Landed! Well, not really but the gorgeous picture above is of the surface of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. I feel like it was quite a trip to get here but I’m happy to announce the arrival of this new website!
I hope you will enjoy the offerings I post here and find some useful information for your writing journey.
I’ll be posting notices of writing contests and helpful writing resources as well as announcements of new workshops so check back often or sign up for my newsletter to get the news delivered to your inbox.
In this post:
- Some thoughts on writing
- Why Write? (poem)
- Opportunities for Poetry Submissions
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Writing about writing-
I love writing for writing’s sake – there are as many reasons to write as there are writers. Some people just enjoy the process, the way the ink spills across the page and helps us find out what we think about things. Sometimes writing can help us process our experiences, thoughts and feelings.
In these changing and challenging times of social distancing writing can help keep us connected to each other through our written words. I find writing together online is sooo helpful when we’re struggling to maintain a sense of community in spite of physical distances.
Do check out the ONLINE workshops page and join us if you can. Sign up for this newsletter and your first writing workshop session is free! Let’s build our writing muscles and stay strong as a writing community.
If you’re interested in publishing your work check out the opportunities listed below.
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April is Poetry Month!
Here’s a poem to share some of what writing means to me!
Why Writing? ~Carol Teal
Because writing allows me to go places I’ve not gone before.
It allows me to shift perspective, to run with dreams, to work through knots.
It listens as my heart pours onto the page the ink a steady stream of blood or a trickle of black hope in a cloudy mind.
It clarifies, brings things up to a boil and let’s the steam blow away. Wheat from chaff, it separates and distills.
It makes the music of poetry and the scream of anguish equal on the page.
It shares, it communicates, and sometimes reaps a harvest of empathy and understanding.
It can be a friend, this pen, this mark, when I’m alone and friendless.
It can be a counsellor and confidant when I’m broken, damaged or enraged to help me sort it out and come to some form of wholeness before I act.
It can be the best joke, it can laugh at a world where values are as skewed as a crazy fun house mirror.
It can let me be and let me discover.
It leads me to places I’m not aware of and provides surprises and gifts that I had no way of accessing before the pen began to glide across the page.
Magic and mayhem, wisdom and worms,
Writing tells it all.
~Carol Teal
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Opportunities to Submit Poetry
Here are a few writing events that are coming up soon to help you can get your Muse in gear-
- The 2020 CBC Poetry Prize – Deadline for submission May 31, 2020
- You could win $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at the Banff Centre and have your work published on CBC Books
- Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books. For more info and submission rules:
- https://www.cbc.ca/books/literaryprizes/cbc-poetry-prize-1.4090929
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- The 2020 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize
from Ruminate magazine
Deadline: May 15, 2020. Details here: - https://www.ruminatemagazine.com/pages/poetry-prize?goal=0_d461984bfb-4c0c5d8a0c-170932027&mc_cid=4c0c5d8a0c&mc_eid=64fe072b18
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- The Malahat Review invites emerging poets to enter the Far Horizons Award for Poetry, for which one prize of $CAN 1,000 is awarded.
- Eligible authors have yet to publish their poetry in book form
- Far Horizons Award for Poetry contest Deadline: May 1, 2020
- http://malahatreview.ca/contests/far_horizons_poetry/info.html