It seems to me poets, and possible all writers, love to leave things until the last minute. I state this based on my years of experience as the Competition Secretary for Adelaide Plains Poets, a group which has held an annual poetry competition since 2005.
We have a different theme for the competition every year, and I have the wonderful opportunity to read lots of interesting poetry, for free, when the entries land in my letter box. It would be better, for me, if these poets could send their poems in over the entire time period, from when we first put the word out, until the last week or so. That way, I’d be able to give a more considered reading to those poems that arrive in the final days, before I have to write them up and hand them over to the judges. Ah well …
But the closing date that I’m thinking about at the moment, is the 31 July 2020 date, which is the closing date for people wishing to submit work for the Plague Invasion anthology that I’m editing. This anthology is an interesting looking collection of writing about this crazy Covid-19 time, from the silliness about running out of toilet paper and being unable to get more, to the great time when dining out was allowed again, and a whole heap of other things, you may not have thought about.
This book will have them all, and more. There will be a short writer bio from each contributor too, and I’m hoping to have a forward written by the mayor of Gawler, who is also a nurse, and so dealing with Covid-19 in a ‘close up and personal’ way. I wish her well, and not just because I want that forward! I’m also having the back blurb written by a well known South Australian poet, and fellow (and prolific and entertaining blogger) who is giving me a great photo for the back cover, that is closely related to the times we’re living in right now.
An image is on its way too, I’m informed, by the secretary of my writing group, whose talented son has put his hand up to provide the artwork for the front cover. This is a wonderful effort from friends, longtime ones and brand new ones, and working with other people in this way has been an awesome experience.
So, if you’ve been following the progress of this anthology, by reading be related blog posts here at my blog, or if this is your first introduction to it all, thank you for showing an interest in it, and if you want to get in the book, you’d better get a move on 31 July is getting closer, and closer! All contributors whose work is accepted with receive a free copy of the book, but residents from out of Australia will have to pay for postage.
You can send me your work, or ask for more details at my email address: kittycordo@gmail.com
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 
Exciting times, Carolyn, working towards a conclusion;only 7 more sleeps 🙂
LikeLike
I’ve been so fortunate with this call for submissions for the Plague Invasion anthology. The quality of the works submitted has been terrific, and only very recently, have I had to say no to a piece, in its current form. It was a difficult thing to have to do, and I wasn’t as practised at doing such a thing, and it didn’t do down at all well.
I’ve since been in contact again with the person, and there is hope the particular poem may come back to me, in an acceptable format. The problem with poetry, is that it is such a different thing, to straight prose, when done well. That poem had too many less than poetic aspects, and when I sent an email back to the poet, with two lines edited to show what I meant about their work, they much better understood what I was talking about.
With the differences between bad poetry, and good poet, it can only be a matter of a few poetic points, to go from one to the other. I could see the good poem inside waiting to come out, so it was worth my time connecting to try to help, I think.
I’ve let this person know how I’m very passionate about making this anthology the best thing it can be, and I hope they can see why I’m being so careful about what I accept. I think I’ve got through to them, but my heart sank, when their first reply arrived, earlier today …
Thanks for listening.
LikeLiked by 1 person