Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Write to Publish Conference!



Amazing opportunity for writers and publishers! Write to Publish Conference is May 22 and 23 in Portland. Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin, amongst other writers, will be speaking. More info at: http://ooligan.pdx.edu.

Write to Publish, affectionately known as Oolicon, is a conference organized by Ooligan Press. The primary goal of Write to Publish is to demystify the publishing process for writers. Write to Publish is different from other writing conferences in that it does not focus on the craft of writing, but rather on the process of getting published.

On May 22, Workshop Day, choose to attend workshops for writers or workshops for industry professionals. Come back on May 23, Open House Day, to mingle with professionals in the industry and to hear authors speak about their experiences with the publishing process.

Ticket prices are $130 for writers for the full conference (this includes five workshops and the Open House on the second day) or $32 per workshop. Ticket prices are $215 for industry professionals for the full conference.

To purchase tickets, please contact the Portland State University box office at (503) 725-3307.

Seven Circle Press Winter 2009 out now!


Volume 3, Winter 2009, issue of Circle Show, a publication by Seven Circle Press, is now available for purchase at www.sevencirclepress.com. It contains three of my poems! Check it out!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Four Poems Available!

Four of my poems have just been made available at http://www.albany.edu/offcourse/issue41/john_williams.html via Offcourse Literary Journal!! The above link takes you directly to my page on their site!

Not Even Names


My poem Not Even Names was just accepted for publication by Literary Tonic and can be viewed at http://literarytonic.wordpress.com. Please check it out!

Friday, March 26, 2010

The Chaffey Review Publication

A second acceptance today! The Chaffey Review will be publishing my new poem A Pure River in their Spring 2010 print issue!

Finalist for Poetry Prize!


My poem Historic Scenes was a finalist in The Heartland Review's 2010 Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize! As the name of the journal suggestes, the work is based in the heartland, mainly Kentucky, and I'm proud my coastal mindset still met their editorial preferences. My poem will be in their Spring 2010 issue, coming out in May!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Mad Swirl publication!!


Mad Swirl just accepted my poem I Say I Sing for publication, available now at http://madswirlspoetryforum.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-of-mad-swirls-poetry-forum-032110.html. Please check it out and let me know what you think! It's a quasi-love lost poem due to the promises V. actions issue while also a quasi-international poem...

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Verdad Magazine Acceptance!


Verdad Magazine just accepted my poem November for issue 8, due out in April! It's the second piece they've published, one last year, and I'm pleased this consistently strong venue for literature and art will again display my work. They have revised the poem a bit, which is rare, but also proves they felt it strong enough to put the effort into.

A pretty good month for acceptances!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Eclectica Magazine Acceptance!


Eclectica Magazine has just accepted my poem Kansas, a very short emotional image based on my cross-country drive a few summers ago, for publication in April of this year. Please check them out at http://www.eclectica.org.

I have shifted to attempting to master the short poem this past year, and I'm excited that so many have been published recently. I'm thinking of beginning to create a chapbook from them during the summer!

March issue of Four & Twenty out now!


The new issue of Four and Twenty is now available at http://4and20poetry.com! It includes my short poem Invitation(s)! Please check it out and let me know what you think. More info is also on my website, at www.TheArtOfRaining.com.

Four and Twenty is a press run by Declaration Editing and Design, publishing poetry of no more than four lines or twenty words...

Friday, March 12, 2010

Flowers

As people have asked me for the poem that was nominated for the Pushcart by The Shine Journal, here it is:

Flowers

I’m handed a disheveled bouquet
as gypsy as its collector,
stalks nearly bare and browned by a sun
preferring everything adopt that sand-fleshed
Turkish tan, everything be of sand.

One bouquet takes the place of success, happiness.
The one given me replaces love.
The courtyard faucets splash in bird-play.
Going and coming back they draw their curves,
glowing red in the cold
and now quietly mumbling white.

I carry the flowers out to the canal.

Everywhere something in a foreign tongue
is sold, recycled, sold,
purchased with differing currency
then left on café tables and balustrades.

Perhaps it is such half-objects
fully illuminated by summer
that hold together like a mouth
the hard sea, harder earth,
and what falls from our hands
along the way.

Bottle(s)

My poem Bottle(s) is now available at http://bijoupoetryreview.blogspot.com! Please check it out and let me know if you enjoy the new style!

2009 Pushcart Prize Nomination!!!

I just discovered my poem Flowers was nominated by The Shine Journal for the 2009 Pushcart Prize!!!

Monday, March 8, 2010

River Poems Anthology Out Today!



River Poems, a print anthology of poems about rivers published by Lilly Press, just came out today! Check it out, if desired! It contains one of my poems about the Danube, partially inspired from my experiences with it in Vienna and a conversation with a Hungarian man whose impression of it in his hometown was quite different...

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Logo for my new website!


So, my beautiful and talented girlfriend, Staci Cole, has created the above image as a future logo for my website: www.TheArtOfRaining.com. It's a multi-layered project involving a painting that was cut out, wrinkled for the appearance of age, set pop-up book style atop a painted background, and photographed. It's a perfect symbol of the site's theme. The Art of Raining. Whatever that line means to you as an individual, a wonderful conceptual image for it might involve a tree with roots of ink, with written pages caught in its limbs, raining ink, which could be tears, which could be rain. I'm very excited for the work she's done on this and the amazing creation! Next step, mastering web elements to design and launch the site. More news forthcoming!

Monday, March 1, 2010

New issue of November 3rd Club out!

The soft release for the new issue of The November 3rd Club is available online, with my political poem Common Enemies in it. Please check it out and let me know what you think. http://www.november3rdclub.com/2010/02-2010/poetry/williams.html