MWC announces 2013 winner of annual poetry chapbook prize

MWC is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2013 MWC Press  Poetry Chapbook Contest…

Our esteemed judge, Gale Marie Thompson, has selected THE POLYCHROME CLINIC by Caroline Crew as the winner of the 2013 Susan K. Collins/Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest. Congratulations Caroline!

We had a terrific group of manuscripts to read and it was wonderfully difficult to select a group of finalists to send ...to our 2014 judge, Gale Marie Thompson.

2013 Poetry Chapbook Prize Judge
Gale Marie Thompson

 

Chapbook Prize Finalists:
Rachel J. Bennett — Mural Quadrant
Erin M. Bertram — The Salvaging
Jaime Brunton – Opera on TV
Caroline Crew & Chris Emslie — Your Stupid Fortune Gives Me Stupid Hope
T. M. De Vos – Finishing
Iris Jamahl Dunkle — 500 Days
Diane LeBlanc — Sudden Geography
Lesley Ann Wheeler – Misery Diaries

Pre-orders will be available soon on the MWC website. We are hoping that THE POLYCHROME CLINIC will be available later this spring and we will be sending copies out as soon as we have them.

Thank you very much again for the opportunity to everyone who submitted for giving us the opportunity to read your work, to our terrific readers & hero judge Gale Thompson & to our winner & newest MWC Press author Caroline Crew!

 

Past winners of the MWC poetry chapbook competition have included Meghan Brinson, Stephen Frech, Sandra Marchetti, Cindy Hunter Morgan, Ryan Walsh, and Monica Wendel.

Submissions for the 2013 Susan K. Collins Poetry Chapbook Contest open through Sept 30

The Susan K. Collins/Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Competition invites submissions of chapbook collections of poetry.  Submissions are open May 1-September 30. The winner will be announced online via MWC this fall.  The winning manuscript will be published by MWC Press in the spring of 2014, and the author will receive 15 copies plus a cash prize of $100.

The judge for this year's competition is Gale Marie Thompson, the author of Soldier On (Tupelo

Gale Marie Thompson

Press, forthcoming) and the chapbooks If You’re a Bear, I’m a Bear (H_NGM_N, 2013) and Expeditions to the Polar Seas (Sixth Finch, 2013).  Her work can also be found in the Best New Poets 2012, Denver Quarterly, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Volt, Salt Hill, inter|rupture, diode, H_NGM_N, and others.  She received her MFA at the University of Massachusetts and is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia in Athens.  She is the creator and editor of Jellyfish Magazine, and works at the Georgia Review.

Past winners of the chapbook competition have included Meghan Brinson, Stephen Frech, Sandra Marchetti, Ryan Walsh, and Monica Wendel.   

Now accepting submissions for the 2013 Susan K. Collins Poetry Chapbook Competition

The Susan K. Collins Poetry Chapbook contest (formerly the Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Competition) annually invites submissions for a chapbook collection of poetry to be published by the MWC Press. Submissions must be postmarked between May 1 and August 31. Past winners have included Stephen Frech (2008, went on to win the 2011 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize from the New England Poetry Club), Meghan Brinson (2009), Ryan Walsh (2010), Sandra Marchetti (Regional 2011), Monica Wendel (National 2011), and
Cindy Hunter Morgan (2012).

Stephen Frech's chapbook 
The Dark Villages of Childhood

went on to win the
2011 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize
from the New England Poetry Club.

Contest Rules
Submit between 16 to 24 pages of poetry; manuscripts should be paginated and secured with a binder clip (no staples). No names should appear on the poems. Enclose two cover pages: first includes chapbook title, author’s name, address, phone, and email address. The second includes only the chapbook title to allow for blind review.

No cover letter is required; however, if poems have been previously published, an acknowledgment page should be included. Poems may be more than one page in length, but only one poem per page. Winners will be posted online in late November or early December.

Midwest Writing Center will publish and make the winning chapbook available for sale. No manuscripts will be returned. Submissions that arrive ‘postage due’ will be returned unopened.

Contact/Submission Information
Submissions should be sent directly to Midwest Writing Center. If you wish to receive written notification of the contest results please include a self-addressed , stamped envelope. All entries that also include (optional) a 6x9 self- addressed envelope with $2.50 in postage will receive a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook. Contact the contest administrators with any questions by emailing mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org with the word “chapbook:” in the subject line. 

Prizes
The winners of the Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest will receive $100 prize money, have their manuscripts published by Midwest Writing Center, and receive 15 free copies of the finished chapbook.

Reading Fee
There is a $15 reading fee per chapbook entry (multiple submissions accepted). If paying reading fee by check, make check payable to MWC and include payment with the manuscript submission to:

Midwest Writing Center
Susan K. Collins Poetry Chapbook Contest
225 E. 2^nd St., Suite 303
Davenport, IA  52801

Pay via PayPal on the contest’s web page and MasterCard and Visa are also accepted. Please send your name as it appears on the card, the card number, expiration date, and v-code along with your manuscript.

Restrictions
As a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses and CLMP's community of independent literary publishers, Midwest Writing Center believes that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, friends, relatives, and/or past or current students of judges have been deemed ineligible to enter this contest, as have past and current board members and employees of the Midwest Writing Center.



Apple Season at Mission Creek Book Fair

Congratulations to the 2012 MWC Chapbook Contest winner, Cindy Hunter Morgan.

Cindy Morgan Hunter

 

Her chapbook, Apple Season, is now available for purchase at MWC. Cindy Hunter Morgan lives in East Lansing, Michigan and teaches creative writing at Michigan State University.

 

Her previous chapbook, The Sultan, The Skater, The Bicycle Maker, won The Ledge Press 2011 Poetry Chapbook Award. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals, including A cappella Zoo, Bateau, The Christian Science Monitor, Sugar House Review, and West Branch.

She graduated from Albion College and also studied at the University of Stirling in Scotland.  See her interview in the Lansing State Journal.

 

Apple Season (MWC Press, 2013)

Apple Season will be available at the Mission Creek Book Fair at The Mill in Iowa City Saturday, April 6 and the Pop-Up Book Fair at The Empty Bottle in Chicago, IL on Sunday, April 14.  Follow the links for more details.

 

Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest Winners Announced

The Midwest Writing Center has announced the regional and national winners of its 2011 Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest. Sandra Marchetti was selected as the Regional Winner for her collection The Canopy, and Monica Wendel was selected as the National Winner for her collection Call it a Window. Their collections were selected by guest judges Erin Bertram, regional judge, and Ann Hudson, national judge. The chapbooks are scheduled for release in February.

Sandra Marchetti currently tutors and teaches interdisciplinary studies, literature, and writing at Elmhurst College and Aurora University, outside of her native Chicago. She completed her MFA in Poetry at George Mason University in 2010. She was a finalist in Gulf Coast’s 2011 Poetry Prize and Phoebe’s 2009 Greg Grummer Poetry Contest. Her poems have appeared in Phoebe,  Spiral Orb, Nolos, The North Central Review, and Tributaries, and was a featured poet in Spurt Literary Magazine’s premiere issue.  She also has poems forthcoming in The Journal, dirtcakes, and The River Oak Review. 

Monica Wendel is a visiting instructor of composition at St. Thomas Aquinas College. She holds an MFA in poetry writing from NYU, where she received Goldwater and Starworks teaching fellowships, and a BA in philosophy from the State University of New York at Geneseo. Her poetry has appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, Drunken Boat, Forklift Ohio, H_NGM_N, InDigest, Limestone, Spoon River Poetry Review, and other journals. Originally from Long Island, she lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Competition annually invites submissions for the selection of a regional (Illinois and Iowa) poet's collection and a national poet's collection to be published in chapbook form by MWC Press. Submissions must be postmarked between May 1 and July 31 each year. Past winners include Ryan Walsh, Meghan Brinson, and Stephen Frech.

Deadline Approaching for the Mississippi Valley Chapbook Competition!

Writers interested in entering Midwest Writing Center's annual Mississippi Valley Chapbook Competition must postmark their submissions to the Midwest Writing Center by July 31st in order to be considered.

The Mississippi Valley Chapbook Competition invites submissions of 16-24 poems for the election of a regional (IL and IA) poet's collection and a national poet's collection to be published by MWC Press.  The winner will receive 15 free copies of their chapbook as well as $100 in prize money.

Poetry submissions should be paginated and secured with a binder clip with no identifying information included on the poetry pages. Poets should include a cover page with their name, the title of the chapbook, their address, phone, e-mail, and an indication of whether the submission is for the regional or national competition. A second cover page with only the chapbook title should be included to allow for a blind review. A reading fee of $15 is also required. For more information and and instructions about how to enter via mail or Submission Manager may be found on MWC's Mississippi Valley Chapbook Competition web page.  Good Luck!!