Two Sylvias Press 2023 Spring Newsletter

Our popular Online Poetry Retreat is back!

Hello Friends of Two Sylvias,

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our latest newsletter. As summertime quickly approaches, it's the season for picking up your pens/pencils/laptops, soaking up a little sun, and letting your creativity soar! We’re sharing with you our new book releases, exciting news about our Weekly Muse, our Summer/Fall Online Poetry Retreats, our annual Chapbook Prize, and a prompt to spark a new poem!

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The Two Sylvias Online Summer/Fall Poetry Retreat

It’s back for the 8th year! Our annual (and popular!) Online Summer/Fall Poetry Retreat is open for sign-ups: https://twosylviaspress.com/online-poetry-retreat.html

Sign up and participate in the Two Sylvias Press online poetry retreat! Have one of your poems critiqued by Diane Seuss, Traci Brimhall, January Gill O'Neil, Jennifer Jean, or Jennifer K. Sweeney for the summer sessions. Fall session poems will be critiqued by the editors of Two Sylvias.

We send you poetry prompts, example poems, creativity suggestions, and reflection questions to inspire your writing—ALL VIA EMAIL.

Dates:

July 3rd - July 30th (July Session)
August 7th - September 4th (August Session)
October 2nd - October 29th (October Session)

Choose the session that best fits your schedule and sign up! Space is limited! Please visit our website to register: https://twosylviaspress.com/online-poetry-retreat.html

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Exciting News from the Weekly Muse

Become a paid subscriber of the Two Sylvias Weekly Muse so that you can sign up for FREE Zoom salons/conversations with Maggie Smith (The New York Times bestselling poet/author) and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Diane Seuss (these are two separate salons/conversations). You can also sign up for a FREE Generating New Work poetry class on Zoom with poet and Two Sylvias cofounder/coeditor Kelli Russell Agodon.

Become a paid subscriber by June 20th to participate in the Generating New Work class, which kicks off our new Zoom series.

What is the Two Sylvias Weekly Muse?

Each Sunday in your inbox you will receive:

• A Poetry Exercise and a Poetry Prompt

• Ask the Editors Column and Exclusive Interviews with Well-Known Poets

• A Creativity Reflection Question for Journaling

• Where to Submit Your Work—a list of journals and book/chapbook prizes that are currently open for submissions

• Giveaways and News

• Inspiration and Helpful Tips on Living Life as a Creative Person—the latest information and studies on creativity, art, and writing.

• Insider Info on Navigating the Publishing World

• An Optional Facebook Group Providing Community Support

You can click below to read two issues of the Weekly Muse for free: https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/p/two-sylvias-weekly-muse-january-8
https://twosylviaspress.substack.com/p/two-sylvias-weekly-muse-october-23

Below is a testimonial from Muse Subscriber, Jennifer S:

I was hesitant to subscribe to the Weekly Muse because I had never subscribed to anything before, but I am SO glad I took that risk or I would have never known all I had been missing! I am in my 3rd month of The Weekly Muse and I have written more, submitted more than ever and I've made my writing a priority again! Plus, from your prompts, I've had my poems accepted in three journals AND an anthology! Thank you, Two Sylvias, I see the work that you put in each week and I just wanted to say thank you and please don't ever end the Weekly Muse! It's been a lifechanger for me a a poet. With many thanks and respect for all you do.

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Make your writing life a priority! Sign up for the Weekly Muse and join us for our FREE salons with Maggie Smith and Diane Seuss AND for our FREE poetry class with Kelli Russell Agodon!

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Publication News from Two Sylvias Press

Now Available: Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems (Edited by Susan Rich and Kelli Russell Agodon)

Book creation is an art and Demystifying the Manuscript shares many perspectives on how to put together a book of poems through the essays and interviews of contemporary prize-winning poets and editors. While there isn’t a single “correct” method for creating a book of poems, Demystifying the Manuscript is filled with expert advice on all aspects of manuscript creation: ordering your poems, determining your goals, insider tips from the editors of journals and small presses, and everything in between. Demystifying the Manuscript will guide you through the process of creating your best book of poems whether you are an emerging writer or an established poet. 

Click here for ordering information for Demystifying the Manuscript:
https://twosylviaspress.com/demystifying-the-manuscript.html

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Now Available: Omena Bay Testament by Gail Griffin (Winner of the Wilder Poetry Book Prize)!

"Gail Griffin’s OMENA BAY TESTAMENT takes us across landscapes of winter and water through the possibility of love and the tragedy of death to a ravishing moment where there is nothing left to want. An accomplished nonfiction writer, Griffin captures the fullness and limitations of being with remarkable depth and tenacity in her debut collection of poetry and prose. 'I’m cloaked in the invisibility that comes to women at a certain point,' she writes, and it is from that place of being off-stage where her narratives—harrowing, nuanced, layered—brilliantly forge a path between past and present, the living and the dead. I can't think of another book that gifts its readers with such a breadth of time and experience. Sweeping and seamless, Griffin shifts between wide and exacting gazes, from poems of quiet interiority to the larger breaking world, especially with her masterful sequence in response to news excerpts. This book is a life; it is a gift of integrity and lasting art." —Jennifer K. Sweeney

Click here for ordering information for Omena Bay Testament:
https://twosylviaspress.com/omena-bay-testament.html

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Congratulations to this year’s Wilder Prize Winner, Tiffany Midge!

Tiffany Midge is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and was raised by wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Formerly a humor columnist for Indian Country Today, she currently writes a column for High Country News and has published articles in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, First American Art Magazine, World Literature Today, and more. She is the author of the essay collection "Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s," which was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. Her poetry collection "The Woman Who Married a Bear," (University of New Mexico Press) won The Kenyon Review Earthworks Indigenous Poetry Prize. Tiffany aspires to be the first Distinguished Writer in Residence for Seattle's Space Needle and considers her contribution to humanity to be her sparkly personality.

Tiffany’s winning manuscript, Horns, will be published in Spring of 2024.

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The Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize

Ending Soon! Enter the Two Sylvias Press 2023 Chapbook Prize!

Last day to submit your manuscript: May 31st

Judge: Eduardo C. Corral

Winner receives $500, chapbook published by Two Sylvias Press, and an amethyst depression glass trophy.

Past Winners: Cecilia Woloch, Jasmine An, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Hiwot Adilow, Stella Wong, Christopher Salerno, Meg Griffitts, Saúl Hernández, and Majda Gama.

Please visit our website for guidelines: https://twosylviaspress.com/chapbook-prize.html

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Enjoy a Poetry Prompt!

Never Write About Grandmas or Kitties or Petunias

In the poetry world there are sometimes strange rules about topics that you aren’t supposed to write about because of sentimentality and “sweetness.” So, to break this rule, write a poem about your grandma, your cat, or your favorite flower, BUT, make this poem edgy, dark, obnoxious, shocking—anything but cute and sweet. Maybe grandma is currently in prison for embezzling funds from the company where she was a bookkeeper for thirty years.

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Thank you so much for your support of our small press!

Please visit our Two Sylvias website: https://twosylviaspress.com/index.html
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twosylviaspress/
Find us on Twitter: @twosylviaspress
Contact: twosylviaspress@gmail.com

Happy Writing!

Kelli & Annette

Kelli Russell Agodon & Annette Spaulding-Convy
Cofounders & Coeditors of Two Sylvias Press