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Like Food? Write Poetry?

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In a continuing celebration of Southern culture and arts, White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails, an Atlanta-based restaurant offering contemporary Southern cuisine, invites poets from across the South to participate in the first annual White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails Prize in Southern Poetry. Poems will be on the topic of Love, no matter what the context, and judged prior to Valentine’s Day.

Poems will be evaluated and judged by Kevin Young, author of eleven books of poetry and prose, including the forthcoming Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015 (Knopf, 2016). The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness (Graywolf, 2012) won the PEN Open Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book. He is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English & Creative Writing and Curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University.

The winning love poem will be featured on the restaurant’s Valentine’s Day menu running from February 12 through the 14 and the winning poet will receive a $1,500 prize.

To learn more about White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails and its commitment to Southern Arts and Culture, please visit us at www.whiteoakkitchen.com.

Here are the complete guidelines:

  1. The contest is open to all poets who currently reside in and have had residency in one of the following states for a minimum of twelve consecutive months: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia (Residency will be verified before prize winner is announced.)
  2. Writers who have published two or more full-length collections of poetry or who do not meet the residency requirements are NOT eligible
  3. Translations and manuscripts in languages other than English are not acceptable, however manuscripts that occasionally use words from other languages are perfectly fine
  4. All poems submitted will become the property of White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails and can be published without further approval of author
  5. Manuscripts must be received prior to February 5, 2016
  6. The submitted poems will not be returned
  7. No entry fee required
  8. Poem Guidelines:
    • Only one submission per author
    • 40 line limit
    • Must be on the topic of “Love”, but can be a “Love” of anything
    • Poem must be typed (single-spaced)
    • Author must include name, address, phone number, email address, word count and manuscript title on the submitted poem
  9. Poems must be submitted by email to info@whiteoakkitchen.com
  10. No revisions of submitted manuscripts will be allowed during the contest
  11. The winner will be announced on February 12, 2016 and contacted to discuss delivery of the $1,500 payment prize