Poets, Poetry, News, Reviews, Readings, Resources & Opportunities for Poets and Writers
Author: Jamie Dedes
Jamie Dedes is a Lebanese-American poet and free-lance writer. She is the founder and curator of The Poet by Day, info hub for poets and writers, and the founder of The Bardo Group, publishers of The BeZine, of which she was the founding editor and currently a co-manager editor with Michael Dickel. Ms. Dedes is the Poet Laureate of Womawords Press 2020 and U.S associate to that press as well. Her debut collection, "The Damask Garden," is due out fall 2020 from Blue Dolphin Press.
This is dedicated to all those people,
those who are blatantly themselves. ….…[[[You know the ones I mean.]
Some, when seedlings, had family or teachers
who jabbed a finger yelling: You! You! You!
accusing them of being quintessentially themselves . . . as though that was wrong.
They are the YOUs who come from multi-colored places
with varied dreams and
hearts woven of wonderlush
They are the womanly or manly,
childlike and wise.
They run from the gray streets to the green forest.
They take to long-lost roads and never-found pathways
with their song in a backpack and
a brown-bag lunch of no-baloney sandwiches.
When they elder they arrive back at the beginning
“The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished.” Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony, Ming-Dao Deng
WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT
Write a poem about being being true to ourselves, true to our inherent nature. If you feel comfortable, leave your work or a link to it in the comments section. All poems shared on theme will be published in next Tuesday’s poetry collection. You have until Monday night, 8:30 p.m. PST to respond.
A wonderful collection today that illustrates just how complex relationships are, as complex as the human beings who compose them. These are the responses to the last Wednesday Writing Prompt, Hero of the Practicalities, November 22, 2017. Welcome and thanks to newcomer, Denise Aileen DeVries. Thanks also to stalwart participants: bogpan, Colin Blundel, Sonja Benskin Mesher and Paul Brookes.
Anyone who would like to join in tomorrow for the next Wednesday Writing Prompt is welcome to do so no matter the status of career: beginning, emerging or pro. All work shared on theme will be published in the next collection on the following Tuesday. Meanwhile, enjoy these …
Delivery
The dark and fire
of the linotype and the roar
of the press were safe for her,
more than the house, plastic-
covered from lampshades to floors.
At home, nothing was ever finished,
mute dishes dirtied themselves,
yolks broke in the skillet,
shirts weighted the end
of the ironing board.
She had nothing to prove
to men who thought they owned
the secrets of melted lead.
She knew the language of em and en;
she could read upside-down.
At home, my father’s mood
could tip the day,
luminous floors becoming
ominous, two silent children
eating her mistakes.
Work meant
achievement, putting words
to lead, to ink, to bed.
Newspapers of two small towns
passed through her hands
from formation
in cooled lead slugs
to inky rollers, to birth
off the end of the press,
delivery.
Mind-reading in marriage is somewhat unpredictable. The other day, we were sitting in front of the TV, and I wanted my husband to get me some dessert. It took me at least 2 minutes of focused thought before he said, “shall we have some ice cream?” Yet, a few days later, while he was three miles away at the grocery store, I thought, “I wish I had some chocolate,” and when he came home, he handed me a bar of milk chocolate. Mind-reading seems to work best with food, but even after 20 years, it’s not infallible. I would have preferred dark chocolate.
Because we each grew up speaking a different language, mind-reading comes in handy when our vocabulary fails us. It’s quite normal for our dinner conversation to go something like this: “can you pass the…” “donde está el…” “next time we go to the tienda, hay que comprar…”
This is not to say that we think alike. In fact, the list of things on which we disagree is much longer than those on which we agree. This may be confusing for people who think that in marriage “two become one.” I’ve often been horrified by people’s assumptions that one of us can express the opinion of both. Especially if that opinion isn’t mine!
This is Denise’s first time responding to Wednesday Writing Prompt. (Welcome!) This is what she tells us, “I was the girl who squeezed through the barbed-wire fence behind the sheep pen and disappeared for hours all alone looking for cactus flowers and mariposas. The dry side of the dam is where I live now,
past all that water under the bridge, the history and humidity, reflections and memories all under water.”
that moment
when I said – this symphony
is so full of beautiful tunes
which just go on and on
you smiled such a caressingly
honest smile that I sensed
the light of your Being
touching mine (mine yours)
I feel sorry for Ray
tells me his fat
girlfriend just sits
around house,
no housework.
He prepares all meals.
She just sits
reading Mills and Boon.
drinks and sleeps
Never together when out.
She with her friends, he with his.
He goes out,
returns she’s brandishing a knife,
interrogates him
where he’s been.
He is a designer
witty with it.
Manager at my workplace
he sends me a picture
of an American Indian
with palm up
and five statements on how
we should get together.
How did he know
the guardian angel who appears
bottom of my bed
is a North American Indian?
Two
I ask
“Why haven’t you moved out?”
He says
“When my last marriage broke up
my wife got house and everything
and my girlfriend won’t move out.”
He makes sense.
I want a boyfriend with either
motorbike or a landrover.
He’s just sold his bike.
Landrover is soft topped.
Takes me and Ben out walking
to Dark Peak.
We enjoy pictures rather than
words.
He makes meals for the family.
My friends said if my last husband
turns up Ray
would not hesitate to lay him out.
We spend evenings planning places
things we can do, together.
He smokes
socially when he drinks, like me.
Suddenly,
Christmas he moves in.
On way out to a Parents evening
at Ben’s school I tell him
“We’ll talk when I return.”
On return I find all drink gone
him crashed out drunk in my bed.
In morning he says
“Please forgive me.”
Over the next month we go out
hold hands, and are gentle
down by the bridge while Ben plays
ahead with our dog.
Three
Over next month he fills my
wardrobes with his clothes
my shelves with his CD’s.
Then I notice
him going to pub straight after
work returns home crashes
out to sleep.
He works drinks sleeps.
Comes from work after pub
says he’s tired,
sleeps rest of night.
I wait for him downstairs.
I sit alone in house on an evening
or when he is in
he gawps at TV in bedroom.
He does not let me to go
out with my friends.
We go out again after I have words.
Two weeks later he is back
drunk and sleeping again.
On few occasions we go out
he leaves me on my own
he spends evening talking
to a biker or someone at bar.
I talk to his fat girlfriend Sophie.
She’d been holding a knife
because she was cutting veg
as she always did
preparing meals for him while he
went out and got drunk.
He catches me talking to her
says
“Don’t believe her, she’s a liar. She’ll say
anything to get me back with her.”
Tells me all the girls at work
are after him.
I talk to them.
They wouldn’t touch him.
He promises me he’ll not go drinking
starts excuses when I smell it on
his breath.
I tell him so.
I say
“I’ll go to a counselling session with you.”
He’s having none of it.
His tears when I phone him at local
pub and tell him
“Your stuffs in the driveway.”
Down on his knees he is,
tears and moans, begging me to
reconsider.
He says
“Your right in everything you say.
I’m at fault and I’ll change.”
He is really suffering.
I nearly break
but people never change.
I meet him a month or two later while out with my mates.
He comes in pub.
Sends one of his mates over to me
“Ray wants a private word”
I say
“Whatever Ray has to say he can say while my mates are present.”
Anyway he comes over.
I ask
“How’s Sophie?”
he tells me
“Eff off!”
I feel nothing.
Mark is the man for me,
but he is married
and she is kind.
I have known the family for ten years now.
It is only recently I admit to myself I love Mark.
I would not hurt their kids .
I have seen them settle down
round meal table of an evening.
I come home, collapse on sofa
and cry for I know we would be good together.
I want to settle down.
For a time with Ray I forget about Mark.
Ray never knew about him.
I see Mark less.
I will not move from this cul de sac
because I feel safe with Mark down the road
and the fabulous view of the moors.
Perhaps because I love Mark I find it difficult
to love anyone else.
Steve says his wife often
comes into their bedroom
and says “Where’s Steve?”
And he says to her.
“I’m here love. We’ve
been married forty years.”
And she says,
“Of course you are. We have.”
And she laughs.
“How did we first
get together?”
At the end of the next day,
when they’ve been out
to the shops and visiting
old friends she’ll say,
“What have we done today,
Steve?” And she remembers
none of it.
At mealtimes she picks
up her knife and fork
and holds them very close
to her glazed eyes.
She shows him her
fingers, and he sees
they are no longer fat
but thin to the bone.
“Come on,love.
They must have dropped off.
I’ll help you look for them.”
He offers.
“In the place you’ve hid
them. I bet. I know
your game, Steve.
I’m wise to you.”
We do not know each other.
The fog is carving the ghostly
silhouettes of houses, people
and hopes.
And like a sound the hand is –
a semitone of the scream
of seagulls “Arriva … Arriva”
Nothing is coming.
Nothing has come.
I am trying to breathe –
in a time beyond.
In the gardens of the cascades
before the dawn and after the rain.
We do not know each other.
You’ve melted in the sun,
a sun in the fog
and you’ve never been here.
The paper remembers some passed
sounds come from the outer
world – Arriva.
Kanchana Ugbabe (photo courtesy of and (c) Penguin India
The Fordham Department of English has welcomed a new colleague, Kanchana Ugbabe of Nigeria, to serve in the newly created position of Writer at Risk in Residence for one year beginning this fall.
The pilot position was made possible through the efforts of the Creative Writing program in partnership with PEN America, Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), Westbeth Artists Housing, ArtistsSafety.net, and Residency Unlimited. The residency is the second effort of the New York City Safe Haven Prototype, a multi-organizational artist residency program designed to house, integrate, and nurture artists at risk.
Ugbabe is a professor of English and African Literature at the University of Jos, Nigeria, and the author of a collection of short stories, Soulmates(Penguin Books, 2011). She has edited two collections of essays on the writings of the Nigerian novelist Chukwuemeka Ike and contributed three chapters to the Dictionary of Literary Biography focusing on African writers. Ugbabe holds a doctorate from Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. She holds a master’s in English literature from the University of Madras, India.
Since arriving at Fordham in mid-October, Ugbabe has been visiting English classes as well as courses in other departments, such as “Women and Independence in Africa,” taught by Fawzia Mustafa, Ph.D., professor of African and African-American studies and English. This spring, Ugbabe will teach her own class, “Creating Dangerously: Writing from Contact Zones.”
Over the last decade, the political crisis over ‘indigene’ rights and political representation in Ugbabe’s home city of Jos has developed into a protracted communal conflict affecting most parts of the area.
As a writer and South Asian woman settled in an increasingly unstable part of Nigeria, the risks and uncertainty became personal, Ugbabe says. These risks weighing upon her became intrinsically associated with a place she considered home—the town of Jos, which in the early days was a quaint, attractive outpost but has now devolved into a deeply fractured, overpopulated town rife with ethno-religious conflict. Ugbabe and her family, along with Nigerian friends, colleagues, and neighbors, found themselves at the center of the vortex of events. Disruption of work and a climate of insecurity escalated over the years as Jos deteriorated and the town became divided along ethnic and religious lines.
An invitation from Harvard University, to serve as Visiting Scholar with the Women and Gender Studies program, enabled Ugbabe to leave Jos and continue her writing and academic work in the peaceful environment of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The period also enabled her to distance herself temporarily from the tumult in Jos and to gain new perspective on the risks faced by fellow writers and academics in her beloved home country, Nigeria. As that fellowship neared its end, the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) reached out to Ugbabe with the new opportunity at Fordham. This year-long pilot position will allow Ugbabe to continue writing and make headway with her research while being part of an enriching, safe, and encouraging community.
Street Scene: Jos, Nigeria The pollution comes from thousands of motorbikes which are the main transport in town. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moore under CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic license
Jos is a city in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.
“The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called ‘J-town’, it is the administrative capital of Plateau State.
“The city is located on the Jos Plateau at an elevation of about 1,238 metres or 4,062 feet high above sea level. During British colonial rule, Jos was an important centre for tin mining. In recent years it has suffered violent religious clashes between its Muslim and Christian populations in 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2011.” MORE
A Decade of Suffering
“In the past decade, more than 3,800 people have been killed in inter-communal violence in Plateau State, including as many as 1,000 in 2001 in Jos and more than 75 Christians and at least 700 Muslims in 2004 in Yelwa, southern Plateau State. In November 2008, two days of inter-communal clashes following local government elections in Jos left at least 700 dead.” MORE
Some of the killings in Jos hit very close to home for Ugbabe. In 2007, a university professor was kidnapped and never found. Around that same time, church members were attacked, a neighbor’s home was set on fire, and a colleague’s daughter was killed in a bomb blast, to name just a few incidents.
This feature is compiled courtesy of Artists at Risk, PEN America, Human Rights Watch, Fordham University and Wikipedia
The Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) brings together organizations around the world that are committed to defending and promoting artistic freedom of expression, and to ensuring that artists everywhere can live and work without fear.
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. It champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Its mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
Human Rights Watch
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ABSINTHE: A Journal of World Literature in [English] Translation, hosted by the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan, publishes fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction by living authors. No unsolicited manuscripts. Query only. Details HERE.
ALLUVUM, 21st century writing / 21st century approaches offers academics the possibility to publish “topical columns that are intended to reflect upon key issues and emerging trends in literature and literary criticism…” Details on becoming an Alluvium contributor are HERE.
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL publishes poems and true stories. No submisson fee. Paying market. Open call for submissions for 2018 Christmas and Holiday collectionHERE.
GNU JOURNAL all genres are created equal accepts literary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction and is “friendly to genre fiction, YA literature, short plays, comics, photography, and writing that defies classification.” Published online once a year and by MFA students at National University. No submission fees. Details HERE.
KWELI JOURNAL (Kweli is the Swahili word for “truth”) celebrates “community and cultural kinships.” Demographic restrictions. Publishes fiction (short stories or novel excerpts), nonfiction and poetry online and in print. $3 submission fee for multimedia only. Submit through May 30. Details HERE.
RAMINGO’S PORCH has an open call for submissions. Deadline is January 26. Details HERE.
THE BELLADONNA COMEDY by “all women and non-binary/genderqueer writers however green or seasoned to submit.” No poetry. Demographic restrictions. Seeks comedic and satirical pieces. Details HERE.
THE BeZINE, Be Inspired, Be Creative, Be Peace, BeDecember issue – themed Spirituality (Spiritual Paradigms, Awakenings, Miracles) is now open and the deadline is December 10th. NEW RULES:Please send text in the body of the email not as an attachment. Send submissions to me (Jamie) at bardogroup@gmail.com. Publication is December 15th. Poetry,essays, fiction and creative nonfiction, art and photography, music (videos or essays), and whatever lends itself to online presentation is welcome for consideration. No demographic restrictions. Please read at least one issue and the Intro/Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines. We DO NOT publish anything that promotes hate, divisiveness or violence or that is scornful or in any way dismissive of “other” peoples.
The BeZine will go to a quarterly schedule in 2018:
March 2018 issue, Deadline February 10th. Theme: Peace.
June 2018 issue, Deadline May 10th. Theme: Sustainability
September 2018 issue, Deadline August 10th, Theme: Human Rights/Social Justice
December 2018 issue, Deadline November 10th, Theme: A Life of the Spirit
The BeZine is an entirely volunteer effort, a mission. It is not a paying market but neither does it charge submission or subscription fees.
I do consider previously published work if you hold the copyright and I encourage submissions from beginning and emerging artists as well as pro. I am especially interested now in short stores, feature articles, music videos and art. / J.D.
THE COLUMBIA REVIEW, the oldest college literary magazine in the nation, will reopen for submissions in February. Does accepts submissions from poets, writers, and artists outside the University. Print and online publication twice yearly. Details HERE.
THE WAX PAPER (after the Studs Turkel radio show The Wax Museum) “a broadsheet publication open to all forms of written word, image, and collected conversation. The first priority of The Wax Paper is to expand our understanding of the people we share the world with, and in doing so, expand our understanding of ourselves. Pieces will be selected on their ability to illuminate the humanity and significance of the subjects that inhabit the work.” Submittable says “current reading period is open through June 30th.” Whether that means 2018 or 2017, I don’t know. I think she may have forgotten to update the page. Meanwhile, The Wax Paper IS currently open for submissions. Details HERE.
WHALE ROAD REVIEW accepts submissions of poetry and short prose in December. Open to submissions of reviews and pedagogy papers year-round. Details HERE.
VITA BREVIS
VITA BREVIS is a fledgling publication. The Vita Brevis teams tells me that readers of The Poet by Day are just the kind of prospective contributors the editors seek.
I am so taken by this graceful and peaceful new effort that in spite of their fledgling status I sent them some poetry, see Wabi Sabi (inspired by Leonard Koren, Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers) and One Lifetime After Another this coming Tuesday.
Introducing the new kid on our literary block:
“Ars longa, vita brevis” (art is long, life is short). This maxim so moved us that it seemed only right to title our literary magazine after it. It may seem curious that we chose Vita Brevis (life is short) as our title instead of Ars Longa (art is long). But this choice was more than appropriate; after all, the aim of our magazine is to publish work that shows a keen awareness of not only art’s beauty and immortality but life’s toils and finiteness. We want to revive and nourish the rich existential literature that forms when art and the human endeavor collide.
“Our team is small, young, and not one for the spotlight. Perhaps, you will never know us by name, but know that we will be reading and analyzing your work from our university dorms, fixated on bringing it to as many readers as possible–fixated on inspiring the second wave of existentialist literature. With that, we give all literary poets and writers our call-to-arms–send us your best work, and let us see what it can do!”
The Vita Brevis Team
Give them some love: visit, read, “Like,” comment, submit work, promote, donate and encourage them. Theirs is a clean and clear effort with what promises to be well-curated poetry and art. They’re off to a fine start and with little noise about it and no self-aggrandizement.
Vita Brevis has an open call for submissions and clear guidelines. No deadline.
Vita Brevis is sponsoring a three-line (eighty word) writing contest. Again, the guidelines are clear. The deadline is December 10th.
POWER POETRY
“A poem is a way into a person’s heart …” Pearl*
a special opportunity for youth
POWER POETRY (powerpoetry.org) “is the world’s first and largest mobile poetry community for youth. It is a one-of-a-kind place where you can be heard. Power Poetry isn’t just about poetry: it’s about finding your voice and using it change the world!”
If you are reading this from an email subscription, you’ll likely have to link through to The Poet by Day site to view this video.
* Pearl was featured in the film To Be Heard (2010), reviewed HERE in Slant Magazine
THADDEUS HUTYRA announced a new CHALLENGE competition. Your poem may contain any theme and be written in any poetic form. Details HERE on the Facebook public poetry group, Poetry Universe.
2018 PETER PORTER POETRY PRIZE, International Competitions. Entries are welcome from poets anywhere in the world. There is no age limit. “The Porter Prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative and respected awards for poetry. It honours the life and work of the great Australian poet Peter Porter (1929–2010).” Australian Book Review. Deadline: December 3, 2017. Details HERE.
EVENTS
Montmartre Mondays, La Cave Cafe, 134 rue Mrcadet, 75018, Paris France, 7:30 pm. “Monday nights in Montmartre at the lusciously low-key yet soignée Cave Café from 19h30 ’til the last metro, pianist-around-town Sheldon Forrest brings his versatile accompaniment to your turn at the vocal mic or playing along in the jam session blend, welcoming everyone to let your hair down in the wake of the weekend and get a collective groove going just right. As intro and outro, DJ Objet brings signature mixes of downtempo electronica with left-field classics from all genres for your listening and/or rug-cutting pleasure. Entrée libre always (hat-pass contributions most graciously appreciated) – Come on out to start the week on the good foot!”
The Dodge Poetry Festival 2018, the largest poetry event in North America will return to Newark, New Jersey from Thursday October 18th through Sunday October 21, 2018. For four days Newark’s vibrant downtown Arts District will be transformed into a poetry village featuring some of our most celebrated, diverse and vibrant poets and spoken word artists. Details HERE.
Accessible anytime from anywhere in the world:
The Poet by Day always available online with poems, poets and writers, news and information.
The Poet by Day, Wednesday Writing Prompt, online every week (except for vacation) and all are invited to take part no matter the stage of career (emerging or established) or status (amateur or professional). Poems related to the challenge of the week (always theme based not form based) will be published here on the following Tuesday.
The Poet by Day, Sunday Announcements. Every week (except for vacation) opportunity knocks for poets and writers.
THE BeZINE, Be Inspired, Be Creative, Be Peace, Be – always online HERE.
Beguine Again, daily inspiration and spiritual practice – always online HERE. Beguine Again is the sister site to The BeZine.
POETS IN NIGERIA [PIN]
“connnecting poets for greatness”
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: PIN CONNECT CENTRE REPRESENTATIVES
The dawn of PIN Connect Centres on September 9, 2016 has been a huge success to Poets in Nigeria (PIN). In view of this, and in response to calls for new Connect Centres, applications/indications of interest to serve as PIN representatives for new Connect Centres within Nigerian localities are welcome. MORE
KUDOS TO
TRISH HOPKINS(TrishHopkins.com) for donating $6 per order from her chapbook. ” You can now order a signed copy of my new chapbook Footnote, and for the next couple of weeks all proceeds ($6 per order) go to one of three charities of your choice: ACLU, Lambda, or Utah Humanities.” Further details HERE.
Poets and Publishers MENDES BENITO, CATFISH McDARUS and ME PSKI (PSKI’S Porch Publishing) on the rollout of Ramingo’s Porch, which is available through Amazon for $10. “I’m very proud of this issue that is the beginning of an amazing journey. First of all I want to thanks my fellows (and masters) Catfish McDaris and Me Pski. Grazie fratelli!’
.
“But now it’s time to give honor and glory to our authors. Get ready to applaude the works of: Ruben Macias, Carole Bromley, Daniel Snethen, Brenton Booth, Marianne Szlyk, Alexis Rhone Fancher, Michael Dwayne Smith, Paul Koniecki, Alyssa Trivett, Mark Blickley, Catfish McDaris, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Jesse Lynn Rucilez, Fred C. Applebaum, Janet Madden, Yi-Wen Huang, Wayne F Burke, Adhikari Sudeep, Marc Pietrzykowski, Rona Fitzgerald, Michael Lee Johnson, Lynn White, Linda Imbler, Kurt Lipschutz, Jason Baldinger, Charlotte Ormston, Jamie Dedes, Holly Day, John Patrick Robbins, Guinotte Wise, Francine Witte, Finola Scott, Eric Nicholson, Charles Joseph.” Mendes Benito (Ramingo’s Blog, La Cultura Come Non Te L’Aspettavie)
SPECIAL REQUEST (deadline December 10, 2017): More and more magazines are charging submission fees and these are in some cases going up. The highest I encountered recently was $23 for the submission of one poem. Sometimes the publication pays writers and poets. Sometimes it doesn’t. This is not new, of course. Its been going on for some years now. It makes me wonder how much of a barrier that creates for writers. I’m collecting material on how you feel about these charges as a poet/writer and/or editor. Fair? Not fair? Okay depending on rate? Okay depending on whether or not they pay poets and writers? That sort of thing. I do plan to share the results of this informal survey at The Poet by Day. I won’t quote you by name without first getting your permission. Please let me know your thoughts about submission fees in the comments section below or by email: thepoetbyday@gmail.com. Thank you! J.D.
YOUR SUNDAY ANNOUNCEMENTS may be emailed to thepoetbyday@gmail.com. Please do so at least a week in advance.
If you would like me to consider reviewing your book, chapbook, magazine or film, here are some general guidelines:
send PDF to jamiededes@gmail.com (Note: I have a backlog of six or seven months, so at this writing I suggest you wait until June 2018 to forward anything. Thank you!)
nothing that foments hate or misunderstanding
nothing violent or encouraging of violence
English only, though Spanish is okay if accompanied by translation
though your book or other product doesn’t have to be available through Amazon for review here, it should be easy for readers to find through your site or other venues.
Often information is just that–information – and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often (generally) a means to generate income, publicity and marketing mailing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I rarely attend events anymore. Caveat Emptor: Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 