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Announcing 2016 Pangaea Prize Winners and Finalists

18 Saturday Mar 2017

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We are proud to be announcing the 2016 Pangaea Prize winners and finalists. We have two runners-up this year. We published both of their entries which means we have 3 collections being published for this contest. Go to the site and check out some great collections along with a selection of our finalists.

Congratulations to  Lauren Henley for winning the 2016 Pangaea Prize. She is the winner of the 2017 Perugia Press Award and the poems appearing on The Poet’s Billow are from her unpublished book called Whole Night Through. Check them out!

The Poet’s Billow is also now welcoming submissions to the Bermuda Triangle Prize and the 2017 Pangaea Prize. If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Winner
L.I. Henley

Runners-up 
Sarah Ann Winn
Catherine Cobb Morocco

 Finalists
JC Reilly
Peter Ludwin
Rob Carney
Amy Nawrocki
Therese L. Broderick
Cassondra Windwalker
Flower Conroy

 Semi-Finalists
John Bergholz
Maril Crabtree
Candice Iloh
David Bublitz
Jack Cooper
Kimberly Williams
Mary Kay Rummel
Bo Niles

Poetry Contest Deadline: March 15th

11 Friday Mar 2016

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The Poet’s Billow is welcoming submissions to the Bermuda Triangle Prize. It is awarded to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.

Current Theme: Running

Running for president, running down the street, running up the bar tab, we are open to interpretations on the theme. It is up to you how literal or abstract you would like to play on the chosen theme.

Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. Up to five finalists will be considered for publication.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.

See the Bermuda Triangle contest page for details.

If you would like to stay updated on contests and publications in the future you can join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Poet’s Billow Founders are the Artists-In-Residence at Gettysburg National Park

11 Monday May 2015

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Michelle Bonczek and Robert Evory, founders of The Poet’s Billow, will be the artists-in-residence at Gettysburg National Military Park for the month of July. You can listen to an interview with them about the residency on Nation Public Radio’s program Stateside.

Also for a calendar of events and more information you can visit Thepoetsbillow.org/gettysburg

Don’t forget you can follow The Poet’s Billow on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Philosophy and the Poetic Imagination

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

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This is a great article in the New York Times from 2012. It’s a close look at language and how it works in our culture and in poetry.

Here is an enticing excerpt or you can go straight to this great article.

Here’s one striking puzzle: We speak and write with remarkably different aims.  We sometimes try to get clear on the facts, so we can reach agreement on how things are.  But we sometimes try to express ourselves so we can capture the uniqueness of our viewpoint and experiences.  It is the same for listeners: language lets us learn the answers to practical questions, but it also opens us up to novel insights and perspectives.  Simply put, language straddles the chasm between science and art.

Man Stabbed To Death In Russia For Saying Poetry Is Not Real Literature: Cops

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

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This is a great bit of weird news.

A Russian teacher stabbed his friend,
(According to the courts)
Because the man disparaged
Poems, RIA reports.

It started as a friendly chat
Last week, in the Urals.
The men were drunk, discussing books
Just gabbing like old pals.

Go to the Huff Post for the rest

Winner of the 2013 Pangaea Prize

20 Saturday Jul 2013

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The Poets Billow is happy to announce the winner of the 2013 Pangaea Prize. Here is an except from Caitlin Scarano’s Entry. Visit our Literary Art Gallery to read seven of her finally crafted poems. 

Losing It

God came to me like a drunken man
running from a car accident. God came

at me with a mouth full of snow, blood
& broken teeth. I used to be alone.

I used to wake up without an arm across my neck.
No boys or gods licking the sole of my shoe

or testing the rope ladder hooked in my lower lip.
Sinning is storytelling –

you always look them in the eye. Your body
always betrays you. God came to me

like the accident itself. No, he came at me like the tree
that parted the car, or the girl that parted

the windshield. The only car accident I was ever in
was the night I lost my virginity in the backseat.

God wasn’t there.
Just a frightened, frightened boy.

Read more by Caitlin Scarano

Visit the poet’s billow on Facebook

The Best Defense Ever for Breastfeeding in Public: A Poem

09 Tuesday Jul 2013

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We’ve heard a lot of thoughtful, impassioned arguments from moms who have to defend their rights to breastfeed in public, but we’ve never come across anything quite as powerful as this.

Hollie McNish, a published U.K. poet and spoken word artist, posted this video entitled “Embarrassed” on YouTube on July 4, that slowly but surely became a viral sensation.

Check it out: Embarrassed

Then check us out on Facebook: The Poet’s Billow

 

Atlantis Award for Best Poem: Submission Period Now Open

01 Monday Jul 2013

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The Atlantis Award is awarded to a single best poem. The winning poet receives $100 and will be featured in an interview on The Poet’s Billow web site. The winning poem will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. If the poet qualifies, the poem will also be submitted to The Best New Poets anthology.

Up to five runners-up will be considered for publication and a Pushcart Prize nomination.

Follow this link for guidelines on how to enter: Atlantis Award

Read last year winners here: 2012 Atlantis

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Why I Hire English Majors by Steve Strauss

29 Saturday Jun 2013

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I love English majors. I love how smart they are. I love their intellectual curiosity. And I love their bold choice for a major. Most of all, I love to hire them.

A recent article by the great David Brooks in the New York Times about the changing nature of the Humanities in higher education just reinforced why, when given my druthers, English majors are my employee of choice.

And the reason is not that I am a writer; I more consider myself an entrepreneur than anything else. I run a small business and the people I hire do a variety of tasks — SEO, project management, social media, and so forth.

For my money (literally and figuratively), for my needs, and I suggest the needs of most small businesses, English majors are easily the top choice when it comes to getting the type of teammate who can make us all better, as they say in basketball.

Read the rest of the article by Steve Strauss at the Huffington Post