Don’t forget to check out these great new titles due out this summer from James Braziel, Mark Budman, Daren Dean, William Gay, and Terence Gallagher. We will have open reading once more in mid-August. Fiction only.
View the full June 2021 eLitPak Newsletter.
Deadline: July 5, 2021
Our 4th annual first book prize is open. If you have a manuscript or know someone who does, please give us a shot. Awarded annually to a poet writing in English who has not yet published a full-length poetry book, the prize seeks to represent the best contemporary writing in high quality editions of enduring value. Prospective entrants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with Conduit, which champions originality, intelligence, irreverence, and humanity. Previously unpublished manuscripts of 48-90 pages should be submitted through our Submittable page or via the USPS. Bob Hicok is the final judge. Please visit www.conduit.org/book-prizes for details.
Deadline: July 31, 2021
Final two months! $1,000 and 50 copies awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of poems of approximately 60 to 120 pages. Open to poets 18 years of age and older who live in the US or one of its territories. Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, will serve as judge. Press 53 will publish the winning manuscript as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection; all prizes will be awarded upon publication. Deadline: Midnight Eastern, July 31, 2021. Winner and finalists announced on or before November 1. Reading fee: $30. Complete information at www.press53.com/award-for-poetry/.
Deadline: June 15, 2021
Since 2008, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award competition has recognized the best stories from the previous year. Our judges consist of professional writers, book reviewers, librarians, publicists, and other industry professionals. As this competition was created to help beginning and emerging authors reach new audiences, the focus is on quality, not popularity. There is a $250 cash prize for the best overall work and physical awards are given to the winners of each category. Finalists & semi-finalists will receive written feedback on their work from our judges. Deadline is June 15, 2021. Learn more at killernashville.com/awards/silver-falchion-award/.
Deadline: August 16, 2021
Founded in 2020, Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore is a work-in-progress online anthology of creative nonfiction works about the prevailing beliefs, myths, and narratives that have driven Southern culture over the last fifty years, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The anthology is collecting personal essays, memoirs, short articles, opinion pieces, and contemplative works about the ideas, experiences, and assumptions that have shaped life below the old Mason-Dixon Line since 1970. www.modernsouthernfolklore.com
Check out new titles due out this summer from James Braziel, Mark Budman, Daren Dean, William Gay, and Terence Gallagher. We will have open reading once more in mid-August. Fiction only.
Deadline: July 31, 2021
$1,000 and 50 copies are awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of poems of approximately 60 to 120 pages. Open to poets 18 years of age and older who live in the US or one of its territories. Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, will serve as judge. Press 53 will publish the winning manuscript as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection; all prizes will be awarded upon publication. Deadline: Midnight Eastern, July 31, 2021. Winner and finalists announced on or before November 1. Reading fee: $30. Complete information at www.press53.com/award-for-poetry/.
Deadline: July 31, 2021
$1,000 and 50 copies awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of poems of approximately 60 to 120 pages. Open to poets 18 years of age and older who live in the US or one of its territories. Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, will serve as judge. Press 53 will publish the winning manuscript as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection; all prizes will be awarded upon publication. Deadline: Midnight Eastern, July 31, 2021. Winner and finalists announced on or before November 1. Reading fee: $30. Complete information at the www.press53.com/award-for-poetry/.
Are you a follower of literary blogs? Do you love nonfiction? Did you know online literary magazine Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction has a (nearly) daily blog? It should definitely be on your blogroll! You can find reviews, articles, and so much more.
I highly recommend checking out Lisa Kusel’s “Blurb Your Enthusiasm” posted on December 18. The piece is an interesting take on the value of blurbs on the back of your book and the luck of a lesser known writer getting a big name to step in and contribute a blurb. It was particularly interesting to me because I actually do not heed blurbs on the back of books. When trying to select a new book to read, I always felt annoyed when I saw blurbs from others when I what I wanted was a brief book summary to actually let me know what the book was about.
Have you ever selected a book based on the back cover blurbs alone?
While you are checking that out, don’t forget to scroll through more posts. They are definitely an interesting read.
Deadline: December 31, 2020
While the pandemic has ravaged our world, certain populations have been impacted more deeply than others. Essential Voices strives to give voice to those who have been silenced. Send us your poems, stories, recipes, or works of art that reflect upon the experience of COVID and COVID related issues in your life. This anthology will be published by West Virginia University Press. Visit us at www.essentialvoicesanthology.wordpress.com for guidelines before submitting to essentialanthology@gmail.com.
Mudfish has released the 14th installment in their Individual Poet Series. Are You Somebody I Should Know? by Dell Lemmon. Art critic and poet John Yau says that Lemmon’s “memoir poems, as she calls them, are strong rivers pulling you into their currents. Her poems are pared down and direct and move at a rapid clip without ever tripping over themselves.” Jason Koo, Founder and Executive Director of Brooklyn Poets, says Lemmon’s book will convince you that you have missed so “much of your life, haven’t truly seen it, haven’t treasured nearly enough of all your friends, your loves, your family, let alone all the people you thought were not important enough to know.”
Are You Somebody I Should Know is available via SPD, Amazon, and Mudfish‘s website.