Genre: Poetry

The X. J. Kennedy Prize Open for Submissions

G&A: The Contest Blog
8.27.21

Submissions are open for this year’s X. J. Kennedy Prize. Given for a full-length poetry collection, the prize includes publication with Texas Review Press, a $10,000 advance, a standard royalty contract, and twenty author copies. Poets at any stage of their career are eligible to submit and the prize is not limited to a particular style or form of poetry.

Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 50 to 100 pages with a $28 entry fee by September 30. Kazim Ali will judge. The winner will be revealed in December. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

The X. J. Kennedy prize was first awarded in 1998 and the most recent winner was Brooke Sahni for her debut collection, Before I Had the Word. The prize’s namesake, X. J. Kennedy, has been widely celebrated for his poetry and books for young readers. Kennedy earned the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers in 2015 and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2009. In his citation for the Jackson Prize, the judges praised Kennedy for delivering “wit, savagery, and compassion” in his work. In admiration of his characteristic brevity, they added, “The size of his poems is small but their scope is vast.”

Jorie Graham With Michael Silverblatt

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“The work of most poets whom I admire requires an apprenticeship to the language of that particular poet.” Jorie Graham speaks about reading habits, influence, and accessibility to a wider audience as a poet in this 1999 interview with Michael Silverblatt, host of the long-running KCRW series Bookworm, produced by the Lannan Foundation.

Genre: 
Poetry
Tags: 
Jorie Graham
Michael Silverblatt
Bookworm
interview
Lanna Foundation
2006

Burial With Mary Lattimore

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“imagine his joy as the sun / wizarded forth those abundant sugars / and I plodded barefoot / and prayerful at the first ripe plum’s swell and blush,” reads Ross Gay from his poem “Burial” in this video featuring music by Mary Lattimore. The track is featured in an album called Dilate Your Heart, part of a yearlong release campaign celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of indie record label Jagjaguwar.

Genre: 
Poetry
Cross-Genre
Tags: 
Burial
Ross Gay
Mary Lattimore
Jagjaguwar
Dilate Your Heart
music

Climate Crisis

The Time Is Now
8.24.21

Rising global temperatures and natural disasters, such as the recent tropical storms and hurricanes in North America and the earthquake in Haiti, bring to mind the fragility of the environment and the effects of climate change. Over the years, poets have taken to their craft to raise awareness and humanize the climate crisis in works such as “I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth” by Fatimah Asghar, “Let Them Not Say” by Jane Hirshfield, “Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now” by Matthew Olzmann. Write a poem about the environment that draws the reader in emotionally, whether it is by describing a changing landscape or reflecting on the issue. For further inspiration, browse these poems engaging with the climate crisis curated by the Academy of American Poets.

Off the Grid Poetry Prize Accepting Submissions

G&A: The Contest Blog
8.20.21

The deadline is approaching for the eleventh annual Off the Grid Poetry Prize. Given for a poetry collection by a writer over the age of 60, the award includes $1,000 and publication by Off the Grid Press, an imprint of Grid Books. The prize aims to reward writers “ripened in craft and vision.”

Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of at least 50 pages with a $25 entry fee by August 31. Jimmy Santiago Baca will judge. The winner will be announced by the end of the year. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Poets Tam Lin Neville and Bert Stern founded Off the Grid Press in 2003 with the goal to “provide a forum for older poets who are sometimes overlooked by the current marketplace.” The press later rebranded as Grid Brooks while preserving Off the Grid Press as an imprint. While the Off the Grid Poetry Prize remains reserved for older writers, Grid Books is open to writers of all ages and champions “creative work that springs from the margins.” In addition to poetry, the press also seeks to publish scholarly editions and oral history projects.

 

Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

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“I’m carrying this for America, but for Indigenous peoples in particular,” says Joy Harjo about what it means to be the first Native American to serve as the poet laureate of the United States in this 2019 PBS NewsHour interview with Jeffrey Brown. A Q&A with Harjo about her new memoir, Poet Warrior (Norton, 2021), appears in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 
Poetry
Tags: 
Joy Harjo
poet laureate
United States Poet Laureate
2019
PBS NewsHour
Jeffrey Brown
September/October 2021

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