Wow. Wow, you guys. Wow!
I asked for soul and spirit and transcendence, and I got it. In spades. I am one lucky woman. And I am so deeply touched by the sheer profundity of connection and joy this contest has already given me. Thank you, all, who submitted, shared, and spread the word.
This Saturday, September 23rd, is the cut-off date for this month’s submissions. I’ll need that week to make my final decision, get in touch with the winner, and firm up bio and any small edits. The winning poem will be published at NinaAlvarez.net the first day of October. Winner will receive $50.
Planning to submit? Here you go.
But have no fear, if you planned to submit and haven’t gotten to it yet. The contest continues on a rolling basis. Anything submitted after September 23rd simply goes to the November Poem of the Month contest, which will be decided in late October, and so on and so on.
This has been a miraculous and exploratory experience for me. I have received multiple pieces from nearly 100 submitters. There are so many who deserve to win, but I can choose only one.
However, if you want to submit the same piece again next month, or submit something new, you are welcome to try as often as you want. Every month is a new batch, a clean slate.
Please also note that I have launched a chapbook contest. More on that in a future post. But here is the skinny:
- It’s called “The Cosmographia Chapbook” Contest (changed from Poem of the Month Chapbook contest because it was getting confusing.)
- Same style and guidelines as “Poem of the Month” contest
- $15 to enter
- Prize is $250 and print publication through Cosmographia Books
- 40-60 pages
- runs for three month: ends December 21, 2017
Any poems styles/themes that would have submitted to the Poem of the Month contest would be fine. You can review those guidelines, if you’d like.
To further explain “Cosmographia:”
A cosmographia is traditional map is a one-dimensional piece of paper depicting a three-dimensional world. But a cosmographia (from the Latin cosmography, the science of describing the features of the entire universe) is all-encompassing and reaches far beyond the earthly realm and the “here there be dragons” edges of a flat map.
Many philosophers, including Ptolemy, Munster, and Silvestris, produced works titled Cosmographia. Today’s scholars may not be producing cumbersome tomes describing the whole of the universe, but many, like Rochester’s Nina Alvarez, bring this same global and multidisciplinary sensibility to publishing.
Whatever you are exploring, in a collection I look for a spirit that holds the individual pieces together. It doesn’t have to give clean answers, in fact you might walk away with more questions than you came in with. But there should be a resonance that runs like electricity piece to piece, and a grammar of images and ideas and forms.
Any questions, please email editor@cosmographiabooks.com.
Poem of the Month 