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QuillsEdge is Pro-Diversity!

QuillsEdge Press is thrilled to announce
that our 2015 contest includes a
Pro-Diversity entrance fee of $5.00
for self-identified Women of Color

 

In our first contest last year the proportion of manuscripts we received from Women of Color did not match the number of talented Women of Color writers we know are out there, so we resolved to reach out in new ways this year.

 

Please help us by sharing our news
with your writing communities!

The Chapbooks Have Arrived!

All of the chapbooks went out to our authors this week! We asked everyone to send us pictures of opening up the packages, and Lucia Galloway, author of The Garlic Peelers, was the first to gleefully respond.

Here are the photos, so you can share the joy.

lucia opening manuscripts

Our First Chapbooks Go On Sale Today!

Our 2014 On the Edge winners are being printed this week. We are so excited by the quality of the poetry and the beautiful book design our printer Joe Carlough created.

And the covers! Wow, the covers! QuillsEdge Board Member Anique Taylor created a painting just for The Garlic Peelers, and the multi-talented Suellen Wedmore sent us her own lighthouse paintings to choose from for Mind the Light.

You can buy them now on our QuillsEdge Press Web Store for $12/book, with free shipping. They will be mailed out starting October 10th. We’re offering a pre-shipping special deal – both beautiful chapbooks for $20.00

Both books contain a selection of poems from our four finalists: Eve Linn, Sarah Backer, Kim Baker, and T. Stores.

 

Of The Garlic Peelers, 2014 Judge Barbara Crooker said:

garlic peelersOne of the things I look for in a chapbook is unity of theme, keeping in mind Frost’s dictum that if 26 separate poems make up a book, then the 27th poem is the book itself. The Garlic Peelers exemplifies this. I love the stunning title poem, and the way the other poems unfolded, like cloves of garlic from its core. I also admired the variety of forms and voices used, and the central metaphor: women’s lives as many-layered and essential as garlic. I like the way Lucia Galloway plays with multiple levels of meaning (chase/chaste/chastened; skins/scraps/leavings/chaff), the quotes that are salted between sections, and the way each section is introduced by lines that are excerpted and reworked from the title poem. No good recipe is complete without garlic, and no poetry shelf is complete without this fine book.

 

 

 

Of Mind The Light, 2014 Judge Barbara Crooker said,

mind the ligh

Mind The Light has as its narrators five very different women who were lighthouse keepers, five separate personas, five unique voices, like the multi-faceted Fresnel lens used in lighthouses. Each poem is a small gem; “lapidary” comes to mind in describing them. The central metaphor, women finding their strength in adverse and sometimes unchosen circumstances, took my breath away. This is a book of poetry that reads like a novel, and I challenge any reader to come away unmoved.

 

Mind the Light also has photos of four of the women, and an original painting by Suellen Wedmore of the fifth.

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!

Our Vision

In brief, our mission statement:

Quillsedge is a non-profit press dedicated to promoting the work of women poets over the age of fifty through the publication of high quality chapbooks and through building connections and community among older women writers.

And for a bigger picture, our vision statement

The vision of Quillsedge Press is to fight the social invisibility of women poets as we age. We know that these women poets are producing some of the best, most vibrant, and most important contemporary poetry, and we know how often our work is dismissed by editors and editorial committees. To counter this invisibility we plan to publish beautiful chapbooks of highest quality poetry, and to take action to educate the poetry community about why this writing is indispensable.

As a press we take a broad view of what “woman” means and respect gender self-definition. Our goal is to publish great poetry that grows out of the rich variety of living as female: living coupled, partnered, single, having children or not; defining orientation as heterosexual or lesbian with the complex of identities– dyke, queer, trans, butch, femme, etc. Further, we understand that race and gender are integral aspects in the lives of women of color, and women whose first language is other than English.

Our goal is to publish poetry that astounds, delights, explodes, makes startling connections, and both expands and empowers what it is to be a woman writer. We seek poets with a deep commitment to craft, and clear engagement with the world of contemporary poetry. Rather than poems that stay in the realm of memoir or autobiography, we seek poems that launch from the personal, that are resonant with life here and now, that display tenacity, vibrancy, innovation and that explore the timeless and the timely.

Deep respect for women and for the art and craft of poetry are our guiding principles. We intend to grow connections between poets, and so expect the poets we publish to engage with each other’s work through reviews, blogs, tweets, readings, and other publicity. Because we embrace poetry as deeply personal and deeply political we expect our work, and yours, to change the world.