“Here’s to the land of the longleaf pine,” declares North Carolina’s State Toast.
This is, in fact, its opening line. Before the rhododendron, before the scuppernong, comes the seemingly omnipresent longleaf pine.
The non-profit Longleaf Press, housed at Methodist University in Fayetteville, publishes both chapbooks and full-length poetry collections. Founded in 1997, they are open to writers from around the world.
The majority of their authors come to them through annual contests, include Jeanne Julian (Blossom and Loss, 2015); Barbara Presnell (Los Hijos, 2002, and Unravelings, 1997), and Crystal Simone Smith (Running Music, 2014).
Longleaf Press sponsors an annual Poetry Chapbook Contest, which is now open for submissions. The contest is open to residents of North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, and Florida who have not yet published a full-length collection of poetry.
Interested? Send 18-23 pages of poetry along with a $20 entry fee by May 4: www.methodist.edu/longleaf/contests.htm.
Longtime friend of the Network Marty Silverthorne won the 2017 Poetry Chapbook Contest for Naming the Scars. For more about Marty, and to read a sample poem, click here.
Chapbooks are $10 each (or two for $15). Full-length collections are $14.50. Order here.
Visit them on the web: www.methodist.edu/longleaf/index.htm.