Griffin Poetry Prize

Hotel Lobby

admin — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:00:46 +0000

Light the pursuer, dark the pursued.
Light wants to fill dark with itself
and have it still be dark
so light can still be filling it.
Light pours from the massive shining of the chandelier
over the bronze boy bending beneath it
to the bronze pool where a watery face
is rising to meet his as he bends.
Light the pursuer, dark the pursued,
along the naked back and arms,
the hands, the fingers reaching
for the rippling features, just
beyond, just out of the grasp of
into and out of, and across
the marble floor and pillars,
to the tips of leaves, and up
the lion claws of chair legs and sofas and
over the glass tops of tables in the lounge,
light losing dark by catching it,
dark giving light the slip by being caught,
on elevator doors, down every
blazing hallway to the highest floor,
the farthest room, and through it
beyond the pulsing colors of the muted screen,
from hip to hip in a loose twilight
of sheets no longer shifting.

My heart has an Embassy

admin — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:00:50 +0000

My heart has an Embassy
for Ecuador where I will seek
asylum. Earthquakes
and aftershocks undermine
my hope and my means to work
and the Americans
have wormed into my psyche
with their black knack at fear.
My heart has an Embassy
for Ecuador as rare in air
and sumptuous as the Andes,
as clear as the Equator. There
will be in it waterfalls
and jungles like salvation.
There will be friends
whom I owe nothing, no
famed bail, no knotty
knowing sexualities. My heart
has an Embassy for Ecuador
where there will be no secrets
and the truth falls down like water
from giant granites of despair.

Mamilla International Poetry Festival

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:38:00 +0000

Title: Mamilla International Poetry Festival

Location: Ramallah + Jerusalem
Description: Encouraged by renewed hope for the preservation of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery, ARCH joins hands with the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation and Museum and the Campaign to Preserve Mamilla Jerusalem Cemetery in organizing the Mamilla International Poetry Festival, to take place in Ramallah and Jerusalem between September 7 – 9, 2013.

The festival, whose theme is “A Dialogue with Memory,” was conceived to protect the ancient Mamilla Cemetery from complete and final destruction by invoking poetry to promote it as a place of living memory and eternal sanctity.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Start Date: September 7, 2013
End Date: September 9, 2013

Mamilla International Poetry Festival submission deadline

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:37:28 +0000

Title: Mamilla International Poetry Festival submission deadline

Description: Encouraged by renewed hope for the preservation of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery, ARCH joins hands with the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation and Museum and the Campaign to Preserve Mamilla Jerusalem Cemetery in organizing the Mamilla International Poetry Festival, to take place in Ramallah and Jerusalem between September 7 – 9, 2013.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Date: May 31, 2013

Mark Doty and Darren Waterston present A swarm, a Flock, a Host – part of New York Public Library Art and Literature series

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:09:21 +0000

Title: Mark Doty and Darren Waterston present A swarm, a Flock, a Host – part of New York Public Library Art and Literature series

Location: New York, New York, US
Description: In this event National Book Award-winning poet Mark Doty and acclaimed artist Darren Waterston have an in-depth discussion about their stunning new book, A Swarm, a Flock, a Host: A Compendium of Creatures. Twelve original prints, created by Darren Waterston for the book, will be on exhibit during the event.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Date: May 22, 2013

Poetry Festival: A Celebration of Literary Journals

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:51:37 +0000

Title: Poetry Festival: A Celebration of Literary Journals
Location: West Caldwell, New Jersey, US
Description: The tenth anniversary of this showcase event will include twelve journals and their editors, plus twenty-four poets. Editors will be available to answer questions, and journals will be available for sale and subscription. Poets will read throughout the events. Books will be offered for sale and signing.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Date: May 19, 2013

Writing Retreat with Ros Barber

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:43:32 +0000

Title: Writing Retreat with Ros Barber

Location: Dordogne, France
Description: Prize-winning poet and novelist Ros Barber will inspire you and help you hone your writing in a structured-yet-relaxing week of creative focus. Whether you are writing poetry or prose, bringing a manuscript in progress or beginning a new writing project, Ros will individually guide each participant to help them get the most out of their week and their writing. Ros can also give advice on getting your work published.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Start Date: June 16, 2013
End Date: June 21, 2013

The Puffin Review Poetry Competition submission deadline

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:26:29 +0000

Title: The Puffin Review Poetry Competition submission deadline

Description: The Puffin Review is pleased to announce an exciting new poetry competition, which the publication is running with Le Manoir de Gurson, a country house and writers’ retreat in the Dordogne.

The Puffin Review seeks poems on the theme of peace and tranquillity, with a maximum word count of 200. The closing date for entries is 31st May 2013, and the competition will be judged by the poet Ros Barber, with the winner being announced in the Puffin Review’s July edition.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Date: May 31, 2013

Margaret Atwood speaks at Dallas Museum of Art Distinguished Writers series

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:57:06 +0000

Title: Margaret Atwood speaks at Dallas Museum of Art Distinguished Writers series

Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Description: Margaret Atwood is a giant of modern literature who refuses to rest on her laurels. She has anticipated, satirized, and even changed the popular pre-conceptions of our time, and is the rare writer whose work is adored by the public, acclaimed by the critics, and read on university campuses.

At this event, Margaret Atwood will discuss her accomplished body of work and her creative process. In conjunction with the DMA’s exhibition The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece, she will also speak on the influence of Greek myth on her own work. This includes her 2006 book The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus, a wry retelling of the familiar story of Homer’s Odyssey from the perspective of his wife, Penelope. In approaching Penelope, Atwood draws on multiple ancient sources to weave a new interpretation of the long-suffering, dutiful wife as a shrewd and practical woman, every bit the equal of her husband in guile and cleverness.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Date: May 31, 2013

The Written Image: Call for Submissions

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:36:55 +0000

Title: The Written Image: Call for Submissions

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Description: A creative partnership between Edinburgh Printmakers and the Scottish Poetry Library, with the aim of fostering new work and new ways of making. The initiative’s first printmaker-poet pair is printmaker Norman McBeath and poet Kathleen Jamie. The Scottish Poetry Library and Edinburgh Printmakers are now accepting submissions from poets and printmakers who would like to be considered for this innovative collaborative project.

Learn more here.

Return to the International Poetry Calendar.

Date: May 22, 2013