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Hope Wabuke celebrates the book launch for her debut poetry collection, The Body Family (Haymarket Books, 2022), with special guests Safia Elhillo and Ladan Osman in this virtual reading and conversation moderated by Aricka Foreman. Wabuke is featured in Literary MagNet in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“dear existential fallacy, // i need you to be concrete. / you need me to liquidate / my account.” In this 2017 event at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Evie Shockley reads from her collections the new black (Wesleyan University Press, 2012) and semiautomatic (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize.
In a recent installment of Ten Questions, poet Dana Levin recalls the earliest memory associated with her new book, Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon Press, 2022): “Pacing around my sublet in Saint Louis, Fall 2015, saying out loud the words ‘No,’ ‘Yes,’ and ‘Stop’ over and over: to feel how they felt in my mouth, my throat, my chest.” Included in Levin’s collection are three poems—“No,” “Maybe,” and “Into the Next Eden”—that seek to answer the question posed by the book’s title. This week, consider a question to ask yourself and write three poems with different responses. Do your answers surprise you?
“This book has its own life force. All you have to do is allow it to come together.” —Marwa Helal, author of Ante body
Jay Hopler and Kimberly Johnson discuss their new books, the techniques and craft decisions they used in writing these collections, and the occasion to which both books respond: Hopler’s diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer in 2017.
Bring in the new month by applying to contests with a deadline of May 15! These awards include opportunities for poets of Asian heritage; women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming writers whose work advances social change; and novelists writing debut books set in the American South. Plus, don’t miss the chance to win a residency in Miami Beach, Florida, or Naples, New York. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more and two are free of cost to submit.
Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award: A prize of $5,000 is given annually for a second book of poetry by a living poet to be published in the coming calendar year. The winner also receives an all-expenses paid weeklong residency at the Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Copies of the winning book are distributed to members of the Academy of American Poets. Aracelis Girmay, Solmaz Sharif, and Mai Der Vang will judge. Entry fee: None.
Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize: A prize of $25,000 is given annually for a poetry collection by a living poet published in the United States during the previous year. The winner also receives an all-expenses paid 10-day residency at the Glen Hollow cottage in Naples, New York. Copies of the winning book are distributed to members of the Academy of American Poets. Entry fee: $75.
American Poetry Review Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in American Poetry Review is given annually for a single poem by a poet under the age of 40. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $15 (which includes a copy of the prize issue).
Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation Book Prize: A prize of $5,000 is given annually for a debut novel set in the American South. The author may live anywhere, but eligible novels must be set primarily in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, or Washington, D.C. Self-published books are eligible, but books available only as e-books are not. Ben Fountain will judge. Entry fee: $35.
Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication by Gaudy Boy, an imprint of the New York City–based literary nonprofit Singapore Unbound, is given annually for a poetry collection by an Asian writer. Yeow Kai Chai will judge. Entry fee: $10.
Leeway Foundation Transformation Awards: Awards of $15,000 each are given annually to women, transgender, or otherwise gender-nonconforming poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers in the Philadelphia area who have been creating art for social change for five or more years. Writers who have lived for at least two years in Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia counties, who are at least 18 years of age, and who are not full-time students in a degree-granting arts program are eligible. Entry fee: None.
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. Dzvinia Orlowsky will judge. Entry fee: $28.
McGill University Montreal International Poetry Prize: A prize of $20,000 Canadian (approximately $15,728) and publication in the 2022 Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology is given biennially for a poem. Lorna Goodison will judge and Cameron Awkward-Rich, Heather Christle, Nabina Das, Liz Howard, Joanne Limburg, Conor O’Callaghan, Tanure Ojaide, Michael Prior, Medrie Purdham, Mark Tredinnick, and Rhian Williams will serve as jurors. Entry fee: $25 Canadian (approximately $20).
Pittsburg State University Cow Creek Chapbook Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Pittsburg State University, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Chen Chen will judge. Entry fee: $15.
Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest: Three prizes of $2,000 each and publication in Ploughshares are given annually for a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. Each winner also receives a consultation with the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management. Writers who have not published a book or a chapbook with a print run over 300 are eligible. Chen Chen will judge in poetry, Amelia Gray will judge in fiction, and Danielle Geller will judge in nonfiction. Entry fee: $24 (which includes a subscription to Ploughshares).
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.
“We in the fields, the watchers from the burnt slope, / Facing the west, facing the bright sky, hopelessly longing / to know the red beauty…” In this 2011 PBS NewsHour video, Jeffrey Yang reads William Everson’s poem “We in the Fields” along with other poems published in Birds, Beasts, and Seas: Nature Poems From New Directions, an anthology edited by the poet celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of New Directions. Yang’s new poetry collection, Line and Light (Graywolf Press, 2022), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“The face of Chinatown returns its color, / plucked from July’s industrial steamer,” reads Jenny Xie from her poem “Chinatown Diptych,” published in her collection Eye Level (Graywolf Press, 2018), in this video directed by Jean Coleman and produced by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation for their Read By poetry film series.
“I wanted to tell people how I became this woman with razor blades between her teeth.” BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, directed by Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater, and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, chronicles the life and work of poet and political activist Sonia Sanchez, including her emergence as a seminal figure in the Black Arts Movement, her tireless political activism, and a poetry career so great Maya Angelou called her “a lion in literature’s forest.” Sanchez is the recipient of the 2022 Jackson Poetry Prize.
“I am five, / Wading out into deep / Sunny grass,” writes Yusef Komunyakaa in his poem “Venus’s-Flytraps.” The young speaker in this poem delivers a collage-like monologue that lays out the various characters, images, and places from his life along with a sense of wonder and danger carefully balanced in striking lines, creating a tapestry that portrays a very real and complex childhood. “I know things / I don’t supposed to know. / I could start walking / & never stop. / These yellow flowers / Go on forever,” writes Komunyakaa. Write a poem from the perspective of a curious child, which, like Komunyakaa’s poem, illustrates even the most devastating things with a sense of wonder.
