The Fall/Winter Contests for The Song Is....

I am far from knowing who has won the spring/summer contests, but it's time to post the fall/winter contests for 2016.

All poems and flash fiction submitted between September 1 and January 30 will be eligible for Thelma's Prize.  Poems and flash fiction from poets based in the Washington, DC area (including Baltimore and Frederick) are eligible for the local prize.  Submitted artwork is eligible for Callie's Prize.

Once again we have two contests.

The first is for poems and flash fiction inspired by the work of jazz and other musicians born in the 1930s.  The jazz musicians include Sonny Rollins, Nina Simone, Ron Carter, Charlie Haden, Clifford Brown, Abbey Lincoln, Wayne Shorter, Albert Ayler, McCoy Tyner, Hugh Masekela, Butch Warren, Hubert Laws, and Don Alias.  You may certainly write work inspired by musicians born in other decades, but they will be eligible for Thelma's Prize, not this contest.

The second is for poems and flash fiction inspired by living without a car or even a driver's license.  These poems can be set in New York City or Europe, but they can also be set in more surprising places.  They can also be set in the past when you did not drive.

Please send your poems to thesongis@gmail.com .  I would like up to five poems or five flash fiction at once.  I encourage you to try the contests.  You need not write about the life of the musician, but you may just listen to his or her music--and write!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Here is some music for you.

Let's begin with Sonny Rollins' "St. Thomas":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4DTR0I7xhA
Winter is the time to go south, after all.

You can find both Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden on "Peace":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU-bPdz-c9I

Clifford Brown was gone too soon:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnK6OHPQZbA

I have to include (young) Ron Carter here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF4kNV2Ka4c

Here is Albert Ayler's "Ghosts": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtiSA2RKDzc

I have to include McCoy Tyner as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZIXDTH-sLA

Butch Warren spent the last years of his life in DC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibdn7hm-yMc  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqD95lTyQY

I'll finish with Don Alias:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9seGSo9Vxpo