PhatSalmon The Journal's
First Annual Poetry Contest Rules and Submission Guidelines
Final Contest Judge – M. L. Liebler
M. L. Liebler is an internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and organizer. He is the author of 13 books including the Award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else's Dream (Wayne State University Press, 2008) featuring poems written in and about Russia, Israel, Germany, Alaska and Detroit. Wide Awake won both The Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence and The American Indie Book Award for 2009. In 2005, he was named the first Poet Laureat of St. Clair Shores, his hometown. Liebler has read and performed his work in Israel, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Macao, Italy, Germany, Spain, Finland, Turkey and most of the fifty states. M.L. Liebler has taught English, American Studies, Labor Studies, Canadian Studies and World Literature at Wayne State University in Detroit since 1980, and he is the founding director of both The National Writer's Voice Project in Detroit and Springfed Arts: Metro Detroit Writers Literary Arts Organization. He was recently selected as Best Detroit Poet by The Detroit Free Press and Detroit's Metro Times, and he is the nation’s first ever Artist in Residence for a Public Library at The Chelsea District Library for 2008-2009. In 2010, he received The Barnes & Noble Poets & Writers for Writers Award with Maxine Hong Kingston & Junot Diaz. PhatSalmon The Journal is pleased to have this distinguished professor and prolific poet as our final contest judge.
Prize Money for contest winners
1st place $3,500.00 plus $1,500.00 in travel expenses
2nd place $2,000.00 plus $ 500.00 in travel expenses
3rd place $1,000.00 plus $ 500.00 in travel expensesTravel portion of the monetary prizes will be paid only to those winners who attend The Extravaganza. The Extravaganza is a day of writing, learning, networking, inspiration, and FUN, the location and details of which will be announced in the near future on the website PhatSalmon.com.
You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
The entry fee is $20.00 for four poems. Additional poems are $5.00 per poem each, with a maximum of two additional poems.
Two ways to enter
Submit via Snail Mail
You may send multiple submissions, however each must be in a separate envelope with a separate entry fee. All entries must be postmarked by June 30th, 2011.Please include two cover sheets with the author’s name, address, email address and telephone number, and a list of the titles of the poems you are submitting.
One poem per page, with no single poem over 90 lines. Poems should be on 8.5 X 11 paper, single-spaced, in 12 point Arial or Times New Roman font. No Dot Matrix printers or handwritten material. Please paginate.
Please send a check made out to PhatSalmon.com in the appropriate amount, and also include a SASE if you would like to be notified of the winners.
Mail to:
PhatSalmon The Journal
P. O. Box 489
Milford, MI 48381Entries will not be returned; they will be recycled.
Submit electronically:
If submitting electronically, please go to the Submission page of this website and complete the requested information. Please include a cover sheet with the author’s name, address, email address and telephone number, and a list of the titles of the poems. Maximum poem length is 90 lines; no more than six poems total may be submitted. Please paginate.Attachments are OK. Payments will be accepted through PayPal; directions are on the Submission page of this website, and all electronic submissions must be paid for electronically.
All entries must be received by 11:59 P. M. on June 30th, 2011.
Other general guidelines
We reserve the first serial rights to publish, in print or electronically, any poem entered in this contest. Upon publication, all remaining rights revert to the author. All contest winners, as well as other entrants selected to be published in PhatSalmon The Journal, will need to provide a digital photo of themselves and a brief bio to be published along with their poem.We further reserve the right to electronically display on the website, PhatSalmon.com, any winner’s name, photo, bio or poem, and to use the winners’ names in our advertising.
Simultaneous submissions are OK, please let us know ASAP if your poem is accepted by another publication.
No previously published poems, either online or in print. Poems must be original, unpublished in any medium, and not on You Tube.
No pornographic or X-rated material; we reserve the right to reject any poem or any writer for any reason.
Any style, any subject is OK – please just avoid disparaging poetry.
Please be sure all grammar and spelling is correct – we are not editors.
PhatSalmon.com reserves the right to cancel this contest and refund all monies to the entrants if enough submissions are not received.