Thanks to Jim Behrle and Aaron Tiger for putting links to here on their own blogs. If anyone else has done so, email me, and I'll return the favor in the sidebar. I'll be doing that for Jim and Aaron later tonight.

I'm hoping the work I did last month to get back into print bears fruit in the next day or so. I'm also planning to contact other writers for assorted "jams" (publishing, performing, whatever). If you want to see if I'm "jamworthy," click on to the various online sites to the right of me. can we have our ball back? issue 9 is a good start. Shampoo 14 and 17 too. Just make sure to look around there.

AuthorsDen isn't bad either. More mix of poetry and articles I wrote a while back. Though it works as an archive, I might not rejoin next year. See "winning poems" from their contests like this one made me stop writing for a week. Look at their guidelines for judging winners and see if you either chuck or sputter.

Speaking of contests, I'm submitting to the Cambridge poetry awards. This is what I got in an email when I inquired about the "Modern Poem" entry:


"A modern poem is any poem which either has abandoned any of the traditions
of the 19th century or has innovated them with any 20th century innovation,
particularly if the innovation is post e.e. cummings. if the poem
experiments with syntax, form and idea not present in the 19th century or
can augment 19th century popular forms with 20th century earmarks i believe
this would also qualify."

I wonder if Jim's 100 sonnets could qualify as a single entry.

Would be great to see a bunch of bloggers' names appear on the nominations list, at least for the "Written Category" slots. Maybe even get nomination ballots for Performance Awards and stuff the bejeezus out of it.

Nah. Too Republican.

Still, it'd be a shock to some of the usual suspects that know or at least suspect who will be on it. The open mic scene, whether it be "page" or "stage" oriented, is so cliquish. It was a bit of a coup for me to even be nominated, let alone win back in March (Best Male Love Poem, which was weird as I had moved back to Boston after breaking up with subject of said winning poem).

Not that I know whether I stand a chance or not to begin with (I'm preparing my submissions and a copy of my chapbook), but I'd gladly lose my place on the list of nominees to see the vets go "who the hell are these people?"

Hey, you can also submit anthologies and the like too. Check it out.