For Immediate Release / Jan. 21, 2008 / Contact Art Goodtimes

gourds@paleohippie.com

Mark Fischer Poetry Prize deadline set for March 20

The Telluride Writers Guild’s invites submissions to the eleventh annual Mark Fischer Poetry Prize. Started by the Guild in 1997 and sustained by Mark’s widow Elaine Fischer and the Fischer family, the prize is named in the memory of Telluride’s much-loved poet, lawyer, skier and raconteur.

Mark Fischer was a daring experimenter who combined a polyglot’s command of numerous languages with a quirky sense of humor and a passion for obtuse words. In that spirit, prizes will be awarded to the entry that best exhibits the qualities of originality, novelty, complex meaning, linguistic skill and wit. All styles and content matter are acceptable (the wilder the better).

Winners will be selected by the 2008 judges, Wendy Videlock and Art Goodtimes. Awards of $150 first prize, $50 second prize, and $25 third prize will be presented at Talking Gourds, Telluride’s annual performance poetry festival on Friday, April 25, 2008, at the historic Telluride Opera House (http://coyotekiva.org/t-gourds.html). Several runnerup $25 2009 festival discounts will also be awarded.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions are limited to one page of original work (8.5x11”), in a font no smaller that 12 points. Any poet residing in Colorado or New Mexico for at least three months of the year is eligible to enter, and multiple entries (up to 5) will be allowed. Previously published work is acceptable so long as the writer retains the copyright. Submission to the contest grants one-time use rights of publication to the Telluride Writers Guild in local papers and in any future anthology of work. But copyright is retained by the author. A reading fee of $5 per poem/page must accompany submissions, and a SASE is necessary for notifying contestants of the winners. Make checks payable to the Telluride Writers Guild.

No names on the submissions themselves. On a separate sheet, please legibly write or type your name, the title of your piece(s), your phone number, email and your address. Snail mail must include check and SASE, and may include poems (email submission of poems acceptable). Send completed submission packet to Mark Fischer Contest, c/o Art Goodtimes, Cloud Acre, P.O. Box 160, Norwood, CO 81423. Deadline (postmark date) is Tuesday, March 20, 2008. No incomplete or late submissions will be accepted or considered.