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Ryan Walsh grew up in Elkins, West Virginia. He graduated from
Warren Wilson College and holds an MFA from the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. His poems have appeared in Ecotone,
FIELD, Green Mountains Review, Narrative Magazine,
Southern Poetry Review, among others, and he serves on the
editorial board of Q Ave Press, makers of handmade poetry chapbooks.
Each spring, he teaches in the University of Michigan's New England
Literature Program in Maine.
Congratulations also to our 2010
Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook Contest Finalists!
"The Recent History of Middle Sand Lake" by Molly
Sutton-Kiefer
"Bring Down the Sky" by Karen Schubert
"What is Saved, What Stays Damaged" by Valerie
Wallace
Past winners include Stephen Frech,
The Dark Villages of Childhood (2008), Meghan
Brinson, Broken Plums on the Sidewalk (2009) and Ryan Walsh,
The Sinks (2010).
The Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook
Competition annually invites submissions for the
election of a regional (IL and IA) poet's collection and
a national poet's collection to be published by MWC
Press. Submissions must be postmarked between May 1 and
July 31 each year. The winners will be announced online
in January.
Contest
Brochure
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Regional Judge: Erin Bertram
Erin M. Bertram is the author of seven chapbooks, including
Inland Sea, which won the 2009 Robin Becker Chapbook
Prize, and Body of Water, which won the 2007 Frank
O'Hara Award. A past recipient of an Academy of American
Poets Prize, a Lettre Sauvage Poetry Prize, and two
fellowships from Washington University in St. Louis,
her poems have appeared in Hotel Amerika, Copper
Nickel, Agni, The Laurel Review, and
elsewhere, and are forthcoming in the anthology Narrative
(Dis)Continuities: Prose Experiments by Younger American
Writers. She is a book reviewer for Pleiades
and Rain Taxi Review of Books, and a prison-writing mentor
through PEN American Center. This year and next, she is a
Fellowship Instructor in English at Augustana College.
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National Judge: Ann Hudson
Ann
Hudson’s first book, The Armillary Sphere, won the Hollis
Summers Poetry Prize and was published by Ohio University
Press. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals,
including Crab Orchard Review, Iris, North American Review,
Prairie Schooner, and The Seattle Review. She grew up in
Charlottesville, Virginia, and now lives in Chicago with her
husband and children.
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Review Guidelines
Submit between 16 to 24 pages of poetry;
manuscripts should be paginated and secured with a
binder clip (no staples). No names or identifying
information should appear on the poems.
Enclose one cover page that includes:
o -
chapbook title
o
-
author name
-indicate if you are submitting to the Regional (for
residents of IL or IA) or National contest.
Those entering the Regional contest will need to submit
a copy of their driver's license or utility
bill to prove residency.
o -
address
o -
phone
o -
email
Enclose a second cover page that includes
only the chapbook title to allow for blind review.
No cover letter is required; however, if
poems have been previously published, an acknowledgments
page should be included. Poems may be more than one page
in length, but only one poem per page.
Midwest Writing Center will publish the winning chapbook
through MWC Press and make it available
for sale. No manuscripts will be returned. Submissions
that arrive ‘postage due’ will be returned unopened.
Submission Information
Submissions can be sent directly to Midwest Writing
Center (see address below). Submissions can also be
accepted through the MWC's
Submission Manager.
Contest results will be announced via
email. If you wish to receive the results in the mail,
please include a SASE. To receive a copy of the
winning chapbook in either the National or Regional
contest, please include an additional payment of $4. If
you wish to receive copies of the winning chapbooks in
BOTH the National and Regional contests, please send an
additional payment of $6. Contact the contest administrator with
any questions by emailing
contest@midwestwritingcenter.org
with the word “chapbook:” in the subject line.
Deadline Dates
Submissions must be postmarked between
May 1 and July 31 each year.
Prizes
The winners of the Mississippi Valley
Poetry Chapbook Contest will each 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
Mississippi Valley Poetry Chapbook
Contest
225 E. 2nd St., Suite 303
Davenport, IA 52801
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) or reading fee may be paid online via PayPal
below.
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