We're halfway through April, hundreds of poems have been written, and the Mini Chapbook Contest is now open. Poem in Your Pocket Day is coming up; there were 16 entries for the previous contest (now being read by `AbCat); and things are getting more fun. In this news article, you'll find:

Results of the first weekly contest
Details of the third weekly contest
Details of the now open Mini Chapbook Contest

You can still register to write a poem a day and there are a bunch of poetry links at the end of this news article. I have also begun interviewing poets this April. Here is the first one: Interview with a rising poet: *TheObviousChild

Results of Week One

The winners are `PinkyMcCoversong for Leaving Behind, and ~bekkia for Atonement of Intention.

`PinkyMcCoversong and ~bekkia win 3-month subscription each and a spot in my journal.

Honourable mentions:

Amaroo by ~weaselwoman-sophie
The Man Who Laughs by ~orphicfiddler
Tar by *ThornyEnglishRose

Congratulations! And thank you for judging, `PoeticWar.

Week Three: Animal Voices - Contest

Write a poem in the voice of an animal. (The narrator should be an animal. Humans are animals, too, but they're boring this week, so no human narrators!)

Post your poem as a new scrap or deviation.
Send me (^lovetodeviate) a link to the poem in a note titled "ANIMAL VOICE".

Deadline: midnight April 21 (GMT)

Prizes: Two 3-month subs and a journal feature from ^lovetodeviate

Judge: `PinkyMcCoversong

Please note that you don't have to register to write a poem a day to take part in these contests, but it's great fun if you do.

The Mini Chapbook Contest - OPEN!

One of my favourite pastimes involves playing around with my poetry, arranging them in sequence, dreaming about how it would if I had a collection published...

So I thought it would be fun to have a mini chapbook contest. Not only is it fun, it also "will be good training for everyone in thinking of how their poems can relate to each other and build up into something greater than the sum of their parts," as the contest judge said. This should be good practice for anyone with plans to arrange a chapbook or full-fledged poetry collection in the future.

Pick a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 poems from your April poetry collection.
You can edit and revise the poem using the Literature Workshop or any of the critique clubs on deviantART. The more revision, the better.
Arrange them in a sequence that makes sense to you.
Give your chapbook a title.
Submit ALL your poems in one deviation. The title of the deviation should be the title of your chapbook. This deviation goes under the category: Contests & Projects --> Contests --> 2008 --> Mini Chapbook Contest
You can also submit your chapbook as a .pdf under the same category.
If you have any doubts, please note me (^lovetodeviate).

Deadline: midnight May 7 (GMT)

Prizes: $50 and $25 deviantDOLLARS, and best of all, the top two mini chapbooks will get published online in the roundtable review

Judge: Editor of the roundtable review, ~jack-cade

Judging criteria:

1. Overall quality of the poems
2. How naturally and sensibly the collection develops certain themes and ideas (whether to do with form or content) without requiring an explanation
3. Sequencing
4. Anything else that makes the collection stand out

Register to write a poem a day in April

To do this you need to:

Note ^lovetodeviate with a yes and I will add you to my journal list. The subject line should be "REGISTER". Or you can simply reply to this news article with a yes. You can join late, no problem.
Write a poem a day and try to post them as a scrap or deviation. You can be late, sure, but at the end of April you should have 30 poems posted.
This is not necessary, but it would be great if you kept a journal with links to the poems you wrote in April for reference.

No deadline. 85 people have signed up for this. A full list can be found in my journal.

Have fun writing!

If you have any questions, please note me (^lovetodeviate). Prize offerings and stamps are also accepted.

Please make use of #getLIT, the Poetry & Prose Forum, polls and journals to discuss poetry related discussions. It will make April even more interesting.

Other poetry links

Contests/Workshops: Deltabeta Holds Contest of Poetry Poetical Madness | MIMESIS Digital Chapbook Initiative: Competition! | MSJames's Workshop: Tanka! | Funny Poetry Competition | The Betterment For Humanity Contest | Haikudoing!?! What is this? A CONTEST! | Ahoy! Winners for the March Limerick Contest!

Projects: April - Tanka Month! | Applause for April! | Poets Helping Poets | Poetry Feature 56 | Love Poetry? Find Your Place. | Let's not forget prose, especially because *WordCount has done a fantastic job of bringing yet another feature out: Great Prose Exposed: WordCount Feature #9 | | Holy Crap!

Journals: April Awareness!!!

Polls: What Makes a Good Pocket Poem?

Forum threads: April is the cruelist month | Can you write the worst poem ever written? | What Poems Made You Get Into Writing? | Ending a poem with a rhetorical question-

Publishing: Poets: New poetry magazine seeks submissions | Semaphore Magazine

_{[More links will be added later. Note me if I've missed something out.]}