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Do your poems feature wings, wheels, rails, keels? If transportation is a recurring theme, image, or topic in your work, please consider submitting a proposal for a 10- to 15-minute presentation for a panel on Poetry & Transportation. The panel will take place during the new Poetry by the Sea Conference May 26-29 in Madison, CT.

Please submit a brief proposal (250-300 words) and 2-3 sample poems by February 1 to Pat Valdata at:

pvaldataAzoominternetDOTnet (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Include your proposal and samples in the body of the email—no attachments, please, or my spam filter will grab your message.

Please note that if your proposal is chosen, you will need to register for the conference. One-day registration is available for those who cannot attend the entire conference.

Call for Poetry: Woman Made Gallery Literary Series
Theme: DOCUMENTATION: For The Record
Date: Sunday, February 1, 2015, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Place: 685 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago IL

We are seeking work that addresses all aspects of the theme:

A document provides evidence, or serves as an official record that something happened or simply exists. We are looking for Poems as Documentation or Documentary. Poems in the form of documents: How-to manuals, FAQs. transcripts of imagined interviews, policy documents, inventories, legal or constitutional documents, etc. Poems about the transciber or documentarist are also of interest. Let’s see what you can come up with.

Please send 4 – 6 poems on the theme ALONG WITH a 50 to 75 word bio, IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to: 

galleryATwomanmadeDOTorg (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

by December 22, 12:01 a.m.. We will make every effort to inform those chosen of our decision by January 20. Although we can't afford to pay readers, this is a great opportunity to sell books and read with other talented people in a very special environment.

Selections will be made with an eye to assembling a program that represents a diversity of poets, styles, and approaches to the theme.

Selected poets MUST be available to read in person. 

Read more about poetry events at Woman Made Gallery here.

The Department of English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and GRASSROOTS,SIUC's undergraduate literary magazine, are pleased to announce the 2015 Devil's Kitchen Reading Awards.  

One book of poetry (book-length work or single-author collection of poems), one book of fiction (novel, novella, or single-author short fiction collection) and one book of prose nonfiction (literary nonfiction, memoir, or single-author essay collection) will be selected from submissions of single-author titles published in 2014, and the winning authors will receive an honorarium of $1000.00 and will present a public reading and participate in panels at the Devil's Kitchen Fall Literary Festival at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.   

The dates for the 2015 festival will be October 21-23, 2015. Travel and accommodations will be provided for the three winners. 

Entries may be submitted by either author or publisher, and must include a copy of the book, a cover letter, a brief biography of the author including previous publications, and a $20.00 entry fee made out to "SIUC - Dept. of English." Entrants wishing to submit entry fees electronically should e-mail a request to:

grassrootsmagATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

and they will be sent a link to pay by PayPal or credit card.

Entries must be postmarked December 1, 2014 - February 2, 2015. Materials postmarked after February 1 will be returned unopened. Because we cannot guarantee their return, all entries will become the property of the SIUC Department of English. Entrants wishing acknowledgment of receipt of materials must include a self-addressed stamped postcard.

Judges will come from the faculty of SIUC's MFA Program in Creative Writing and the award winners will be selected by the staff of GRASSROOTS. The winners will be notified in May 2015. All entrants will be notified of the results by e-mail in June 2015.

The three awards are open to single-author titles published in 2014 by independent, university, or commercial publishers. The winners must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and must agree to attend and participate in the 2015 Devil's Kitchen Fall Literary Festival (October 21-23, 2015) to receive the award. Entries from vanity presses and self-published books are not eligible. Current students and employees at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and authors published by Southern Illinois University Press are not eligible.

Each year the SCBWI sponsors two student writer scholarships to the Summer and Winter Conferences for full-time university students in an English or Creative Writing program.

This is an invaluable opportunity for young writers! We are now accepting applications for the 2015 SCBWI Winter Conference in New York, February 6-8.

Award:

–Full tuition to main conference events including keynotes and breakout sessions. (Award does not include travel or hotel expenses.)

–Exclusive exposure to industry professionals at the conference.

–An SCBWI Conference advisor to help navigate the jammed-packed weekend.

PLUS:

NY Conference: Admission to the Writers’ Plot Intensive or Writers' Roundtables event.

Deadline: December 8, 2014

Eligibility:

1. You must be at least eighteen years old to apply.

2. All full-time students enrolled in an accredited educational institution are eligible to apply.

Guidelines:

One winner will be chosen from a graduate or doctoral program and one winner will be chosen from an undergraduate program.

Applicants are required to submit:

–Short cover letter stating why you want to attend the conference and a synopsis of your work.

–Five-page sample of a manuscript

–Copy of your student ID

–Letter of recommendation sent directly from a professor at your university.

Applications MUST BE electronically submitted as ONE PDF to:

kaylaDOTheinenATscbwiDOTorg (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Letters of recommendation can be sent separately as a Word document.

Applications will be judged by a panel decided by SCBWI.

In the event that a recipient cannot attend for any reason, the grant committee should be notified as soon as possible. The scholarship may, in that event, be awarded to another applicant. The grant is not transferrable and cannot be postponed. SCBWI reserves the right not to award the scholarship in any given year.

Questions? Contact the Grant Coordinator, Kayla Heinen

Theme: Boxes
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2014/ 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Place: 685 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago IL

We are seeking work that addresses the theme from any or all ways you can imagine, i.e. Container and contained, categories, black box, Cornell boxes, boxed in, outside the box, gifts and deliveries, Inclusion & Exclusion.

Selections will be made with an eye to assembling a program that represents a diversity of poets, styles, and approaches to the theme.

Selected poets MUST be available to read in person. Please send 4 – 6 poems on the theme ALONG WITH a 50 to 75 word bio, IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to:

galleryATwomanmadeDOTorg (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

by June 15, 11:59 p.m.. We will make every effort to inform those chosen of our decision by June 30. Although we can't afford to pay readers, this is a great opportunity to sell books and read with other talented people in a very special environment.

The East Carolina University English Department has created the Bill Hallberg Award for Creative Writing, a rotating genre prize open to undergraduate writers who attend universities in NC, TN, VA, and SC. This year, the award of $500 will be given for two one-act plays or a full length play.

A staged reading of the play(s) will be performed at East Carolina University with the playwright attending (expenses paid.)

Submissions must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from an instructor at the student's school.

DEADLINE: November 15, 2014. NOTIFICATION: January, 2015. PERFORMANCE: Mid March, 2015.

Send entries electronically to Robert Siegel:

siegelrATecuDOTedu (Change At to @ and DOT to . )

Woman Made Gallery Literary Series

Theme: Boxes
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2014/ 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Place: 685 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago IL

We are seeking work that addresses the theme from any or all ways you can imagine, i.e. Container and contained, categories, black box, Cornell boxes, boxed in, outside the box, gifts and deliveries, Inclusion & Exclusion.

Selections will be made with an eye to assembling a program that represents a diversity of poets, styles, and approaches to the theme.

Selected poets MUST be available to read in person. Please send 4 – 6 poems on the theme ALONG WITH a 50 to 75 word bio, IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to:

 galleryATwomanmadeDOTorg (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

by June 9, 12:01 a.m.. We will make every effort to inform those chosen of our decision by June 30. Although we can't afford to pay readers, this is a great opportunity to sell books and read with other talented people in a very special environment.

Read more about poetry events at Woman Made Gallery here.

'Writing as a Path to Awakening'

Award-winning author, Pam Houston, is offering an opportunity to explore personal identity and creativity using meditation and writing. The weekend retreat at Mount Madonna will include periods of mindfulness meditation, sitting and standing meditation, writing exercises, readings, creative visualization, sharing and discussion.

The goal is to explore our innate creativity and experience deeper levels of awareness.

June 13th-15th with best-selling author Pam Houston & Spirit Rock meditation teacher Albert Flynn DeSilver.

Registration deadline: May 30, 2014

Please visit our website for more information.

See you soon,
Mount Madonna & The Owl Press

Indiana Writers’ Consortium (IWC) is pleased to announce the extension of its annual networking dinner to include an intimate, high quality, and affordable half-day writers’ conference on October 11, 2014. The conference, which will take place at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Merrillville, Indiana, will include multiple afternoon breakout sessions and be followed by a dinner and keynote address by Barbara Shoup, author of seven novels, executive director of Indiana Writers Center, associate editor of OV Books, and an associate faculty member at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.

IWC seeks proposals from individuals and groups who are at different stages in their writing careers that will represent a broad range of perspectives and experiences. Presentations may include topics such as:

· Writing and craft
· Business of publishing
· Creative writing pedagogy
· Academic and community program development
· Genre trends

Interactive individual presentation, four-to-five person panels, creative writing workshops, and round table discussions are welcome.

Submission Instructions:

Deadline: May 1, 2014

Submit: A 250-word abstract that includes the session title, description, format, and presenter names. Each presenter should include a 50-word bio and .jpg photo.

Submit to:

indianawritersconsortiumATgmail.com (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Please indicate “IWC Half-day Conference Proposal” in the subject line.

Questions may be directed to: Janine Harrison at:

indianawritersconsortiumATgmailDOTcom  (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Indiana Writers' Consortium inspires and builds a community of creative writers. We are dedicated to educating writers through speakers, seminars, and children's programs. IWC provides educational and networking opportunities for writers in all stages of their careers. We are a nonprofit organization incorporated in Indiana in 2008 and a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.

The Indiana Writers' Consortium inspires and builds a community of creative writers. Like us on Facebook.

Write At The Farm April 13 – 15, 2014

The Writers' House at Century Farm, a creative retreat in Washington's Skagit Valley is the perfect place to create--a unique farmhouse that has been in the Skagit Valley since the dawn of the 20th century. A hundred year old barn to inspire you, acres of bucolic green fields and colorful flowers to help clear away your writer's block and give you the mental space you need.

The 2014 spring retreat session at The Writers' House at Century Farm with Jennifer Basye Sander, NYT bestselling author, former Random House senior editor, and co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published, will be held Sunday–Tuesday, April 13–15th. This is your chance to write surrounded by fields of flowers during the world-famous Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Arrive mid afternoon on Sunday to meet the other three writers and get settled in your private room. Spend the next few days in blissful creativity, working on your project, writing together with the other participants, consulting with Jennifer, enjoying home cooked meals and the free flowing wine while you discuss all manners of literary things far into the night. This is just the way you always wanted your writing life to look!

About the Write At The Farm Retreats --

After years of doing writers' retreat weekends at our house in Tahoe, I am bowing to requests to do something up at the family farm in Washington. Located in the heart of the Skagit Valley just down the road from the tulip headquarters, my great-grandfather's farm is midway between the towns of La Conner and Mt. Vernon, about an hour and a half north of Seattle. Easy to get to, and wonderful to settle into once you are there, relax and let the scenery and the history inspire you. All you have to do is be a writer for those few days, I take care of everything else. Meals, wine, and a private room with shared bathroom are included in the $395 price, and there are only four spots available. This is your chance to spend a pampered but productive and creative three days in the company of other writers and publishing folk. To reserve your spot or ask questions:

916-847-9090 or email: 

basyesanderATyahooDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

Writers@Work 2014 Fellowship Competition

The Writers @ Work Annual Fellowship Competition is a great opportunity for emerging writers to have their work vetted by a talented panel of judges, well-known in their respective fields.

Prizes
Awarded in each category:
First Prize:

$1,000;
Publication in Quarterly West;
Tuition for the 2014 Writers@Work conference*;
Featured reading at the conference.
Two Honorable Mentions: $250.

Eligibility
Any writer who has not yet published a book-length volume of original work in the genre in which they submit a manuscript;
Unpublished work only. Work appearing in online journals is considered published. Work on personal websites or blogs is considered unpublished;
Previous winners are not eligible in the genre in which they have won;
Board members are prohibited from submitting manuscripts during their tenure on the board;
Current and former students of the judges are ineligible to submit in those categories;**
You may enter multiple submissions per category and/or submissions in multiple categories. A reading fee is required for each entry.

Submission Guidelines
Your submission must have all identifying information removed. If your name appears on the submission, your entry will be disqualified;
The submissions manager keeps a record of your name, contact information, and submitted texts, which are kept blind from the readers and judges.
W@W Fellowship Competition no longer accepts paper submissions.
Reading Fee: $25 per entry

Deadline: Submissions close January 31, 2014.

Enter the LOTR Topophilia writing contest by Dec. 24 to win €60, €25, or €15 and have your story performed at #touristwalkDublin.

There's no entry fee. Just send us 400-500 words (fiction or nonfiction) focused on love for a place -- any place in the world -- to:
 
topohilia13ATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

The winners will be chosen by our panel of judges: Irish writer Ruth Gilligan, Liberties Press publisher Seán O'Keeffe, the Tourist Walk team, and the Love on the Road 2013 team.

The winning stories will be published online and performed at the MART gallery in Dublin's Rathmines neighborhood on the evening of 3 January, 2014 as part of #touristwalkDublin, an event organized by Tourist Walk, a cross-discipline art project that seeks to explore and celebrate the unique character of location through live music.

The three winners can attend #touristwalkDublin and do live readings of their winning submissions, email audio recordings of their submissions to be played at #touristwalkDublin, or ask one of us to read their submissions for them at the big event.

The authors of the winning stories will get: First Prize: €60 and a signed Tourist Walk poster; Second Prize: €25 and a copy of the just-released anthology of stories about love and travel, Love on the Road 2013; Third Prize: €15.

For details, visit our website. For more information on #touristwalkDublin, go here. For more information on Love on the Road 2013, visit this site. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at:

topohilia13ATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

The Jan-ai Scholarship Fund will sponsor two poets or writers between the ages of 18 - 30 to attend the 21st Annual WINTER POETRY & PROSE GETAWAY, January 17-20, 2014 in the Atlantic City area.

Recipients may choose from workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoir and more, including special advanced sections with Stephen Dunn and Tony Hoagland. In addition, the conference also offers open mics, tutorials, talks, sunrise yoga, dancing at the Getaway Disco and writerly camaraderie.

The Jan-ai Scholarship Fund commemorates the life and untimely death of young writer, poet and photographer, Jennifer Cakert (1980 - 2006).

DEADLINE: November 30, 2013.

For more information, visit our website.

Harlem Works, a co-working space/artists collective based in Harlem, New York, is looking for dynamic writers to participate in a new reading series.

If you live in the New York area and would be interested in participating, please send a short bio (200 words or less) along with a description of the work you're interested in reading to:

harlemcoworkersATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

Or, if you would be interested in doing a workshop and a reading, let us know that too!

(Our readings are always Harlem-based; the next one will be held this Friday at Caffe Latte's 145th Street location.)

We look forward to hearing from you!

Well, it’s that time of year again. Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) is almost here. Tara Lazar has another great lineup of guest bloggers and prizes again this year. To make this a more manageable project for me this year, I am only going to blog about my progress on a weekly basis. so here is my promise:

I do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully execute
the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,
and will, to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas into
picture book manuscripts
throughout the year.

This has been successful for me the past couple of years, so I hope I’m up to the challenge again this year.

As teachers of literature and creative writing, the conference asks the larger question: How do we make a literary life and literary citizenship possible both for our students and for ourselves?
This is an interdisciplinary call extended to teachers and graduate students. Additional topics are welcome.

Deadline for submissions is November 15, 2013. Send abstracts (minimum of 250 words) or inquiries to:

Dr. Margaret Barrow or Dr. Manya Steinkoler
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
English Department, Room N751
199 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007
Telephone: (212) 220-8000 x7282

Email:

mbarrowATbmcc.cunyDOTedu or msteinkolerATbmcc.cunyDOTedu 
(Change AT to @ and DOT to .)

The website.

Call for Poetry: Woman Made Gallery Literary Series
Theme: Of the Land
Date: Sunday, December 8, 2013 / 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Place: 685 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago IL

We are seeing work that addresses all aspects of the theme of LAND:

Through history, connotations of the word LAND have ranged from the political and economic, to the emotional and romantic. Poems on this theme might invoke landscape, environmentalism, ethnic or national identity, imperialism, wealth and ownership, revolution and redistribution, land as food source, home and community, inclusion and exclusion, and, of course, the physical/natural earth itself.

Selections will be made with an eye to assembling a program that represents a diversity of poets, styles, and approaches to the theme.

Selected poets MUST be available to read in person. Please send 4 – 6 poems on the theme ALONG WITH a 50 to 75 word bio, IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to:

 gallery(at)womanmade.org (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail)

by October 20, 12:01 a.m.. We will make every effort to inform those chosen of our decision by October 30. Although we can't afford to pay readers, this is a great opportunity to sell books and read with other talented people in a very special environment.

Read more about poetry events at Woman Made Gallery here.

I’m a bit behind with my update, but now that the girls are back to school hopefully things will get back to normal around here. I should be upset I didn’t write a single word last month. I should be bummed that this is the second month in a row that I didn’t meet my 12 x 1 2 goal. Honestly, though, I’m not brokenhearted over it.  Here’s what I did accomplish in August:

• I edited a previously written middle grade book and submitted it for consideration to my publisher.
• I submitted a previously written picture book to an agent. (Got rejected ).
• I’ve juggled two editing projects for clients.
• I’ve managed two book tours for the past couple of months and have two in October and two in November I’m planning.
• I’m working on setting up blog tours for my books: Little Shepherd by Cheryl Malandrinos and A Christmas Kindness by C.C. Gevry.

This all happened in between planning and teaching vacation Bible school, keeping all my blogs regularly updated (six total), my bi-monthly contributions to the Christian Children’s Authors Blog, cheerleading camp, back-to-school shopping, and the normal everyday craziness of our house.  So, while 12 x 12 suffered, I still feel I’ve accomplished a lot. I’m scheduled to work on Flag Day Fiasco—Students discover the school’s flag is missing and must try to find it before their annual Flag Day celebration kicks off—this month. I’m not sure I’ll get to it, but I hope I do. It’s one of my favorite ideas.

Hope you enjoy your weekend.

It’s the last day of April, which means another chance to pat myself on the back for meeting a writing goal. As a 12 x 12 participant, I am writing 12 books over 12 months. I’m pleased to announce that I made great progress this month. In March, I didn’t quite finish Crabby Cathy, so that story was the one I worked on first. Though I had been very discouraged about writing in general through part of the month, after much prayer and some great encouragement, I completed Cathy’s story. I’ll see what my critique group thinks of it.

Next, I moved on to a story that is tentatively titled, The Other Sister’s Story. This is the Cinderella story from one of the stepsister’s perspectives. I’ve seen a book written from the stepmother’s point of view - http://www.amazon.com/Seriously-Cinderella-Annoying-Wicked-Stepmother/dp/1404870482/ – but not one of the sisters. The first challenge was that I didn’t know if the sisters had names in any of the stories other than the Disney movie version. This was truly a departure from my usual message type book. This one is just meant to entertain. It’s something I’ve never done before and that makes me a bit nervous. What was encouraging, however, is how much my girls liked it. They haven’t read the entire story, yet–I typed “The End” last night–but I’m going to share it with them today and see what they think. This is by far my favorite story and I already have an agent in mind to which I would like to submit it.

For May, I am working on another untitled story that is a departure from my regular work. It is the story of an ingenious turkey who comes up with unique and funny ways to avoid being part of Thanksgiving dinner. This one should be a blast.

CALL FOR POETRY Reading Series
Theme: PUBLIC/PRIVATE:
For Woman Made Gallery Literary Series
Event Date: Sunday, February 3 from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Location: 685 N Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago IL
Submission Deadline: December 22, 2012

Public/Private

“From the exploding popularity of reality television and celebrity culture to the U.S. government’s ever-growing presence in our homes, schools, and community spaces through Patriot Act-sanctioned surveillance, the twenty-first century has seen enormous shifts in cultural and political conceptions of what is considered private and what is considered public, both in the United States and world-wide. We as individuals are losing control over what is seen and what is unseen; known and unknown; public and private. How do these shifts manifest in our daily lives? Who is most affected and why? How do artists address these changes, whether through illuminating, embracing or actively working against them?”


All takes on this theme are fair game for this reading. Send your best.

Selected poets must be available to read in person. Please send 4 – 6 poems on the theme ALONG WITH a 50 to 75 word bio* IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to:

gallery(at)womanmade.org (replace (at) with @ when sending email) by Saturday, Dec 22, 2012. We will make every effort to inform those chosen of our decision by January 5, 2012.

Although we can't afford to pay readers, this is a great opportunity to sell books, read with other talented people and, since we've developed a partnership for the gallery with WBEZ's Chicago Amplified, to have your reading archived for future listening (a really great publicity feature).

If you are not selected, please understand that we are volunteers programming to meet several criteria as best possible, representing the best of a diversity of themes, cultures, styles etc. To that end, we will review the first 20 submissions sent to us, looking further only as needed to reach these ends.

Read more about poetry events at Woman Made Gallery here.

* if you have a performance background, please include this or any other information that might assist us in putting together for a varied program. Also, if you have previously read at the gallery, please include the date of your last appearance.

CALL FOR POETRY:
Submissions for Woman Made Gallery Literary Series
Event Date: Sunday, June 3 from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Location: 685 N Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago IL

Theme: Consumer Culture

In tandem with the concurrent art exhibit, poems might consider consumer culture “as it relates to natural or environmental resource issues, the financial and cultural impact of consumption, body/social image.” Additional topics could include (but need not be limited to) the following:

Mass production, marketing and selling of consumer goods
Desire, status, competition, impulse, addiction
Credit & debt
Fashion & trend-setting
Big-box vs. mom-and-pop and other economies of scale
Economies dependent on waste and planned obsolescence

Selected poets must be available to read in person. Please send five poems on the theme ALONG WITH a 50 to 75 word bio* IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to:

gallery(at)womanmade.org (replace (at) with @ in sending email) by April 21, 2012. We will make every effort to inform those chosen of our decision by May 4, 2012.

Although we can't afford to pay readers, this is a great opportunity to sell books, read with other talented people and, since we've developed a partnership for the gallery with WBEZ's Chicago Amplified, to have your reading archived for future listening (a really great publicity feature).

Read more about poetry events at Woman Made Gallery here.
* if you have a performance background, please include this or any other information that might assist us in putting together for a varied program.