April Challenge

I thought it was about time that we had a place to see all of the Challenges…

The April Challenge

Deadline For Entries: CLOSED

Voting NOW Open: CLOSED Winners Announced: I’m pleased to say that Debjani Chatterjee was the overall winner and that she and the runner-up John Gosnell have both been invited to have their own Stickleback published in the very near future.
Competition: This, the first of our Monthly challenges, will see us vote for a winner who will be invited to fill four pages and have their own Stickleback published – hopefully in the next Goody Box. The Challenge is to write four poems on a single topic, with the choice of this being entirely down to you. This can be from whatever angle you like, but the poems must have a unifying theme. As four poems is quite an undertaking, I am more than happy if it is a sequence or a single longer poem if that is how you choose to fill your pages. The Prize: Our winner will see their Stickleback published both as a free PDF download and as one of our lovely Limited Edition Print Runs. They will receive 100 copies of the micro-pamphlet to sell or wallpaper walls with and if they are available be invited to come and read it at the next Hedgehog Poetry Evening. The Winner will be selected by members of the Cult in a secret ballot. Additionally, I am keen to continue the Tree Poets series and am hoping to choose three of the entries to share a pamphlet later in the year. This is in addition to the new Tree Poets competition.
VOTING NOW OPEN You can now download an anthology containing all of the entries here: [download id=”5192″] Please read the work, and then choose your favourite POET. The Winner will have their work published as a Micro-Collection, with the Three Runners-up being featured in one of our Tree Poet Anthologies. Voting Closes: 5th May at 23:59pm [democracy id=”6″]    

34 Replies to “April Challenge”

  3. Ah, DD – you are right, I completely forgot to add it to the list – I shall sort it out.

    There is a Soundcloud page somewhere and also a YouTube channel, but the idea is that anything we put on either of those will end-up on a section here. I have a couple already to add, just catching-up, so if you have anything, feel free to send them to me (or anybody else!)

    I did think you and Irene could read Sandmen in the style of this…

  7. Oops, I don’t seem to have been getting notifications for this – sorry!

    Clare: Cool, sorry it wasn’t clear on here

    Tony: Yes, I put the deadline back as I’d like people to have time to get their submissions in on this one :)

    DD: Thanking you for the music!

  8. Hi Mark – I sent over my take on “Who lives in a house like this” a couple of weeks ago, but have made a couple of changes and sent again today (if that is allowed).

    Cheers – Darren

  9. This seems to be much easier to access. Thanks. Can someone tell me what happened to the ‘Shades of Fire’ competition? I did try a few times to see if anything was posted about it but I couldn’t navigate my way around the two sites and the multitude of messages. Is it finished? Have there been announcements?

  11. I had been wondering the same thing re Poets of Fire. There doesn’t ever seem to have been a results announcement ( not that I expect to feature in it! Lol)

  12. Thanks to everybody who submitted something for the ‘House Like This’ and ‘In The Style of’ Challenges. I’m going to ponder them both and come up with a list for the appropriate Sticklebacks :)

    For the House one, we will have a vote to see who wins the first Cult Presentation Notebook…and if I can work out how to do a vote on here…

    I’m planning that the new Challenges will be up on Monday along with a new issue of ‘Tales From Prickly End’

    Thanks all
    Mark

    Bit of a blast from a sepia past…

  14. I love that REM song. Also The Red Hot Chili Peppers wrote about it in Californication
    ‘Space may be the final frontier but it’s made in a Hollywood basement’

    1. Hi Gosia
      As long as you haven’t given up the rights (which is normally that they have appeared in a book published by a publisher) I don’t mind if they have previously been published. There is room to acknowledge it. It is always a balance between giving a poem a second chance and the opportunity to have something new published though, isn’t it, but that is something for you to decide, I think :)
      Thanks
      Mark

      1. Thanks, Mark! I think I’ll submit a combination of previously published and unpublished work. None of it was published in a book though!

        thanks,
        Gosia :)

  21. Hi Ross

    Basically, probably four pages of forty lines is optimum, but in truth I am happy to play with fonts, add columns or use the inexplicably spare page on the back of the cover if needed – so in a way it is a guideline rather than a scripture :)

    Glad you are joining in on this :)
    cheers
    Mark

    @rac-mcgivern

  24. OK I’m a Libran and decisions are hard – but is anyone else finding this really diffi-cult?
    So far I am down to 3 standout poems but how to decide between them is the thing.
    More reading tonight……great job Mark

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