Sherry Chandler

Green River Writers Contest 2010

The Green River Writers have issued a call for submissions to their 2010 Writing Contest.

Deadline for submissions is September 30.

Prizes will be issued in 16 categories of fiction and poetry.

For complete guidelines, here is a copy of the contest brochure in PDF format or you can visit the Green River Writers website.

Pieces submitted to the GRW contest are not published, so all rights remain with the author.

Contest deadline extended

Deadline for the Green River Writers 2009 Writing Contest has been extended to August 31.

Full guidelines at this link.

Interview

My interview with Katerina Stoykova-Klemer is now up at Public Republic. Here’s the link.

I had a lot of fun answering the questions and I hope you’ll have fun reading my answers. While you’re over there, look around. It’s a dynamic site.

An interview freezes a moment in time, and I think if you asked me these same questions today or next week, I’d probably answer them differently. The self, the intelligence is fluid and one is apt to be entertaining a different cluster of thought at any given moment. So if you see something you disagree with, I’d be glad to discuss it.

_________
P.S. One thing that I should have mentioned is that the Green River Writers were founded by that most excellent poet Mary “Ernie” O’Dell, who has acted as a mentor to many, many writers in the state of Kentucky.

And while we’re on the subject of groups, Katerina herself has started a very dynamic group in Lexington, Poezia.

You’ll find links to both in the sidebar here. Which, come to think of it, is something I forgot to mention when talking about what I have available here on the website.

2009 Green River Writers Writing Contest

The Green River Writers have put out a call for submissions to their 2009 Writing Contest.

Postmark deadline is Friday, July 31.

Winners will be announced mid-September

Complete guidelines and category descriptions at this link.

This year’s contest offers 15 categories in poetry and fiction. In most cases, the contest sponsor is also the judge.

Address questions to the Contest Chair.

Freedom Behind Walls

The Fundraising Committee of the Board of Directors of Luther Luckett Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is sponsoring a writing contest on the topic Freedom Behind Walls.

Luther Luckett Christian Church is a fully autonomous congregation launched in 2008 within the walls at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange Kentucky. The church is, of necessity, sponsored financially by outside donations and grants. Information is available about LLCC and the umbrella non-profit organization, Prison Congregations of America, at our website www.luckettprisonministry.com

Here are the contest rules:

Topic: Freedom Behind Walls
Length of Poem: up to 30 lines
Form of Poem: any form
Submission deadline: June 15th
Submission fee: $15.00 per poem submitted
Awards:

• 1st place: Cash award of $50.00; Winner invited to read winning poem on June 29th; Publication on website
• 2nd place: Cash award of $25.00; Winner invited to read winning poem on June 29th; Publication on website
• 3rd place: Winner invited to read winning poem on June 29th; Publication on website

Jean Tucker

Thasos

The sea would throw its stones
against my balcony and rake them back again.
In the gizzard of sleep I would toss all night.

If I waited long enough
morning would come.
I would hear the cough and sputter
of the country bus waking up, the father
calling good-bye, putting the engine in gear
for the first trip around the island

and the mother and daughter would come
with glasses of fresh orange juice and a broom
to sweep the bad dreams out of the corners,
to mop the floor tiles white,
to pinch dead blooms off the geraniums,

to speak to me in a language
of which I understood all
except the words.

—Jean Tucker, first published in First View of Mesolonghi (Grex Press,2004).
Reprinted by permission of the author.

My association with the Green River Writers has given me much; among the best gifts my friendship with Jean Tucker. I am pleased to see that more of her work is getting out there for the world to read.

Jean teaches English as a Second Language at Jefferson Community and Technical College in Louisville and has been a writer-in-residence at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska. Her poem “From an Armament Museum” was a finalist for The Heartland Review‘s 2009 Joy Bale Boone prize. You can read “Eddie Leaves His Wife” at the Tipton Poetry Journal.

Gail Chandler

Malawi

The warm heart of Africa �
I first heard those words
at midnight on the unlighted lawn
of the Zambezi Sun.

I was standing
in the dark smoking
when a small dusky man
arrived beside me
smelling of wood fires
and grief.

We talked of
Appalachian mountains
and Malawi hills.
Then he faded
into the shadows

— E. Gail Chandler, from Where the Red Road Meets the Sky (Finishing Line, 2009).
Reprinted by permission of the author.

E. Gail Chandler�s poems and short stories have appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Limestone, Back Home in Kentucky, Kudzu, Pegasus and the anthologies, Standing on the Mountain: Voices of Appalachia and Motif. Her nonfiction book, Sunflowers on Market Street, was published in 2003 and a chapbook of poetry, Where the Red Road Meets the Sky, is pending publication by Finishing Line Press. Chandler has degrees from Berea College in Kentucky and The New School in New York City and served three years in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam era.

Proceeds from the sale of Gail’s Finishing Line chapbook go to support Vihiga Children’s Home in western Kenya. Gail says:

The money will be used to pay teachers at the school on the facility grounds. The children, [shown in the photo below] mostly AIDS orphans, at this school, Edith Junior,scored the highest in the district although the teachers receive the lowest salaries — averaging about $50 per month. Currently the school is not funded and limps along from month to month based on what I can raise.

So buy a copy of Gail’s book. You get good poetry and help these Kenyan teachers and children.