Hey, traveler…

Perhaps you were one of the poets, or an audience member, at the recent SpeakEasy: Road Trip reading in Bellingham. Maybe you write about places you go or rely upon the wisdom of poets to guide you on your travels. In any case, the Huffington Post’s Peter Mandel wants to hear from you.

In this post, he asks “which poems have been special to you in ‘opening up’ places you’ve traveled to, helping you notice and appreciate things on the road, causing a smile or smirk or bringing back memories of a trip when you’re back home.” Mandel says he’s “at work on a book that will collect in one volume — paperback-size, I hope — some of the best travel poems ever written.”

While Mandel doesn’t mention submitting your own work, he also doesn’t say you should not. Visit his HuffPo article to find out how to send a poem — yours or otherwise.
. . . . .
map

Mark your calendar!

Attention Whatcom County poets and fans of the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest throughout the region. We have some important dates for your calendar:

Saturday, February 9, 2013 ~ Another fabulous workshop to benefit the Contest. We’ll post additional details as soon as they’re available.
March 1-31, 2013 ~ The Contest opens for submissions from Whatcom County poets of all ages.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 ~ If you love food and you love poetry, you won’t want to miss Taste for Poetry, the annual fundraising dinner extraordinaire at Ciao Thyme in Bellingham.
Thursday, May 16, 2013 ~ Join the winners of the 2013 Sue Boynton Poetry Contest at the Cruise Terminal for one of Whatcom County’s most memorable and heartwarming poetry events: the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony.

Additional details to follow. Contest guidelines will be posted as soon as they’re finalized. Many more local and regional poetry events on the NW Lit Events page (updated daily!).

Happy 255th, Mr. Blake

“One Power alone makes a Poet: Imagination, The Divine Vision.”
William Blake

. . . . .
Portrait of Blake, engraved by Schiavonetti after Phillips, 1808.

call for poets…

Every spring, in a crescendo of creativity, Bellingham Repertory Dance and Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater collaborate on Phrasings in Word + Dance. If you’ve attended (or participated in) previous shows, you know what a treat this is; if not, you’ve missed something fine.

The call for poets for Phrasings 2013 is now open. Submissions must be received on or before Saturday, December 8, 2012. Poets are invited to submit either a written piece OR a proposal to collaborate. Read and follow (carefully) the guidelines here (don’t fret about the post date on the blog; the information is current).

Friday reading in Olympia…

Art Kitchen and the Olympia Poetry Network present some of Olympia’s most dearly loved poets, including Barbara Gibson, Bonnie Jo Jones, Elizabeth St Louis, Emily Van Kley, Grayce Forsythe, Jeanne Lohmann, Madison Bennett-Ponsford, Mimi Alcántar, Sandra Yannone and Terri Cohlene, plus the piano musings of Ami Aika. 6:30pm, Friday, November 30, 2012, Traditions Café.

what to do next…

The cursor flashes on the blank screen. The clock ticks. You wait. You wait.

If you’re ready to stop waiting, ready for a little writer-assist — or a little writer-fun — hasten yourself over to Language is a Virus. There you’ll find writing games, exercises and articles, poetry generators (!) and NaNoWriMo tools (sure it’s almost the end of November, but it’s never too late…and you’re going to keep writing, right?). They even have a Pet Name Generator! Surely you can find something on this crazy site to prompt a poem.

But, in case Language is a Virus fails to eject you from inaction, you could have a look at other posts tagged poetry prompts.

Whatcom Magazine!

Fantastic article by Dean Kahn on the local poetry scene in Whatcom Magazine, out today. Go get it!

subscribe!

Mary Gillilan (Independent Writers Studio) and Norman Green (Threshold Documents) are celebrating the launch of Clover 4 by initiating a subscription service. Clover, A Literary Rag is produced and printed (with letterpress cover) in Bellingham, Washington, with more than 200 pages of poetry and stories in each issue. Each $30 annual subscription brings two issues of Clover to your mailbox.

Clover 4 will be published in December, with local readings in January. To subscribe, send an e-mail to clover@independentwritersstudio.com.

Have you submitted?

There’s still time!
(But not much.)

Each year, as part of the Whatcom READS! program, Whatcom County residents are invited to submit works for a companion volume. This year’s contest is in celebration of the Whatcom READS! book Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.

Whatcom WRITES! 2013 is now accepting submissions on the theme LOYALTIES. Has someone been there for you when you most needed a loyal friend? Or perhaps your loyalty has been tested? How does it feel to stand up for someone — or something — you believe in?

Write up to 800 words on the theme LOYALTIES — poetry, fiction or nonfiction — one entry per person. Go to Whatcom READS! and click on the link there for complete details.

The deadline is Saturday, December 1, 2012. Get busy!

Watch some poetry for Thanksgiving…

The poets are here! Thanks to Bellingham Television (BTV10), 23 of the winning poets from the 2012 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest have been recorded reading their poems. The short clips run on BTV10 between other programming and they can now be viewed on the Sue Boynton Poetry channel on YouTube.

The Contest is deeply grateful to BTV10, and, in particular to Dal Neitzel and to the cameraman, DJ, who did so much to make the poets comfortable and the experience enjoyable. Thank you!

And as long as we’re saying thanks, we’d like to extend our gratitude to the many poets and friends of poetry who read these posts, who click Like, who leave Comments and who find information and inspiration here.

Thank you and best wishes for a very delicious Thanksgiving!