I met poet David Rivard a couple of months back, when he gave a reading during the Lesley University low-residency MFA program’s winter residency. He’s a great poet and a great guy (as the writer friend with whom I attended the reading–a neighbor of Rivard and his family–attests). So I was really pleased to see Robert Pinsky’s glowing review of Rivard’s new book, Sugartown, in the Washington Post. If Rivard is reading near you, go hear him!
If you’re a poet, short story writer, or essayist, you’ve probably spent some time (and maybe a lot of time) thinking about ways to structure a collection. In the April Writer’s Digest, Paola Corso offers some tips on how poets can go about this. And the article is available online, too.
Starting next week you can submit poetry for the Akron Art Museum’s New Words 2006 Poetry Competition, open to (adult) poets currently residing in Ohio. Submit only previously unpublished work beginning January 2, 2006 (postmark deadline is February 24, 2006). The top three winners will receive cash prizes ($125, $100, and $75, respectively). The top eight finalists will be invited to participate in a reading to be held Sunday, April 30, in Akron. For full details/submission guidelines, click here.
The Pedestal Magazine plans to feature North Carolina poets in its April 2006 issue. The editors intend to include 10-15 poems and will pay their standard rate ($30/poem). For more information, including submission instructions, click here.
No, I’m not talking about the British World War One poets–this time. That’s a subject I’ve been known to focus on.
Today, however, I suggest you check out Dana Goodyear’s Talk of the Town piece in the current New Yorker. Goodyear profiles Brian Turner, 38, a former Army sergeant whose book of poems, Here, Bullet, was recently released by Alice James Books. The book, about a year Turner spent deployed in Iraq, won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award. It’s Turner’s debut collection.