So, pick you age category, pick your topic, and write a winning article!
The deadline for the Rattle Poetry Prize is approaching. There’s a $25 fee, but it comes with quite a few perks.
Get your best four poems ready, and go rattling!
Happy writing!
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Louveciennes, c. 1872–1873. Oil on canvas, Overall: 15 1/4 x 18 1/4 in. (38.7 x 46.4 cm). BF860. Public Domain.
I stepped outside to see the evening birdsong,
and hear the lilacs fill the air with purple
and white aroma, and to drown before long
in maybe-May. Falling beyond the circle
of probability, defying lifelong
perceptions of what’s real, the twilight sparkled
with myriads of realms. Mind–proven all wrong–
accepted its defeat, joyfully humbled.
Prompted by Poetic Asides Strambotto Poetic Form Challenge.
Image: Henri Rousseau. Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest (Femme se promenant dans une forêt exotique), 1905. Oil on canvas, Overall: 39 3/8 x 31 3/4 in. (100 x 80.6 cm). BF388. Public Domain.
It is
(Won’t you agree?)
a dream away —
that filled with spring and promise
fun sun day
where we can touch the wind,
and taste the air,
and be the way we were,
without a care,
free to reclaim
what fleeting time can’t steal,
where we can hope once more,
and laugh,
and heal.
© 2014 Sasha A. Palmer
Image: © 2014 Nino Chakvetadze, reproduced with permission.
Happy April!
Bryn Donovan, editor, novelist, non-fiction writer, and blogger, shares 25 ideas for blog posts — try them all, or take your pick. Have fun blogging!
National Poetry Month is here. One of the many ways to celebrate April is to take part in the annual April Poem-A-Day Challenge. Catch up!
By the way, posting your poems on your blog throughout April–daily, or almost daily–is bound to give your blog a boost. Ready…Set…Go write poetry!
Happy April!
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Cup of Chocolate (Femme prenant du chocolat), c. 1912. Oil on canvas, Overall: 21 5/16 x 25 5/8 in. (54.1 x 65.1 cm). BF14. Public Domain.
Erica Verrillo has put together a list of 24 publishers accepting picture books without an agent. Check it out.
Except perhaps across borders. A trade publishing house Amazon Publishing has created a new children’s book imprint Amazon Crossing Kids that will focus on children’s picture books in translation.
You aren’t alone. “Why have we come to a place where picture books are relegated to the landscape only of the very young? It was not always thus.”
Go write one, or read one, enjoy!
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Claude Renoir, c. 1904. Oil on canvas, Overall: 21 5/8 x 18 1/4 in. (55 x 46.3 cm). BF935. Public Domain.
Submitting to Rattle is a cinch. Getting published in this American poetry magazine is not easy. But it’s worth a try.
Do you dream of getting published in Rattle?
They just might bring you a step closer to the realization of your dream.
Tim’s critiques are respectful, insightful, thought-provoking, and fun.
Watch them live if you can, post questions or comments in the thread. Or catch up later. Submit your own poem for a critique, if you dare.
Watch, listen, learn, contribute, have fun, keep writing, keep submitting, get published!
Image: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Pensive Young Woman (Jeune femme pensive), 1855–1860. Oil on panel (later mounted to plywood), Overall: 12 1/2 × 9 5/16 in. (31.8 × 23.7 cm). BF822. Public Domain.
Happy Pi Day!
Google Plus is leaving us for good. Time to “ungoogle+”.
Anne R. Allen takes you through all the steps of doing it properly.
Do it now — April 2 will be here before you know it.
Why not write a fun poem, and submit it to a contest?
Why Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest?
Deadline is April 1, 2019.
Write and submit!
Image: Pi Pie, created at Delft University of Technology, applied physics, seismics and acoustics; Public Domain
Kids, busy living,
have no use for our
big grownup words —
they know a better way
(the best there is)
to spend this precious hour,
so bite your tongue
and let them fly away.
Let them be children,
though it will not last.
Just let them be.
They’re in that magic place
where time is stalled—
no future yet, no past—
just happy now
shines on the old clock’s face.
© 2014 Sasha A. Palmer
Image: © 2013 Nino Chakvetadze, reproduced with permission.
HAPPY
I’ve no weight, I’m a kite,
Fly me high, hold on tight,
Don’t let go of my hand,
Bye-bye, land!
Keep your feet on the ground,
Planet Earth’s small and round,
With its oceans and all,
Like a ball.
Limitations disperse,
You are my universe,
Standing firmly, and bound
To the ground.
I am air, I am light,
I am day, I am night,
Watch me how I go whee!
Fly with me?
Burning bright, burning clear,
From this world disappear
In the blink of an eye
You and I.
© 2013 Sasha A. Palmer
Image: Marc Chagall, The Promenade (La Promenade) 1917-18; displayed under Fair Use.
Submit your previously unpublished book-length collection for a chance to win The Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry.
The prize awards $10,000, publication by Milkweed Editions, and other cool things.
Deadline: February 15, 2019.
Don’t miss your chance to win £30,000 (!)
Submit your writing to The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award — the world’s richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story.
Deadline: February 15, 2019.
Good luck!
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Fruit and Bonbonnière, c. 1915–1917. Oil on canvas, Overall: 9 7/16 x 12 5/8 in. (24 x 32 cm). BF39. Public Domain.
sasha a. palmer 