The ILP International Literature Award
Monday, December 20, 2010 at 12:00PM
The charge went that American literature is too insular, that it’s neither concerned with nor does it engage the outside world. The critic was the Secretary of the Swedish Academy that decides the Nobel Prize. You can be sure that Canadian literature was lumped in there as well. We’re afraid that, to a degree, he was right.
Also, of course, in many ways he was wrong. Maybe a certain stripe of North American literature is too insular. Maybe a certain stripe does not engage the outside world. But the rivulets of work that do engage and which are anything but insular—these rivulets run deep.
The ILP hopes to encourage this tradition with its annual contest, which seeks to award the author of the winning entry airfare, accommodations, and tuition to the Disquiet program in Lisbon, Portugal in 2011 AND publication of the winning piece in the magazine of art and politics Guernica. Finalists and other entrants deemed to be of the highest quality will be offered partial tuition scholarships and may be considered for publication.
What to submit: We wish to cast the net wide in our definition of eligible entries. Work of any genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) that broadens the landscape of North American literature outside of the borders of North America is eligible. Examples of eligible entries, to give you an idea, might include a poem about a Hungarian grandmother; an essay based on your time in some foreign land--maybe travel writing, maybe more conventional journalism, maybe something in between; a short story featuring a North American abroad a la, perhaps, Paul Bowles... But these should not be read as sign posts. We wish to be surprised. In general, if your work flies in the face of this charge of insularity, submit it.
Eligibility: Entries must be in English. Writers must live or have lived in Canada or the United States but need not necessarily be citizens or permanent residents. Entries may not be previously published.
Length: One entry may include three poems or a single prose piece up to thirty double-spaced pages in length. Multiple entries must be accompanied by multiple reading fees. Poets wishing to submit more than three poems may do so by including additional reading fees. Prose submissions more than thirty pages are ineligible.
Reading fee: $15USD. Reading fee may be applied to ILP tuition in the event entrant does not win.
Deadline: Postmark or electronic mail date stamp of Jan. 31, 2011.
For details on how to enter, as well as more information on Disquiet, please click here.