dumbfoundry

Are you a Black or Asian writer living in the West Midlands?

The Sable Arvon creative writing residency with Kamau Brathwaite and Marita Golden has a bursary available for writers, provided with the support of the Heaventree Press. If you are a writer (fiction, poetry, non fiction) and wish to be part of this unique masterclass, meet other writers and work with expert tutors, please contact Kadija by e-mail, mentioning that you are from the west midlands area.

The residency is for one week and takes place on the 18th to the 23rd of April 2005.

From Tom Montag: A NOTE TO THE POETS OUT THERE
I'm interested in considering your "poems of place" for publication in The Middlewesterner's "Saturday's Poem" feature; send two or three of your best in the body of an e-mail addressed to tmmontag @ dotnet.com . Put "Saturday's Poem" in the subject line. Then be patient. I will get back to you about whether I'll use your work or not. Send along a short biographical note and information about where your books can be purchased and I'll include that when your poem runs. There's no payment involved for having your work appear in "Saturday's Poem," but the feature is seen by some few high class readers.

Shoalhaven Poetry Festival is once again going to have a postcard exhibition but this time we are making it a competition with a prize of $250 and with a small entry fee.

• What is a poetry postcard?
An original postcard that you have made, with this address on one side:
Poetry Postcard Competition
Shoalhaven Poetry Festival
c/- PO Box 94
Berry NSW 2535
along with your name and return address and the title of card if it has one. (This side will not be displayed but we will put your name in the 'catalogue'.)
On the other side: poem + visual (for display).

• Dimensions: Anything you like but we're recommending: 23 cm x 12 cm and on stiffish board.

In the past, however, postcards have ranged in size from small postcard size to larger than A4 and have been in various materials: paper, board, MDF (with sliding panel and jig saw cut out), ceramic, wood, canvas, and/or had foreign objects attached (metal stars, buttons, feathers, beads, newspaper, photos, glitter, netting, other fabric - you name it). At least one was woven.

The previous two exhibitions were exhibited at the festival but also were taken elsewhere to be shown and are now off at the National Library being valued (and we're hoping that this will contribute to the meagre finances of the festival).

• Theme: Last time the nominal theme was Lurve but people were appropriately disobedient if they felt like it and we rather liked that. This year it is: Impossible!

Bear in mind that if the organisers decide the postcard is obscene, for whatever reason, they might decline to hang it (but it will be part of the collection.) If the organisers decide it is ludicrous, they will certainly hang it.

• When: The festival is on 9, 10, 11 December 2005 and there is a lot to organise – including writing up the 'catalogue' (aka 'list') of postcards and hanging them. So, give us a break, send them by 30 November 2005. You can send them earlier if you like.

• Who can enter? Anyone who wants to.

• How much to enter? $5 per postcard to Shoalhaven Poetry Festival.

• How much do I get if I win? $250 + glory.

• Who judges the winner? It's a people's choice award so those at the festival will be allowed one vote and the winner will be announced at the last event on Sunday.

• Do I get the postcard back? No, you're donating it to the festival so that they can raise money to help pay for the next festival.

• Is there an entry form? Yes. This is it. Sign it and date it and send it with your postcard to the address above. Copy and reproduce this form if you want to.


Acceptance of conditions:
I understand and agree to all the conditions outlined above, and that I'm doing a good turn to the festival by giving them my postcard and also that I might win $250 if it is thought by the assembled multitudes at the Shoalhaven Poetry Festival to be the best, whatever they might decide that means.

Name:

Signature:

Date:

Address:

Phone:

Email:

'If I had been asked six months ago what it takes to create one huge inspiring Writers' Festival, my answer may not have included one tiny laptop working overtime, a group of enthusiastic volunteers and a week filled with not just St Kilda's but Australia's finest writers, playwrights, film makers, songwriters, poets and artists.'

Winner: "The Fifth and Careful Season" by Joel H. Vega
There is a lyricism to this poem that is ominously compelling. The question nature asks in this poem "What is an army of itinerant moths?" will go unanswered. This is an environment of post-trauma. And, its own orphans have coalesced, have faded into the stormy backdrop of war.