Calling All Haikuists!

Haiku Master Ray McNiece (red) faces off against contestant Geoffrey Landis (behind) at the2 017 Haiku Death Match  

Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Christine Howey writes:
Attention all Haiku Master Wannabes!  Heights Arts' 2018 Haiku Death Match will take place April 21 at Ensemble theater.  Application for the Death Match is now open. You  can find more information as well as the application and all the rules and regs here:

• http://www.heightsarts.org/portfolio-item/call-for-poets-6th-annual-haiku-death-match/

Only 10 poets will compete - first come, first served - so get on it!
Winner gets a cheesy trophy and the title of Haiku Master, plus no-commission sale of their books/chapbooks in the Heights Arts Gallery for a year. And, of course, the adulation of the public. Will YOU be the next Haiku Master?
Yay!

--Christine

Tickets for the 6th Annual Haiku Death Match will go on sale to the public in March, 2018.

Paying to Play

Image from Jody A. Virgan, from twitter

I hate reading fees, and refuse to submit to any journals that require you to pay for them to consider your work.  John Burroughs pointed out this article from The Millions to me, where Rachel Mennies explains some of the reasons that this is not a good thing.

• Paying to Play: On Submission Fees in Poetry Publishing

image courtesy pexels

I refuse to submit to markets or contests which require a reading fee as a matter of principle, since I believe it is damaging to the field, squeezing the people who can't afford to pay out of their entry into the field.  

However, these days in the literary field, so many 'zines do it that it is getting to be unexceptional.  I sympathize with them; they are running on shoestring budgets and unpaid labor already, I can see how a small reading fee can be so very tempting.