Sherry Chandler

Contest deadlines

A reminder of some local contest deadlines.

The Kentucky State Poetry Society offers prizes for poetry in 29 categories. Postmark deadline June 30. Complete guidelines here.

Accents Publishing 2010 Poetry Chapbook Contest, contest deadline July 31. Complete guidelines here.

By the way, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, owner of Accents Publishing, and Leatha Kendrick are doing a Saturday Seminar at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning here in Lexington on the subject How to Create a Chapbook Manuscript. The date is June 19, 10:00 a.m. to Noon, fee $25. You can register here.

The Betty Gabehart Prizes of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference is still accepting entries in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction , which must be postmarked by July 15. Think of this contest as a merit-based scholarship program to the conference, awarding free conference admission for two, $100, and an opportunity to read from your work during the conference. Contest guidelines are here.

New Southerner lilterary contest in three categories, poetry, fiction, nonfiction. Contest deadline October 1. Complete guidelines here.

You can get the New Southerner 2008-2009 anthology for a bargain $10 at lulu

Leatha Kendrick

Sonnet in November

In a week where darkness closes in —
the days shortening to a pale point,
the light too brief to finish any work —
the woman seeks to amplify the dark,
her lack, the death she rides, that aching joint
that cries between perfection and the woman
she is. Never enough. Her father’s dying
bit by bit. Some days she feels that it’s
her death, the blurring of her mind, not his.
And her desire to embrace the night,
to fall down, lax and crushed beneath the weight
of what she’s left undone — to rest lying
amid all she claims to love, claims her, as if she were
newborn, whole, unsure what’s him, what’s her.

— Leatha Kendrick, originally published in When the Bough Breaks (Aargiope Press, 2010), used by permission of the author

It’s good-bye to April and National Poetry Month. I culminate my month of Kentucky poets with this sonnet from Leatha Kendrick, one of the best in a state known for great poets. Leatha and I share a love for the sonnet, and this one, though it is specific, speaks generally to the state of physical and emotional weariness that afflicts many women of the between generation. It speaks strongly to me and so I give it pride of place in my pantheon of poems.

Wrong perhaps to end April with a sonnet in a November mood, but it is my good-bye to National Poetry Month.

I hope you all have enjoyed this cavalcade and will take time to look up some of the poets I’ve featured and their works. Leatha’s latest book, Second Opinion from David Roberts Books, has cover art by Carolyn Hisel and book design by Jonathan Greene of Gnomon Press. Leatha leads workshops in writing and healing at regional and national conferences and has been a presenter at several Associated Writers and Writing Programs’ annual meetings. Her poems and essays appear widely in journals and anthologies. She has received grants in both poetry and fiction from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation of Women, and she is at work on a novel, entitled Leavings.

Learn more about Leatha Kendrick at her website.

Kentucky Writers Day and other Stuff

The official celebration of Kentucky Writers Day, sponsored by the Kentucky Arts Council, takes place on April 23 at 10:00 a.m. in the rotunda of the Capitol Building in Frankfort. The event is free and open to the public. Featured readers will be current Kentucky Poet Laureate Gurney Norman and past Poets Laureate Jane Gentry Vance, Sena Jeter Naslund, Joe Survant and Richard Taylor. The first and second place winners of Kentucky’s Poetry Out Loud competition will also perform.

A reception will follow on the Capitol mezzanine. Wonderful chance to schmooze.

And I just discovered that KAC has a site featuring videos of Kentucky poets laureate reading at Kentucky Writers Day in years past, including some of James Baker Hall at what I believe was his final Writers Day reading after he was very ill. The same page has teacher’s resource materials for our laureates. A fine service from KAC.

The 14th Kentucky Writers Day Celebration at Historic Penn’s Store at Gravel Switch will take place on April 23, 24, 25. Follow this link for a schedule and this link for directions.

On April 21 at 7 p.m., The Heartland Review will present a reading by contributors to its annual Joy Bale Boone Prize issue, including first (E. Gail Chandler), second (Olga-Maria Cruz) and third-place (Libby Falk Jones) winners and this year’s judge, Leatha Kendrick. The reading will take place in the Morrison Gallery of the Administration Building. This event is free and opened to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

On Thursday, April 22, Hazard Community and Technical College is holding their 17th annual Evening with Poets (add a comma and that might make a nice painting “Evening, with Poets”) and celebration of Kudzu 2010. The evening begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Stephens Library on the HCTC Hazard campus. Jim Webb and Bianca Spriggs are featured readers. A little bird tells me that E. Gail Chandler won first place in the annual Kudzu poetry prize as well as in the Joy Bale Boone prize competition.

You’ll find an nterview with Dorothy Sutton at Public Republic, Charlie is My Darling. The Charlie of the old Scots ballad was Bonnie Prince Charlie, I think, but Dorothy has another Charlie in mind. Which one? Read the interview.

Vote For The 2010 Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere

This from The New Yorker: Can the iPad topple the Kindle, and save the book business?

I’m not sure how much I should rejoice when one monopoly trumps another. Because I don’t intend to buy a Kindle or an iPad and because I write poetry, books of which no one buys anyway, I’m not sure this cataclysm will cause much of a wave in my little backwater.

Kathleen Driskell

Next Tuesday, as part of the Kentucky Great Writer Series, Jim Tomlinson, Cecelia Woloch, and Kathleen Driskell will read at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Last night at Leatha Kendrick’s Eclectic Living Room, we discussed the works of these writers. Jim’s Nothing Like an Ocean, Cecelia’s Carpathia, and Kathleen’s Seed Across Snow, from which we discussed the poem “To the Outdoor Wedding.”

I was reminded of this YouTube video of Kathleen reading the latter as part of the InKY Reading Series. I thought I’d put it up here today as a preview of coming attractions. It’s the last poem in this set.

Thanks to the folks at InKY for their video series, who are having an open mike night for National Poetry Month on April 9 — that’s Friday night. Check it out. Go read.

They call it stormy Monday

It’s George Washington’s birthday, Google is playing Big Brother (a move that seems somewhat hypocritical, given Google books), Dick Cheney is still bragging with impunity about his war crimes, The NYTimes says millions of the unemployed will go for years without finding jobs, and last week’s snow has been replaced by this week’s drizzle. Seems like a good time to go play with the Code Organ. Thanks to Dave and Terry.

I should remind you of a couple of good readings this week in the local area.

Holler Poets Reading Series 22 is scheduled for Wednesday February 24th at Al’s Bar, 601 North Limestone, Lexington. Featured readers are Leatha Kendrick and Brett Eugene Ralph, music by underground legend Paul K. open mic begins at 8:00 p.m.

On Thursday, February 25th at 7 PM, Carmichael’s Books, 2720 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, will host an event with authors Bob Hill and Jim Tomlinson that will be part reading, part reunion and plenty of fun. Longtime Courier-Journal columnist and author Bob Hill and award-winning Berea writer Jim Tomlinson will discuss their work and the unlikely paths that led two high school classmates from a small town in Illinois into writing careers that would converge in Kentucky decades later. The event runs from 7:00 – 9:00.

For other local reading events, check out the Kentucky Literary Newsletter.

Eclectic Living Room

The Eclectic Living Room meets at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning one week before every Kentucky Great Writers reading to discuss and “celebrate” the work. The discussion is led by Leatha Kendrick, who is a wonderful appreciator of other people’s work and who, as a friend just said to me, reads like a writer. Most of those who attend the discussion are also writers. So, participants have an opportunity not only to explore the work that they will soon be hearing but also to hone their own writing skills. Each session ends with a writing prompt or exercise.

The Morris Book Shop is there to give participants a chance to look at and buy the books in question.

And sometimes, as last night, the group is privileged to have the publisher present to add his insights to both the writers and the publishing process.

At last night’s session we discussed the work of Normandi Ellis, Dorothy Sutton, and J. Stephen Rhodes, all three of whom have books out from Wind Publications and all three of whom will be reading next Tuesday, February 9, at the Carnegie Center as part of the Kentucky Great Writers Series (funded by LexArts). The featured readers begin at 7:30; the open mic begins at 6:30. Local folk, mark it on your calendar.

That address is 251 West Second Street, Lexington.

I consider all three of these fine writers personal friends and I have featured work by Steve, Dorothy, and Normandi here on the blog. I can attest that they are all great readers. It will be a fine evening.

I guess this reads a little bit like an infomercial, and I guess that’s all right. Who can you praise if you can’t praise your friends?

Announcements

Isn’t that a sterling blog post title?

I was thinking the other morning that, if I got to start over again with this blog, that I would just have numbered the posts. I would now be up to 3,239.

Oh well. Some things.

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Following Lance Mannion, here are some ways to help Haiti.

Doctors Without Borders
American Red Cross

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Mick Kennedy has asked us to remind everybody that they still have three days to get their submission in for The Heartland Review‘s 2010 Joy Bale Boone Prize. January 16 is a postmark deadline. Guidelines at the link. Leatha Kendrick is the judge this year.

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The Review has also put out a call for art.

The Heartland Review and Morrison Gallery at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College invite submissions of artwork for a juried exhibition. The theme for the 2010 show is inspired by the idea of “organic setting.” Over the last hundred years artists have continually turned to organic design as a response to the growing ubiquity of mass-produced, machine-made and computer-generated designs. For some, organic is an attempt to reevaluate what it means to be “modern. “ We welcome works of art of every media type and style that address the topic of organic, organic design or organic setting through one or more of the following themes:

• Nature
• Natural Materials
• The Body
• Responses to Modernity
• Identity
• Environmentalism
• Urbanism

The Heartland Review asks for a $10 contribution for up to six entries to support the journal and the contest/show. Artists may submit up to six pieces; however, all artwork must have been created in the last six months prior to submission. The deadline for submissions is 1 February 2010. Finalists will be selected by a committee composed of two professional artists, two Morrison Gallery representatives, and one representative from The Heartland Review.

The artwork of these finalists will be displayed in the Morrison Gallery at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and be published in the 2010 spring/fall issues of The Heartland Review. The artwork which best depicts an “organic setting” will be awarded the 2010 spring issue’s cover and a $250 cash prize. The gallery exhibit will run from 5 April – 14 May 2010, with a reception to be held on Thursday, 15 April.

Interested individuals should submit:

• A digital image of their work to be considered (no larger than 300 dpi resolution)
• Full identification of the work (artist name, phone number, title, medium, dimension, and value)
• A short artist statement, no longer than one page in length
• $10 contribution, with checks made payable to “The Heartland Review”

Send submissions or questions via email to: Mick.Kennedy@KCTCS.edu or creynolds0077@kctcs.edu; please include “Heartland Art” in the email subject heading.

$10 contribution should be mailed to:

THR Art Exhibit, c/o Mick Kennedy
Elizabethtown Community and Technical College
600 College Street Road
Elizabethtown, KY 42701

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Speaking of Leatha Kendrick, don’t miss the opportunity to read her List Poem at the Public Republic.

Also new at the Public Republic, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s interview of Sheri Wright, “Poetry was a voice I didn’t know I had”.