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SPARK Movement Commemorates ‘Forgotten’ Women of History

Jacques Le Moyne’s A Young Daughter of the Picts (1585) courtesy of the Public Domain Review

With the aid of Google’s Field Trip app, the SPARK Movement is honoring history’s forgotten and overlooked women by marking locations on the map that bear significant connections to their lives. These highlights on the app were launched during the first week of March, and they include over 100 women in various fields. Among the women recognized are Nellie Bly, Xie Bingxin, and Gloria Anzaldúa.

For more about the new initiative, you can click here.

To learn more about the SPARK Movement and how you can get involved, visit their website.

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Finalists For Lambda Literary Awards Announced

From Baude Cordier’s “Belle, bonne, sage” (1350-1400), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The finalists for the 27th annual Lambda Literary Awards have been announced. The Lambda Literary Awards honor the best LBGTQ literature of the year in 24 categories, including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Among the nominees for 2015 is Augury friend Shelly Oria. Other noteworthy finalists include Ana Castillo, Tom Spanbauer, Danez Smith, Lenelle Moïse, and La JohnJoseph. The winners will be declared at the awards ceremony on Monday, June 1st in New York City.

For the complete list of finalists and their works, visit the Lambda Literary Awards website.

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Joe Pan To Lead Brooklyn Poets’ Yawp

From Shin-Bijutsukai (1901-1902), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Augury author Joe Pan will be leading Brooklyn Poets‘ Yawp on March 9th. A monthly event, Yawp consists of a writing workshop at 7 PM, followed by an open mic night at 8. The primary focus for this month’s Yawp will be the evolution of poetry throughout the writing process. It will take place at 61 Local, and admission is $5 for nonmembers.

To learn more about Yawp, visit the Brooklyn Poets website.

Joe Pan’s book, Hiccups, or Autobiomythography II, is forthcoming from Augury Books in 2015.

More on Joe Pan

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"Pick-Your-Price" Sale at Brooklyn Arts Press

From Snowflakes: a Chapter from the Book of Nature (1863), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Effective until March 7th, Brooklyn Arts Press is holding a “Pick-Your-Price” sale on Noah Eli Gordon‘s The Word Kingdom in the Word Kingdom. This deal allows book buyers to purchase one copy of Gordon’s book at the price of their choosing (plus $5 for shipping). Brooklyn Arts Press is an independent publishing house dedicated to publishing the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of upcoming artists. Joe Pan, their managing editor and publisher, has a collection of poetry forthcoming from Augury in 2015.

For more on the “Pick-Your-Price” sale, visit their site.

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Pen & Brush Calls for eBook Submissions

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A detail from 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō as Potted Landscapes (1848), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

 

Pen & Brush is currently accepting submissions of literary fiction and poetry, both short and long form, to be published on their website and/or in eBook format through their imprint, P&B Books. Pen & Brush is a 120-year old nonprofit dedicated to supporting women-identified artists and writers. Submissions are currently being accepted on a rolling, open basis, and will be judged by a rotating pool of literary arts curators. Their hope is to give exposure to writers who might otherwise have difficulty being recognized. For more information, including submission guidelines and legal details, see Pen & Brush’s site.

Augury’s own Kate Angus has recently joined Pen & Brush as a literary arts curator. Read an interview between her and P&B’s executive director, Janice Sands, on the Huffington Post.

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No, Dear/Small Anchors Press Chapbook Contest: Deadline Approaching

a photo from ‘Transit of Venus’ (1882), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Brooklyn-based poetry journal No, Dear and Small Anchors Press are currently accepting five-to-twenty page submissions to their Poetry Chapbook Contest. The contest is open to writers currently residing in New York City, and a single winner will receive limited edition chapbook publication in 2015, as well as an additional $200 prize. The deadline is March 2nd; only a few days left to submit! See No, Dear‘s site for details.

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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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"A Book of Uncommon Prayer" Anthology Features Kate Angus, Alicia Jo Rabins

Augury Books’ founding editor, Kate Angus, will be featured in Outpost19‘s A Book of Uncommon Prayer, an anthology of “everyday invocations,” due out in May 2015. Angus appears alongside Alicia Jo Rabins, a recent winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize and reader for our offsite AWP event in 2014, as well as a myriad of other known talents, including Marie Howe, Bob Hicok, Leslie Jamison, Catherine Lacey, and Rick Moody. The anthology is edited by Matthew Vollmer, and all proceeds from book sales will go to 826 Valencia, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting creative and expository writing skills in students ages six to eighteen.

To preorder the anthology, see Outpost19’s site.

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Three Opportunities to Publish: AWP, National Poetry Series, and Four Way Books

a detail from “Illustrations of Ventilation” (1869), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

 

As a small press that understands the writer’s most constant struggle, we’d like to highlight three contests that will soon be closing submissions. We recognize them as distinguished prizes from equally distinguished organizations, and we hope they’ll be helpful in your pursuit of publication.

The National Poetry Series’ Open Competition‘s deadline has been extended to February 23rd, 2015. Five manuscripts will be selected by five distinguished poets, and each winner, in addition to a $1,000 cash prize, will receive the opportunity to be published by a participating publishing company. These include HarperCollins Publishers, Fence Books, University of Georgia Press, Penguin Books, and Milkweed Editions.

Four Way Books’ Levis Prize in Poetry will be judged by Martha Collins this year, and it is open to any poet writing in the English language. One winner will receive a book-length publication, a reading sponsored by Four Way Books in New York City, and a $1,000 award. Their deadline for submission is March 31st (postmarked, if mailed), or April 1st, by 3 AM EST (if submitting online).

The AWP Award Series includes a slew of prizes for creative nonfiction, poetry, short fiction, and the novel, offering publication from University of Georgia Press, University of Pittsburgh Press, University of Massachusetts Press, and New Issues Press of Western Michigan University, respectively, with cash awards ranging from $2,5000 to $5,500. Details about each prize, as well as their submission guidelines, can be found here.

Happy submitting.

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Joe Pan Publishes Pamphlet with Greying Ghost Press

a detail from A System of Elocution, with Special Reference to Gesture, to the Treatment of Stammering, and Defective Articulation (1846) by Andrew Comstock, courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Brooklyn-based publisher and poet Joe Pan has recently released a pamphlet, entitled The Poem, through Massachusetts-based Greying Ghost Press. The Poem, as described by Pan, is a “reminder to myself that a poem can not only be about anything, but literally be anything–a list, a lampoon, a lamp post–with language & ‘poetic intent’ as its dual engine.” His most recent collection of poetry, Hiccups, or Autobiomythography II, is forthcoming from Augury in 2015.

Greying Ghost, an independent press established in 2007, publishes letterpress and laserprinted chapbooks, broadsides, and pamphlets. Though Greying Ghost’s pamphlets are available for the low price of one dollar on their own, a copy of any pamphlet is included free with the purchase of a chapbook.