Wednesday, March 9, 2011

In case someone wants to take part.

This was sent to me by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. I'm not a cover artist, but in case someone reading this is, I'm passing it along.

M E D I A R E L E A S E



CONTACT: Carolyn Howard-Johnson e-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com
CONTACT: Magdalena Ball e-mail: maggieball@compulsivereader.com

For Immediate Release

Award-Winning Poets Seek Artwork for New Chapbook

World Wide Web-- Poetry Partners Seek Artwork for Fifth Chapbook

It's been said (quite a few times!) that a picture is worth a thousand words. Even though Magdalena Ball and I are poets, we think the original author may have underestimated, and we'd like you--if you're a painter or a photographer--to prove us wrong.

We are the coauthors of the Celebration Series of chapbooks of poetry.
They include Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love) , She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) , Imagining the Future (for Fathers), and Blooming Red, a Christmas chapbook. Chapbooks have been a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times. The Celebration Series goes beyond the cliched sentiments in most greeting cards - and does it for about the same price.

All four of our chapbooks are illustrated by artists making each a triple effort.
Cherished Pulse and Blooming Red feature artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas. She Wore Emerald Then features photographs by May Lattanzio and Imagining the Future a photo by celebrated composer Ricky Ian Gordon.

We are planning a fifth chapbook lauding women's issues and feminist themes. We are looking for submissions to be used on its cover. Yes, it's a contest. The winner's work will be featured on Deeper Into the Pond: A Celebration of Femininity to be published later in 2011. There is no pay but since Ball runs respected review Web site The Compulsive Reader (www.thecompulsivereader.com), and Howard-Johnson is the author of a multi award-winning series of books for writers including The Frugal Book Promoter, they can promise a wide distribution of the cover image, credit and a biography of the cover artist in the book, and tons of marketing exposure.

See the other chapbooks' covers at www.howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm.

Here is a poem from that chapbook:

Ariel

Memory's two voices,
the you-girl
suffering the moment
and the you-now
who interprets.
You promise yourself
you won't fear the secrets,
won't tell what happened
without the feelings.
You deny yourself that
and you become Ursula
stealing your own song,
leaving yourself gurgling
under the sea. You need
the music to tell your story,
to find it, to understand it
to know the truth,
to reach above the
ocean's surface
where
others
live.

If you have something you'd like us to see, please e-mail your creative work to Ball at maggie_ball@bigpond.com with SUBMISSION: DEEPER INTO THE POND in the subject line. We hope to have a decision by June 1, 2011 and we reserve the right to select no winner. If a winner is selected, we may also choose runners-up so those acknowledgments may be used by the winners for purposes of marketing. There is no fee for entering, and only the honor and publications for being selected. Oh, yes. And two copies of the finished chapbook. We hope to hear from you.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, Barb. Hope some of your blog subscribers are interested.

    Best,
    Best,
    Carolyn Howard-Johnson
    Blogging editing tips at www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This also goes out on my Facebook page. I hope some of the over 1000 friends will be interested.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your fantastic support Barbara. I'm excited about this as this is the first time we've opened up our collaborative process. Here's another sample poem to stir the creative juices! Many many thanks.

    Cetacean Dreaming

    Last night I dreamt
    I swam with dolphins
    under the angry chaos above
    boiling, bubbling wave crash
    we moved slowly
    sharing mammalian wisdom
    in clicks and whistles.

    My cetacean body slate blue
    thick and fluid
    moved easily through the pod
    belying the great heft of me
    swimming , like flying
    the glide and slide as I forgot everything but smooth flow
    velocity.

    Sonar guided me forward
    echolocation to a destiny
    nothing like domination
    consumerism and desire
    the triple bang crack of light
    that woke me
    to my frail, flawed humanity.

    ReplyDelete

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