Tag: nature writing

Voting has begun for WIZ’s 2012 Spring Poetry Runoff

RodneyLoughWaterfallsOver at AMV’s companion blog Wilderness Interface Zone, the last of the 2012 Spring Poetry Runoff poems have posted and voting to decide which one wins the 2012 Spring Poetry Runoff’s Most Popular Poem Award is open and will run through Tuesday, June 5th.  All participating poets, their friends and family, and all connoisseurs of poetry–particularly, of nature poetry–are invited to help choose the 2012 Spring Poetry Runoff’s Most Popular Poem Award winner.

The poll to determine the winner of the Spring Poetry Runoff Popular Poem Award will close 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, but winners of both the popular vote and the Admin Award will be announced on or around Tuesday, June 6th.   So keep an eye on WIZ to see how matters settle out.  31 poems qualified for the voting, so pop some popcorn, get out a pint of your favorite ice cream, or otherwise provision yourself for a long (but satisfying!) read.   This part is important, folks: Each voter can (and should) vote for his or her three favorite poems!  Instructions on how to access the poems are available in the post”“please read all instructions carefully.

To read the voting instructions and to vote, click here.

The winners of the Most Popular Poem and Admin Awards will receive their choices of  Steven L. Peck’s  The Scholar of Moab (Torrey House Press 2011),  which recently received the AML Award for the Novel, or the stunning new anthology of Mormon poetry, Fire in the Pasture (Peculiar Pages 2011) edited by AMV’s Tyler Chadwick.  Tyler also won an AML Award for his editing of this must-have collection.

So come over to WIZ and join the fun.  Or at least set up a lawn chair and watch.

WIZ kids: Call for nature writing by children

AMV’s companion blog Wilderness Interface Zone is on the search for an endangered species: children who spend time in nature and are willing to write about it.

Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods makes the case that a beautiful, ages old relationship is on the rocks: children and nature have fallen out of love.  Say it isn’t so.  There must be some kids still getting out there, developing lightning-fast reflexes from chasing lizards, solving the whole-body puzzle of climbing a tree, honing their future driving skills by walking on logs across creeks, etc.

It’s in the hope that nature children still exist somewhere that Wilderness Interface Zone is issuing a call for nature poems and short essays written by children.  The works may address any aspect of nature and the child’s relationship to it.  Poems should be 50 lines or under and essays 150-1000 words.  If you have a budding nature photojournalist in your family, we’ll consider posting his or her photos.  Children ages 6-18 are invited to submit work to pk.wizadmin@gmail.com from July 6, 2010 to July 31, 2010.  Depending on how many submissions we get, we’ll post them in batches off and on July-August.  Parents and kids: Please review submission guidelines here before submitting.