As we’ve mentioned in the newsletter recently, beginning this year, we’re putting our two literary series under one big umbrella, mnLIT. For those of you unfamiliar with our poetry and fiction series for local writers, here’s the skinny: mnLIT is a competitive literary program presented by mnartists.org, in collaboration with Magers and Quinn Booksellers, which consists of the What Light Poetry Project and the miniStories flash fiction competitions.
mnLIT showcases original work by Minnesota poets and writers and is sponsored, in part, by The Decider and its parent company, The Onion. (You can read a nice bit of local coverage on mnLIT by MinnPost’s Amy Goetzman here.)
We’re in the midst of a call for submissions from local writers; the deadline for submissions (both for poetry and flash fiction) is April 30. Click here for the full call for writers, eligibility, submission, and publication details.
Just this week we got our two panels, one for poetry and one for fiction, nailed down. And, I have to say, this year’s line-up of jurors is a powerhouse mix. Read on for the full list of jurors for 2009.
For this year’s What Light Poetry Project competition our panel of readers is:
Dobby Gibson (Skirmish, Polar)
Deborah Keenan (Willow Room, Green Door; Kingdoms)
Leslie Adrienne Miller (Resurrection Trade, Eat Quite Everything You See)
Joyce Sidman (Red Sings from the Treetops, This is Just to Say)
Connie Wanek (Hartley Field, On Speaking Terms, which is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press)
For this year’s miniStories flash fiction competition our panel of readers is:
Barth Anderson (The Patron Saint of Plagues, The Magician and the Fool)
Leif Enger (So Brave, Young, and Handsome; Peace Like a River)
Lise Erdrich (Night Train)
Jon Fasman (The Unpossessed City, The Geographer’s Library)
Diana Joseph (I’m Sorry You Feel That Way)
In addition to these fine folks, Geoff Herbach will be returning for a second year as the lead juror for miniStories; and Chris Walters and Jay Peterson of Magers and Quinn will be taking over at the helm of the What Light poetry competition.
So here’s my pitch: If you’ve ever entertained dreams of writing fiction or poetry, this is your shot to get your work in front of a full complement seasoned, talented authors–no strings attached, no “reading fee” necessary to have your work considered. Just a meaningful opportunity to get your work carefully read and, perhaps, published. What are you waiting for?
You can read through previous years’ winning stories and poems by Minnesota writers–terrific, diverse stuff–on mnartists.org: here are several years’ worth of winning What Light poems and an archive of our inaugural year’s winning flash fiction from the new miniStories series.
This program has proved a fantastic way to bring local readers and writers together. Speaking of which, keep your eye out for some announcements about a couple of live readings by this year’s mnLIT winners this summer. Details and dates for those events will come in June. The call for submissions ends April 30. mnLIT winners will be announced in June and, at that time, publication of this year’s victorious short-short stories and poems will also commence.