Guidelines for the War Poetry Contest

Now in its ninth year, this contest seeks today's best poems on the theme of war. We will award $5,000 in prizes. Click here to read winning entries from the past.

Submission Period
Entries accepted November 15, 2009-May 31, 2010 (postmark dates)

This contest is not yet open, and the rules below may change. Please wait until November 15 or later to submit.

However, if you are here to complete an entry initiated before June 1, then you may continue. --> What to Submit
1-3 original, unpublished poems on the theme of war. Their combined length should not exceed 500 lines. Contestants may enter once per year.

Prizes
First Prize, $2,000 cash and publication on WinningWriters.com (over one million page views per year)
Second Prize, $1,200 cash and publication on WinningWriters.com
Third Prize, $600 cash and publication on WinningWriters.com
Twelve Honorable Mentions, $100 cash each and publication on WinningWriters.com

Entry Fee
$15, payable to Winning Writers. We welcome both online submissions with payment by credit card and submissions by mail with payment by check or money order. We also accept PayPal. Your $15 fee is not per poem, but covers your complete submission of up to 3 poems. Please note: Generally entry fees are not refundable. However, if you believe you have an exceptional circumstance, please contact us within one year of your entry.

Deadline
May 31, 2010. Your entry must be postmarked or submitted online by this date.

Preparing Your Entry
Submit one copy of your poems online or by mail. No handwritten entries, please. Do not put your name or contact information on your poems, not even on the backs of pages. Provide your contact information on our online form, or on a separate cover sheet if submitting by mail. If your poem contains complex formatting, such as centered text or italic type, we recommend submitting by mail. Please make your entry easy to read — no illustrations, fancy fonts or decorative borders.

How To Submit
Click here to submit online (credit card)
Click here to submit by mail (check or money order)
Click here to submit via PayPal

Announcement of Winners
We are pleased to present the winners of our eighth contest here. The winners of our ninth contest will be announced on November 15, 2010.

All Entrants Receive
All entrants to our War Poetry Contest receive immediate free access to our Poetry Contest Insider online database for three months, a $6.95 value. Search our profiles of over 750 poetry contests for the ones that fit you best. Current Poetry Contest Insider customers will have their subscriptions extended by three months.

Your entry fee is a one-time charge. When your subscription to Poetry Contest Insider expires, you will receive an invitation to renew, but you are under no obligation to do so. Your decision will not affect your entry in any way.

--> Entries Must Be Original and Unpublished
Your entries must be original, written by you, unpublished (either in print or in an online journal), and not have received a monetary award or high honors from any other contest. Self-published work is not eligible. Exceptions: Poems posted to the web outside of online journals, such as to a bulletin board, email list, personal web page, blog, critique site or public forums are eligible for entry. Our goal is to recognize work that has not yet received honors or wide publication. Please email us if you're unsure of eligibility.

Simultaneous Submission Allowed
You may submit your poems simultaneously to this contest and to other contests and publishers. Please notify us if one of your poems wins an award in another contest or is published elsewhere.

English Language
Poems should be in English. Poems translated from other languages are not eligible, unless you wrote both the original poem and the translation.

A Note to Previous War Poetry Contestants
You are welcome to enter this year's contest, whether or not you won a prize in one of our previous contests. For best results, please read the Advice from the Judge first.

Privacy
We respect your privacy. Winning Writers does not rent customer or contestant information to third parties. Please click here for our full privacy policy.

Copyright
You retain the copyright to your submission. If you place as finalist or better, Winning Writers only requests permission to publish your work on WinningWriters.com, in our email publications and in our press releases. Any other use will be negotiated with you.

Final Judge of the War Poetry Contest - Jendi Reiter
Ms. Reiter is the editor of Poetry Contest Insider, an online database of poetry contests published by Winning Writers. Her first book, A Talent for Sadness, was published in 2003 by Turning Point Books. Her poetry chapbook Swallow won the 2008 Flip Kelly Poetry Prize and was published in 2009 by Amsterdam Press. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The New Criterion, Mudfish, American Fiction, The Adirondack Review, The Broome Review, FULCRUM, Juked, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Alligator Juniper, MARGIE: The American Journal of Poetry, Best American Poetry 1990 and many other publications. Awards include first prize in the Chapter One Promotions 2008 International Short Story Contest, first prize for poetry in Alligator Juniper's 2006 National Writing Contest, first prize in the 2007 Elizabeth Simpson Smith Award for a Short Story (Charlotte Writers' Club), two awards from the Poetry Society of America, and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for poetry criticism. Visit her blog at www.jendireiter.com.

Advice for Contestants
Whether or not you've entered this contest before, we urge you to read our Advice from the Judge before entering. It will measurably improve your chances. We also encourage you to read our recent winning entries and the judge's comments. You may also find useful our page of Frequently Asked Questions.

About Winning Writers
Winning Writers finds and creates quality resources for poets and writers. Our expert online poetry contest guide, Poetry Contest Insider, profiles over 750 poetry contests. We directly sponsor the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest and the War Poetry Contest. We also assist the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest, the Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse and the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest. Winning Writers is proud to be one of "101 Best Websites for Writers" (Writer's Digest, 2005-2009) and a recipient of the Truly Useful Site Award (Preditors & Editors, March 2006).

Winnie denies interview criticising Nelson Mandela

Winnie Mandela said the article was an attempt to divide her family Winnie Mandela, the former wife of ex-President Nelson Mandela, has denied giving an interview accusing him of letting down black South Africans. Ms Madikizela-Mandela said the article, published in London's Evening Standard newspaper this week, was a fabrication. The article was written by Nadira Naipaul, the wife of Nobel prize-winning author VS Naipaul. The Mandelas, who were both leaders in the struggle against South Africa's minority white rule, divorced in 1996. The article quoted Ms Madikizela-Mandela as saying her former husband had "agreed to a bad deal for the blacks". She was also quoted as saying that the Mandela name was "an albatross around the necks of my family". Nadira Naipaul... visited Winnie Mandela at home and spoke to her at length about her experiences Evening Standard She was said to have expressed disappointment that her former husband had lost some of his revolutionary spirit after 27 years in jail. But in a statement released on Friday through the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Ms Madikizela-Mandela said the article had been based on a "fabricated interview". She called it "an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe". The Evening Standard defended its article saying Nadira Naipaul had visited Madikizela-Mandela at her home in Soweto near Johannesburg and spoken to her "at length about her experiences". The newspaper added: "We cannot understand Winnie Mandela's denial of an event and conversation which clearly took place." The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Johannesburg says there are few taboos in South African politics, but criticising Nelson Mandela is one of them. Mrs Madikizela-Mandela is a senior ANC member and sits on the party's influential National Executive Committee (NEC). Mr Mandela became South Africa's first democratic president in 1994.

Frans Johansson, Creativity and The Medici Effect

What’s the difference between creativity and innovation? I you want to find out watch these videos of Frans Johansson. He is also the author of the book “The medici effect”, a book about how intersection between different disciplines or cultures can generate new ideas.

By the way, Frans Johanson was born in Germany, and raised in Sweden by his African-American/Cherokee mother and Swedish father.

Although this method of creating new ideas is not new, you sometimes need the push to execute them. When you are reading these last sentences you are maybe one click away from creating something new, or to put into practice you have thought of for years.

Website: “The medici effect”

Women of Jos protest in Abuja

by Sokari on March 12, 2010

in Nigeria, War/Conflict, violence against women

Nigerian women dressed in Black marched in Abuja to protest the massacres taking place in Plateau State. The women demanded the removal of the military commander in charge of security, Maj-Gen. Saleh Maina. Once again the Nigerian military, who were supposed to be protecting the women and the villages, have instead become part of the violence as the women accused the Commander of being complicit in the violence. According to the Nigerian Red Cross there are some 20,000 mainly women and children who have been displaced and are living in make shift camps in Plateau and Bauchi States. Hundreds of children have also been murdered by men with machetes and knives – what kind of people can slaughter children like this. One mother lost all seven of her children.

These testimonies taken by Human Rights Watch speak to the horror of what has taken place this past week.

Dogo is a farming village several kilometers from Jos. They came at around 3 a.m. to attack our village. When they arrived, they immediately started shooting, so many of us ran outside to see what happened. Then others attacked us with machetes, killing so many. It was not easy for us to escape. I ran into the bushes and hid – from there I saw them killing. They killed about 150 children, 80 women, 50 men in Dogo Nahawa. There were about 200 of them armed with guns and cutlasses. After running away, I could see the burning of our houses and heard our women and children screaming as they were being killed. I recognized a few of [the attackers’] voices. I believe they were those who had lived here before. I heard them speaking in both Hausa and Fulani, saying, “The time has come, you will see.” There was no warning for this attack. I was very lucky to escape. I saw many people being cut down as I was running. The attack lasted until around 4:30 [a.m.] when the military showed up. When the attackers saw their lights they disappeared – the attackers were on foot…

The actions of the army are similar to those in the Niger Delta as far back as the early 1990s in Ogoniland up to the bombings of villages in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State last May where the army were responsible for the death and displacement of thousands of mainly women and children. The women of Jos have taken a bold and powerful step in marching on Abuja to protest against the violence in their communities. The question however remains is why the security forces failed to protect women and children from this latest slaughter. If military commanders cannot act impartially and responsibility then what can we expect from junior ranks? There is culture of indiscipline and a lack respect for ordinary people, particularly poor people and women, by the Nigerian security forces and by extension the Nigerian government. Never is there an investigation nor is anyone ever prosecuted even when it is blatantly clear that murder, rape and other violent acts have been committed. Just a couple of weeks ago Al Jazeera broadcast a video showing the murder of unarmed civilians by the Nigerian paramilitary police in Maiduguri. It is only because the video was broadcast on international television that the government has for once began an investigation into the murders. In December last year several hundred bodies were dumped at the mortuary in Enugu- the police claiming the men were criminals. Maybe they were, maybe they were not. Either way they are entitled to be charged and tried in a court of law. It is not the duty of the police to go around shooting people who they suspect to be militants or criminals. I hope the women continue to protest and that the Save Nigeria Movement and other pro democracy groups join the women in demanding an investigation into the army’s action, the violence itself and also demand to know the truth surrounding the disappeared President.

Shocking Graphic Reveals Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad

 

We’ve got a lot of problems when it comes to our food system, but one of them was clearly articulated with a simple graphic. How do food subsidies affect what we’re eating? Check this out:.

This graphic was recently published by the Consumerist, with the few words, “This is why you’re fat.”

The New York Times had a little bit more to say about the graphic, which by the way was put together by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The Times says:

Thanks to lobbying, Congress chooses to subsidize foods that we’re supposed to eat less of.

Of course, there are surely other reasons why burgers are cheaper than salads. These might include production costs, since harvesting apples is probably more naturally seasonal than slaughtering cows (even though both are in demand year-round). Transportation and storage costs might also play a role, as it’s probably easier to keep ground beef fresh and edible for extended periods of time, by freezing it, than cucumbers.

Interesting analysis, but it’s missing the heart of the matter, which PCRM lays out on their own website — the legislation which governs all these subsidies is the controversial farm bill. “The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals,” PCRM writes. “By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products–the same products that contribute to our growing rates of obesity and chronic disease. Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies.”

What would our society look like if fruit and vegetable products received more of the cut? I’m reminded of the scene from the Oscar-nominated film Food Inc., where a lower-income family grapples with the issue of spending what little money they have on fast food burgers because it is cheaper and more filling than buying fresh vegetables but knowing that they’ll end up likely spending even more down the line in health costs. That’s a decision that no family should have to make.

Clearly our prices for food are skewed. Interestingly, the Times has another graphic about how food prices have changed over the last 30 years, and shockingly it’s fresh fruits and veggies that seem to be getting much more expensive, while most everything else seems to be going down or holding relatively steady.

David Leonhardt, who put together the chart on food pricing says most unhealthy foods have gotten cheaper. Since 1978, soda has gotten 33 percent cheaper but fruits and veggies are over 40 percent more expensive. As an example he says:

The price of oranges, to take one extreme example (not shown in the chart), has more than doubled, relative to everything else. So if in 1978, a bag of oranges cost the same as one big bottle of soda, today that bag costs the same as three big bottles of soda.

And how have these pricing difference played out in terms of human health? Well, obesity may be one place. Leonhardt writes:

In my column this morning, I mention that the average 18-year-old today is 15 pounds heavier than the average 18 year-old in the late 1970s. Adults have put on even more weight during that period. The average woman in her 60s is 20 pounds heavier than the average 60-something woman in the late 1970s. The average man in his 60s is 25 pounds heavier. When you look at the chart, you start to understand why.

Of course there are many factors to obesity, but surely tipping the scales in favor of some of the less healthy ones, doesn’t help. This same scenario is playing out in our schools across the country, too. In a recent story Jill Richardson did for AlterNet about the dismal state of our school lunch program, she writes that we’re basically giving kids the very things we say they shouldn’t be eating:

USDA commodities provided for school lunches turn the USDA’s own food pyramid on its head. Whereas the food pyramid recommends a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, the USDA usually provides schools with meat and dairy products often high in saturated fat. Only 13 percent of commodities provided are fruits and vegetables (including fruit juice and legumes) — and about half of the vegetables provided are potatoes.

We’re already facing an diabetes epidemic where one in three people born after 1980 will get early-onset diabetes and one in two from minority communities. We need changes to our food system, big time, and right away. One of the best places to start is by flipping this food pyramid of subsidies on its head.

 

Tara Lohan is a senior editor at AlterNet and heads up the Environment, Food and Water coverage. She is the editor of Water Consciousness: How We All Have to Change to Protect Our Most Critical Resource from AlterNet Books.

 

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.

 

Henry Samuel in Paris
Published: 7:00AM GMT 11 Mar 2010

An American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.

On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.

One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets.

Time magazine wrote at the time: "Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead."

Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould that infects rye grain. Another theory was the bread had been poisoned with organic mercury.

However, H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist, claims the outbreak resulted from a covert experiment directed by the CIA and the US Army's top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

The scientists who produced both alternative explanations, he writes, worked for the Swiss-based Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD.

Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the SOD who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the Cursed Bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the "secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit" and explains that it was not "at all" caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.

While compiling his book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments, Mr Albarelli spoke to former colleagues of Mr Olson, two of whom told him that the Pont-Saint-Esprit incident was part of a mind control experiment run by the CIA and US army.

After the Korean War the Americans launched a vast research programme into the mental manipulation of prisoners and enemy troops.

Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated "local foot products".

Mr Albarelli said the real "smoking gun" was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of a number of French nationals who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the "Pont St. Esprit incident." In its quest to research LSD as an offensive weapon, Mr Albarelli claims, the US army also drugged over 5,700 unwitting American servicemen between 1953 and 1965.

None of his sources would indicate whether the French secret services were aware of the alleged operation. According to US news reports, French intelligence chiefs have demanded the CIA explain itself following the book's revelations. French intelligence officially denies this.

Locals in Pont-Saint-Esprit still want to know why they were hit by such apocalyptic scenes. "At the time people brought up the theory of an experiment aimed at controlling a popular revolt," said Charles Granjoh, 71.

"I almost kicked the bucket," he told the weekly French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. "I'd like to know why."

BRASILINTIME

A documentary film by Coleman and B+, filmed in Sao Paulo, Brasil.

In September 2002 Coleman and B+ went to Sao Paulo for nine days. They had a week to link with (hip hop) Brasil, enlist three drummers and find enough breaks to make a break record to guarantee commitment from our oversubscribed DJs back home.

<p class="foxyvideo" style="margin-top:5px;width:480px;font-family:Courier New, courier, monospace;font-size:13px;"><span style="margin-top:0px;">FULL SCREEN<br/></span><span style="float:left;margin-top:5px;">mochilla.com / Brasilintime Trailer &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br style="clear:both;"></p>

 

<p class="foxyvideo" style="margin-top:5px;width:480px;font-family:Courier New, courier, monospace;font-size:13px;"><span style="margin-top:0px;">FULL SCREEN<br/></span><span style="float:left;margin-top:5px;">mochilla.com / BRASILINTIME NYC  &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br style="clear:both;"></p>

 

<p class="foxyvideo" style="margin-top:5px;width:480px;font-family:Courier New, courier, monospace;font-size:13px;"><span style="margin-top:0px;">FULL SCREEN<br/></span><span style="float:left;margin-top:5px;">mochilla.com / Obrigado Dilla &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br style="clear:both;"></p>