Call for Best New Poets
Just received, so passing on to you, Dear Writers!
I wanted to let you know that the Open Competition for Best New Poets 2008 is now taking submissions. This year's entry fee is $3.50. For full details, see http://www.bestnewpoets.org
As it has for the last three years, Best New Poets will publish 50 poems by emerging writers, which we define as someone who has yet to publish a book of their own poetry. Before you decide what poems to enter, please read our full eligibility guidelines: http://www.bestnewpoets.org/eligibility.html.
This year's guest editor is Mark Strand. Best New Poets 2008 will be available through online retailers like amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, but thanks to an agreement with the University of Virginia Press, it will also be widely distributed to retail stores.
A few big changes from past editions:
- Our Open Competition deadline is June 5, 2008, some 10 days earlier than last year.
- Our entry fee has been lowered to $3.50, but does not include a copy of the book. After we announce our results, Open Competition entrants will have the opportunity to buy copies at a reduced rate (about $6) but this is entirely optional.
- All Open Competition entrants published in the book will receive a payment of $50.
Another big change is that we're taking submissions through ManuscriptHub.com this year. This is an online submission service where you can upload a manuscript once but submit it to multiple magazines. You can also withdraw individual manuscripts from consideration and track the progress of multiple submissions in one place.
For best results, we ask that you prepare your manuscripts this way:
You can upload two poems per entry. We recommend saving each poem in a separate file. Please save using the following formats: MS Word .doc or .rtf, or as a .txt (text) or a .pdf (Acrobat) file. Please do not put your name on the manuscripts or in the file names. ManuscriptHub links the manuscripts to your account but keeps the reading process blind until we make final selections.
Then,
- Go to http://www.manuscripthub.com and register/log in.
- Click the blue "Your Manuscripts" icon and upload all your poetry.
- When your manuscripts are on the system, click the blue "Submit Work" icon.
- A list of magazines appears. Select the "Best New Poets 2008" link next to our cover.
- Use the drop-down menus next to "Manuscript 1" and "2" to select which manuscripts to submit.
- Click the "Submit" button.
- Click the "Pay Now" button to pay your $3.50 fee by credit card. If you plan to enter more than once, you can wait to make one payment. Just click the blue "Submit Work" icon, select "Best New Poets 2008" again, and create another submission. Then pay once at the end.
We apologize if this seems like a lot of steps. Because ManuscriptHub takes submissions for several magazines, you have to first upload your manuscripts, and then submit them to a particular magazine/competition. You can always check the status of a submission by clicking on the blue "Submission Status" icon. An "open" submission is one we've received and that's been marked paid. Feel free to e-mail if you get lost during the submission process.
Jeb Livingood
Series Editor, Best New Poets
www.bestnewpoets.org



