dumbfoundry

"Can you discuss the significance of the Sharon Olds poem that sparked the narration?"

Sean Penn: "I'd read that poem some years before. It really stuck with me and got me into reading her stuff entirely. She's a great writer."

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry (AU$15,000)
John Tranter, Urban Myths: 210 Poems, University of Queensland Press

Arktoi Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press, was established in 2006 by Eloise Klein Healy to publish literary works of high quality by lesbian writers. The mission of Arktoi Books is to give lesbian writers more access to 'the conversation' that having a book in print affords. Submissions by both new and established authors are welcome.

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Each year, submissions will be accepted from August through November. [...]
Poetry manuscripts should be between 50 and 80 pages.

Novel Pictorial Noise by Noah Eli Gordon
Time & Materials by Robert Hass

"BARBARA Jane Reyes started writing poetry as an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, where she also served as editor of the Filipino-American literary publication Maganda. Since then, her poetic works have appeared in the following anthologies: Babaylan (Aunt Lute, 2000), Eros Pinoy (Anvil, 2001), InvAsian: Asian Sisters Represent (Study Center Press, 2003), Going Home To a Landscape (Calyx, 2003), Not Home But Here (Anvil, 2003), Pinoy Poetics (Meritage, 2004), Red Light: Superheroes, Saints and Sluts (Arsenal Pulp, 2005) and Graphic Poetry (Victionary, 2005).

In this interview, Barbara tells us what it’s like to be a Filipino poet writing about her homeland in San Francisco."

The largest book is The Poetry Chains of Dominic Luxford, a kind of poetry chain letter where the editors chose a poem, that poet chose another of their own and then one from another poet, who chose two more, and so on. Contributors range from household names such as Michael Ondaatje to obscure debutants. At 100 poems, 50 poets and 200-plus pages, it's a pretty fair overview of contemporary poetry.

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Australia has many independent journals of literature and ideas that are the equal of McSweeney's in terms of the quality of their writing. If they could even begin to approach this American counterpart in terms of design and cross-platform integration, they would not only look better but undoubtedly reach a broader audience.

DENPASAR: Award-winning Balinese poet I Wayan Jengki Sunarta will launch his second poetry anthology, Impian Usai (Dream Ends), on Sep. 22 at the Togamas bookshop on Jl. Hayam Wuruk, Denpasar.

Published by Kubu Sastra, the anthology comprises 99 poems written in the period between 1992 and 2006.

"In that period I wrote over 300 poems, yet, after a brutal examination, I have deemed only 99 of them worthy of publication," Sunarta said.

Here for readers beyond Scotland is the first Scottish poem featured by the blog. Please don’t be put off by the differences with Standard English. Many of the words are simply variant spellings of their English counterparts. One or two which may cause problems are explained below.

The call for submissions is open to Southeast Asian writers and translators under 40 years old. The anthology will focus on works dealing with contemporary themes, or employing new forms in poetry; prose (fiction, travelogues, essays, blogs, text, etc); drama (one-act plays, short screen/teleplays); graphic arts and comics (under 30 pages long); and everything in between—literary experiments as well as genre works (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, etc, or combinations thereof). Works must be limited to 8,000 words and must be in English (translations must be accompanied by the original text). Previously published works are also welcome.

Rob Mackenzie: 'I am guest joint-editor, with Katherine Abbott, of the fine qarrtsiluni web magazine over September and October, and we’re now seeking high quality submissions of poetry, prose, and visual art. The submission guidelines are at the qarrtsiluni site.'

The prize is named after Corneliu M Popescu who translated the work of one of Romania's leading poets, Mihai Eminescu, into English. On 4 March 1977, at the age of 19, Popescu was tragically killed in an earthquake.

The prize, which was first launched in 2003, is awarded every two years.

When asked about the importance of the Prize, Born and Jones both point out that this award is unique in that it is the only poetry-specialised translation prize, and that it gives poetry enthusiasts the opportunity to discover, appreciate and enjoy exciting poetry from countries whose writers are not so widely read.

A collection of previously unknown poems, thought to be early examples of the work of W H Auden, have been unearthed in a school magazine.

The poems, which will form part of centenary celebrations for Wystan Hugh Auden at Gresham's School next week, were discovered by John Smart, a former head of art, who chanced across them while researching the life of another literary old boy. Mr Smart is writing a biography of John Hayward, a close friend of T S Eliot and an important critic of his work. In the course of his research, he read old copies of The Gresham, the magazine Hayward edited during his time at the school in Holt, Norfolk, where he was a pupil a couple of years before Auden.

Call for Haiku Submission in Non-Japanese languages for The Ninth Annual HIA Haiku Contest

Deadline: Postmarked September 19th,2007

Regulations: Two unpublished haiku per entry should be submitted on the entry form inserted in the HI journal (photocopied entry forms will also be accepted) or by e-mail from the Application Form.

Poets' Blog of Dreams. All recent dreams welcome.

"Let’s start the day out with a nice controversy, shall we? Lately, I’ve been running across a lot of “calls for submissions” for anthologies – anything from first-time mom stories to stories from women with diabetes to gay experience poetry and stories to writing from self-abusers – the specialty focus list seems never ending. Now, at first glance, these seem “legitimate” subjects to cover in an anthology, which means to gather together like-experiences to share with others who may be seeking to connect or to understand the experiences of others. So far so good. Where this begins to fall apart for me in terms of legitimacy is when the publisher of the anthology seems to mimic the all-too-famous poetry contest scams (which also seem never ending)."

On the 3rd October Dominic Winter Book Auctions will be auctioning a rare and possibly unique poetry manuscript by the noted escaped slave and abolitionist lecturer and novelist William Wells Brown. The one-page thirty-two-line poem entitled 'Fling Out The Anti-Slavery Flag' was recently discovered in a leather-bound Victorian scrap album eemingly kept by a lady or gentleman from south-west England with Quaker or Baptist convictions. The anonymous vendor spotted the poem by chance recently while flicking through one of his many scrap books and sent it in to Dominic Winter's Autographs department for checking. At the time neither the owner or the auctioneers thought it would turn out to be genuine.