Special Events

Workshop: Query Letters and Book Proposals

Thursday, October 28, 7 p.m.
Book Mall in Downtown Ventura

This is for nonfiction writers who seek representation or a publisher for their book. It is free to SPAWN and Ventura County Writers Club members. Others may attend for a fee of $5 per meeting.

The workshop demystifies the process of preparing this important sales package.

Please call Mary Embree at 643-2403 if you plan to attend.

ATTENTION ALL POETS!

The Second Annual SPAWN Poetry Contest

SPAWN is pleased to announce our second poetry contest. Our first one was so successful, with over 70 entries and some really terrific poems, that we’ve decided to do this annually. This year we have an another incentive. In addition to being awarded a certificate and cash prizes, the six winning poems will be published in the first edition of a book of poetry published by Archer Books and SPAWN due to be released in early summer of 2000. The six winners of last year’s poetry contest will be included in the poetry collection as well. All 12 winners will receive a free copy of the book.

The contest is open to all poets. There are two categories: rhyming and non-rhyming poetry. First place prize in each category is $100; 2nd place $50 and 3rd place $25. That’s a total of six prizes! The judges of the contest are nonmembers so that all SPAWN members may participate without any possibility of a conflict of interest.

Every entrant has a chance to be published! Even non-winning poems will be considered for the book of poetry. These additional poems will be chosen by a separate panel of judges selected from SPAWN’s membership and Archer Books. Poets’ participation in the book is on a volunteer basis and there will be no additional prizes or payment. Proceeds from sales of the book of poetry, after expenses, will be donated to SPAWN by Archer Books to help fund SPAWN’s programs to benefit the creative community. SPAWN is a nonprofit organization administered entirely by volunteers.

Here are the rules:

1. The poem shall be the original work of the entrant, in good taste and publishable in the SPAWN newsletter and in a book of poetry to be published by Archer Books. Any subject suitable for a general audience is acceptable.
2. Poem shall be on 8-1/2” x 11” paper, computer generated in a 12-point font or typed. (No handwritten entries)
3. Poem shall be no more than 36 lines long. Only one poem per page.
4. Place the letter R for rhyming or N for non-rhyming in the upper right corner of the page.
5. Do not put your name or any other information on your entry.
6. Enclose a separate sheet of paper with your name, address, telephone number and title of poem on it.
7. More than one submission may be made but an entry fee must be paid for each one.
8. Enclose a check in the amount of $5 for SPAWN members or $10 for nonmembers for each submission. Make your check payable to SPAWN. Please do not send cash.
9. Send the above to SPAWN Poetry Contest II, P.O. Box 2653, Ventura, CA 93002-2653.
10. Deadline: entries must be postmarked by December 31, 1999.

Note to entrants: Winners will be notified by phone or mail by March 1, 2000. Winners will be announced in SPAWNews and winners’ poems in each category will be published in SPAWNews and in a book of poetry. Judges’ decisions are final. Submission guidelines will be strictly enforced. No phone calls, please.

Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

~Aristotle

SPAWN Book of Poetry

John Taylor-Convery and Rosemary Tribulato of Cadmus Editions and Archer Books have offered to publish a collection of poetry by SPAWN poets under their Archer Books imprint.

They will donate all typesetting, cover design and interior layout, manage the print process, and market the title along with their others through their national distribution network. They will also include the title in their advertising efforts. Further, all revenue from the title would be returned to SPAWN. That's right, ALL.

The only cost to SPAWN will be the printing charges. The initial print run will probably be 500 copies of a softcover book.

The publisher is already releasing seven titles this year between Cadmus and Archer.

The poetry will be selected from the entries in SPAWN’s poetry contest. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners from both our first and second annual contests will be included and will receive a copy of the book as part of their prize. The other poems will be chosen from among the remaining entries in both contests. As there will probably be 70 or 80 poems in the book, this will give many poets the opportunity of having their poems published.

It’s a truly remarkable and magnanimous offer by John Taylor-Convery. And SPAWN’s board members and leadership committee have accepted wholeheartedly.

First Annual
SPAWN Poetry Contest
for Year 1999

Congratulations Poets!

The poetry contest is over, the judges have chosen, and here are the winners.

Nonrhyming

1st: Cheryl Latif, "slam dunk"

2nd: Betsy Cuffel, "At a Waterfall"

3rd: Cheryl Latif, "the ghost of niobe"

Rhyming

1st: Jim Lane, "Whatchamacallit"

2nd: Joyce La Mers, "Waiting for the Millennium Bug"

3rd: Patricia Moore, "Dawnsong"

There were so many good poems that it was difficult to choose the leaders from among them. We had three original judges, all of them experts in the field of poetry and, wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t all pick the same poems. So we assigned a fourth judge to choose from among the judges’ picks.

Several other poems were also deemed outstanding by the judges. The following were cited for excellence:

Betsy Cuffel, "Funeral for a Music Box"

Carol Doering, "Warrior"

Joan Downey, "Snowdreams with Anne"

Mary Embree, "Angel," "Endings," and "Sheena’s First Christmas"

Nan Hunt, "Eruptions"

Coni Kalinowski, "Love’s Coat"

Barbara Marysdaughter, "Wild- woman and the Deer on the Beach"

Michele Petersen, "Saving Face"

Mary Scott, "Chameleon"

Roni Tagliaferri, "Coma"

Mary Langer Thompson, "First Day in an American School"

We are grateful to our judges, Dr. Michael R. Collings, Perie J. Longo, John Gorham and Patricia Fry, for so graciously giving of their time and expertise to make these difficult choices.

We also want to thank all of the poets who participated. The 1st and 2nd place winners’ poems are below.

First Place: Nonrhyming

slam dunk

by Cheryl Latif

i’m drowning in words

not the can’t catch my breath kind of drown

but the dying for more

washed up on the shore resurrection

creatively cleansed and

sanctified kind of

drowning

awash in literary funk of the best sort

hallelujah hymns of metaphor

tsunami swells of poetic license

liberating me

as i go down for the third time

no place for sacrilegious sanctimonious saviors

in the guise of wordsmiths here

only in your face reflections from divine lovers of words

poets with polished stones culled from the depths

tossing them full force

sending them with perfect aim to

skip across the water

and sink

straight

into

the heart

make no mistake

i’ve been carried by currents of

cadence and construct

swept into undertow swells of

perfect poetic pitch

and drowned in the waters of wordplay

god walks on the waters of wordplay

gasping with gratification

i come up for air

baptized and reborn

First Place: Rhyming

WHATCHAMACALLIT

by Jim Lane

Saxifraga. Ispogon formosus—

names that stir my plant psychosis.

Confusion is the diagnosis—

no help to find in self-hypnosis.

Escallonia, coreopsis—

adding to the sad synopsis.

Globularia, kalmiopsis—

learned by rote like Thanatopsis.

Now let’s fire the opening shot—

and break this floral Gordian-knot.

Remember in this polyglot—

Myosotis is just a Forget-Me-Not.

Second Place: Nonrhyming

At a Waterfall

by Betsy Cuffel

water -

a silvery mane

shooting out

impatiently

accompanied

by deafening applause

like dying stars

mutated

tricked

by gravity

leaf -

careless

gentle with wandering

thinks itself

over a cliff’

persuaded by wind

swallowed

by glittering

chrysanthemums

that bloom in pools

below

butterfly -

candid

alone, elementary

undisturbed

pulling, lofting

in counterpoint

with the leaf

against wind

against gravity

life -

water

leaf

and always

butterfly

Second Place: Rhyming

WAITING FOR THE MILLENNIUM BUG

by Joyce La Mers

The Millennium Bug is on the wing

And nothing is safe from his poison sting.

The Windows opened and in he flew

And nobody now knows WHAT to do

Y2K is coming

As prophesies foretold,

And wires which now are humming

Will soon be still and cold.

The bank will lose your money;

Your stock will go astray--

Ah, skies will not be sunny

When we get to Y2K!

On New Year’s Day the crash will come

when every computer will be struck dumb;

when phones won’t ring and planes won’t fly

and satellites drift in a silent sky.

The word that once was written

On paper now is through

In megabytes we’ve bitten

Off more than we can chew.

The chips we’ve been revering

Will be quite unaware

That data’s disappearing

Into thin, undated air!

As the deadly bug infests your town

Civilization will be shut down

The ATM will not dispense

And plumbing won’t emply its effluents

Y2K’s approaching;

It’s breathing down our neck,

With each new day encroaching

On the fin of our siècle.

Armageddon’s lurking,

But look for some redress--

When data banks aren’t working

There’ll be no IRS!

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