TPT 61.1 – shipping notes & errata

If you haven’t received it already, members should receive the Autumn 2018 issue of The Poets’ Touchstone in the mail this week. Many thanks to Ala, Liz, Don, and Priscilla for wrestling with mail merge and braving the bulk mail system. This should be the last issue to come out late. Production of the Spring 2019 issue (slated for mid-May) is currently running ON TIME.

Speaking of TPT 61.2 (Spring 2019), it will contain the 1st-4th place poems from the November 2017 National Contest. This contest was mistakenly omitted from the current issue (61.1) and we apologize for any inconvenience our error has caused. The results for the November 2017 National Contest are as follows:

• 1st Place: “Ball of String” by Glenn K. Currie (Concord, NH)
• 2nd Place: “Dark Side of the Spoon” by Kathryn Howd Machan (Ithaca, NY)
• 3rd Place: “Out of the Closet” by Barbara Bald (Alton, NH)
• 4th Place: “Holy Spirit” by Maren C. Tirabassi (Portsmouth, NH)

To the winning poets: Congratulations and many thanks for sharing your words with us!

TPT 61.1 update

The Autumn 2018 issue of The Poets’ Touchstone is printing as we speak. There were several major issues that caused delay, but the final hurdle was cleared this morning and copies should start shipping out in three weeks.

Puschart Prize Nominees. Click on the image to enlarge.

One new addition to the Autumn 2018 issue is a list of our Pushcart Prize Nominees. To my knowledge, this is the first year that nominations have been sent from The Poets’ Touchstone. It won’t be the last! If you’d like your work considered for the 2019 nomination packet, please be sure to submit work to our general & special calls for submissions.

General submissions for the Spring 2019 issue close tomorrow. But in January and February, I will be posting some special calls for submissions here for the spring issue so there will still be some chances to get work included. Be sure to “follow” or “subscribe” to this blog so you’ll be notified when each special call is announced. And don’t forget to send us your new title announcements and excerpts from collections you’ve already published. I also hope to revive the Editor’s Challenge in time for National Poetry Month in April.

Many of you have been asking about contest results so I’ve included images of the first spread for each contest below.

The selections for the November 2017 Member Contest. Please click on the image to enlarge it.

The selections for the May 2018 National Contest. Please click on the image to enlarge it.

As you’ll notice by the dates, this means we are completely caught up with our contests. From the Spring 2019 issue forward, we will only be printing the winners of one contest per issue. Please also note that we can’t post future results publicly until all winners have been notified.

Front cover. Click on the image to enlarge.

One fun fact for future reference: I’ve been working with the PSNH board to set up a new blog-site for the society instead of the current website that is hard (and expensive) to update. The TPT updates and submission forms that are stored here might end up moving to the new blog-site so that everything is under one roof. We will be sure to post the new link here if that happens.

Thanks so much for your patience this year as we iron out our publication process. It’s still a work in progress, but we hope it smooths out soon. We do appreciate you, members & readers all.

Wishing you a creative and productive 2019,
~JS (Jessi) Graustein, TPT Editor

Contest Updates: July 2018

Due to the typical flurry of summer activity, I’m running late on the Editor’s Challenge June selections, as well as the July prompts. I’ll get everything caught up on Monday, 9 July 2018 so be sure to check back here then.

Also for those waiting to hear the results of the 2018 National Poetry Contest, I just received a note from its coordinator, Robert Crawford:

The Poetry Society of New Hampshire’s May 2018 National Contest results have been delayed due to unforeseeable circumstances. We expect the results to be announced within the next two weeks. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused those who entered the contest.

I’ll be sure the results get posted here in addition to any other locations. To get notified when they are posted, click on the “follow” button at the bottom of this webpage and you will get an email.

Thanks for your patience,
JS (Jessi) Graustein
TPT Editor