Kelsey Street Press - Poetry by Women

Winning Manuscript: 7 Days and Nights in the Desert (Tracing the Origin)
by Sabrina Dalla Valle

Sabrina Dalla Valle, MFA, is an experimental and academic writer. She is most interested in the poetic imagination as an aspect of phenomenological perception and integral awareness. Her academic research examines Presocratic and hermetic influences on writers from the Romantic through the Modernist periods. Her experimental writing works to reimagine missing fragments of ancient texts while respecting the perhaps greater significance they hold in their absence. She is also editor of Diaphany, a peer-reviewed journal for the publication of work that reveals an inherent symbiosis between poetic and philosophical inquiry.

Sabrina makes her living teaching writing and communication theory in Los Angeles, CA.

Excerpt:

Mirror photons are undetectable,
but they can form into mirror planets
and even mirror stars, also undetectable.
Darkness is reason enough to leap.
Somewhere, there is a parallel world.
The irrational has its own logic,
this too, a house of mirrors.

The architecture of awareness comes down
to this: sequence seems important, a sense of
how things are related. Materials too: enough
windows to see outside, walls with permeability,
a few doors. And the designer–
something must sketch our seeing.

Kelsey Street Press Announces Firsts!
An emerging writer's series featuring first books by women writers
Reading Period: May 1May 31, 2012
Judge: Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

ELIGIBILITY
The contest is open to women writers who have never published a full-length book of poetry. This year current and former students of Mei-mei Berssenbrugge may not submit manuscripts to the contest.

SELECTION
Manuscripts are reviewed anonymously. A Kelsey Street Press selection committee will screen all of the manuscripts from which five to ten finalists will be chosen for consideration by the judge. This year Ms. Berssenbrugge will select the winner.

FORMAT
-Manuscript must be typed, between 48 and 120 pages
-Title page with book title only
-Cover letter: Include in your cover letter ONLY:
o the poet's/writer's name
o address
o phone number
o email address

READING FEE
The reading fee is $18.

COMPENSATION
The winner will be awarded publication and 25 copies of the printed book.

DEADLINE
Manuscripts must be received between May 1 and May 31, 2012, at midnight Pacific Time. The winner will be announced this summer, and the winning book will be published in 2013.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through our secure online submission page (see below for link). Please do not include your name or any other identifying information on the manuscript pages. You will be able to upload your manuscript on the submissions page. Manuscripts must be sent in one file (doc, rtf or pdf). If you have previously used Submishmash, you may log in to your existing account using the same email address and password used to create your account. To go to the secure submissions page and begin the electronic submission process, please click the link below:

Click here to submit to contest and pay online.

If you have any questions, please send an email to info@kelseyst.com

How We Judge
Any identifying information will be removed from all manuscripts before they are sent to the committee members who choose the semi-finalists to be sent to the judge. (If your name is an integral part of your poetry, please contact us for guidelines on replacing it with a pseudonym.) All manuscripts will be given a number to associate them with the contact information of their submitters. The Kelsey Street members who remove the identifying information are NOT involved in the reading or selection of manuscripts.
All manuscripts will then be read by at least two different members of the selection committee. For the sake of avoiding any conflict of interest, if a reader believes that she recognizes the work of a colleague, student, or friend, that manuscript is given to another editor. The committee will select the semi-finalists to be sent to the judge. The judge will then select the winner. If the judge wishes to see additional manuscripts, she or he may request them; the judge is not, however, permitted to request specific manuscripts.

CLMP Contest Code of Ethics
Kelsey Street Press adheres to/abides by the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses Contest Code of Ethics: CLMPs community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelinesdefining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Reading Fee
Kelsey Street Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. To offset the cost of editorial time required to review and respond individually to manuscripts, we charge a reading fee of $18, payable to Kelsey Street Press. No editor receives extra compensation for reading manuscripts. You are welcome to submit as many manuscripts as you like, as long as you send a separate reading fee for each.