Purple Iris after a rain.
Love is a flower. /
Often too short a time /
but always a wonder.
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Haiku to you Thursday: “Love is…”
Purple Iris after a rain.
Love is a flower. /
Often too short a time /
but always a wonder.
Guidelines | Ploughshares
Emerging Writer’s Contest
Deadline is May 22, 2017
The Emerging Writer’s Contest is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish or self-publish a book. The winner in each genre will be awarded $2,000. Read past winners of the contest here. To submit to the Emerging Writer’s Contest, please visit our submission manager.
The 2017 contest judges are Garth Greenwell (fiction), Meghan Daum (nonfiction), and Natalie Diaz (poetry).
Publication
The winning story, essay, and poems from the 2017 contest will be published in the Winter 2017-18 issue of Ploughshares, and each writer will receive $2,000 and two copies of the issue in which their work appears.
Eligibility
You are eligible if you:
- Have yet to publish a book (including chapbooks, eBooks, translations, books in other languages/countries, and self-published works).
- Have no book forthcoming before April 15, 2018.
- Are not affiliated with Ploughshares or Emerson College as a contributing author, volunteer screener, blogger, intern, student, staff member, or faculty member.
- Will not have a relationship with Emerson before April 15, 2018 (example: if there is a chance you will attend the Emerson MFA program in the coming year or if your work has been accepted for publication for an upcoming issue).
Submitting
The contest opens March 1, 2017 at noon EST and has been extended to May 22, 2017 at noon EST. We will announce winners in mid-September, 2017.
Fiction and Nonfiction: Under 6,000 words
Poetry: 3-5 pages
Submit one entry per year via our online submission manager.
- No entries via email or mail will be considered for the contest.
- Submitted work must be original and previously unpublished in any form.
- For poetry, we will be reading both for the strongest individual poem and the general level of work, and may choose to publish one, some, or all of the winner’s submitted poems.
- Cover letters are not necessary. All identifying information will be removed from submissions.
Entry Fee
Entry to the contest requires a $24 fee, which is waived if the submitter is a current subscriber. The fee is:
- Payable by Visa or MasterCard through the online submission system.
- Includes a 1-year subscription to Ploughshares (beginning with the Spring 2017 issue and ending with the Winter 2017-18 issue).
- Includes free submissions to the 2017 reading period
Current subscribers—through the Winter 2017-18 issue—may submit for free.*
*If you are a current subscriber, you will still be prompted to checkout, but you will not be required to enter your credit card information and will not be charged.
To submit to the Emerging Writer’s Contest, please visit our submission manager.
Source: Guidelines | Ploughshares
Filed under 2017, contest, writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday
cARtOONSdAY: “nOVEL iDEA”
Dear Muse, is it okay if I write this novel in memo form instead of regular chapters?
Filed under 2017, CarToonsday
Monday (morning) writing joke: “Faking it”
There once was a writer ignorant of history, /
For whom dates and names were a mystery. /
Did it happen there? /
Did anyone really care? /
It let him tell the story so simplistically.
Filed under 2017, Monday morning writing joke, poetry by author
The pot and the kettle
Letting off steam.
The pot and the kettle
The pot and the kettle /
made of weak metal /
are less than fundamental: /
They’re not right./
They put on displays /
In fundamental ways /
Undermining mainstays /
And creating only blight./
“My lies can’t compete /
With falsehoods you repeat./
Put down your tweet /
And tell me what to say.”/
But the pot said to the kettle:/
“You’ve got to keep your mettle/
Because I won’t settle/
For nothing less today./
“We remain on course/
In all our discourse/
There will be no divorce/
From my lies that are true.”/
Said the kettle to the pot:/
“You have said a lot/
Some of which has begot/
Us in a trouble or two.”/
“That doesn’t matter.”/
The pot said like a mad hatter./
“All the facts are but chatter/
That will go away./
“We must all remember/
The role of a dissembler/
Is not in any way render/
Anything that will stay./
“A lie we tell here/
We tell it loud and clear/
But we do not ever steer/
As if those words are right./
“We will lie as we must/
As on and on they discuss/
That in us they cannot trust/
And in that is our might.”/
“We start at the beginning/
And blame them for our sinning/
Grafting and grinning/
Together all the way./
“For the true believer/
Has a different receiver/
And it matters not which lever/
We jerk down today.”/
The pot and the kettle /
made of weak metal /
are less than fundamental: /
They’re not right./
They put on displays /
In fundamental ways /
Undermining mainstays /
Creating death and blight./
–by David E. Booker
Filed under 2017, poetry by author
Photo finish Friday: “Cold one”
Photo courtesy of Chris Brock.
The coldest beer in the USA
by David E. Booker
The coldest beer in the USA
Drive up and down the pike
Turn left or turn right
You won’t find another
As cold and as clear tonight.
My truck broke down.
My dog died suddenly
And my woman, she left me
Running off with my brother
What else bad can there be?
The coldest beer in the USA
Drive up and down the pike
Turn left or turn right
You won’t find another
As cold and as clear tonight.
My barber’s quiet frown
Says my hair’s gone astray
Fading from my head, more each day.
Being bald makes me shudder.
I cry and throw my comb away.
The coldest beer in the USA
Drive up and down the pike
Turn left or turn right
You won’t find another
As cold and as clear tonight.
One left and eleven down.
Empties rattle in the back.
Now here comes the local flack.
He’s after me and no other.
I sip the last of the twelve pack.
The coldest beer in the USA
Drive up and down the pike
Turn left or turn right
You won’t find another
As cold and as clear tonight.
Sitting in a cell downtown
Waiting to be shipped to the jail
Nobody left to throw my bail.
Then I see my dear ol’ brother.
The look of man about to fail.
The coldest beer in the USA
Drive up and down the pike
Turn left or turn right
You won’t find another
As cold and as clear tonight.
I give him my best frown.
He walks over and says to me:
“Brother forgive and let it be
“She ran off with yet another.
“Our half-brother who’d been at sea.”
The coldest beer in the USA
Drive up and down the pike
Turn left or turn right
Sadly, we can’t have another
On this cold and clear tonight.
Filed under 2017, Photo Finish Friday
Haiku to you Thursday: “Rush hour II”
Doppler whines and groans: /
Asphalt, tires, steel, and luck. /
Roadside trees wave bye.
Filed under 2017, Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
Writing tip Wednesday: “Say what?”
What you say (or write) says something about you or your characters.
Filed under 2017, writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday
The Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad ebook is now on sale for $2.99 | Tor/Forge Blog
Pick up the ebook edition of Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad, on sale for only 2.99 until June 2nd.
Source: The Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad ebook is now on sale for $2.99 | Tor/Forge Blog
Pick up the ebook edition of Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad, on sale for only 2.99. This offer will only last for a limited time, so order your copy today!
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Forty years after the Wild Card Virus’s release, the World Health Organization decides it’s time to take a delegation of Aces, Jokers, politicians, and journalists on a fact-finding mission to learn how other countries are dealing with the virus that reshaped humanity. Leading the team is Gregg Hartmann, a senator with presidential aspirations and a dangerous ace up his sleeve. Joining him is a menagerie of some of the series’ best and most popular Wild Cards, including Dr. Tachyon, aces Peregrine and Golden Boy, and jokers Chrysalis, Troll, and Father Squid.
From the jungles of Haiti and Peru to the tumultuous political climate of Egypt, from a monastery in Japan to the streets of the most glamorous cities of Europe, the Wild Cards are in for an eye-opening trip. While some are worshiped as actual gods, those possessing the most extreme mutations are treated with a contempt that’s all too familiar to the delegates from Jokertown. New alliances will be formed, new enemies will be made, and some actions will fulfill centuries-old prophecies that make ripples throughout the future of the Wild Cards universe.
cARtOONSdAY: “lIBRARY … lOVE”
But the most difficult part of all was deciding which he loved more.
Filed under 2017, cartoon by author, CarToonsday
Booker's Blog 