Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize - Deadline: 15 August 2014

Guest Judge: Ada Limón
Awards: First place is publication, $500 prize, and 25 contributor copies. Up to ten finalists will be announced, and all poems will be considered for publication as a general submission.
Reading Fee: $15
Submit: Submit today!

History

Our annual poetry prize proudly honors poet, writer, and cultural theorist, Gloria E. Anzaldúa. Anzaldúa’s work highlights how one’s place in the world is at once geographical, geopolitical, psychological, mythological, spiritual, and linguistic. She is well known for her book of prose and poetry, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” which draws on her experience as a Chicana/Tejana/lesbian/feminist activist—a revolutionary and inspirational work that continues to be so.

The Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize is awarded annually, in conjunction with the Anzaldúa Literary Trust, to a poet whose work explores how place shapes identity, imagination, and understanding. Special attention is given to poems that exhibit multiple vectors of thinking: artistic, theoretical, and social, which is to say, political.


Why am I compelled to write? Because the writing saves me from this complacency I fear. …Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and hunger. I write to record what others erase when I speak, to rewrite the stories others have miswritten about me, about you. To become more intimate with myself and you. …To dispel the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit. …Finally I write because I’m scared of writing, but I’m more scared of not writing. –”Speaking in Tongues” Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Guidelines
Submit 15 to 30 pages of poetry. Please include no more than one poem per page.
All entries must be submitted online via our submission manager and be contained in a single document.
The author’s name should not appear in the document (.doc or .docx).
A non-refundable $15 reading fee must accompany your submission.
Students (past and present), relatives, and close friends of the judge are ineligible.
Simultaneous submissions acceptable.



Submit today!
Deadline

The submission deadline is August 15th, 2013, 12 a.m., Central daylight time.

Prize

The winner will receive a prize of $500 plus 25 copies of the published manuscript. We will feature the poet in an upcoming issue of Newfound, and the winning book will also be available through our web store.

All finalists will be announced in December in our sister publication, Hothouse Magazine.

All poems submitted for the award will be considered for publication in Newfound.

Due to the number of submissions, we cannot respond to each writer individually. Each author will receive an acknowledgement of receipt but will need to check the website for notification of the winner.


Judge

Ada Limón will judge the finalists.

Ada Limón is the author of three books of poetry, “Lucky Wreck,” “This Big Fake World,” and “Sharks in the Rivers.” She received her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from New York University. Limón has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and was one of the judges for the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry. She is currently working on a book of essays, a novel, and her new collection of poems, “Bright Dead Things,” is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions. Find her at adalimon.com, @adalimon, and adalimon.blogspot.com.


Readers

Our panel of readers will shortlist the finalists:

John Fry‘s poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Colorado Review, West Branch, The Laurel Review, Washington Square, Octopus, The Offending Adam, and have been anthologized in New Border Voices. He’s the author of the chapbook “silt will swirl” (NewBorder) and a graduate of the MFA program at Texas State University. He currently lives and works in San Antonio. In the Fall, he’ll begin pursuing a doctorate in medieval and early modern British literature at the University of Texas at Austin.

Luisa Muradyan is originally from the Ukraine and currently teaches English at Kansas State University. She will also begin her PhD studies in creative writing at the University of Houston this fall. Previous work has appeared in Ninth Letter, PANK, Anderbo, Camroc Press Review, A-Minor, and Neon Literary Magazine. She also has poems forthcoming in Mudlark and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her work in PANK and Ninth Letter.

Mary Selph is a PhD student in the Media, Art, and Text program at VCU, where she is associate media editor for Blackbird. Her work has appeared in Broad River Review, where it was a finalist for the Rash Award in Poetry, and “Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25,” edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Submit today!