WINTER WRITING RETREAT
The Watering Hole
INFO: The Watering Hole is now accepting applications to its Winter Retreat for poets of color. The retreat features living room style daily classes/workshops, daily craft talks, two readings, one performance workshop, a keynote speech, group writing challenges, and a genuine community. Our mission is to build Tribe through genuine relationships and help poets reach their best work.
SUBMISSION FEE: $25
IMPORTANT DATES:
Deadline: July 1, 2019
Notification: August 2019
Retreat Dates: Dec. 26 – 30, 2019
https://twhpoetry.org/retreats/
ELEVENTH ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST
Narrative
INFO: In a continuing effort to encourage and support talented poets, we’re offering prizes and widespread publicity to all winners and finalists. Narrative is always looking for new voices, so all entries will be considered for publication in the magazine.
The contest is open to all poets. Entries must be unpublished and must not have been previously chosen as winners, finalists, or honorable mentions in other contests. Each entry may contain up to five poems. The poems should all be contained in a single file. You may enter as many times as you wish, but we encourage you to be selective and to send your best work.
AWARDS:
First Prize is $1,500
Second Prize is $750
Third Prize is $300,
Up to ten finalists will receive $75 each.
All entries will be considered for publication.
SUBMISSION FEE: $25. With your entry, you’ll receive three months of complimentary access to Narrative Backstage.
DEADLINE: July 14, 2019
https://www.narrativemagazine.com/eleventh-annual-poetry-contest
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Issue # 12: Chains
Fiyah Magazine
INFO: FIYAH is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features stories by and about Black people of the African Diaspora. This definition is globally inclusive (Black anywhere in the world) and also applies to mixed/biracial and Afro-appended people regardless of gender identity or orientation.
The idea of chains carries a heavy context for black folks across the globe. The most visceral imagery of chains bears the weight of the Middle Passage, colonialism, antebellum slavery and modern day mass incarceration. But it runs deeper than that and in so many ways our global community carries chains unseen.
There have been studies conducted showing that the stress of racism is shortening the lifespan of African Americans and that generational trauma is transferred in our DNA. What is that if not a chain? Too many of us live in oppressive governments that restrict our movement, criminalize our bodies and trap us in spiraling cycles of labor that are to everyone’s benefit but our own. And despite what your resident #AllLivesMatter supporter will tell you, being a millionaire in the NFL is its own kind of chain too.
So these are the stories we’re looking for. Ones that explore the ways systems entrap us, but also the ways we circumvent them and rise up against them. For when they forced Christianity on us, we simply changed the names of our gods to fit theirs. When we grew tired of their brutality, we rose up and took an island as ours. Perhaps one day we’ll take a planet. Maybe there are worlds where we’ve lived free existences because we shed ourselves of chains long ago. Or there could be just one of us finding a way to slide out of a personal chain. Because all of our trauma allows us to imprison ourselves too.
However you decide to delve into it, understand that writing is an exercise in freedom. Writing is a breaking of chains.
POETRY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: What we want in speculative poetry is verse that struggles, reveals, instructs, comforts, and fights back. We are looking for weird, complex, honest and challenging work with a clear speculative element from black authors. You can check out this post from our Poetry Editor for more on what we’d like to see in your poetry.
DEADLINE: July 31, 2019
http://www.fiyahlitmag.com/submissions/
CALL FOR SUBMISSION: THE MARGINS
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
INFO: Every Tuesday, the Margins publishes the work of emerging and established Asian American poets. We accept submissions for our Poetry Tuesday feature. Please allow at least five weeks for a response.
We’re looking for:
Poetry that challenges/subverts convention (in both poetry and society)
Poetry that is not afraid to be humorous, dirty, and obscene
Poetry that explores history
Poetry that responds to current events and issues
Translations of poetry (given the submitter explains that he/she/they has/have acquired the rights to publish them, along with the originals)
Guidelines:
Poems need not be a specific length/form/style (e.g. long, short, formal, free verse, erasure)
Submissions should be no longer than six pages total. Multiple poems may be submitted in the same document.
DEADLINE: Ongoing