Fun things for writers

Here are some interesting opportunities for writers

American Academy in Berlin

Offers 5-10 month residencies to poets, fiction and creative nonfiction writers at the Hans Arnhold center in Berlin. Residents are provided airfare, housing, some meals and $5,000 monthly stipend.

Centre D’art –Marnay Centre in France.

The center offers one scholarship, cosponsored by UNESCO for a 2 month retreat. Appilicants must be under the age of 35.

Anam Cara Writers’ and Artists’ Retreat Residencies in Ireland.

One week to one month residencies to writers. Located in West Cork Ireland, overlooking Coulagh Bay.

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

Two weeks to two months residencies to writers and other artists. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 50 miles south of Charlottesville, near Sweet Briar College.

The James Applewhite Poetry Prize

By the North Carolina Literary Review at ECU. Deadline May 1.

Joaquin Miller Cabin Summer Poetry Series.

Poets may apply to read in the 2011 8-week series, June through July. Readings take place in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC.

Check the North Carolina Writers’ Network website for details. (ncwriters.org)

Joan McClean's new book

Congratulations to Joan McClean. Her new book of poetry, PLACE, has been released by Finishing Line Press.

Check the Finishing Line Press website for advance orders. Joan will be reading at McIntyres in August.

NCWN Spring Conference, 2011

If you have not done this, go to the North Carolina Writers' Network (ncwriters.org) and look at Writing the New South. There are some great stories there. I suspect some of you might get ideas for stories of your own, from reading these.

North Carolina Writers' Network Spring Conference. Saturday, April 30, 2011 at UNCG. The schedule and registration forms are available at the website.

Be careful what you write. Someone might read it.

Villanelle Poem Definition

At our February 22, 2011 meeting, there was discussion of some different poetry forms. One was the villanelle.

The villanelle has 19 lines, 5 stanzas of three lines and 1 stanza of four lines with two rhymes and two refrains. The 1st, then the 3rd lines alternate as the last lines of stanzas 2,3,and 4, and then stanza 5 (the end) as a couplet. The second lines of each stanza rhyme. The structure is:

line 1 - a – 1st refrain
line 2 - b
line 3 - a - 2nd refrain
line 4 - a
line 5 - b
line 6 - a – 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 7 - a
line 8 - b
line 9 - a - 2nd refrain (same as line 2)
line 10 - a
line 11 - b
line 12 - a - 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 13 - a
line 14 - b
line 15 - a - 2nd refrain (same as line 2)
line 16 - a
line 17 - b
line 18 - a - 1st refrain (same as line 1)
line 19 - a - 2nd refrain (same as line 2)

Here is an example of the form.

Stay With Me

Hold me close and hold me tight
Run your fingers through my hair
Stay with me all through the night
It feels so good, it feels so right
Say you love me if you dare
Hold me close and hold me tight
Tell me it will be alright
If only we could be a pair
Stay with me all through the night
We can share in great delight
Let me love you, let me care
Hold me close and hold me tight
I pray you will, I pray you might
Be the answer to my prayer
Stay with me all through the night
Be there in the morning light
Please do not go anywhere
Hold me close and hold me tight
Stay with me all through the night

Poem: Mast Year

Mast Year

After long drought,

the white oak

drops its acorns,

double, triple

a rainy year.

Under its broad limbs,

the three-legged doe

stumps along, her right

front leg sheared off

below her knee,

victim of a car,

stump hole,

black rocks in

the shallow creek

behind my house

she crosses to get here.

Who knows. I see her at

the crack of dawn

or pith of day, flanked

by last year’s twins

and this year’s singleton,

its spots faded by

November, its coat

like hers turned gray.

He butts her udder,

ramming hard. She

accepts that, eyes

trained on the woods.

A hunter in camouflage

sees a damaged doe.

Cull the herd, he thinks,

draws a bead, shoots.

By Judith Stanton

From The Deer Diaries

2/18/11

Poem: A Conspicuous Visitor

A Conspicuous Visitor

He came unannounced,

quite uninvited; a thread

splitting a shiny Sunday suit,

he kissed the ground—moving

like a cobra, half coiled, sliding

sideways over the porch to ring

my bell; he paused for a moment

in the blinding summer sun to bathe,

looked to see who was hosting the

party, then silently moved over and

up the Wax Myrtle; his thirsty

tongue sucked the air.

By: Patricia Cole

2/17/11

Poem: 168: A poem about the day the Oklahoma City bomber was executed.

168

A poem about the day the Oklahoma City

bomber was executed.

Hordes of reporters milling around,

Interviewing each other.

Desperately searching for an illusive scoop.

They can't interview the 168.

National media provides blitz coverage,

Hourly, then by the minute.

Everything you don't want to know.

What about the 168?

What did he say, what was he wearing,

What does he think?

As if this was important.

What about the 168?

Constant repetition almost makes him a folk hero,

A man admired for his stoicism.

He's the hot news today.

What about the 168?

National media giving advice to the survivors,

telling them how they are supposed to feel, to act, to think.

As if these national hotshots knew anything.

What about the 168?

Second by second, we hear how he died,

Eye-witness accounts are the holy grail.

Much ado about the demise of a killer.

What about the 168?

True justice might have been better served,

Had no one bothered to attend.

He would have been exterminated, unnoticed.

And that would honor the 168.

By:  Al Manning                    

2/14/11