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“I’m no moaning bluet, mountable / linnet, mumbling nun. I’m / tangible, I’m gin. Able to molt / in toto, to limn.” In this short film, Paisley Rekdal, who served as the Utah state poet laureate from 2017 to 2022, recites her poem “Self-Portrait as Mae West Anagram” for the Utah Division of Arts and Museums.
“Fish / fowl / flood / Water lily mud / My life // in the leaves and on water,” writes Lorine Niedecker in “Paean to Place,” a long lyric poem that meditates on the region of southern Wisconsin where she was born and lived most of her life. Written in short sections, the poem goes in and out of memories and pastoral descriptions of marshlike landscapes, altogether serving as a testament to the impact a place can have on one’s poetic sensibilities. This week write a pastoral ode to the landscape you grew up in. Whether an urban sprawl or a rural town, try to use the poem’s form and idiosyncratic language to paint a portrait of your experience in this formative place.
With only a few more days left before the deadline, don’t miss the opportunity to submit to the annual National Poetry Series Open Competition. Five U.S. poets will receive $10,000 each and publication of their collections by participating trade, university, or small press publishers. The 2023 publishers are Beacon Press, Ecco, Milkweed Editions, Penguin Books, and University of Georgia Press. Residents of the United States and American citizens living abroad are eligible to apply.
Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of a suggested length of 48 to 64 pages with a $35 entry fee by March 15. Visit the website for complete guidelines. Finalists will be notified around May 31, around which time their manuscripts will be shared with five judges for further consideration. The competition winners will be notified around August 31, and all finalists will be informed of their status at that time.
The National Poetry Series literary awards program seeks to “support poetry and increase the audience for poetry by heightening its visibility among readers,” as well as “give American poets, of all ethnic and racial groups, gender, religion, and poetic style, access to publishing outlets not ordinarily available to them.” Members of the Board of Directors include Natalie Diaz, Daniel Halpern, Cathy Park Hong, Imani Perry, Tracy K. Smith, and Natasha Trethewey. Recent winners include Adrienne Chung (Organs of Little Importance, Penguin Books), Olatunde Osinaike (Tender Headed, Akashic Books), Tennison S. Black (Survival Strategies, University of Georgia Press), Courtney Bush (I Love Information, Milkweed Editions), and Alisha Dietzman (Sweet Movie, Beacon Press).
SubText is a general interest bookstore with special focus on fiction, poetry, history, and literary non-fiction. Events include author talks, readings, and book signings.
Couth Buzzard Books is a local, independent bookstore, café, and performance and community gathering space. The café serves beer and wine, shows visual art, and hosts live acoustic music with local musicians, open mics, and poetry and author readings.
Chapter and Verse is an established literary reading series that takes place at the Revolutionary War-era Loring Greenough House in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a neighborhood of Boston. Three selected writers of fiction or poetry read for the crowd of about forty, followed by refreshments and book signings. Although readers are not paid, the sponsor of Chapter and Verse, Jamaica Pond Poets, purchases a book from each reader and donates it to the Jamaica Plain Branch of the Boston Public Library. Readings are usually the second Friday of each month from October through June.
Tattered Cover Book Store has grown over forty-three years into one of the premier bookstores in America, with eight unique locations in the Denver Metro area. The stores are filled with antique furniture and lots of nooks and crannies for browsing and reading. Tattered Cover has decades of experience hosting authors, averaging nearly five hundred writers, illustrators, celebrities, and other special guests each year. They sell e-books, new and used books, bargain books, and rare collectible editions.
Established in 1979, the Trident Booksellers and Café has used and new books, with an emphasis on art, religion, and culture, as well as poetry and literature. Trident hosts readings and other literary and community events throughout the year.
Volumes Bookcafe is an independent bookstore cafe in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. Volumes is a family-owned business, brought to life by two Chicago-area sisters whose careers have always been intertwined with books. They host monthly book clubs, open mics and comedy nights, weekly trivia, and StoryTime twice a week, along with a number of author and literary events.
Columbia College’s MFA Creative Writing program hosts reading series, lectures, talks, and panel discussions throughout the school year. They host the Efroymson Creative Writing Reading Series, a series that attracts prestigious, award-winning fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers.
