14 Comments

When are the decisions on this contest made and communicated? Could not find that info. Thanks.

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Also trying to find this, especially since my email is shit sometimes and throws good stuff in Junk so I fear I’ll miss any follow-up info.

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1) SO WHERE DOES ONE SEND POEMS FOR THE CONTEST?

2) IM 78. IVE BEEN SENDING OUT WORK FOR A LONG TIME. IVE SEEN THE LANGUAGE OF THE BUSINESS CHANGE- IE "BUILDING YOUR PLATFORM", " CREATING A BLOG" " CREATING A NEWSLETTER" "WRITING COACHES" ( SOME OF THE BEST WRITING COACHES IV EVER WORKED WITH ARE VIRGINIA WOOLF, JOHN BEECHER, JEAN TOOMER AND THEODORE ROETHKE

3) TO TALK ABOUT JUDGES IS SOMEWHAT SPECIOUS, MOST LIT EMAGS ARE CONNECTED WITH CCLLEGES AND MFA PROGRAMS, AND MOST OF THE "JUDGES" ARE PEOPLE IN THEIR MIDTWENTIES WHO DO NOT HAVE A WIDE READING EXPERIENCE BEYOND THE CANNON ( IE THEY HAVE READ VERY FEW IF ANY OF THE INCREDIBLE POETS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST,LATIN AMERICA, EASTERN EUROPE AND THE TWO ORGANIZATIONS THATHAVEREVOLUTIONIZED POETRY IN THE USABROAD CAVE CANEM AND KUNDIMDN

I AM ALSO SEEING THE PRETENTIOUS WORD "CURATE". CURATORS ARE GIFTED PEOPLE WHO DO MUSEUM EXHIBITS AND ARTSHOWS. THEY ARE NOT PEOPLE WHO EDIT MAGAZINES. YOU WANT TO SOUND FANCY GO AHEAD. DONT BESUPRISED IFYOU HEAR LAUGH S AND HEAR SMIRKS.

LAST BT NOT LEAST. WHERE DOES SOMEONE SEND YOURWORK

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Something I’ve been wondering. Some contests seem to have the same poets pop up as winners/finalists year after year. I don’t necessarily think contests are rigged, just that editors are humans like the rest of us, who are bound to be drawn to the kinds of voices they love again and again. I always thought that having guest judges was a way to prevent that. But if the judge really only reads the top ten-ish poems—$500-$1000 to read ten poems? Wow!—that wouldn’t really prevent repeat winners / finalists. I’m excited about this first contest, and continue to be excited about the community you’re building.

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author

Yes so because it’s still readers and editors going through the contest submissions for the most part, we still see similar people winning.

Thank you so much for your kind words. We’re very excited and hopefully only wonderful things are in store!!

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Feb 28Liked by Shannan Mann

Do you consider that sharing a poem on a personal Substack or other social media makes that poem "previously published?" Or do you mean published or curated in the traditional sense by a lit mag or journal?

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author

You can send poems published on social media and blogs! We love those 💗

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I’d like to know this too

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Feb 28Liked by Shannan Mann

This is awesome!! But how many poems should we send for the contest? (If it was written, sorry for missing it).

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Feb 28Liked by Shannan Mann

If you click the Submit Now button it'll take you to a page with submission guidelines.

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Feb 29Liked by Shannan Mann

Oh didn’t think about that 😅 silly me. Thanks

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Feb 28Liked by Shannan Mann

Excellent information and well presented too.

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Feb 28·edited Feb 28Liked by Karan Kapoor, Shannan Mann

You did a great job explaining "the why" and putting this together. Excited to see what comes out of this first contest!

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author

Thank you Mark! We’re pretty excited too!!

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