A new haiku contest, Lost Innocence on sale

Haiku poets: a challenge has been issued.

Don Wentworth, editor of Lilliput Review and the Modest Proposal chapbook series, is accepting entries for the 2008 Basho Haiku Challenge. Each poet may submit up to five unpublished haiku, with no entry fee, and the winner takes home a brand new copy of Basho: The Complete Haiku. As far as I know, this is the only complete collection of Basho's haiku, and it also contains notes on each poem as well as a glossary and bibliography. It sells for $24.95, so why not try to win a copy? The winner (as judged by Mr. Wentworth) might also see his poem appear between the covers of Lilliput Review. Deadline for the challenge is October 2nd.

Lost Innocence, the first Niteblade anthology, is on sale now. Snag yourself a copy -- from the table of contents it looks to be a great collection.

I will be out of town for the next week or so, but should still be able to check in occasionally. I'll leave you with a short list of literary magazines (both paying and non) that have reopened to submissions now that school's back in session.

- The Georgia Review (pays $4/line for poems)
- The Cincinnati Review
- Five Points (pays $50/poem)
- Poetry Northwest
- The Texas Review
- Colorado Review
- Passages North
- Denver Quarterly (reopens Sept 15th)
- Boston Review (reopens Sept 15th, payment varies)

Two anthologies

Here are two speculative anthologies -- maybe not brand spanking new but good markets nonetheless.

Anomalous Appetites: Editor John Irvine hopes to make this the first in an annual series of speculative poetry anthologies. Submit 5-10 short poems by email (artists needed, also) before December 7th. There is a whole message board set up for the anthology here, but you can also find the complete guidelines at HorrorScope. Pays $10 per poet.

Malpractice: The fine folks who bring you Necrotic Tissue are looking for submissions to their hospital horror anthology, Malpractice: An Anthology of Bedside Terror. All submissions must relate to the hospital described in the guidelines, Bloom Memorial Hospital. More information is available in this forum thread. The editors are looking for stories 2000 to 4000 words in length (and also 100 word drabbles). Pay is 1 cent per word plus a contributor's copy. The submission deadline is September 30th or until filled.

Speaking of anthologies, Niteblade's 1-year anniversary anthology, Lost Innocence, will be coming out soon, and editor Rhonda Parrish is holding an online contest to promote it. Winner gets a free copy of the book, which from the line-up looks to be pretty good.

8/15, Lost Innocence ToC

There must be something magical about August 15th. It seems to be a popular date in the small-press literary world. Here's a short list of magazines that reopen to submissions on 8/15:

- Alaska Quarterly Review
- The Georgia Review
- Gulf Coast
- On the Brighter Side
- Sorcerous Signals

And on the flipside, here are a couple of markets that CLOSE to submissions on 8/15 (so get those last-minute subs out!):

- Mythic Delirium
- Swimming Kangaroo Books (for short story submissions to its newsletter)

Niteblade editor Rhonda Parrish is publishing a print anthology of some of the best fiction and poetry from the past year at Niteblade, as well as new stuff by some great authors. The table of contents has just been announced, and it looks to be an awesome collection. Somehow one of my poems snuck its way in, and it's definitely in good company.