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Arts & Entertainment

SRCA Rock in the River Literary Series Open Poetry Chapbook Competition

Greetings!

For immediate release

CONTACT:

Standing Rock Cultural Arts
257 N Water St
Kent OH 44240
330.673.4970
info@standingrock.net
www.standingrock.net
Chapbook inquiries to: SRCAChapbook@gmail.com

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Also at www.twitter.com/Kent_SRCA and www.facebook.com/SRCAKent

WHO: Standing Rock Cultural Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural arts organization in Kent, Ohio

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WHAT: SRCA Open Poetry Chapbook Competition
-Poetry Chapbook Contest – to result in publication & prize to winner, copies to submitters. Submissions begin July 1st and end September 30th.
-Winning chapbook will be released as the new title in the SRCA Rock in the River Literary Series

WHERE: Electronic entries are encouraged. Send to SRCAChapbook@gmail.com with a subject line of (your surname)/SRCA Chapbook Competition.
-Snail Mail Entries may be sent to SRCA Chapbook, 257 N. Water St., Kent, OH 44240.
-PLEASE READ ALL GUIDELINES AND RIGHTS PRIOR TO SENDING SUBMISSION.

ENTRY FEE: $8 per manuscript submission, payable by check, paypal, or money order to SRCA; Fees will be used to defray expenses of the contest. Any remaining fees will benefit our nonprofit arts programming. PAYPAL submissions begin July 1, 2011.
-Please indicate method of payment on entry form

WHEN: See calendar outline below:
- Entries accepted: Jul 1-Sep 30th (postmark must be dated by Sep 30th; emails must be received by Sep 30th midnight)
-Winners Notified by December 1st via email
-Books mailed or ready to be picked up by Feb 1, 2012

PURPOSE: To promote the literary arts in our general area, promote poet/s with publication, and potentially raise funds for SRCA arts programming through any remaining entry fees/gallery sales of winning chapbook.

PRIZES: The winner of the contest will receive 25 copies & $50
-Each entrant to the contest will receive a copy of the winning chapbook (multiple copies if multiple entries)
-In the event of a tie, each winner will receive 15 copies & $25

JUDGES: Guest (Blind) Judges Colleen Clayton, Cindy Kelly, and Gina Tabasso with Chapbook Editor/Judge Tina Puckett

COLLEEN CLAYTON, originally of Cleveland, has lived in Youngstown, Ohio for the past 18 years. She has had poems and short stories published in The Road Not Taken, Jenny, Scifaikuest, Gloom Cupboard, and Rubbertop Review and earned honorable mention in the 2010 AWP Intro-Journals Prize for her creative non-fiction. She has served as Fiction Editor for YSU's Penguin Review and as the Educational Outreach Coordinator for YSU Poetry Center. Colleen will graduate from the Northeast Ohio MFA Consortium at YSU in August. Her debut Young Adult novel, tentatively titled Erasing Sid Murphy, is forthcoming in Fall 2012.

CINDY M. KELLY lives and writes in an Appalachian foothills valley, just at the place where Yellow and Licking Creeks meet in Amsterdam, Ohio. There’s no cell phone coverage there and internet access isn't available at speeds over half a megabyte per second, but the sky is dark and clear at night and she sometimes sees owls. Her poetry has most recently been published in Breadcrumb Scabs, Hobo Camp Review, and Red Fez Review. She is the founder of Amsterdam Press, where she edits both Plain Spoke and the Gob Pile Chapbook Series, and she is currently finishing her Master of Science in Education with an emphasis in Reading at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

GINA M. TABASSO holds a master’s degree in English, has been published in many international literary journals and anthologies, and has three chapbooks (From Between My Legs, Disrobing, and Front Lines). She enjoys riding her horse, practicing yoga, watching films, reading, belly dancing and spending time with those she loves.

TINA PUCKETT is a graduate student of the Northeast Ohio MFA (NEOMFA) program with a concentration in Poetry. She has appeared in Phoebe (SUNY), The Penguin Review, MUSE, The Listening Eye, and Jenny amongst other publications and currently has a poem exhibited in The Wick Poetry Center’s Speak " Traveling Exhibition. Her most recent chapbook is Crushed Sunlight from Spare Change Press. Tina additionally serves as the Editor for the series and previously served as Editor-In-Chief for (then national) literary journal Canto at Kent State University at Stark.

INFO AND UPDATES: www.standingrock.net. / SRCAChapbook@gmail.com / www.facebook.com/SRCAKent

Entry Guidelines:

Target Contributors: At least somewhat experienced, beginners also welcome; contributors limited to residents of the United States

Pages: Fifteen to Twenty, Single-Side 8.5 x 11 Pages of Poetry (not number of poems) Per Manuscript, use 1” page margins, no special page formatting (formatting within poem is acceptable), indicate if poem continues (i.e., continued with line break, continued without line break), size 10 Arial font

-Electronic Entries including Entry Form (see www.standingrock.net) must be in .rtf format only

-In addition, include completed Entry Form (available as a downloadable document at www.standingrock.net), as well as one Title Page with only title (Editor/judge may see author info for tracking purposes only/3 additional judges will be 100% blind guest judges); name not to appear on manuscript itself. All documents containing identifying information, such as name and contact info MUST be separate from the manuscript document itself.

-Copies must be clean and legible (please also spell-check and proofread); poems must be based primarily in the English language

-No previously published manuscripts – individual poems can be published/must be acknowledged on a separate Acknowledgments sheet (separate file from manuscript) and permission for re-publication from previous publisher must be obtained (or first rights for author must have been retained); Simultaneous submissions are accepted and entrant is expected to notify competition immediately if submission is accepted elsewhere. There are no refunds on entry fee however. Multiple entries can be entered for a fee of $8 per manuscript.

-Collaborative projects that result in a chapbook between two poets are accepted at $8 per manuscript but prize is divided (see tie protocol) if the chapbook wins. If the chapbook does not win, only one free chapbook is provided to the collaborative parties.

-Self-addressed, stamped postcard must be sent if confirmation of manuscript receipt is wanted; Electronic entries will receive email confirmation. No late entries will receive response. All manuscripts will be recycled after final judging. A self-addressed-stamped envelope for final results should be sent only if there is no email contact address. Otherwise, results will be sent via email.

**No staff or routine volunteers of SRCA (defined as those volunteering on a consistent monthly basis or on a basis of more than 6 months of the year) nor judges will be permitted to enter in order to allow for fair judging. Judges can opt not to score due to any conflict of interest if a bias might occur. Judges MUST opt not to score if submitter is a known student or relative of the judge. “Opt-out” can be marked on the response sheet to prevent scoring issues upon final score tallies and remaining judge score average will be used.

Rights:

SRCA will reserve rights to print/reprint and sell chapbook only – all first publication rights to the individual poems will return to the author(s). Additional author rights include the ability to make additional copies at author’s expense. Additional rights to SRCA are the ability to reprint chapbooks and receive all profits from sale of chapbooks other than author’s initial copies or author’s subsequent self-paid copies, from which author may profit free and clear from SRCA. No additional revenue aside from initial 25 copies and initial cash prize will be received by author from SRCA. SRCA offers deep discount from sale price to the author for production of additional books if the author wishes SRCA to handle reprints of additional books. Due to the nature of our nonprofit arts organization, limited space, and low number of unpaid volunteer staff, we are currently unable to handle consignments or free review copies but are happy to provide author-prepaid reprints at a deep discount and to ship to requested locations/vendors for orders of 12 or more books.

***Please indicate on Entry Form that your rights and organization’s rights have been understood. Hard copies must be signed/dated by author. Emails will be considered electronically signed/dated. No publication can take place without this agreement.

Judging Criteria – Scoring of 1-10 on the following criteria:

*No Hallmark verse (overly sentimental; light, inspirational) or hate poetry
*Meaningfulness of collection in today’s world
*Cohesiveness of the manuscript/success of theme if there is an actual theme (strong seam?)
*Vivid and/or innovative use of language and imagery (Have our brains been tickled? Do we see a film of what your words say?)

Publication specifics:

Finished product will be 5.5 x 8.5 chapbook printed on 24# paper stock with a card stock cover, saddle stitch stapled. SRCA reserves the right to change this format to perfect-bound similar-sized creation or to change size of books if necessary for poetry formats.

Cover sheet, acknowledgments page, and contents will be published; Chapbook may also include a brief synopsis of contest including short bio about each judge & a brief overview of SRCA.

This event will be promoted at a minimum through our website, Facebook, Twitter, press outlets, flyers, and bulk e-mailings. Books will be sold in our gallery and online at www.standingrock.net.

Standing Rock Cultural Arts staff will not be responsible for any loss or damage during submission process. Submitting an entry to this competition constitutes an understanding and agreement with all conditions. Entries will be recycled upon judging completion. Please do not send any only original copies!

Standing Rock Cultural Arts assumes the right to use quoted lines of poetry from the winning chapbook in promotional materials. Any quotes used will be credited to the poet(s).

Standing Rock Cultural Arts additionally reserves the right to disqualify any entry that does not follow the guidelines provided above.

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Standing Rock Cultural Arts is a nonprofit art and educational organization located at 257 N Water St in downtown Kent, Ohio, whose mission is to build community through the arts. We always welcome donations to assist in the operation of our programs, and all donations are tax-deductible. Checks may be mailed to:

SRCA
257 N Water St
Kent OH 44240
330.673.4970
www.standingrock.net
Chapbook inquiries to: SRCAChapbook@gmail.com

Thank you for supporting the arts! Good luck to our chapbook competitors!

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