EIGHTH ANNUAL (BELATED) HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST
Sponsor: Meritage Press
Judge: Bino A. Realuyo
Deadline: February 15, 2009

Contest details below are also available, along with prior contest winners, at http://www.meritagepress.com/babaylan/

ABOUT THE JUDGE:

Bino A. Realuyo is the author of the poetry collection, THE GODS WE WORSHIP LIVE NEXT DOOR, the Agha Shahid Ali Prize for poetry 2005 (University of Utah Press 2006 and Anvil Press, Philippines 2008). Prior to publication, his poetry appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Literary Review, Puerto del Sol, New Letters, Manoa, and The Nation. He received Poetry Society of America's Lucille Medwick Memorial Award and a Van Lier Fellowship in poetry. He is working on a second poetry collection titled, ON WHICH THE SUMMER LEANS, about the experiences of his father as a survivor of the Death March and a Japanese Concentration camp during World War 2 in the Philippines. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in education and technology and is a fellow in social entrepreneurship at Harvard University. He is also an accidental fictionist and suffers from a multiple literary personality/genre syndrome. He loves facebook.


ABOUT THE CONTEST:

All poets are encouraged to submit by e-mailing 1 or 2 poems to MeritagePress@aol.com. (Send no more than 2 poems). Please present poems within the body of the email as we do not open attachments.) Please include your full name along with your e-mail address. However, the poems will be sent without your names to judge Bino A. Realuyo, thereby allowing the poems to be read on their own merit. All poets are welcome to submit - it doesn't matter whether you're established or emerging as the work is read on its own merit. There are no limitations to poetry styles or content. All types of poems are welcome. We are now taking submissions up to the deadline of Feb. 15, 2009.

Only previously unpublished poems are eligible (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies).

PRIZES:

Meritage Press has asked Bino A. Realuyo to choose one winner. However, Bino may choose other finalist-winners, depending on the quality of the submissions. The winner(s) will have their poems published in the March 2009 edition of "Babaylan Speaks" at http://meritagepress.com/babaylan/

The FIRST PLACE WINNER also will receive SELECTED FILIPINO TITLES:

THE GODS WE WORSHIP LIVE NEXT DOOR by Bino A. Realuyo; PRAU by Jean Vengua; MUSEUM OF ABSENCES by Luis H. Francia; KALI'S BLADE by Michelle Bautista; THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II co-edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young; PINOY POETICS: A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics, edited by Nick Carbo; BABAYLAN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FILIPINA AND FILIPINA AMERICAN WRITERS, co-edited by Nick Carbo and Eileen Tabios; NOT EVEN DOGS, the inaugural hay(na)ku poetry collection by Ernesto Priego; THE BLIND CHATELAINE'S KEYS by Eileen Tabios; THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES by Eileen Tabios; I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED by Eileen Tabios; MENAGE A TROIS WITH THE 21st CENTURY by Eileen Tabios; REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE by Eileen Tabios; and BRIDGEABLE SHORES by Luis Cabalquinto.

FINALISTS:
Other finalist-winners besides the winner, if any, will receive two of the above-listed books (the choice of books are up to Meritage Press).

PREVIOUS WINNERS:
2007: Naya S. Valdellon & Marcel L. MiIliam (Judge: Eric Gamalinda)
2006: Joel M. Toledo (Judge: Michelle Bautista)
2005: Arkaye Velasquez Kierulf (Judge: Jean Vengua)
2004: Joel H. Vega (Judge: Sarah Gambito)
2003: Luisa A. Igloria (Judge: Patrick Rosal)
2002: Naya S. Valdellon & Michella Rivera-Gravage (Judge: Oliver de la Paz)
2001: Carlomar Arcangel Daoana (Judge: Nick Carbo)

For questions or more information, you can email MeritagePress@aol.com

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A READING and 2 ALL DAY WORKSHOPS !!!

9:30 am -4:30 pm April 18th: Philip Levine and Larry Levis: Fresno poetry and its influence.

Philip Levine is arguably the most influential living poet in America. As a poet his work has not only won every prize available but has also helped to shape the direction of American poetry over the past 40 years. As a teacher, his influence has spread far beyond those writers known as The Fresno Poets (there have been four anthologies of work by Fresno poets) through his many years of teaching at Tufts University, NYU and other institutions as well. We will also look at the work of Levine's most famous student, Larry Levis, whose poetry has emerged as some of the most influential work (look at the poems of Tony Hoagland, Marie Howe etc., as well as countless younger poets) of the past 20 years. Bring boxes of raisins and be able to quote at least one line from William Saroyan.

The Ruskin Art Club
800 S Plymouth Blvd Los Angeles CA 90005
1 block s of Wilshire/3blocks w of Crenshaw
310-936-7484 Elena Karina Byrne, Literary Programs Director

For more information, Please email Ekduende@cox.net

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$95 Full Day (Breakfast & Lunch included)
$45 Audit (Breakfast & Morning session till 12:30 only)
Checks made payable to the Ruskin Art Club

Send to:

Po Box 3761 Palos Verdes Peninsula CA 90274