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.
On June 14, as the only funder in the country to support arts activities in all 50 states and five U.S. jurisdictions, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its second round of funding for FY 2017. This funding round includes partnerships with state, jurisdictional, and regional arts agencies. The NEA will award 1,195 grants totaling $84.06 million to support organizations that employ artists and cultural workers to provide programs for thousands of people from Idaho to Maine; in urban centers such as Cleveland, Ohio and Dallas, Texas; and in rural towns as different as Haines, Alaska and Whitesburg, Kentucky.
“The American people are recognized for their innovative spirit and these grants represent the vision, energy, and talent of America’s artists and arts organizations,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “I am proud of the role the National Endowment for the Arts plays in helping advance the creative capacity of the United States.”
NEA-funded arts activities are as diverse as the places that foster them. A folk festival in downtown Butte, Montana; a former gas station transformed into a glass foundry in Farmville, North Carolina; dance classes for children with special needs in Winter Park, Florida; and a playwrights’ workshop in New Harmony, Indiana are just a few of the projects included in the lists below.
These lists are organized by:
State/Jurisdiction and then by City/Town and by Funding Category (Art Works II, Our Town, Research: Art Works, and state and regional partnerships) and then Artistic Discipline/Field, ranging from arts education to visual arts
Competition for NEA grants is significant. In this second funding round for FY 2017, the agency received 2,063 eligible applications. The value of NEA funding is not only its monetary impact but also its reputation. An NEA grant confers a seal of approval, allowing an organization to attract other public and private funds beyond the required 1:1 match. In 2016, the ratio of NEA dollars to matching funds was 1:9 or $500 million.
To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, use #NEASpring17.
ART WORKS II: 1,029 awards totaling $26.1 million
Art Works is the NEA’s largest category and focuses on funding the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with art, lifelong learning in the arts, and strengthening of communities through the arts.
Examples of Art Works-supported projects are:
A $20,000 grant to Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre in Huntsville will provide free or reduced-cost clothing, equipment, nutrition, and professional instruction for underserved students during a summer dance program
A $20,000 grant to the Baltimore School for the Arts Foundation will support expansion of TWIGS (To Work In Gaining Skills), a free multidisciplinary arts education program for students from underserved communities
A $30,000 grant to the Montana Office of Public Instruction in Helena in partnership with the Montana Arts Council to help teachers and teaching artists integrate the arts into classroom instruction through the Montana Teacher Leaders in the Arts Institute.
OUR TOWN: 89 awards totaling $6.89 million
Our Town is the NEA’s signature creative placemaking program that supports partnerships of artists, arts organizations, and municipal government that work to revitalize neighborhoods. This practice places arts at the table with land-use, transportation, economic development, education, housing, infrastructure, and public safety strategies to address a community’s challenges. Creative placemaking highlights the distinctiveness of a place, encouraging residents to identify and build upon their local creative assets.
Examples of Our Town-supported projects are:
A $75,000 grant to the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock, Missouri to support community planning and design for the theater’s expansion. The Lyceum is the only professional theater between Kansas City and St. Louis.
A $100,000 grant to the National Association of Counties Research Foundation to allow the foundation to train county staff and managers on how to do arts-based economic development across rural America.
In addition to funding, the NEA advances creative placemaking through publications and resource development. In December 2016, the NEA released How to Do Creative Placemaking, a collection of essays and case studies. Other materials are available on the NEA’s newly re-launched creative placemaking page.
RESEARCH: ART WORKS: 14 awards totaling $540,000
This year marks the sixth year that the NEA has offered funding for research by outside parties through the Office of Research & Analysis. This year’s funded studies investigate research questions about the value and/or impact of the arts, or studies will explore causal links between the arts and another domain of interest.
For example; the Affordable Housing Management Company based in Fishers, Indiana will receive a $90,000 grant to support a study examining the effects of music engagement on low-income, older adults.
STATE AND REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS: 63 awards totaling $50.53 million
Through partnership agreements, the NEA translates national leadership into local and regional benefit. States and U.S. jurisdictions have their own arts agency that together receive 40 percent of the NEA’s grantmaking funds each year to support their programs and leverage state funding. In addition to these 55 agencies, six regional arts organizations are funded to manage programs across state, national, and international borders and across all arts disciplines.
In addition to the state and regional organizations, awards are made to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies to support national leadership services and to Pacific Resources in Education and Learning for delivering arts education services and technical assistance to arts agencies of the Pacific territories.
RELATED
Details on the threat by the current administration to NEA’s 2018 budget HERE.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
NEA logo, public domain
Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. For more information, visit http://www.arts.gov.
THE BeZINE submissions for the July 2017 issue – themed Prison Culture/Restorative Justice – deadline July 10th latest. Publication date is July 15th. Poetry, essays, fiction and creative nonfiction, art and photography, music (videos), and whatever lends itself to online presentation is welcome for consideration. Please check out a few issues first and the Intro./Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines. No demographic restrictions. We would encourage submissions from people who are involved one way or the other in the justice system and former youth “offenders.” Critique along with constructive suggestions or tested solutions and best practices are welcome. We do not publish anything that promotes hate or violence.
Heads-up on the August zine: The theme is Theatre. Deadline: August 10.
HADEAN PRESS publishes books, journals and pamphlets and since its founding in 2008 has focused on occult books, journals, and pamphlets in standard and hand-bound editions. Details HERE.
DREAM POP JOURNAL, a quarterly published by Dream Pop Press features experimental writings. Beginning 2018 this press will open to chapbook submission “Dream Pop Press seeks to make space for non-narrative, linguistically inventive writing. We are interested in lyric memoir, cross-genre experimenters, fearless inventors, and poets who dream in made-up languages.” Submissions may incude poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art. Details HERE.
PASSAGER BOOKS, “dedicate to writers over 50 and writers over 60, 70, 80, 90 … ,” publishes two journals a year. These include poetry, memoir, essay and short fiction. Its 2018 Open Issue accepts submissions through September 15, 2017. There is a submission fee of $2. Details HERE.
THE MALAHAT REVIEW (CA) welcomes submission of poetry, fiction an creative nonfiction from writers and poets at all stages of career. Poetry guidelines are HERE.
THE LOW VALLEY REVIEW, a publication of NorthWest Arkansas Community College ” celebrates and amplifies the typically under-heard voices of writers and artists in community colleges nationwide. We represent the blended, sometimes gritty, perspectives of nontraditional students: the first-generation college student, the veteran back from service, the immigrant, the retiree taking a class for the pure love of learning. We will also publish work from the community college at large, including full-time instructors, adjunct lecturers, and staff.” This review accepts submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and art from October through February. Details HERE.
GO WORLD TRAVELfor those who love to travel invites submission of travel articles up to 1,600. Pays $30 to $40 on publication. Details HERE.
THE SHALLOW ENDS publishes poetry and will re-open for submissions on September 1. Details HERE.
BORROWED SOLACE, a new online publication, is interested in considering submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, photography and artwork. “Borrowed Solace hopes to publish artful work that inspires readers to fall in love with language. They want stories, essays, and poems that invite readers to ask for more. They accept work in all genres and styles, but prefer pieces without excessive violence or erotica, unless it has a purpose.” Details HERE.
RED QUEEN MAGAZINE “named Red Queen after the Red Queen effect, a hypothesis which proposes that organisms must constantly adapt & evolve not only to get ahead, but to stay exactly where they are. We fight through literature to maintain ourselves; we write & we edit & we rewrite just to preserve our lives. We want work that has torn you apart & then saved you. Work that bleeds & then heals. Literature for you to consume, & literature that consumes you.” The focus now is work on the current political climate expressed in poetry, prose and art. Details HERE.
TETHERED BY LETTERS, A Nonprofit Literary Publisher and Writer’s Resource, publishes F(r)iction and welcomes submission year round. Of interest: short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and graphic stories or comics. This publication also sponsors annual contests. Look for future announcements. Details HERE.
LIKELY RED, a new online publication that has published two issues to date pays its writers ($25 on acceptance) and welcomes submissions of prose, poetry, photography, art year round. Details HERE.
ARSENIKA is a journal of speculative poetry and flash fiction and “seeks marginalized voices. We work to uplift those outside the center and believe that identity is not the defining trait of a piece of work, but that unnameable quality that weaves through prose and poetry to give it its nuance.” Details HERE.
BLOOD & BURBON, a publication produced by storytellers for storytellers, has an open call-for-submissions for its Fall 2017 issue theme Death. appropriate submissions are non-fiction, fiction, poetry or black and white photography and “could be satire, speculative fiction, horror or some angle we haven’t even thought of.” Deadline is the end of August.Details HERE.
ONE PERSON’S TRASH, “a literary print journal [quarterly] with a web presence …. tells homeless stories” [through poetry, fiction, nonfiction and interviews] by homeless, formerly homeless, and people whose professional and personal lives intersect with the homeless.” Details HERE.
FOUR CHAMBERS PRESS is accepting poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction manuscripts through July 31, 2017 deadline. Details HERE.
CONTESTS
Opportunity Knocks
THE STANZA POETRY COMPETITION (UK) “is open exclusively to Poetry Society members (if you’re not a member join here) and who are also members of a Poetry Society Stanza. The theme for the 2017 competition is WALLS. Send up to two poems, max 40 lines per poem (not including title). Free entry. Closing date is Monday 11 September 2017 and the winners will be announced on National Poetry Day, Thursday 28 September 2017. Judge: Andy Croft.” Details HERE.
PRESS 53 Award for Poetry 2018 competition is open for submissions through July 31. Winner receives a cash advance of $1000 and publication. There is a $30 reading fee. Details HERE.
2018 FAR HORIZONS AWARD FOR POETRY (CA) is not yet accepting submission watch The Malahat Review for updates. This is for poets who have not yet published a collection. Prize is $1,000 (CAD). The deadline is May 1, 2018. Entry fees vary. Submissions from outside of Canada are welcome. Details HERE.
THE POETRY CENTER sponsors three annual competitions: Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, The Paterson Poetry Prize, and The Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. February 1, 2018 is the deadline for all. Details HERE.
EVENTS
TONIGHT 8 pm – Festa Junina (Brazilian music and traditional foods) in Berkeley, 8pm – 1 am. Hosted by Praganala and BrasArte at BrasArte, 1901 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Poetry with Punch, Bradford Literature Festival, poetry, world affairs and politics, July 6, 7:30 – 10 p.m. More detail HERE.
100,000 Poets for Change annual global event is scheduled for September 30. Details HERE.
The BeZine 100,000 Poets for Change Virtual Event is scheduled for September 30.
Second Saturday @ Cyrus: featuring Omatara James and Gladys Henderson from 7:15-9:45 p.m. on July 8 Hosted by Matt Pasca and Omotara James at Cyrus: Chai & Coffee Company, 1 Railroad Plz, Bay Shore, New York 11209
Legacy Conversations: Chris Abani and Norman Ellis hosted by Cave Canem from 7-9 p.m. n July 11th at the Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine 61 W. Superior St., Chicago, Illinois.
Second Annual Chicago Poetry Block Party from 2-9 p.m. on July 29. Hosted by and held at the National Museum of Mexican Art and Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine. 1852 W. 19th Street, Chicago, IL
Arte Folia: Preto No Branco (Artefolia Dance Company) from 7 -10 pm, August 27. Hosted by Aninha Malandro at BrasArte, 1901 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Since 2011, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, cofounded by Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carion, have worked indefatigably to organize events around the world for peace, justice and sustainability. Now, they’ve also created aGLOBAL ACTION CALENDAR open to EVERYONE to post Creative Actions around the world.
Sonjia Beskin Mesher art honoredby Halls Writing Forum, St. Edmunds Hall Oxford. One comment, “I think my favourite for this incredibly complex challenge is Sonja’s tiny, trembling moment of truth”
Paul Brookes (The Wombwell Rainbow) for his many publications and reblogs this month. Appropriate acknowlegement by other poets for this original and prolific poet.
OTHER NEWS AND INFORMATION
10 Simple Yet Empowering Writing Apps for Your Mac, Tomas Laurivicius, Forbes Magazine (Ed. Note: There are probably other versions of these or similar ones for PCs that a bit of research would reveal, but I don’t do Windows.)
On Giving Feedback, Anthony Wilson (Lifesaving Poetry, BloodAxe Books, 2015) and Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter
Often information is just that – information – and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications featured in Sunday Announcements or elsewhere on this site. Awards and contests are often a means to generate income and publicity for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I am homebound due to disability and no longer attend events. Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products or paying fees, or attending events et al.
Over his morning coffee he sat,
dreaming of yesterday’s spring
and the hill country of his youth,
remembering summers of peace
and autumn days when he thought
life a forever thing. The world lay before
him then, a ripe field awaiting harvest.
Now beside this sad cup, a winter hand,
so withered and so gray, an old man’s
hand he barely recognized as his own.
Then his gaze found her playful smile.
In the hazel warmth of her eyes he
felt like spring again, the rich loam of
her love yielding a gentle harvest of joy
So, what about your morning coffee – or tea? Tells us …
If you feel comfortable leaving your work or a link to it in the comments section, please do. All work shared will be published on this site next Tuesday.
THE LAST WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT June 21: Times and places of peace leave no scars to jog our memories and stoke the fires of our hope. Remember peace or imagine it: What would a world at peace look like?
My own poem that accompanied the prompt was about re-imagining a war torn place – Syria – into peace. Some have taken the prompt and pointed it at inner peace or the personal experience of a peaceful moment, both of which would be the everyday norms of a peaceful world. S.E. Ingram writes about explaining peace to a child … and it is peace to that child when he and his brother stop hitting one another. And so it is with the world at large.
Thanks to all who came out to play.
EXPLAINING A PEACE-SIGN TO A TODDLER
It never occurred to me how impossible
it might be to describe a concept to a child
An innocent whose frame of reference
doesn’t yet extend to encompass such
atrocities as war
So how to explain the need for peace
I give him a teddy-bear that is tie-dyed,
a souvenir from a trip to New Orleans;
I don’t notice until he’s holding it that
the bear is sporting a peace sign on its
miniature T-shirt, and naturally the 2 year
old wants to know what it “says”
He understands the hexagonal red road
signs mean “stop”, and the inverted yellow
triangles mean “wait” (yield actually, but
it’s a word still beyond him)
But peace? I try to explain about fighting
and then no fighting
He nods wisely, asks me if it’s like when he
and his brother “hit” and then get into
trouble
Is it “peace” when they both stop hitting
In a way, I tell him, in a way…
above a bay containing a quiet sea
not quite knowing
so many years ago
the drift of my soul
or the even more alien drift of the soul
of that other now just
a sometimes voice on the telephone—
this single event
comes back to me now
when I could very well do without it:
it was a moment before going back for hotel teatime
on a hill complete with sensation of slipping down & off
above a bay containing such a quiet sea
such a long remorseful soul-drift
between then & now
and that is all you’ll know of it
except that you’ll compare it
with that small event that drifts
in & out of your own recollection
particle & wave depending on your angle
(both together when you look away
from what’s held in place
by time & space maybe something like
a hill… a bay… a sea quietly moving there
stuck like a tune on an old record)
my self the zero coordinate
(emergent uprising)
held in place momentarily by
the elements that constitute
a State of Being:
walker & path walked;
dreamer & dream-journey;
thinker & web of thought
*
This was a moment of peace that may seem like some kind of scar but my own quiet state now is a ‘zero coordinate’, unifying all, which is a rather larger moment of peace still warmly linked to that hill above a bay… I feel myself there right now nearly sixty years ago!
The poem comes from my The Recovery of Wonder (Hub Editions, 2013)
In a time primordial when first life began
unimaginative of the harsh realities of wars
when sunrises and sunsets were ethereal
she can only imagine stepping into dreams
of discovering an unblemished world of those
dreams made of translucent skies so that
much like Peter all she has to do is to go
to the star second to the right and straight
on till morning or perhaps like Alice she
should eat but a small bit of cake to become
just the right size to enter the garden
there upon discovering a different world
for in seeing forever is the powerful force
where oceans teeming with life are no longer
a graveyard of war ships but only coral reefs
a delightful dance of colors and creatures
and where gardens floral are wondrous delights
for children playing for hate is not a word
so cannot invade her dreams that will always
be pristine as newly fallen snow in Winter
with skies so clear she can revel to see them all
from anywhere to blissfully fly to the star second
to the right and straight on till morning
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 