Tag Archives: competition

One more day!

Hello friends, just checking in with a quick reminder that there’s one more day remaining in our third annual chapbook contest! The deadline for this year’s contest, “In Transition,” is Monday, January 15th, at 11:59 PM. Full guidelines are here, or you can go straight to our Submittable page to enter your manuscript. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s already submitted.

Also, if you are one of the few remaining submitters to the anthology who haven’t heard back, your poems are still under consideration for the handful of selections that remain. You will be hearing from us very soon. Thank you SO much for your patience as we agonize over all your incredible poetry. (This is the best of tasks, this is the worst of tasks… We aren’t complaining, believe us.)

Huge appreciation to each of you for being part of our community.

Chapbook Competition Deadline Extension!

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Our new submission deadline for the 2015 Chapbook Competition, “To Inhabit,” is March 1st, 2016! Get all the details here.

Dear friends,

At this time of midwinter, of thankfulness for Winter’s nurturing rest and anticipation of Spring’s renewing flame, we’re at an exciting moment in the life of QuillsEdge Press.

We’ve received nearly 150 entries in our 2015 chapbook contest, and they are marvelous collections of poetry. Our deep & heartfelt thanks to each of you who’ve entrusted your work to our readers. We are frequently blown away by the power & craft of the poetry we’re reading, and we don’t envy our judge, Mary Ann McFadden, her final decision!

This month, QuillsEdge Press welcomes our new executive editor Ann Davenport, who joined us as a reader several months ago. Our esteemed co-founder, Elliott batTzedek, is moving on to launch a new publishing project. As the Board and staff work diligently to ensure a smooth and successful transition in leadership, we also want to take a moment to draw a deep breath, celebrate all the Press has accomplished, and look to the vibrant future.

To that end, we are also glad to announce a brief extension to this year’s contest! If you wanted to enter, but didn’t quite have time to finish preparing your manuscript, we have great news – you have until March 1st to submit your chapbook to QuillsEdge Press. This year’s theme centers around “To Inhabit.” Please see our submission guidelines here.

We can hardly wait to read your work! As always, please know how honored we are that you’re a part of our community. Thank you for inhabiting this world with us.

With warmth & poetry –

Jane, Jude, and Anique
Board of Directors
QuillsEdge Press

Our 2nd Competition Opens 11/01/2015!

QuillsEdge Press is proud to announce our 2nd Annual Chapbook Competition for Women Poets Over 50!

Our Theme: To Inhabit (a body, a landscape, an ecosystem, a dream, a memory, a nightmare, a fantasy, a place, a time)

Our Judge: Mary Ann McFadden

The competition opens November 1st, 2015 and runs through January 31st, 2016. Check back here in early October to download the guidelines and get the link to enter online!

Finally Finalists

Finalists for the “On the Edge” Competition Have Been Chosen

After receiving 150 manuscripts, and reading carefully through all of them, Quills Edge Press is thrilled to announce these six finalists, which have been forwarded to judge Barbara Crooker:

Kim Baker, Warwick, RI, Hardship, Art, and Other Reluctant Mothers
T. Stores, Newfane, VT, Verge
Suellen Wedmore, Rockpart, MA, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife
Sara Backer, Hollis, NH, The Fourth Nest
Lucia Galloway, Claremont, CA, The Garlic Peelers
Eve F. W. Linn, Carlisle, MA, Album of Not

Women Poets Over 50 Rock!

Choosing only a handful of finalists was not easy. Every manuscript was read by at least two members of Quills Edge, and the final decision was made over a LONG lunch.

When we first announced our plans for Quills Edge, we of course had detractors who assumed a press that was not ONLY only women but ONLY only women over 50 would:

1. turn up very few good poets
2. produce manuscripts so alike they were monotonous

Wrong on both counts, of course. The range of voices and styles was enormous, and the lives informing the work were utterly diverse – the only commonality was that the poets had lived through decades of life changes.

All three of us – Jane Seitel, Elliott batTzedek, and Jude-Laure Denis, are happy that an external judge will be making the final decision, for we couldn’t choose. With more funding we’d be publishing all six, and hope to in the future.

So excited to have come this far!
Jane and Elliott
QuillsEdge Press: Indispensable Poetry by Women Over 50