February Frolic
Submissions close in less than ten days for our annual Women's Poetry Contest. At over 50 entries so far, the competition is warming up. Enter now to have your work considered! This year's guest judge is Gail White. Read more...
Introduction
This month, we are proud to announce our 2025-2026 nominees for the Eric Hoffer Awards. Wrapping up the Women's Contest as the weather warms, we are delighted to celebrate our excellent poets and offer opportunities in both our newsletter and blog for your hard work to shine. Please continue to share your publishing wins with us via email. Stay tuned for the WPC winners to be announced in our next post!
Congratulations to our Eric Hoffer Award nominees! Each year, Kelsay Books sponsors a selection of our titles for The Eric Hoffer Awards. We are excited to nominate more people than ever this year. View our 2025 entries here and stay tuned for a social media announcement.
Events
ATTN: Plymouth poetry lovers, this reading is for you! Kelsay Books–published poets Kathleen Latham & Sara Letourneau will host Poetry Night at Book Love on Thursday, February 27. Click on the image below to register.
Poetic Excellence
Awards
Congratulations to John Muro, author of his forthcoming Kelsay Books collection, for winning The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press‘ Ekphrastic Challenge 9. Muro‘s winning poem "Dispersal" is featured below.
Dispersal
It’s difficult to recall a day such as this when
a sky of breathtaking blue has gone gossamer,
steadily dwindling and giving way to cloudsthat seem to dissolve in an expansive sleep
of water, leaving to me this fugitive landscape and
the brief quieting that comes when day offers upthe last of its splendor and, for a moment, heaven
becomes a place that’s indistinguishable from
the contour of the earth and the sudden spill of the
divine presses against all things, as the tide softly
swells then retracts, haunting the soul with its diffused
murmur, and a warm wind, hushed and heavy-hearted,too, in its passing, extinguishes the last light before giving
way to a lone sentinel’s eerie bellow, leaving the weighted air
infused with plum-rose splatter and the pungent smell of pine.
Congratulations to Janice L. Smith-Hill for winning the Literary Titan Gold Book Award in Poetry! Insistence, Persistence, and Resiistance was also a Finalist for the American Writing Award.
Reviews and Interviews
Eleanor Boudreau reviewed Letters to Little Rock by Jennifer Horne for the Alabama Writers‘ Forum. Congratulations, Jennifer!
In addition to the two accolades above, Insistence, Persistence, and Resistance by Lee Orlich Bertram (pseudonym for poet and novelist Janice L. Smith-Hill) has received 3 reviews so far:
- Readers’ Favorite Reviews: https://readersfavorite.com/
book-review/insistence- persistence-and-resistance - Literary Titan: https://literarytitan.com/
2024/11/02/insistence- persistence-and-resistance/ - Donovan’s Literary Services and Midwest Book Review: http://
donovansliteraryservices.com/ december-2024-issue.html#lit
Congratulations, Janice!
Congratulations, Ben Westlie! Run From Your Now was a finalist in the Minnesota Book awards.
Eulea Kiraly reviewed The Swellest Wife Anyone Ever Had by Jennifer Schomburg Kanke for Arkana Literary Magazine on Substack. Congratulations to JSK!
Book Trailer: TEMPO by Lucia Coppola
Submissions Opportunities
The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in 2024. The winning poet receives $25,000, a 10-day residency at Glen Hollow in Naples, New York, and distribution of the winning book to Academy members. To learn more and submit, visit: poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/lenore-marshall-poetry-prize.
...for outstanding poetry collection of 2024 is now open for submissions. There is a $500 prize, and this year's Final Judge is last year's winner, Chelsea Woodard. Submissions close on March 1, 2025.