If so, maybe you should enter this:

WIN $3,000 AND PUBLICATION
Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series

The 2007 Prairie Schooner Book Prize competition will award $3,000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press to one book of poetry and one book of short fiction. A $1,000 prize will be awarded to a runner-up in each category.

Postmark deadline is March 15th, 2007.

Manuscripts and $25 entry fee should be mailed to:
Prairie Schooner Book Prize Competition
201 Andrews Hall
PO Box 880334
Univ. of Nebraska
Lincoln NE 68588-0334.

For more information visit here.

I just happened upon this. I don’t think many Word Pirates write poetry, but hey, if you do, here’s a somewhat unpublicized contest:

The 2007 Prize For Poetry From The Tor House Foundation

The annual Tor House Prize for Poetry is a living memorial to American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962).

The winner will receive $1,000 for an original, unpublished poem not to exceed three pages in length. $200 will be awarded for Honorable Mention.

Final Judge: Al Young

Open to well-crafted poetry in all styles, ranging from experimental work to traditional forms, including short narrative poems. Each poem should be typed on 8 1/2″ by 11″ paper and be no longer than three pages. On a cover sheet only, include: name, mailing address, telephone number and email; titles of poems; bio optional. Multiple and simultaneous submissions welcome.

Reading fee: $10 for the first three poems, $15 for up to six poems and $2.50 for each additional poem.

Deadline for submissions: March 15, 2007

For more information, look at their website.

I think they are looking for narrative poems. You can read last year’s winner, Last of the Midnight Lullabies by Eric Leigh, here. An excerpt:

Last of the Midnight Lullabies
Eric Leigh

Middle of the night, my grandfather calls
stuck again in that foxhole,
his buddy’s head shot straight off.

Or he thinks he’s still in the asylum
where the only sounds he heard were those
from the past—stray bullets, his own sobs.

Wow, maybe I should write poetry again.

– Joy

“Machine of Death,” an upcoming anthology of short stories, is looking for submissions. The book will feature stories that, well, sound very fun to write.

“The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. It didn’t give you the date and it didn’t give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words “DROWNED” or “CANCER” or “OLD AGE” or “CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN”. It let people know how they were going to die.“

In the world described, how would you live your life and what would the implications of such a machine be? The editors say they aren’t looking for gimmicky, ironic-twist kind of stories. So don’t throw all the elements of good story-writing out the window for the sake of a cheap gag (Oh, the machine said I would die by a malfunction of a Machine of Death. Aaaaaarg! Now I am dead, etc.).

The deadline is March 31.

-Marcia

2nd ANNUAL INNERMOONLIT AWARD FOR BEST SHORT-SHORT STORY NO ENTRY FEE Deadline September 1, 2006. Entrants must specify that they are entering the Best Short-Short Story Contest and must indicate the number of words in their submission (500 words maximum). First prize: $100; second prize: $50; third prize: a signed copy of Brian Agincourt Massey’s novel.

“Sidebrow, an online & print journal dedicated to innovation and collaboration, seeks fiction, poetry, art, essay, ephemera, found text, academia, as well as creative response to current posts and ongoing projects. Submissions to Sidebrow are evaluated both as stand-alone set pieces as points of departure for establishing multi-authored/multi-genre works. Submissions that re-imagine, depart from, or explore the interstices between posted pieces are highly encouraged.”

I found their site a little confusing, but some of the projects look interesting. For example, The Letters Project, where they are “reviving the epistolary novella.” Check out Letters to Kelly Clarkson. I also liked the Page 24 Project, “a chapbook concerning and consisting exclusively of page 24s.” Weird and different.

I recently discovered Opium Magazine. I don’t know about its tagline, “literary humor for the the deliriously captivated,” but some of this stuff is pretty funny. Read about submitting here. Doesn’t look like they pay, but hey…

See you tomorrow at the meeting!

Verb is an “Audioquarterly” — a literary journal where the work is recorded on CD.

VERB is an audioquarterly magazine in CD format presenting new work from some of today’s best writers. Authors like Stuart Dybek, Robert Olen Butler, and James Dickey read aloud (and sometimes even sing) their work for you. Perfect listening for long drives, the gym, or the workplace. VERB comes to your doorstep four times a year and redefines the term publications.

Whoever heard of such a thing!

Bitch magazine is looking for pieces about “Green.”

When I saw the word “Green,” I first thought of naive and inexperienced. What comes to mind for you? It would be an interesting exercise to take one word like this and turn it into an idea.

Words are powerful beyond their literal meaning, so I think there are a lot of ideas that could come from riffing on a single word. Some of you may want to give it a shot, whether for this publication or as a writing exercise on your own.

The magazine calls itself “the feminist response to pop culture.” As an aside, there’s a good example of a word with all sorts of action going on beyond its literal meaning.

Here’s the call for submissions:

Green: It’s environmental. It’s jealous. It’s money. It’s even, sometimes, a little nauseated. You can see the possibilities, right? Potential pieces might include an exploration of intentional communities; the trope of jealousy between women in romance novels; the feminization of the environmental movement; an in-depth look at pop culture’s female financial gurus; and gender and the stoner comedy. Pitch deadline: June 1, 2006

From a newsgroup list I’m on:

CAB/NET, a new journal of writing, is accepting submissions for its first issue. The guidelines are available on our website: here.

We are especially interested in work that takes a substantial risk and writing that blurs the boundaries between genres (poetry, fiction, essay, etc). We accept submissions year round. We are sincerely interested in new voices as well as established writers, and encourage you to submit.