2008 Cave Canem Poetry Prize for African American Poets

Details from the Cave Canem site:

Established in 1999, this first book award is dedicated to the discovery of exceptional
manuscripts by African American poets. The participation of distinguished judges and
prominent literary presses has made this prize highly competitive.


2008 CAVE CANEM POETRY PRIZE

Judge: Clarence Major

Publisher: Graywolf Press

Clarence Major is a prizewinning poet, painter and novelist whose first collection of poems, Swallow the Lake, won the National Council on the Arts Award in 1970. Author of 10 books of poetry Major was a 1999 Bronze Medal finalist for the National Book Award for Configurations: New and Selected Poems, 1958-1998. Major’s poetry also earned him a 1971 New York Cultural Foundation prize. He is a contributor to more than 100 periodicals and anthologies. He has read his poetry at the Guggenheim Museum, the Folger Theatre, and in hundreds of universities, theaters, and cultural centers in the United States and Europe. In Yugoslavia he represented the United States in 1975 at the International Poetry Festival. He is also the editor of several landmark anthologies. Clarence Major lives in northern California.

Click here for details and a downloadable PDF of the complete guidelines.

Articles Needed - Cahoots Online Magazine

This just in from Cahoots online magazine:

Cahoots is a Canadian magazine freshly re-designed for the web for women who want more than the "same old same old" from a women’s magazine. Cahoots is a magazine for the creative, engaged, curious, soulful woman in all women. We are seeking submissions of articles, visual art, creative writing, and proposals for regular reviews and columns about things that really matter (and it’s not bee-stung lips!). Conspire to inspire. Visit www.cahootsmagazine.com for full submission guidelines.

Thirty-two Statements About Writing Poetry ~

If you aren't familiar with Marvin Bell (and I wasn't until I came across this gem!), his Thirty-two Statements About Writing Poetry is a wonderful introduction to this astute and insightful man. This award-winning author and poet has succinctly and clearly enumerated several (thirty-two, in fact), thought-provoking observations. Different ones will speak to you each time you read through them.

Get Connected

It was only a matter of time. Variety.com has launched a social networking site focused, of course, on the entertainment industry. Or, as we -- and they -- like to call it, "The Biz."

Think craigslist on caffeine and toting its screenplay or headshot along everywhere. If this sounds a little close to home, know that you're in good company. And now, you know where to find that company online.

What's Your Semicolon IQ?

It's not often that a punctuation mark makes headlines in the New York Times. How thrilling that not only was this particular semicolon noticed; it was found remarkable enough for a journalist to write about, and for the editor to accept that article for publication! Heartening, yes, that something as simple as this could bring fame to the writer; this can be an inspiration to us all!

Congratulations to Beyond Baroque

Los Angeles is known as an industry town. We are lucky that it is an industry filled with creative people, and we are fortunate to have so many talented and hyper-creative people in our midst, but many industry people have creative interests that extend beyond just movie making and there are also many creative people here who are not associated with the movie industry. Los Angeles poets, for example, are an unsung and undiscovered gem in this town. Poets rarely get the kind of press here (and perhaps everywhere) that they deserve. Because Los Angeles is an industry town, many of the artistic services and support around town are focused on movie making, so when a literary arts center such as Beyond Baroque exists, we must relish and preserve it.

LAwritersgroup.com congratulates Beyond Baroque on it's survival and lease extension, and we extend our literary hand in friendship and well wishes to this Los Angeles gem.

Comparing Agent Web Sites

Check out the Poe's Deadly Daughters blog, where Darlene Ryan has written an informative blog post called Agent Check about how to compare literary agents sites and screen them based on their Web sites.

Besides, despite the fact that the mere mention of the word 'homework' makes me cringe (I can handle 'home' and I can handle 'work' just not both off them together), I'm automatically a fan of someone who compares agents to bras and writes:

"Do your homework. A good agent, like a good bra, can lift you to the next level."