. And if you're interested in bidding homage to your own local bookseller, check out our Inside Indie Bookstores series and leave us a comment about your favorite literary haunt.
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Black Lawrence Press is offering an "early bird" entry fee for poets and fiction writers who submit manuscripts to the Hudson Prize this month. The special fee to submit a collection of poetry or short stories for competition is the price of a title from the press's catalogue, which ranges from fourteen to eighteen dollars for full-length works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
The winner will receive one thousand dollars and a spot among the Black Lawrence Press titles including, in poetry, Matthew Gavin Frank's Sagittarius Agitprop, Rachel Galvin's Pulleys and Locomotion, and Stefi Weisburd's The Wind-Up Gods. In fiction, the press has published Daniel Chacon's Unending Rooms, Marcel Jolley's Neither Here Nor There, Fred McGavran's The Butterfly Collector, and Jo Neace Krause's The Last Game We Played, all story collections.
In order to take advantage of the entry special, place a book order on the Black Lawrence Press Web site and then send a cover letter, noting the title purchased, and a manuscript of any length via e-mail by February 1. The deadline for all submissions (with a twenty-five-dollar entry fee) is March 31.
In the video below, Stefi Weisburd reads from The Wind-Up Gods.
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James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, and Erica Jong were among the writers who attended the first benefit held at the Kitchen in New York City in 1978.
