Blog: Poetry, Publishing and Contests
As I try to do every couple of months, I made myself get out of bed early last Saturday morning to attend the local Poets Roundtable meeting. If you are not familiar with them, they are state-wide poetry organization with local branches all across Arkansas. They are also a member of the national organization NFSPS and being a member of your local group automatically makes you a member of the national organization.
Anyway, this Saturday, I attended a meeting and now I have lots of exciting news to share about poetry, publishing, and contests!
First of all, I now have a poem published in MauMag, the Maumelle Magazine. The poetry editor is a member of the local poetry group and brought my contributor's copy of the magazine to the poetry meeting. The issue came out last week, so check it out if you live in the Maumelle, AR area and haven't read the magazine yet. My poem is on page 31.
Secondly, Bryan Borland, the publisher at Sibling Rivalry Press sat in on our poetry meeting. I was impressed by his passion for writing and publishing. He will be speaking about his publishing company at the next meeting of the River Market Poets. It's at 10am, February 11 at the Main Library in Little Rock. Based on their website, they like to publish writers that aren't afraid to address controversial topics in their works. They re-open for poetry manuscript submissions beginning in March. They also publish fiction and non-fiction, as well as a LGBTIQ poetry journal.
The Poets Roundtable, the Central Arkansas Library, and the NFSPS also have several poetry contests for students. Most of them are only open to students from Arkansas, but there are a couple open to students anywhere in the US.
Contests open to Arkansas students only:
Central Arkansas Library System Student Poetry Contest – Deadline February 1, 2012
Sybil Nash Abrams Memorial Contest – Deadline March 15, 2012
Arkansas Writers Student Poetry Award – Deadline April 30, 2012
Contests open to students from any state:
Manningham Student Poetry Trust Award – Deadline February 8, 2012. The mailing information on this website is for Arkansas (but it's a national contest). If you live outside of Arkansas and want to submit, you can contact your local branch for the submission address for your state.
National Federation of State Poetry Societies Student Award – Deadline March 15, 2012
You can find more information about the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas and your local branch at www.poetsroundtable.com. If you don't live in Arkansas, you can find information about local poetry organizations in your area by visiting the NFSPS website. I also recently learned that the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas has a FaceBook page. You can follow it on FaceBook here.
In addition to the student contests, I also learned about a contest sponsored by the Arkansas Art Center. This contest has separate categories for students and adults. They will have an Ekphrastic Poetry Slam & Formal Poetry Competition. Ekphrastic poetry is poetry inspired by art. For the contest, you will need to write a poem inspired by the art at the Arkansas Art Center. You can stop by the art center to view the art or you can view it online.
Submissions for the written poetry competition are due by February 11, 2012. Registrations for the ekphrastic poetry slam are due by February 18, 2012. The poetry slam will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2012. To view the Art Center's calendar of events listing about it, click here. Or click here for complete contest and registration details for both contests.
Please share this with anyone you know who likes to write poetry.
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