Oh my fellow creative souls!
Happy National Poetry Month! Bonus points if you have read these poets: Armantrout, Gibson, Lasky, Manguso, Schomburg, Wier, Collins, Kaminsky, Lyalin, Phillips and Spicer. If you haven’t — get on it! Being a good reader helps you be the best writer.
Life just seems to constantly remind us that everything that has happened — ever turn, every hill or valley, each choice at the fork in the road has brought us to this point. At this point, I can feel the electricity of Spring and all the creative energies that have been bound up all cold and stormy winter are ready to come shooting out through the earth in our souls and bursting out and blooming into an explosion of colorful treats.
What dirt and dust will you brush away in your writing? Will you work to make it beautiful? If you want to reach new literary peaks this year come join us Sunday at the North Bend Library Meeting Room at 3 p.m. for our regular work session. You will need to bring a piece you’ve done from one of the prompts — Again, you can find them all on the Web site blog or under the Notes section on our Facebook page. I really want to spend time on the critiquing process Sunday. Oh, you’ll write, so don’t forget the journal and pen or power cord and lappie (either is acceptable). Do please RSVP — so I may plan accordingly. For instance, if we have 5 people I will schedule our time differently than if there is 15 of us — make sense?
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This week’s prompt comes to you from my personal month-long Noir film festival. Write a poem or a story from this phrase: A stranger came to town…
Besides our Sunday work session, you can use those poems and stories to enter/submit to the following:
Spring Garden Press Poetry Award. Prize is $500. Deadline is April 15. See submission requirements at www.springardenpress.com/spg/contests/html
Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize
CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women is pleased to announce the Tenth Annual Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize judged by award-winning poet Sidney Wade. The contest runs from March 1 to May 31, 2011. First prize is $300 and publication in the journal. Complete guidelines are available online at http://www.calyxpress.org/Cranstonprize.html
Aesthetica Creative Works Competition
The 2011 Aesthetica Creative Works Competition is now open for entries! Aesthetica Magazine is inviting all artists, photographers, writers and poets to submit their work into the Creative Works Competition. Now in its fourth year, the competition is dedicated to celebrating and championing creative talent across the disciplines and welcomes entries from poets and writers working in short fiction!
The Competition has three categories, Artwork & Photography, Poetry and Fiction.
Winners and finalists are published in the Aesthetica Creative Works Annual.
Winners of each category receive £500 prize money (apx. $800) plus other prizes.
Entry to the Creative Works Competition is £10 (apx. $16).
The entry fee allows the submission of 2 images, 2 poems or 2 short stories.
The deadline for submissions is the 31st August 2011.
More guidelines on how to submit can be found online at http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/submission_guide.htm
The Crazyhouse/Tupelo Press Award – Prize is $3,000 and publication. Deadline April 15. See www.tupelopress.org for details.
Nimrod Literary Awards. Prize $2,000. Deadline is April 30. See submission details at www.utulsa.edu/nimrod
And for those who want something light-hearted and fun:
By April 15 get your entries into The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Award is “a pittance.” Your submission should be a single, unpublished (bad) sentence — strongly recommend to not be longer than 50 to 60 words. Multiple entries OK. See submission details at www.bulwer-lytton.com
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And now your moment of Writing Zen:
“The aim of literature … is the creation of a strange object covered with fur
which breaks your heart.
”
— Donald Barthelme
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What did you Write today?
~Casz
Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites
“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron
Hello! I’m an aspiring author, and I’ve just moved to Snoqualmie. I can’t tell you how excited I am to find this blog and to discover the writing group that meets in North Bend. I’m still living out of cardboard boxes, so I probably won’t be able to come to the meetings yet, but I’m looking forward to attending soon.
The prompts on this blog are fabulous. Thanks so much for taking the time to write them!
Come join us as soon as you can. Sorry for the delay in response. Your comment was swallowed up by spammers. You’ll see the group getting even more active come summer. Good luck unpacking and settling in. Let us know if you have questions. You can email us at SnoValleyWrites at gmail dot com.
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I don’t know who you are but definitely you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!