Arc magazine's annual Diana Brebner Prize deadline

Attention Ottawa area poets who have yet to publish your first book!

Enter Arc Poetry Magazine's Diana Brebner Prize!
$500.00 prize plus publication!

Click here for details, or read below:
Call for Submissions for the 6th Annual Diana Brebner Prize Prize: $500
Judge: Stephen Brockwell

Arc: Canada's National Poetry Magazine invites emerging Ottawa writers to be recognized for their talent through a special award for poets who have not yet been published in book form. The prize is named in honour of the late Diana Brebner, an award-winning, Ottawa-based poet who was devoted to fostering literary talent among new local writers. Entry fee is $14 for up to two poems and includes a one-year subscription to Arc, beginning with the Winter 2007 issue, for yourself or a friend. (If you already have asubscription, you can give your new one-year subscription to a friend. Please include their mailing address.) All cheques or money orders should be made out to the Arc Poetry Society. You can now pay by credit card or paypal as well as by cheque or money order through the Poetry Stand. Length of each poem must not exceed 30 lines (including spaces). Entrant's name, address, e-mail, or phone number must not appear on the poem, but on a separate sheet of paper that also lists the titles of the poems entered. Entrants must be residents of the National Capital Region and not have yet published their poetry in book form. No simultaneous submissions or previously published poems will be accepted. Judging is blind. The winner and one honourable mention will be published in Arc's winter 2007 issue. Arc will host a public reading for both poets in December 2007. Winners will be notified by October 20, 2007. Results mailed only to entrants who enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope, or emailed to those who provide anemail address. No e-mail submissions will be accepted. No entries will be returned.

Deadline: received by September 30, 2007
Send entries to: Diana Brebner Prize, Arc: Canada's National Poetry Magazine, P.O. Box81060 Ottawa, Ontario Canada, K1P 1B1

You know how I know you're gay?

Well, this just seals the deal. Ottawa is officially faggadocious.

Faggadocious is a new word for me (I know, shouldn't it be spelled faggodocious?), uncovered this spring when some City of Ottawa employees got caught sending around a rather silly e-mail, which was about as serious or harmful as the “Do you know how I know you're gay? You like Coldplay” scene from The Forty Year Old Virgin. Some councillors freaked – better to punish employees for sending around a joke e-mail than actually do something to make the city more gay-friendly, I guess.

Anyway, faggadocious. Ottawa's writing community has always been a little bit gay – after all, we've been lucky enough to have Suki Lee (who recently left us for TO), Shane Rhodes, Megan Butcher, Alex Brett, Sean Zio, Mackenzie MacBride and handful of others consistently out there. The Dusty Owl's readings at Swizzles offer a pleasantly bent atmosphere for shows. And of course the Owler's first ever trade pub, last year's Tattoo This Madness In by Montreal cutie Daniel Allen Cox (whose book is a lot like Joey Comeau's first, Lockpick Pornography, come to think of it), was also queer. The good folks at Lambda have been giving us Wilde About Sappho for years and sometimes WAS seemed like the only gay thing Ottawa's literati were really prepared for.

This spring, the Ottawa International Writer's Fest paired up with WAS to give us the launch of Canada's first historical collection of gay men's poetry, Seminal – the work of former Ottawan John Barton and BC's Billeh Nickerson (see his interview with hot gay poet Sean Horlor here). A few months before that, Capital Xtra, where I work, hosted Transgress, an evening of sexy readings by Ivan Coyote, Sky Gilbert, Matt Firth and Marnie Woodrow. I'm happy to say Transgress will be back this October – as it will every October from now on. Stay tuned for the lineup.

We've gotten gayer and gayer. But with Pride this year, we're officially faggadocious. The bloom of queer author appearances – from two last year to six this year – proves it, and this city is only going to get more lube-and-rhinestones fabulous.

Venus Envy is organizing two queer-themed readings; Dusty Owl is organizing two queer spoken word events; rob and the Factory Reading Series will host one queer, one bent, one straight chapbook launch; and, oh yeah, Sky Gilbert is coming (hosted by James Moran).

I really hope the local reading series will take this as an opportunity to recruit regulars to their evenings. After all, gays in this city tend to be free-time-having, disposable-income-wielding lit-loving nuts. And I hope that Dusty Owl, Venus Envy and Factory and the other reading series in town make an effort again next year host somebody faggadocious during Pride.

Details below.

Sky Gilbert.
w/ Marcus McCann and Mackenzie MacBride.
Thurs, Aug 16, 7:30pm.
Collected Works Bookstore.
1242 Wellington W.

A Theory Of Angels.
Spoken word by Sean Zio.
Sat, Aug 18, 5pm.
Mother Tongue Books.
1067 Bank (a wheelchair accessible venue).
A Dusty Owl event.

DeAnne Smith.
Spoken word and standup.
Sun, Aug 20, 5pm.
Swizzles.
246 Queen.
A Dusty Owl event.

Reading Out Loud.
Local personalities read literature that influenced hem while they were coming out.
Thurs, Aug 23, 8pm.
Venus Envy.
320 Lisgar.
Organized by the good folk at Venus Envy.

14th Anniversary Of Above/Ground Press.
w/ Marcus McCann, Amanda Earl and Bill Hawkins.
Thurs, Aug 23, 7:30pm.
Ottawa Art Gallery.
2 Daly (ArtsCourt).
A Factory Readying Series event.

Julia Serano.
Author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman On Sexism And The Scapegoating Of Femininity.
Sun, Aug 26, 6pm.
Venus Envy.
320 Lisgar.
Organized by the good folk at Venus Envy.

The Sparrow, Ottawa's new literary magazine

The Sparrow, Ottawa's new literary magazine, is looking for aspiring, never-before-published writers to help fill its pages. We are calling on all our friends to help support the literary arts in Ottawa.

Spread the word, start thinking about your ideas, and DON'T BE AFRAID TO BE DARING WITH YOUR PEN! We want to continue to define fringe literature, and only you can do that by exercising the right to write, creatively!

What we are looking for:
PROSE -Short, exciting tales of fiction and non-fiction. All genres and topics welcome. Make sure you let us know whether your story is fiction or non-fiction, sometimes it's not so obvious. Truth can be stranger, as the cliche goes (prove me wrong!). Stories should be about 250-1000 words.

CHAPTER ONE WRITING CONTEST!
You've been working on that full-length novel now for years, or you've had this idea tossed around in your head but you've never had the right motivating challenge to get started. WELL, GET STARTED NOW! We want to give aspiring novelists a chance to publish their work. We are currently accepting submissions for the first chapter of a never-before-published full length novel. We are looking for fresh, unique, and exciting fiction. Send us your first chapter now! Winners will be notified by email. There are no set rules on length, but a chapter generally tends to be between 5-10 pages (2000-5000 Words).

POETRY -Prose is the christmas tree, and poems are the ornaments that make that tree shine. If that's not poetic, show me what is!

Submissions cost nothing: please send them as a Word file to the following email address: thesparrowmagazine@gmail.com. Include your name and contact information (mail, email, telephone etc.) on a separate page. Submissions might be edited for size or content. All copyrights revert to the author after publication.

THE FIRST ISSUE IS SET TO LAUNCH IN THE FALL. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR THE FIRST ISSUE IS SEPT. 3, 2007.

Hope to hear from all of you soon!
Mario Jamal, Editor
The Sparrow Magazine