First Annual Science Fiction/Fantasy Competition from Writer's Digest

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

 

Deadline: September 15, 2011

COMPETE and WIN with your best fiction!

Take your first step into a new frontier. Enter by September 15

Entry Fee: All entries are $20.00. You may pay with a check or money order, Visa, Mastercard or American Express when you enter online or via regular mail.

Prizes

First Prize: The First Place-Winner receives $1,000 cash, promotion in Writer's Digest, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Second Prize: The Second Place-Winner receives $500 cash, promotion in Writer's Digest, $100 worth of Writer's Digest Books and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Honorable Mention: Honorable Mentions will receive promotion in Writer's Digest and the 2012 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.

Entry Deadline: September 15, 2011

Competition Rules

The Categories:

You may enter as many manuscripts as you like. All manuscripts must be 4,000 words or fewer.

Preparing Your Entry:

If you are submitting your entry via regular mail, the entry must be accompanied by an Official Entry Form or facsimile, and the required entry fee (credit card information, check or money order made payable to F+W Media, Inc.). If you are entering more than one manuscript, you may mail all entries in the same envelope and write one check for the total entry fee; however, each manuscript must have its category indicated in the upper left-hand corner.
Your entry must be original, in English, unpublished and unproduced, not accepted by any other publisher or producer at the time of submission. Writer's Digest retains one-time publication rights to the First Prize, Second Prize and Honorable Mention winning entries in each category to be published in a Writer's Digest outlet.
If you are submitting your entry via regular mail, the entry must be typed on one side of 8-1/2 x 11 white paper (computer printout acceptable) or A4 paper. Manuscripts must be double-spaced. If you are entering via regular mail, your name, address, phone number and competition category must appear in the upper left-hand corner of the first page—otherwise your entry is disqualified. No refunds will be issued for disqualified entries. Online entries must be submitted in one of the following file types: doc, docx, rtf or pdf. We recommend that you avoid adding your own symbols/punctuation in file names of the documents you are uploading.
Be sure of your word count! Entries exceeding the word limit will be disqualified. Type the exact word count (counting every single word, except the title) at the top of the manuscript.
Mailed entries must be stapled.

Judging and Notification

Every entry will be read by the judges. Judges' decisions are final.
Judges reserve the right to re-categorize entries.
Entries must be entered online or postmarked by 11:59 pm EST on September 15, 2011. We cannot return submitted manuscripts; however, to receive notification of the receipt of your manuscript, send a self-addressed stamped postcard along with your entry. Please note that it may take up to 30 days after the deadline for all entries and payment to be processed.
The following are not permitted to enter the contest: employees of F+W Media, Inc., and their immediate family members; Writer's Digest contributing editors and correspondents as listed on our masthead; Writer's Online Workshops instructors; and Grand Prize Winners from the previous three years in any Writer's Digest competitions.
Top Award Winners will be notified by mail by December 31, 2011. Winners will be listed in the May/June 2012 issue of Writer's Digest, and on www.writersdigest.com after the May/June 2012 issue is published.

Questions?
For questions, contact us at (715) 445-4612 ext. 13430 or email writing-competition@fwmedia.com

FAQ

Q: Is it okay to have illustration pictures on the cover?
A: Please send the text only

Q: If there is a word count, how many words per page am I allowed?
No preference

Q: How large of print is allowed?
No preference

Q: Are pen names allowed?
Pen names are fine. Write your pen name on all forms etc. so there is no mistakes on credits. Please be advised that we only need your real name if you are chosen as a winner (in order to issue prizes).

Q: What if I am not a U.S. resident?
WD writing competitions are open to non-U.S. residents as well. Please refer to the entry form and guidelines. All entry fees are due in U.S. Dollars.

Q: Is there an age limit for entrants?
No

Q: What if I wanted to submit only part of my novel into the competition (to stay with in the maximum number of words)?
If you submit a portion of a novel, please understand that it will be judged as a complete story, not part of another work, so it needs to be a complete story in and of itself.

Q: When will winners be notified?
Top Award Winners will be notified by December 31, 2011. Winners in each category will be listed in the May/June 2012 issue of Writer's Digest and on www.writersdigest.com after the May/June 2012 issue is published. Prizes/awards certificates will be mailed by April 30, 2012.

Q: What are the word count requirements?
The word count is 4,000 words maximum.

Q: How do I order books published by F+W Media?
www.fwbookstore.com/category/writers-digest

Q: How do I subscribe to Writer's Digest?
visit www.writersdigest.com and click on the link

Q: Are there other writing competitions?
Yes! Visit www.writersdigest.com/competitions for other competitions for writers

Privacy Promise
Occasionally we make portions of our customer list available to other companies so they may contact you about products and services that may be of interest to you. If you prefer we withhold your name, simply send a note with your name, address, and the competition name to: List Manager, F+W Media, Inc., 4700 E. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236.

Entry Form

To submit your entry online, visit our secure online entry form.

To enter via regular mail, use the printable form, and send it with your manuscript(s) and entry fee to:

WD Science Fiction/Fantasy Competition
4700 East Galbraith Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ger: To Be Separate

 

Hi guys

 

So my friend Ger is one of the most inspirational people i know, From acting to modeling he does it all. His new Documentary follows him on a Journey back to Sudan where we will see Ger's mission to "help rebuild his nation" unfold. 

 

 

Although there has been billions in aid to Africa i feel that the real issues has often been ignored or excessive focus has been applied on limited aspects. From guerrilla conflicts to civil war, Africa is in dire need of aid, Medics but most of all EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!! I believe in order to reduce poverty and create jobs, Africa must become economically competitive and that can AND WILL happen through youth initiative. 


Here are a few pics from the film opening.

But anyways i don't want to blab on and on. Just wanted to bring a little awareness to Ger's project and hopefully one day i can follow in his footsteps and go on a mission of my own. 

 

 

Directed by Kenyan Film Director Wanuri Kahiu

 

“Ger: To Be Separate document’s one man’s odyssey from child soldier to refugee to Hollywood actor and international top model, and his amazing journey back home as he votes for the first time for a new Sudan and celebrates its division.  The release of this documentary will mark the beginning of Ger’s mission to help rebuild his nation, bringing educational institutions and healthcare facilities to his home village.”

 

African and proud!

xoxo

Abby

 

 

 

__________________________

“When I first came upon James Boggs's writings three decades ago, it changed my life. Poring over each of the essays collected here by the indefatigable Stephen Ward, I know why he had such an impact. His work was always incisive, clear, dialectical, and genuinely revolutionary. A visionary thinker, Boggs is as relevant now as he ever was.”

—Robin D. G. Kelley

Pages from a Black Radical’s Notebook

A James Boggs Reader

 

Edited by Stephen M. Ward
 

Published February 2011
 

Size: 7 x 10, Pages: 424

 

Subjects: Africana Studies: Labor and Politics, History: American, Labor and Urban Studies: Labor History

Series: African American Life Series

Paper - 9780814332566 
Price: $27.95s 

Ntsiki Biyela - Wine maker

 

The NYtimes profiles Ntsiki Biyela:

While still a student, Ms. Biyela was given a part-time job at Delheim, a large winery, and this led to her oenological conversion. She not only worked in the vineyards and the cellar but also served wine to visitors in the tasting room and was consequently obliged to discuss what she poured. So she too tasted. She developed her palate.After graduation, Stellekaya, a boutique winery in Stellenbosch, hired her as its winemaker. It was a big leap, and the winery was taking a big chance on someone so inexperienced. A consultant helped her in the beginning, but soon she was on her own. Her very first red blend won a gold medal at the country’s prestigious Michelangelo awards.

More here

 

The Detroit riots of 1967

hold some lessons for the UK

After America's deadliest riots, a journalist and a professor proved that many assumptions about the looters were wrong

• 
• • Gary Younge in Detroit
  • guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 September 2011 

A standoff in Newark during the wave of riots that crossed America in 1967. Photograph: New York Times Co/Getty Images

Early in the morning on Sunday 23 July 1967 the Detroit police raided an after-hours drinking establishment where more than 80 black men and women were celebrating the return of two Vietnam veterans. This in itself was hardly rare. Police used to raid "blind pigs" all the time.

What was extraordinary was what came next: an outpouring of protest, violence, looting, police brutality and, ultimately, full-scale federal military intervention. "To live in America, until recently, meant to be far from war," says Calliope Stephanides, the protagonist in Jeffrey Eugenides's novel Middlesex, which is set in the city at the time. "Wars happened in south-east Asian jungles … But then why, peeking out of the dormer window, did I see a tank rolling by our front lawn?"

Before the week was out there were 43 dead, 467 injured, more than 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed: the deadliest riots in US history.

Nathan Caplan, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan's institute for social research (ISR), was unconvinced by his colleagues' claims that the riots were simply an expression of immaturity and social deviancy. So he went to the affected neighbourhoods with one of his graduate students to conduct some field research.

"There was still smoke in the air and bullets flying when we got there," recalls Caplan. "My academic colleagues had a habit of interpreting reality as though it's just a special case within theory. God forbid that anything they did became useful or that they actually spoke to anybody."

At the same time, Philip Meyer, a national correspondent for Knight Newspapers, which owned the Detroit Free Press, was also trying to break out of the constraints of his discipline. Just a few weeks earlier Meyer had returned from a career break as a Nieman fellow at Harvard, where he had studied social research methods. "Politicians were using them and I felt journalists had to understand them too," he explains.

When the riots in Detroit started he saw an opportunity to apply academic rigour to journalistic reportage. "It struck me like a bolt of lightning," says Meyer. "The University of California had just released their report into the Watts riots and I thought, we could do this too. But people wouldn't have to wait two years for the results. With journalists we could do it faster."

And so they did. Caplan and Meyer got together, drafted a questionnaire and then trained 30 black interviewers to go into the affected areas and gather information. The next week the interviewers went into the field, sending each day's interviews back to the university. In the third week Meyer and Caplan analysed the data and Meyer started writing it up. Just a month after the disturbances had started, the Free Press published its findings.

Entitled The People Beyond 12th street: A Survey of Attitudes of Detroit Negroes After the Riot of 1967, the report's methodology and language are very much of their time.

Seeking to explain black Detroit to white America, it reads like an anthropological survey of a foreign land. "In their alienation the rioters display some similarity to hippies," reads one part. "Both feel that the world is wrong and they want to set themselves apart from it. But hippies accept their share of the world's guilt while rioters project it. The hippie hands you a flower and says: 'Peace.' The rioter shouts: 'Get whitey' and throws a rock."

Nonetheless, even though by modern standards the sample was small and only a minority of those they spoke to were rioters, its data was revelatory.

It showed that, contrary to popular belief, there was no correlation between economic status or educational levels and propensity to riot. Nor had the riots been the work of recent immigrants from the south. The main grievances were police brutality, overcrowded living conditions, poor housing and lack of jobs.

 

 

Racial conflict

There are relatively few similarities between the Detroit riots in 1967 and those in England last month. The unrest in Detroit was part of a national conflagration led largely by the young. A riot had ended in Newark a week before and would continue in Milwaukee and Washington DC just days after. But these disturbances were rooted in racial conflict. "Detroit was becoming increasingly black and the police force and the city government remained primarily white," explains the veteran Detroit activist and author Grace Lee Boggs. "So the institutions in the city were seen as occupation forces."

It was also a pivotal moment in American racial history. A period of mass activism in the south had produced civil rights legislation just a few years before, securing black Americans the right to equality and the vote. 1967 was the year Muhammad Ali refused to serve in Vietnam, Cleveland became the first major city to elect a black mayor and bans on mixed-race marriages were finally made unconstitutional.

But while the contexts in England in 2011 and in Detroit more than 40 years earlier were quite different, many of the most popular explanations for the root causes were startlingly similar. The youth of those involved and the looting led many to dismiss those involved as just riffraff running amok.

"I was hearing that the riots were the product of immaturity and social deviancy by the lumpenproletariat," recalls Caplan. "But that's not what we were finding."

Then there is the apparent disconnect between the event that triggered the riot and the prevailing conditions that might explain it. "Every riot has a precipitating event," explains Meyer. "But then there are always more subtle factors."

Indeed, thanks largely to union jobs at the city's car plants, African Americans were materially better off in Detroit than elsewhere in the country. More than 40% owned their own homes. The city had the largest chapter of the NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organisation, in the country and was the only city with two black congressmen.

By revealing there was no link between income or education levels and rioters, and that those born in Detroit were three times more likely to have been involved than those from the south, the ISR/Detroit Free Press survey provided evidence that effectively countered popular misconceptions. "The riffraff theory and the southern migrant theory just stopped being propagated," says Meyer. "They were more likely to be young but that's because they had less to lose. In that sense the young were like leading edge consumers."

"It gave an empirical basis to address some interpretations and it put them straight into the public sphere," says Caplan.

It also gave voice to the complex attitudes towards social unrest in areas most likely to play host to them. The overwhelming majority of black people in Detroit at the time (84%) thought the riots could happen again. Only a quarter believed they had more to gain than lose by resorting to violence. But, explained Meyer at the time, "even those who think the long-term effects of violence are likely to be bad see some compensating benefits". "They know we mean business now," one 31-year-old told him.

The Kerner commission, set up by the president, Lyndon Johnson, to examine the cause of the riots in Detroit and elsewhere, used the data from the Detroit Free Press/ISR survey in reaching its findings. "What white Americans have never fully understood – but what the Negro can never forget – is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto," it argued. "White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it." Famously it concluded: "Our nation is moving towards two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal."

 

A post-apocalyptic city

You can certainly see that society in Detroit today. Most respondents to the survey believed the attitudes of whites towards blacks would improve over the following five years. In fact whites just left the city en masse for the suburbs; a few decades later more affluent blacks followed. Following the collapse of the US car industry a couple of decades later, Detroit might best be described as post-industrial. But the immediate impression is post-apocalyptic: empty lots, abandoned houses, multistorey buildings left derelict, entire blocks boarded up. Detroit has lost 25% of its population in the past 10 years. It's what you would imagine a city would look like when capitalism decides that it doesn't really need the people any more.

Five minutes from 12th Street (which has been renamed Rosa Parks Boulevard) and Clairmount, the intersection where the riot started, you can buy a house for $1200 (£750). The only ad on the side of a row of dilapidated storefronts is for criminal defence lawyers. And even that has been defaced.

So if poverty and poor education did not cause the riots, what did? Alongside police brutality, Boggs describes an alienated youth who saw that technological changes in manufacturing would make them economically obsolete. "Young people felt expendable. They had to make a way out of no way."

The former black panther Wayne Curtis suggests that the apparent wealth belied lives of discrimination. "Growing up we saw people riding around in Cadillac convertibles. But we didn't see the conditions they worked in and the racism in the factories. They still had to deal with the police. We just didn't understand how marginalised they were."

Curtis recalls thinking that the civil rights victories had settled the question of equality once and for all. "We were told that this was it; that if we could vote everything would be OK. But it took a while to understand how the power structure works."

Both Caplan and Meyer call this the problem of rising expectations. Having fought for and ostensibly won social equality African Americans found that did not translate into economic justice. "Young black kids just weren't getting jobs," says Caplan. "The opportunity structure was just too narrow and everyone knew it. So you would see young people breaking windows and looting stores. But it was the older ones who were more frustrated and more militant in their views."

How France lives off Africa

with the Colonial Pact

We try to keep a positive vibe going here at This Is Africa, but every so often you come across something that just paints your mood black. Some of you may already be aware of this, but if like us you're hearing about this for the first time your jaw will drop. And it'll probably raise the same BIG questions in your mind that it did in ours. (Incidentally, once you read this you'll no longer wonder why French presidents' and ministers are sometimes greeted by protests when they visit former French colonies in Africa, even if the protests are about other issues. Though what other issues could be more important than this one we have no idea.)

Just before France conceded to African demands for independence in the 1960s, it carefully organised its former colonies (CFA countries) in a system of "compulsory solidarity" which consisted of obliging the 14 African states to put 65% of their foreign currency reserves into the French Treasury, plus another 20% for financial liabilities. This means these 14 African countries only ever have access to 15% of their own money! If they need more they have to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates! And this has been the case since the 1960s.

Professor Nicolas Agbohou, Associate Professor at the Institute of Cheikh Anta Diop, University of Gabon

 

Believe it or not it gets worse.

France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in the land of the Francophone countries. So even if the African countries can get better prices elsewhere, they can't sell to anybody until France says it doesn't need the resources.

In the award of government contracts, French companies must be considered first; only after that can these countries look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if the CFA countries can obtain better value for money elsewhere.

Presidents of CFA countries that have tried to leave the CFA zone have had political and financial pressure put on them by successive French presidents.

Thus, these African states are French taxpayers - taxed at a staggering rate - yet the citizens of these countries aren't French and don't have access to the public goods and services their money helps pay for.

CFA zones are solicited to provide private funding to French politicians during elections in France.

The above is a summary of an article we came across in the February issue of the New African (and from an interview given by Professor Mamadou Koulibaly, Speaker of the Ivorian National Assembly, Professor of Economics, and author of the book The Servitude of the Colonial Pact), and we hope they won't mind us sharing it with you influx, so here goes:

THE COLONIAL PACT
It is the Colonial Pact that set up the common currency for the Francophone countries, the C.F.A franc, which demands that each of the 14 C.F.A member countries must deposit 65% (plus another 20% for financial liabilities, making the dizzying total of 85%) of their foreign exchange reserves in an “Operations Account” at the French Treasury in Paris.

The African nations therefore have only access to 15% of their own money for national development in any given year. If they are in need of extra money, as they always are, they have to borrow from their own 65% in the French Treasury at commercial rates. And that is not all: there is a cap on the credit extended to each member country equivalent to 20 % of their public revenue in the preceding year. So if the countries need to borrow more than 20%, too bad; they cannot do it. Amazingly, the final say on the C.F.A arrangements belongs to the French Treasury, which invests the African countries’ money in its own name on the Paris Bourse (the stock exchange).

It is also the Colonial Pact that demands that France has the first right to buy or reject any natural resources found in the land of the Francophone countries. So even if the African countries could get better prices elsewhere, they cannot sell to anybody until France says it does not want to buy those natural resources.

It is, again, the Colonial Pact that demands that in the award of government contracts in the African countries, French companies should be considered first; only after that can Africans look elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if Africans can obtain better value for money elsewhere, French companies come first, and most often get the contracts. Currently, there is the awkward case in Abidjan where, before the elections, former president Gbagbo’s government wanted to build a third major bridge to link the central business district (called Plateau) to the rest of the city, from which it is separated by a lagoon. By Colonial Pact tradition, the contract must go to a French company, which incidentally has quoted an astronomical price – to be paid in euros or US dollars.

Not happy, Gbagbo’s government sought a second quote from the Chinese, who offered to build the bridge at half the price quoted by the French company, and – wait for this – payment would be in cocoa beans, of which Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer. But, unsurprisingly, the French said “non, you can’t do that”.

Overall the Colonial Pact gives the French a dominant and privileged 
position over Francophone Africa, but in Côte d'Ivoire, the jewel of the former French possessions in Africa, the French are overly dominant. Outside parliament, almost all the major utilities - water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and major banks - are run by French companies or French interests. The same story is found in commerce, construction, and agriculture.

In short, the Colonial Pact has created a legal mechanism under which
 France obtains a special place in the political and economic life of
 its former colonies.

THE BIG QUESTIONS
In what meaningful way can any of the 14 CFA countries be said to be independent?

If this isn't illegal and an international crime, then what is?

What is it going to take for this state of indentured servitude to end?

How much have the CFA countries lost as a result of this 50-year (and counting) "agreement"? (Remember, they've had to borrow their own money from the French at commercial rates)

Do French people know they're living off the wealth of African countries and have been doing so for over half a century? And if they know, do they give a damn?

When will France start paying back money they've sucked from these countries, not only directly from the interest on cash reserves and loans these countries have had to take out, but also on lost earnings from the natural resources the countries sold to France below market rates as well as the lost earnings resulting from awarding contracts to French companies when other contractors could have done things for less?

Does any such "agreement" exist between Britain and its former colonies, or did they really let go when they let go?

PLEASE READ
The economic and political effects of the CFA zone
The Servitude of the Colonial Pact (Interview with Professor Mamadou Koulibaly)
The CFA franc still controlled by Paris
Mamadou Koulibaly launches a African crusade
Good that Ouattara is the Cote d’Ivoire President but what about the Colonial Pact?

via thisisafrica.me

Miriam Makeba

Mama Africa

The voice of a continent - Miriam Makeba's story as a political activist and legendary performer.

Filmmaker Mika Kaurismäki joins Amanda Palmer, Al Jazeera's head of entertainment, on The Fabulous Picture Show's Q&A to discuss the music, activism and legacy of the inimitable Miriam "Zenzi" Makeba, whose singing career took her from the townships of South Africa to the biggest musical arenas in the world. It was a journey that moved her fans to name her "Mama Africa: the voice of a continent".

Forced into political exile for performing in an anti-apartheid film, young Miriam moved to New York where she was soon discovered by musical impresario Harry Belafonte.

He introduced the US to Makeba's stunning voice, and with hits such as Pata Pata and The Click Song, she skyrocketed to international success.

A vociferous opponent of South Africa's apartheid government, and the bride of Black Panther, Stokely Carmichael, Makeba would become known to the world as much for her political activism as for her captivating vocal talent.

Acclaimed director Mika Kaurismäki's film combines astounding archive footage from across five decades, and interviews with those closest to the legendary performer.

Shadia Mansour

First lady of Palestinian rap

features Dead Prez’s M1

official video for

‘The Kufiyyeh is Arabic’

 

by Seham on September 4, 2011

Shadia Mansour featuring M1 from Dead Prez,

Al-Kufiyyeh 3arabeyeh video

  

Lyrics

Good morning cousins, y’all welcome, come in
 

What would you like us to serve you, Arab blood or tears from our eyes?
 

I think that’s how they expected us to receive them
 

That’s why they got embarrassed when they realized their mistake
 

That’s why we rocked the kuffiyeh, the white and black
 

Now these dogs are startin to wear it as a trend
 

No matter how they design it, no matter how they change its color
 

The kuffiyeh is Arabic, and it will stay Arabic
 

The gear we rock, they want it; our culture, they want it

Our dignity, they want it; everything that’s ours, they want it

Half your country, half your home; why, why? No, I tell em

Stealin’ something that ain’t theirs, I can’t allow it

They imitatin us in what we wear, wear; from this land enough, what else do you want?

About Jerusalem, Jerusalem, would they be worried, how can you humans?

Before y’all ever rocked a kuffiyeh, we here to remind em who we are

And whether they like it or not, this is our clothing style

That’s why we rock the kuffiyeh, cuz it’s patriotic

The kuffiyeh, the kuffiyeh is Arabic

That’s why we rock the kuffiyeh, our essential identity

The kuffiyeh, the kuffiyeh is Arabic

Come on, throw up the kuffiyeh (throw that kuffiyeh up for me)

The kuffiyeh, the kuffiyeh is Arabic

Throw it up, come on “Bilad Al Sham” (Greater Syria)

The kuffiyeh is Arabic, and it will stay Arabic

There’s none yet like the Arab people

Show me which other nation in the world was more influential

The picture is clear, we are the cradle of civilization

Our history and cultural heritage testify to our existence

That’s why I rocked the Palestinian gear

From Haifa, Jenin, Jabal al Nar to Ramallah

Let me see the kuffiyeh, the white and red

Let me throw it up in the sky; I’m

Arab, and my tongue creates earthquakes

I shake the words of war

Listen, I’m Shadia Mansour, and the gear I’m rockin is my identity

Since the day I was born raisin people’s awareness been my responsibility

But I was raised between fear and evil; between two areas

Between the grudging and the poor, I seen life from both sides

God bless the kuffiyeh; however you rock me, wherever you see me

I stay true to my origins, Palestinian

Paumanok Poetry Award Guidelines

---

The Visiting Writers Program

at Farmingdale State College

is pleased to announce

the twenty-first annual competition

for The Paumanok Poetry Award

One First Prize $1500 and expenses for a reading in our 2012 - 2013 series

Two Second Prizes $750 and expenses for a reading in our series

Interested writers should send the following items to Margery L. Brown, English Department, Knapp Hall, Farmingdale State College, 2350 Broadhollow Road, Farmingdale, New York 11735:

• a cover letter
• a one-paragraph bio
• 3-5 of their best poems (no more than 10 pages, total)
• the required $25 entry fee

Poems may be published or unpublished, and there are no restrictions on style, subject matter, or length of poems submitted: quality is the single criterion. Please note that the writer's name, address, and phone number should be clearly indicated on the cover page.  Multiple entries will not be accepted.  Entries from previous winners will not be considered.

Make checks payable to Farmingdale State College, VWP.

Poems will not be returned, but writers who want to know the results of the competition via snail mail should enclose a business-size SASE for results (notification by late December).  Results are also published on this website.

Deadline: Postmark no later than September 15, 2011.

Please direct any questions or requests for clarification via email to Margery Brown.

See the Paumanok Award Winners.

Check out the FAQs about the Paumanok Poetry Award.

POETRY CONTEST

 

Three prizes of $200, $100, $50, three honorable mentions and publication in 2012 Bloodroot Literary Magazine edition. Reading period runs April 1 through September 15.

All entries are considered for publication.

Bloodroot endorses and abides by the Ethical Guidelines of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).

CONTEST GUIDELINES - Printable Version:

1. The competition is open to any poet who writes in English.
2. Manuscripts should be typewritten or computer-printed on white 8-1/2" X 11" paper.
3. We can only accept hard copies.
4. Electronic submissions will not be accepted.
5. Submit original, unpublished, free verse, 10 lines to 2 pages.
6. Entry fee: $15 for three poems, $5 each additional poem.
7. Final judge: April Ossmann
8. Your name must not appear on the manuscript.
9. Please provide name, address, email address, titles of poems in a cover letter.
10. You may include SASE for results and SAS postcard for confirmation.
11. Entries must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2011.
12. Manuscripts cannot be returned.
13. Please no simultaneous submission to other publications.
14. Mail manuscript and entry fee to:

    The Editors
    Bloodroot Literary Magazine
    PO Box 322
    Thetford Center, VT 05075