dumbfoundry

soi 3 is currently considering unsolicited poetry manuscripts and proposals for its 2005/06 poetry list.

First collections by emerging poets are sought, as are manuscripts from established poets. Proposals for collected and selected works will also be considered.

Manuscripts should be sent as email attachments and should preferably take the form of one Word .doc or .rtf file. Please include a list of acknowledgments, a short description of the project, a brief bio of less than 50 words, and relevant contact details.

Manuscripts sent via email should be simultaneously mailed as hard copy (bound only by a bulldog clip) to PO Box 215, Prasing Post, Muang, Chiang Mai, Thailand 50205. Don't include a stamped self-addressed envelope (SSAE) or International Reply Coupons (IRCs) as manuscripts will not be returned — the hard copy is for the convenience of the editors only.

The Binnacle will sponsor its second international Ultra-Short competition in the 2004-2005 academic year. We are looking for poetry of sixteen lines or less and prose works of 150 words or less.

Ireland Literature Exchange celebrates its 10th Birthday at The National Library, Kildare St, Dublin 2, Tuesday, February 1st, 2005 at 6.00pm.

A MODERN TWIST ON THE BURNS SUPPER

THE PARTY: Tell people in advance that it’s a Burns Supper, not just an average dinner party they’re attending. Dress codes make some uncomfortable, particularly when kilts are involved, so ditch the outfits but tell guests that if they wish to wear something with a touch of tartan, it would be most appreciated.

Deadline: February 1, 2005. Prize: $500 + reading with honorarium + publication in Rattapallax Magazine. 2005 Judge: Laure-Anne Bosselaar

Deadline: February 1, 2005. Prize: $500 + reading with honorarium + publication in Rattapallax Magazine. 2005 Judge: Laure-Anne Bosselaar

Would you like a Gumball Poetry Machine in your café, bar, restaurant, dance hall, office?

hospital, library, school, bathroom, art gallery?

clothing store, car, community center, life, church?

You get your Gumball Poetry Machine, set it up and vòila! You've quadrupled the 'cool' of your place. You're making quarters. You're bringing in customers. You're supporting the arts.

The Strokestown International Poetry Prize should be in English and not exceed 70 lines.

The Strokestown Prize for a poem in Irish, Scots Gaelic or Manx: poems should not exceed 70 lines.

The Strokestown Prize for humorous political or topical satire in verse should be in English or Irish and should not exceed 70 lines.

Closing date: Wednesday, February 16th, 2005.

The Mindanao Creative Writers Group and the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology are accepting applications from writers to the 12th Iligan National Writers Workshop (INWW) to be held on May 2-5, 2005 in Iligan City. [...]

Fifteen (15) slots, five each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are available for writing fellowships.

• Entry fee: $5 for the first poem, $3 for each additional poem.
• Poems must not have been published in a nationally-distributed print publication.
• No entry form or special format required.
• Please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope for notification of the results. (Outside U.S., just a self-addressed envelope. No IRC required.) No entries will be returned.
• Make checks payable to Atlanta Review. Checks in your national currency are acceptable at the current exchange rate. We also accept uncancelled stamps from your country.
• Entries must be postmarked by May 16, 2005. (The postmark is all that matters. Don't waste money on express mail--buy a subscription instead!)

The Long Poem Prize is offered every second year alternating with the Novella Prize. It is open to Canadian and foreign entrants. Two prizes of $400 each, are offered, plus payment for publication at $30 per page.

Deadline: March 1, 2005 (postmark date)

Perth's best celebration of writing and ideas returns 17 through 23 February. [...]

Writers and poets include Cathy Cole, Luke Davies, Rob Finlayson, August Kleinzahler and Morgan Yasbincek.

Where is new Italian poetry going? What is happening among poets born in the 1970s? We can find one possible answer to these questions in Flavio Santi, the new Italian poet of the quarter. His ironic, dry and irreverent poetry, which still maintains fruitful and profound relationships with a certain very personal tradition, is one of the most promising in the variegated panorama of contemporary Italian poetry.

Marsh Hawk Press announces a Fundraiser through January 31, 2005 to benefit the victims of the recent tsunami and earthquake on the coastlines from Indonesia to Somalia. We are making available advance copies of Eileen Tabios' Fall 2005 book, I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED. All sales proceeds will be donated to the benefit of the victims of the recent disasters.

Ex libris is Latin for "from the books of..." (or "out of the library of...."). And in the days when books were rare and precious, anyone who owned them would want to take particular care that, if they were lent, or borrowed, or taken away by mistake, there was the best chance of them finding their way home again.

Bookplates fell out of fashion as books became more common, less expensive and easier to replace. But there's a long tradition of using them—about four hundred years. There is even a Bookplate Society who know all there is to know about bookplates and the people who designed them or used them.

The first day: each participant will be picked up at the Bucharest airport then will get his/her hotel accommodation. The first night will be spent in Bucharest. In the evening: reunion of all the participants and an introductory short speech from everybody (guests and hosts), a welcoming and a presentation of the program, then dinner. A walk through the old part of Bucharest. [...]

The submission period opens on December 1, 2004 and the deadline is March 1, 2005. The submissions must be in English, French or German. Cost: 250 Euros. Writers are are responsible for their arrival and departure costs to/from Romania. All accommodations, transportation, and meals during the program will be provided, as well as admission to the castles and other attractions.

The Alviogut Foundation will grant two scholarships to cover the participation fee for people who can't afford the extra expense.

I just love [Anne Collins'] lines like "the dancing parrot-pea, so yellow, so look-at-me." Some time after reading her poem, I saw some nasturtiums, pushing through the fence, outside my kitchen window and thought, "so look-at-me", and then as I was walking down the next street to my home I saw some anterhinums, dark red, port-coloured, claret almost black, and I thought, "so look-at-me." That is also a mark of a good poet, that the words so exactly encapsulate an experience, make us see things we may have overlooked, or see things in different ways, and stay with us, are carried into our lives after the poem has been read.

Do you alter poems after you've read them in public?

Yes, sometimes. I think it's helpful to read in front of an audience because, for some reason, the poems sound different that way. You feel them differently. Even though I always hear things very well, or so I think: I hear things as if they're being read aloud. But something different happens when you're in a group of people. [...]

Will you tell me about the process of translating the Osip Mandelstam poem, "394"?

I'm trying to remember when we did that. I was at MacDowell--the MacDowell Colony is an artists' colony in New Hampshire, and I've been there a lot. I'm very grateful to them. It's a beautiful place--where [grinning] they treat you like a movie star--they cook for you, change your bed, and you meet all sorts of other interesting people. You have [whispers] time. And space and quiet. It's beautiful.

So I had time there, and I'd met this woman named Anne Frydman who wasn't a native Russian speaker but she was a Russian scholar, and a poet. And she and I had agreed to do a Mandelstam poem together. We had somehow picked this one, "394"--it had no title. She was a perfectionist, and I was probably pretty close to one, though not really quite where she was with that. I would have been content to do things, one thing anyway, that wasn't quite kosher. She wasn't. It was before the days of email, and we were sending each other mail back and forth. She wasn't at MacDowell.

That would've been too easy.

[little laugh] Too easy, yes.

Spoken Word from all over, recorded and downloadable.

Prize: $250 and publication in the magazine. Send in 16 to 24 pages of previously unpublished poetry. There is no entry fee (submit just one manuscript per reading period, please). Manuscripts must be postmarked between January 1, 2005 and March 30, 2005.

Tupelo Press offers the Snowbound Series Chapbook Award, $1000 cash prize and 50 copies, Judge: Lisa Russ Spaar. Poets should send 20 to 30 pages, SASE and $20 reading fee. Deadline: February 15, 2005.

To tie in with National Science Week (11-20 March 2005) and Einstein Year, the BA is launching universe, a competition based around the work of the famous physicist. All you need is a poem on the theme of space, time and energy and you could win fabulous prizes!

Entries must be received in full by the organisers by 5pm on Friday, 11 February 2005.

There was a young lady called Bright
who could travel much faster than light.
She departed one day
in a relative way
and returned on the previous night.

After a requiem poem and solemn ceremony, the truffle was due to be buried under a tree believed to have been planted by Italy's famous 15th century explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

In exchange for its loss, the swanky London restaurant Zafferano would receive a selection of smaller white truffles of the equivalent weight, ANSA said.

Like The Hours, Specimen Days tells three stories that are all connected by a writer--in this case, gay poet Walt Whitman.

When English 214 instructor Jennifer Arin gave her students an assignment to write a poem last semester, junior Khompiew Jim Ounniyom decided to write about his new internet connection. He didn't know that Arin would send the completed poem to the company's headquarters. They liked the poem so much that they gave Ounniyom a DVD player and several months of free internet access, and scheduled an audition for a possible commercial. The company also donated a digital video recorder to SFSU's English Department.

Says Michael Mackmin [The Rialto editor]: "It's interesting that in a society that is sometimes referred to as being 'post-industrial,' non-industrial activities - the arts, education, the health service - are being subject to quantitative rather than qualitative assessment."

Since he wrote, arts funding has been subjected to a £30 million cut. That is said to be the effect of the government's decision to freeze funding for the Arts Council at £413 million for three years from 2005.

Located in the inner city neighbourhood of Rialto, St Andrew’s Community Centre is home to a range of community and voluntary projects.

A purpose built, self-contained, studio will be available for artist’s residencies of six months to one-year duration, from April 2005.

Artists (from any discipline) availing of the residency will be expected to work with one of the enclosed list of community/ youth projects working in the Rialto area for an average of one day a week or 6 hours. If you are interested in working in a community-based context, please contact us for further details and an application form.

Studio Team
C/O the Common Ground
ISFC, 10 Grattan Crescent
Inchicore
Dublin 8

Email: commong @ indigo.ie
Deadline: 31st January 2005, 5 p.m.

Undergrowth #5 is looking for short fiction and poetry for its upcoming issue #5 digital magazine and print edition. Hope someone's got some subculture that needs expression! If so, please email contribute @undergrowth.org

This issue will enjoy a high-profile launch as part of the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, 18-20 Feb 2005 at Federation Square. Deadline: Friday, Jan 28th, 2005.

'primarily interviews about poetry, poetics, poets by tom beckett and guests'

First interviewee: Crag Hill.

TG Voices in 55 Words or Less: The Competition

There is prize money.
There are a panel of significant judges.
TGs should submit original spoken works of 55 words or less.
The spoken work must be original.
The voice on the spoken work must be a TG.
The spoken work can be by a TG or a non TG.
The spoken work can be anything from poetry to prose, fact to fiction or anything beyond.

Prizes will be for the best and the most innovative works. The submittal to the competition should be a cassette or CD of the spoken work, a written text, identification of the writer and speaker, and a release allowing the use of the work in its written and/or spoken form to promote TG causes.

Caddy, I have had to kill you
You took my irons away
Coffin-heavy, a bag full of golf
Clubs with a five iron
Missing
And a single tee, red as a virgin's
Period.
Caddy, caddy, you bastard.

Regina Weese exists simply to showcase Canadian writers, ideas, artists, photographs, travel stories, poems, biographies, historiography...

Contributors whose work is selected for publication will receive $25 CDN and two copies of the Regina Weese Anthology released twice a year if their work is selected for inclusion in one of the anthologies.

Edited by Genevieve Kaplan and Sean Bernard, Toad Press are interested in publishing chapbook-length translations only.

Look out for the upcoming release of the International Chapbook Series.

The Red Room Company's project 'Toilet doors poem posters' transforms the everyday toilet experience with original Australian poetry.

Six NSW poets have been commissioned to write an original poem for illustration and exhibition on the back of toilet doors across NSW and interstate. Each poem is illustrated with miniature images inspired by the poem text, with the final poster design being an unusual interpretation of your traditional sheet of loo paper.

Bringing the poetic ideas of new Australian poets into the public space, Toilet Doors reaches a captive audience in a humorous & imaginative way.

Welsh writers have made the shortlists for both the T S Eliot Prize for poetry, and the Whitbread Book Awards.

Kathryn Gray, from Caerphilly, is one of ten poets shortlisted for the T S Eliot prize for poetry.  She is particularly thrilled as it is for her debut collection, The Never Never, published by Seren. She is up against established names like Ruth Padel and Michael Longley, and previous winners of the £10,000 prize include Ted Hughes. The judges for the T S Eliot Prize will make their final decision on Monday 17th January 2005.

Richard Collins, from west Wales, has been shortlisted for the first novel award for The Land as Viewed from the Sea, also published by Seren, while Susan Fletcher is also shortlisted for the first novel award for Eve Green, a novel set in rural Wales and published by Perennial.

The Academi represents the interests of Welsh writers.

The Whitman Issue presents 'the poems of 38 poets, all living and writing in the Washington Metropolitan area, stretching out to include Delaware and West Virginia, whose varied work echoes and answers Whitman’s challenge to the poets who would follow him. He prodded in “Poets to Come”: “Arouse! for you must justify me.” '

The exhibit “Walking, Poems & Buildings” features poems and architectural models of a bus shelter, a “writer’s hut” and a nature observation center created collaboratively by students of poet Annie Finch and architect Ben Jacks at Miami University. This show explores the ways in which architects and poets build and inhabit durable and harmonious forms, and how walking creates a rhythmic link between the two pursuits.

Where did you grow up? Was poetry and writing part of that mix? 

I was born in Dublin and lived there for the first 20 years of my life.  My father loved books.  There were eight children in the family so books were necessary spaces.  On Saturdays my father brought second-hand books home to us.  On birthdays and at Christmas, there were always new books.   He also bought Irish poetry books as they were published and read poetry from his poetry book-case on Sundays.  My father gave me a connection to poetry; the only other connection was poems learned off by heart in Irish and English all the way through school.  He didn’t know any poets personally but he almost did, knowing their work and the places they came from.  The first poems I wrote were prayers.  I was 15 and suffused with embarrassment.  That weird shame about poetry continued until I was in my 30s and met Alan Dugan who blew it away effortlessly.  As far as growing up is concerned, that is a work in progress and always will be.

Likhaan: The University of the Philiipines Institute of Creative Writing (UP ICW) has extended the deadline for submission of entries to the 44th UP National Writers Workshop to 31 January 2005, 6 p.m. Postmarked entries will be accepted. The Workshop has been scheduled from 27 March to 9 April 2005 at the UP Baguio. Twenty fellowships will be at stake: 15 for Fellows in Filipino and English, while the other five for writers in Iluko, Bikol, Waray, Sugbuanon, Hiligaynon, and Kiniray-a, depending on merit. The grants cover board, lodging and stipend.

The textual requirements are: six poems, two short stories or two one-act plays. Mixed genres/experimental pieces will also be considered. All the entries ought to be in one language (English or Filipino, as the case may be). Combined or incomplete submissions will be disqualified.

The technical requirements are: only the nom de plume should be on four separately bound, computer-encoded hard copies (font size 12); an MS Word diskette containing the entries; and a sealed letter envelope with a cover letter, a résumé (with birthday and contact numbers), an attestation of originality, a slip of paper with name and nom de plume together, and a 2" x 2" ID photo.

Manuscripts in the regional languages should be accompanied by Filipino or English translations.

Submissions should be sent to:

DIRECTOR V. E. CARMELO D. NADERA Jr.
LIKHAAN: The UP Institute of Creative Writing
2/F Bulwagang Rizal
University of the Philippines
1101 Diliman, Quezon City

Fellows from the previous UP Workshops need not apply. For clarifications, call 922-1830 (direct line) or 981-8500, loc. 2117 (trunkline).

After being on hiatus for the 2003-2004 academic year, the Levine Prize in Poetry returns in 2005. The planned deadline for submissions is September 15, 2005.

The Levine Prize is an annual book contest, open to all poets (except current or former students or faculty of CSU/Fresno), which currently offers a $1,500 prize, publication, and distribution by Anhinga Press. The winning poet also receives 25 free author copies of the book.

REGINA – Saskatchewan's first poet laureate has wrapped up four years on the job in appropriate fashion – with a poem.

Glen Sorestad of Saskatoon was the first provincial poet laureate in Canada.

At the Saskatchewan Book Awards last month, he acknowledged his fourth year was drawing to an end and read one of his poems, Standing in Smuts.