Worthy Site: The Literary Type

The New Quarterly’s blog, The Literary Type, is my secret addiction. (The Zsa Zsa Gabor workout video on YouTube used to be my secret addiction, but I tweeted about that last week, and well, it’s no longer a secret.)

I love it because it’s fun to read (I love Rosalynn’s true confessions that she loves TV, especially when the Chicago Bears are playing) and that they featured Vallum as part of their Mighty Small Magazines featurette.  I also like the insight into the small mag world and the day-to-day at TNQ.

 

Vallum Award for Poetry 2010

Vallum Award for Poetry 2010 – ENTER TODAY!

George Elliott Clarke, Jan Zwicky, Paul Muldoon.

Some of the best poets in the world have graced the pages of Vallum: contemporary poetry. Time to join the ranks!

Vallum is accepting original and previously unpublished poetry submissions for the Vallum Award for Poetry 2010. Winners will receive cash prizes and publication in the 7:2 issue of Vallum: contemporary poetry.

ENTRY FEE: $20 CDN for Canadian residents, $20 U.S. for international entrants. Includes a free one-year subscription to Vallum.

CONTEST RULES:

1. Submit up to six (6) poems of no more than 60 lines each. Do not label your poems with your name or address; instead include a covering letter with all pertinent information.

2. All submissions must arrive through regular mail.

3. Poems may be on any theme or subject, but must be original and not previously published.

4. 1st prize is $750, 2nd and 3rd prize are $250 each. Honourable Mentions may be selected and published but are not eligible for cash prizes.

5. To have your manuscript returned, please enclose a SASE with sufficent CANADIAN postage or an IRC.

All entries must be postmarked no later than Feb. 28, 2010.

Please mail to Vallum Contest, PO BOX 598, Victoria Station, Montreal, Quebec, H3Z 2Y6.

 

Digital Submissions – A Brief Explanation

We have received several requests that we accept poetry by electronic means, usually through email.  We are, however, sticking to our policy of “no poetry by email”.  

I’m going to tell you why.

Vallum is very much a fan of email.  Really.  We are not some kind of Luddite conspirators who desperately want you to subsidize the postal service.   For our other segments, we are happy to accept things through our online submission engine.  For poetry, our slush pile is such a size that we read every submission on paper for the sake of our eyes.  We get submissions numbering in the thousands each time we have a reading period, and lots more when that window is shut.   Email submissions would have to be printed out, and have the additional headache of multiple formats.  The costs and logistics are too much for this small mag to handle.

We thank you for your understanding – and for all your hard copy submissions.

 

A.F. Moritz wins the Griffin Poetry Prize

Congratulations to A.F. Moritz, whose recent poetry book The Sentinel (House of Anansi Press, 2008) won the Griffin Prize. Moritz is a frequent contributor to Vallum, and we are thrilled with his success. Also winning this year is C.D. Wright for her collection Rising, Falling, Hovering (Copper Canyon Press, 2008).

For more information on the Griffin Poetry Prize and A.F. Moritz’s winning collection, visit the Griffin Poetry Prize official website, where you can read his poem “Light.”

New work from Moritz will appear in Vallum 6:2 “Play and the Absurd,” due out soon.

 

Vallum: Top Ten

So, we’re moving offices, soonish.  This got me thinking about Vallum’s past in that lazy way you do when you dig through all your stuff and find things that you haven’t looked at in yonks but are really awesome, so it takes you five hours to pack one drawer since you stopped to look at that photo or read that old manuscript.  Anyhoo, I digress.

In one week, we’re launching our own Vallum Top Ten, where we’ve collected nominations from readers to determine popular parts of the Vallum issues that have gone past.  We’ve banged them all onto our FTP server and this Friday, they will go live and people will be able to vote for their favourites over the end of summer. 

Please come and vote!

 

Nominated! National Magazine Award for Poetry

Vallum is proud to announce that Lorna Crozier and Jan Zwicky have been nominated for the National Magazine Award for Poetry.

Their contributions to Vallum 6:1 were recognized as amongst the best that Canadian magazines had to offer in 2008.  Congratulations to Lorna and Jan!  And congratulations to the other nominees!  For more information, check out http://www.magazine-awards.com/ .

 

CALL FOR ART!

HEY ARTISTS! INSPIRE US WITH YOUR CREATIVITY!

Vallum is currently accepting art submissions for upcoming issues!

All the info can be found here:

http://www.vallummag.com/submission.html

SHOW US WHAT YOU’VE GOT!

Visual art by Nicolas Baier (Vallum 6:1)

 

Off Topic Readables

Yann Martel is quite the evangelist. On his website What is Stephen Harper Reading, he chronicles his quest to bring “stillness” to the life of our Prime Minister, a project inspired by his visit to the House of Commons approximately two years ago. Martel explains that “I was thinking that to have a bare-bones approach to arts funding, as the present Conservative government has, to think of the arts as mere entertainment, to be indulged in after the serious business of life, that—in conjunction with retooling education so that it centres on the teaching of employable skills rather than the creating of thinking citizens—is to engineer souls that are post-historical, post-literate and pre-robotic; that is, blank souls wired to be unfulfilled and susceptible to conformism at its worst—intolerance and totalitarianism—because incapable of thinking for themselves, and vowed to a life of frustrated serfdom at the service of the feudal lords of profit.”

Martel’s words are far more eloquent than mine, but reading them re-energized my desire to read, and also to seek stillness in my own life. Martel wants more; he does not proclaim a desire to educate Harper, but to speak to his stillness. He has sent Harper one book every two weeks with a letter enclosed; each book is chronicled on the website. This has been a long project. Harper has received his 52nd book, and has sent one reply through a secretary. I don’t know whether Martel is daunted by this.

We have experienced a period of extreme financial upheaval. Things that seemed rock solid have crumbled away like so much dust; people are frustrated and fearful. It has struck me, as we write our grants, that this is the practicality of literature. It points to the lasting nature of our humanity; it articulates permanence despite fragility.

 

30 Ways To Celebrate National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month is upon us, that annual reminder that April is more than tax season and rain.

Here is the list from Poets.org: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/94http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/94

 

Long time, no post…

I know. We have abandoned you. We were writing our government grants, and prepping the next issue, and squabbling with printers from Montreal to California. There was nothing interesting to say. I do apologize.

If you are into all things poetic, please check Vallum’s website come April (it’s Poetry Month again!) and also, watch out for a new Cafe/Culture. New chapbooks soon – I promise.

Anyway – how are you? Isn’t the spring weather nice? We’re looking for more art and reviews, so drop us a line or check out our submissions page if you’re feeling creative.