Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Urban Planner: November 23, 2009
Reading Toronto states "the city is a book with 100,000 million poems." Torontoist is aware of many poems that have been written by Toronto poets, but thinks there is ample room in the GTA for a few more (maybe a million-or-two would improve the present un-poetic monstrosity that is Dundas Square). We're also curious to know where new poems are being written: During TTC commutes? On the picturesque grounds of Casa Loma? Under the Gardiner?
So, after much thought, we decided to create (and map out) a poetry contest with some great prizes (not to mention fame!) for the winner.
The Deets: Please send previously unpublished poems about Toronto, poems set in Toronto, and/or poems about Torontonians to poetry@torontoist.com. If the connection to our city in your poem isn't apparent, please divulge the pertinent Toronto details. We also want to know where your poem was written, so please indicate its co-ordinates (closest intersection is fine). One poem per person, under 100 lines, and please copy it to the body of your email or a Word .doc (.jpg or .pdf for visual poetry is great). The judging process will be blind, so please don’t put your name on attachments. No entry fee, of course.
Deadline: March 15, 2007.
Winners Announced: April 10, 2007 (National Poetry Month).
Judges: Carly Beath, Stephen Cain, Jay MillAr.
The best poem awards its author eternal bragging rights, gets published by Torontoist, and wins a Toronto literary prize pack full of wordy booty:
Torontology by Stephen Cain (ECW Press), The Shooter’s Bible by Karen Solie (Junction Books), The State of The Arts: Living With Culture in Toronto (Coach House Books), Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry (The Mercury Press), a framed I LOVE YOU TORONTO photographic print by Sharon Harris, and more!
Five honourable mentions will also be posted on Torontoist.
All entries will be mapped and presented in lovingly rendered cartography. Who doesn’t love a good map?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
One more reason I want to move to Toronto. You guys are so much more literate than we are (America). America would have some kind of redneck/NASCAR/Get `er done/Britney contest and the prize would be something like an autographed "Taladega Nights:Ricky Bobby" DVD and free nachos for life. And, of course, it would be sponsored by Doritos, Verizon and Mountain Dew with Carmen Electra naming the winner. "Oooh, babydoll, git me some DOH-Ree-toes so I kin git me one o' dem scratch offs, oh dang, I'm all out of pre-paid minutes, Yo"
Hey, Steve --
Your comment has a nice rhythm to it, especially in the last few lines!
Can feel your pain though, as I spent most of my late childhood wanting to live in Toronto, and was designing future TO studio apartments in high school art classes.
Thanks Sharon...I was checkin' out your' website earlier this morning. Cool! I'm trying to get back into photography (I used to in the ancient film days, you know, taking shots of dinosaurs:). I like your photos. I'm thinking of the Canon 400D.I'm so impressed by the stuff on here and Flickr that people like you are doing. Creative, original stuff.
A studio apartment would probably be all I could afford, but if it were in a cool city like TO, what more do I need?
Aw, thanks Steve. A lot of the ILYG photos were shot on film! Photoculture has changed drastically in the past few years, and I happily get lost at Flickr for hours at a time.
Thanks to all who have sent poems so far. Please do keep the submissions coming, everyone!
finally. hope for the tiny poets. i read through some AVATAR at Pages & fell in love with it, but sadly lacked the funds to make the purchase. (one day she will be mine!)
More thanks! And it makes my heart happy to see that you frequent the wonderful world that is Pages.