Advice on Submitting a Poem to the Hysteria Writing Competition

Want to submit a poem to the Hysteria Writing Competition? Here’s advice from our Writer in Residence. I’m not a poet, says Bridget Whelan, but I’ve read enough bad poetry to know what to avoid… Carl Sandburg said that for him poetry was a synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits. I don’t know if that helps as you think about the poem you want to send to the Hysteria competition which ends in six weeks. But to be a winning poem it does have to have something of that element of surprise that catches the reader unawares, the sense that this is something different, even if the subject has been written about in 1000 poems… I’m not a poet. In fact, one of the exercises in my guide to creative writing is called the I-don’t-want-to-right-a-poem poetry exercise. The fact that I’m not a poet I think makes me well-qualified to support a writer taking their first tentative steps. But how can I help you, someone who doesn’t need to be persuaded that poetry is a good thing, someone itching to write a prize-winning poem? Well, I love poetry and I’ve also read enough bad poems to recognise some of the pitfalls. Here’s my list of five things to avoid: Don’t stick to “poetic” subjects Nothing is off limits. The Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh wrote a sonnet to the hospital ward where he was treated for lung cancer. Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda published an entire collection that praised socks and other ordinary things, while Sharon Olds, a leading contempora...
Source: The Hysterectomy Association - Category: OBGYN Authors: Tags: Hysteria Writing Competition bridget whelan hysteria 2014 writer in residence Source Type: news