Publication Opps

Two great publication opportunities:

1) 2015 PATRICIA DOBLER POETRY AWARD. For women writers over 40 who have not published a full-length book of poetry, fiction, or non-fiction (chapbooks excluded). Primary judge: Jan Beatty; final judge: Lynn Emanuel. One prize of $1000; publication in Voices from the Attic; round-trip travel, lodging, a reading at Carlow University with the final judge. Postmark deadline September 5. $20 fee per 2-poem entry. For complete guidelines: 

http://www.carlow.edu/2015_Patricia_Dobler_Poetry_Award_Entry_Information.aspx

(This info borrowed from CRWOPPS.)

2) Threwline Books, affiliated with the Hartskill Review and editor Joshua Hjalmer Lind, has this call out for book-length poetry manuscripts:

Please submit a manuscript in one file with between 55-90 pages. ThrewLine favors poetry that is complex and innovative enough to be interesting…but just grounded enough not to be off-puttingly experimental. Imagine Emily Dickinson wrote a letter to Wallace Stevens and, although parts of it were lost or illegible, he carefully explained thirteen ways of understanding what it meant to him.

Selections will be made by Joshua Hjalmer Lind, editor of Hartskill Review.

https://threwlinebooks.wordpress.com/submission-guidelines/

Wanted: Women over 40

Check out this interesting opportunity for the woman poet over 40 who has yet to publish a full-length book in any genre: The Patricia Dobler Poetry Award from Carlow University. This prize pays for the winner's travel and lodging in order to allow her to participate in the school's MFA low-residency program for 10 or 11 days. The author will also get to publish in the school's annual anthology and have a reading with one of the competition judges, Patricia Smith. (The other judge is Jan Beatty--what great company!)

Great idea, to reward and encourage a woman poet beginning her career, a time when there is precious little encouragement to be had and only intrinsic rewards. But hurry it you are interested: the deadline is April 1.

Recent Discoveries

Unbelievable Facts is a great name to follow on Twitter. Yesterday UnBFacts posted something I will never forget: "swims" upside down is still "swims." Actually, in all caps it looks even more flippable: "SWIMS".

Also, friend and poet Mari recommended the poetry of Cynthia Cruz last week when discussing books received for Christmas, and by chance I happened upon an interview with Cynthia Cruz in the Prosody archives (Prosody is a now-defunct literary talk show hosted by poet Jan Beatty and writer Ellen Wadey, which can still be accessed on iTunes--scroll down to March 20, 2007.) You can also listen to the interview here (no scrolling required). It's an old interview, but you can hear Cruz read from her first book, and she and Beatty also discuss some of her themes, including veiled violence in childhood.

Praise for Poet Marilyn Donnelly

I've been listening to the archives of the now-defunct radio show Prosody, hosted by Jan Beatty, and I'm glad I did because I have discovered the inimitable, clever voice of Marilyn Donnelly (scroll down to the show on 6/7/11, or look it up in iTunes). A Pittsburgh citizen, Donnelly mixes word play with an insightfully cutting eye on culture. Her first full-length book Coda  is available from Autumn House Press (2010). Unfortunately, due to poor health, it is not Marilyn Donnelly herself who is interviewed and who reads her poems, but her editor Ann Burnham.

Here are a few of her shorter pieces (I transcribed them from the podcast, and may have made errors in word choice and certainly in linebreaks, for which I apologize in advance):


Human Inflation

Many C-E-Os come to a juncture
where the E-G-Os need accupuncture.


Reflection on Fame

I used to fear anonymity.
Like Willie Loman everyone deserves recognition.
I saw Joan Crawford one time--it was enough.
She wore a white turban of slithery jersey,
steadied with a raucous ransom from the five and dime
and a dress with shoulder pads as wide as a wide receiver's.
That sight made me a believer in simplicity, anonymity.
It made me shun rhinestones.
Now I wish to be small, like the wren.
Believe me, Emily Dickinson had the right idea,
settled at home in her private New England bones.


Valentine for Richard Wilbur

Ah Dicky dear,
No one has your way with meter and rhyme
So won't you come up and show me
your sestina sometime.


Thoughts After Reading The Scarlet Letter

Had only Hester known
About testosterone.


Passage

He who took the steps by two
Now pauses on each tread.
And I who love him so
Am filled with dread.


Not all the poems are humorous (obviously). Listen to the podcast and enjoy the longer, more serious pieces as well; you might even be inspired to order the book.

Two More Poetry Podcasts

I've found two nearly inexhaustible podcast series in which poets are interviewed. The first series is finished now, but the archives, years and years of interviews, are available on iTunes. Both podcasts are also available at their own websites.

First is WYEP Radio's show Prosody, hosted by poet Jan Beatty and a few others.

Second is the Scottish Poetry Library Pocast, hosted largely by Ryan Van Winkle.

I've been enjoying both series during my long hours of walking.

This weekend I'm off to the Japan Writers Conference. I hope to see some of you there. I'll let you all know my impressions of it.

Have a good weekend.