Anthology Call for NH Residents Impacted by Pandemic

Does your job in New Hampshire give you a special perspective on the pandemic in the Granite State?

For the sequel to COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems, publisher Kirsty Walker and I are seeking short statements (between 150-300 words) from residents of New Hampshire whose professions have been directly involved or impacted by the pandemic.

We’re especially interested to hear from social workers, medical professionals, police and first responders, school administrators, teachers, parents, Food Bank or homeless shelter volunteers or directors, retirement home staff, addiction counselors, and grief counselors.

Tell us about a particular moment during April 2020-April 2021 that best captures your experience with the pandemic and why that moment is important to you. Accepted paragraphs will appear alongside poems in the complete book.

Send your piece in the body of an email to apeary@salemstate.edu by May 23, 2021.

Registration Closes on May 12 for North Country Young Writers' Festival

 

North Country Young Writers’ Festival

May 14-May 15, 2021

A Virtual Event Free to New Hampshire Residents*

 

The North Country Young Writers’ Festival is designed to give 7^th-12^th students from New Hampshire a memorable & fun experience with creative writing! (Select readings & panels are open to all ages with a special event for teachers.)

Sign up for as many or as few events as you want!

Exciting Events Include:

Ø  7 workshops (poetry, screenplays, short stories, flash nonfiction). Limited to students: filling up fast!

Ø  Teachers’ workshop taught by the celebrated Penny Kittle! Limited to teachers.

Ø  Book group & backstage access to a New York Times bestselling novelist! Open to all ages!

Ø  Presentation by New Hampshire’s Poetry Out Loud champs! Open to all ages!

Ø  Reading by New Hampshire Youth Poet Laureates & Ambassadors! Open to all ages!

Ø  Teen Submit-a-thon! Limited to students.

Ø  Pandemic Poetry Workshop with opportunity for New Hampshire students to publish in a book! Limited to students and teachers.

Ø  Chance to meet a Hollywood screenwriter who lives in Berlin, NH! Open to all ages!

Ø  Loading Dock Show on festival Friday! Open to all ages!

Ø  For North Country students, chance to join the editorial board of a new student literary magazine! Limited to students.

Ø  Reading by writers published in The Poets' Touchstone! Open to all ages!

Ø  Open Mic! Limited to students.

Registration closes on Wednesday, May 12. Save yourself a (virtual) seat!

For more information on these events and to register: https://www.wmcc.edu/north-country-young-writers-festival/

Want to become involved with the festival? Have questions? Email NCYWFestival@gmail.com.

* North Country residents of Oxford County, Maine, and Essex County, Vermont, are also invited!

*Logo designed by Jocelyn Paradis – Gorham High School.

Prompts for April 6-30 for Pandemic Poetry Anthology / National Poetry Month

 

For New Hampshire residents not on Facebook or Instagram, here are the next set of poetry prompts as part of my collaboration with Hobblebush Books/NH Magazine. 

Please note that the deadline for submitting to the sequel of COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems has been extended to May 23 to allow youth poets time to participate in the Pandemic Poetry Workshop at the May 14-May 15 North Country Young Writers' Festival.

April 6: Brainstorm for three similes: A mask is like ______,” comparing the mask to 1) an animal or insect; 2) machinery or gadget; 3) a type of building. Pick your favorite simile, make it the first line of a poem, and form a story from the comparison.

April 7: Conduct brief research online into New Hampshire during the 1918 Spanish Flu. Write a poem alternating between the earlier pandemic and our current, set in New Hampshire. Here’s one site: https://www.businessnhmagazine.com/article/recalling-the-spanish-flu

 April 8:  Write a poem addressed to someone who’s upset or worried you during the past year because of the way they’ve handled the pandemic.

 April 9:  Write a poem showing your pre-pandemic life in December 2019 and contrasting it with your lifestyle in April 2021.

April 10: Create a neologism about the pandemic that addresses a sensation or experience that isn’t adequately captured for you in the English language. Make the neologism the title of the poem; in the body of the poem, explain the neologism without using your made-up word.

April 11: Write a sonnet about Zoom or Google Classroom.

April 12: Write a narrative poem in third person that shows three people in New Hampshire whose lives were affected by the pandemic in strikingly different ways, using tercets (three-lined stanzas).

April 13: Write half a sestina in which the six end words you repeat are all nouns or objects you associate with the pandemic during the winter or spring of 2021. For info on a full sestina, https://poets.org/glossary/sestina

April 14: Write a poem about the pandemic from the point of view of a tree or building in your town in New Hampshire.

April 15:  Write a poem about the pandemic that uses at least two numerical details per line.

April 16:  Write a narrative poem describing the experience of vaccination, using setting and sensory details that will help you recall the experience in ten years.

April 17: Freewrite for 5 minutes (non-stop writing, not worrying about grammar) to the question: “How am I doing right now? How am I today?” Reread your freewrite and use part of it (perhaps words in the freewrite, perhaps a sentiment) as the basis for a poem.

April 18: Write half a sestina in which the six end words you repeat are verbs you associate with the pandemic during the winter or spring of 2021. https://poets.org/glossary/sestina

April 19: Write a poem that resembles an interview, entirely composed of questions addressed to the coronavirus over the past year. You decide whether to include the virus’ response or just your interview questions.

April 20:  Write a poem composed of found language, entirely (or mainly) made of newspaper and internet headlines during the pandemic. Decide whether to stick to the same newspaper or website (or move around); another decision, whether to use a local or national/international news source.

April 21: Many people have said that the pandemic has altered their sense of time. Write a pantoum in which the repeated words reflect that altered sense of time. https://poets.org/glossary/pantoum

 April 22:  Write a poem in which April 2020, personified, meets up with April 2021, likewise personified. What do they discuss?

April 23:  Where do you register the impact of this pandemic year on your body? Explore the sensations in a poem without using the first-person pronoun “I.”

April 24: Write a poem that’s a portrait of yourself at the desk, working on a poem about yourself writing during the time of COVID.

 April 25: Write a poem that zooms in on 5-10 minutes that exemplify your experience of the pandemic since last spring. 

 April 26:  Write a poem with lines alternating between hope and another emotion related to the pandemic, mentioning at least one concrete or three-dimensional detail every line.

April 27:  Write a close-up of an object familiar to the pandemic, with extreme sensory details such that the object becomes de-familiarized or surreal. Include “ode to” in the title.

April 28: Write a poem in which a single list or several lists are the main structural device, and the list(s) concern that which you are thankful for about the pandemic. Try to mix three dimensional, sensory details (coffee in the morning) with abstractions (connection with others).

April 29: Imagine that a new plant or small animal is discovered on the same day the pandemic completely ends. Describe this new creature’s circumstance of discovery and its future fate.

April 30: Imagine the coronavirus’ final day as a harmful force on Earth. What would be the coronavirus’ last words to humankind?

 

Two New Events at North Country Young Writers' Festival

 

Announcing... TWO BRAND-NEW EVENTS HAPPENING AT THE 2021 NORTH COUNTRY YOUNG WRITERS' FESTIVAL!

#1: Pandemic Poetry Workshop:

[Open to NH students only.] 

This workshop will help you process your pandemic experiences over the past year for possible publication in a new book, the sequel to last year’s COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems. Workshop leaders Mae Fraser and Lily Greenberg will walk you through prompts to jumpstart your COVID poems! Meet the publisher, Kirsty Walker, and the book editor, Alexandria Peary, who will offer tips on how to get published in the book. This workshop will be held online, from 4:30-5:30 PM on Friday, May 14. Save yourself a spot: North Country Young Writers Festival

 

#2 The Brigid Kemmerer Book Group:  

 [Open to general public.]

Are you a fan of Young Adult fiction or of Brigid Kemmerer? What better way to get ready for Brigid Kemmerer’s reading at the festival on May 15 than to spend time with fellow YA enthusiasts! This book group meets online from 6-7 PM EST on Friday, May 7. Join your host, Jennifer Puzzo, to discuss A Curse So Dark and Lonely, the first volume in Kemmerer’s Cursebreaker Series, the novel Jodi Picoult says “has everything you’d want in a retelling of a classic fairy tale” and Publishers Weekly calls “Enthralling.” Book group participants will gain special (online) back stage access to this New York Times bestselling author!  Save yourself a spot: North Country Young Writers Festival

Prompts for April 1-5 for Pandemic Poetry Anthology / National Poetry Month

For residents not on Facebook or Instagram, here are the first five poetry prompts as part of my collaboration with Hobblebush Books/NH Magazine. 

Please note that the deadline for submitting to the sequel of COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems has been extended to May 23 to allow youth poets in the state time to participate in the Pandemic Poetry Workshop at the May 14-May 15 North Country Young Writers' Festival.