poetry society of america

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PSA’s Annual Awards and Chapbook Fellowships: Accepting Submissions Through December 22nd

The Poetry Society of America has announced that it is currently accepting a variety of submissions for poets at all stages in their career now through December 22nd. Submissions are free for members and you are welcome to submit work to all seven categories with no more than one entry for each.

From a recent PSA message:

Annual Awards judges include:
Cyrus Cassells, Eduardo Corral, Elaine Equi, Yona Harvey, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Laura Kasischke, Jennifer Moxley, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Carmen Giménez Smith, and others

Chapbook judges:
Rigoberto González, Linda Gregerson, Major Jackson, and Marilyn Nelson

Each year from October to December the Poetry Society offers contests for poets at all stages of their careers, from a prize for high school students, to our Chapbook Fellowships for poets who have not yet published a full-length collection, to our first book contest, and our award for a poet over forty who has published no more than one book.

We’re thrilled to announce we’re currently accepting submissions, which are free to members.

Begin your submission today. Good luck!

 

See the PSA’s website for more information on individual contests and submission guidelines.

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Randall Horton Featured on Poetry Society of America

Image from James C. Watson’s A Popular Treatise on Comets, courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Randall Horton‘s poem “When Winter is a Transitional State” was recently featured on the Poetry Society of America‘s website. The Poetry Society of America is the oldest poetry organization in the country, and its mission is to foster an interest in poetry and to support poets nationwide. Horton discussed his thoughts on the poem:

I wanted to explore what an unconventional love looks like. To most of the outside world, this kind of love would seem abnormal. I worked within the freedom and constraint of the couplet form, going for the duality of thought within the speaker’s mind.”

To read the full poem and Horton’s commentary, click here.

Horton’s second memoir is forthcoming from Augury Books in 2015.

More on Randall Horton

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New poem by B. C. Edwards!

In anticipation of the upcoming New York City Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island, we are posting a new poem by one of our featured readers. Please join us on Saturday, July 21st at 2 pm at Chumley’s stage. Can’t wait that long? You can also hear Carter read on Friday the 13th at the H.I.P. Reading Series at Bar on A (170 Avenue A) at 7 pm.

Like Everything Was Already There

Joshua,
I am making a list of the things we need to buy
A bathroom scale
A weekend vacation house for the bathroom scale to live in
and keep occupied during the weeks that we are in the city.
A blender to keep the bathroom scale company. One of those nice ones
That can grind rocks into sand. That if we leave it too long
Will grind sand to dust. Dust to whatever comes after dust.
Pots of various sizes
and colors if possible
A vacuum for the dust and what comes next.
A couch
Two couches, actually, unless your sister has a spare
Mine does not. she has no extra couches
She is flush all out
but my sister is lousy with beds
We do not need any extra beds
we have between us five beds possibly more
we could each spend almost a week
every night in a different bed
and not sleep with each other once
A dry bar.
A shower curtain.
Stools for the dry bar.
A shower curtain liner,
but to be honest I don’t know what those are for
They just seem to get in the way, dangle on the wrong side of the tub at all the worst moments
I only added it to the list so that you wouldn’t think that I was one of those brutes that grew up only having a shower curtain and not the liner, which I was, in fact.
A dishwasher, because we should be honest about this, neither of us is going to wash the dishes. Probably not ever.
A maid. Mostly to deal with the dust, what comes after and also take the dishes out of their washer.
We’ll need a bedroom as well.
or really just the walls to define the bedroom.
because we kind of already know where the bedroom is
but haven’t told anyone
and without the walls there, no one will know that it’s the bedroom
but, as I said before, we’ve got plenty of beds for it.

B.C. Edwards lives in Brooklyn. He is the recipient of the 2011 Hudson Prize put out by Black Lawrence Press which will be publishing his collection of short fiction, “The Aversive Clause” in 2012 and his collection of poetry “From the Standard Cyclopedia of Recipes” in 2013. He is a regular contributor to BOMBlog and his work can be found in Red Line Blues, The Sink Review, Mathematics Magazine, Hobart and others. His short story “Illfit” is being adapted into a piece by the Royal Ballet of Flanders. He is also a Literary Death Match Champion and has the medal to prove it