WIZ announcements, perhaps of interest

WIZ readers and writers: Remember that the deadline for Torrey House Press’s Creative Literary Nonfiction Contest (2,000-10,000 words) is midnight, September 30th.   First Prize: $1000.   Second Prize: $250.   Third Prize: $100.   There’s a $25 entry fee.

Torrey House is offering a special arrangement for entrants who can present “reasonable evidence” that they’ve bought Torrey House’s first novel publication, Crooked Creek. For more information about this special arrangement and for the competition in general, go here.   For those of you who don’t know, frequent WIZ contributor Steve Peck will also be releasing a novel through Torrey House Press in October.   Look for an excerpt to be published here on WIZ.

Also, Peculiar Page’s landmark poetry anthology Fire in the Pasture has announced a release date of October 1st.   It’s available for pre-ordering NOW!   This is an exciting and, really, quite astounding project.   I’m very pleased to say that many WIZ contributors make a showing in this important anthology (including me–what an honor!).   To view Fire in the Pasture’s product page and to pre-order your copy, go here.   You can also read Peculiar Page’s Theric’s triumphant promotional post about Fire in the Pasture here.

Also, I’ll be making a brief show of poetry in an anthology titled Vintage: A Harvest of Poems from Fortunate Childe Publications.   Carla Martin-Wood, another frequent contributor to WIZ, is one of the beating hearts of Fortunate Childe Publications.   If I remember correctly, most of the poems I’ll have in this anthology were published on WIZ.   Delightfully prolific poet Karen Kelsay will also be making an appearance therein.

Finally, occasional WIZ contributor Val K. has had her essay published first on WIZ, “Our Very Own Toad Hall,” accepted into the first   issue of Desert Voices, a regional anthology published by the Moab Poets and Writers’ group.   Congratulations, Val K.!   Your mother would be proud.

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Polar Opposites: Are Polar Bears in Danger? by Val K.

On May 14 of 2008, Dirk Kempthorne, the Secretary of Interior, followed the urgings of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall and placed the polar bear species (Ursus maritimus) on the endangered species list. Hunting bans were implemented to prevent the importing of hunted polar bear hides.

Before this, a powerful controversy had been developing in the scientific world and continues even now. Environmentalists and many scientists believe that, due to global warming, the ice habitat of the polar bears is receding and endangering them and that in a matter of several decades they could possibly become extinct.

WIZ Kids: Floral Spring by Jenna

April’s beauty carries with it rain
Wet tear drops falling from the sky
Its premier today, showing up shy
Sliding into slits in buds
Mixing itself with different muds
Slipping down my forehead
Touching my eyelashes ahead
I close my eyes to nature’s gift
While they were closed I did drift
To the month of May’s sweet, sweet scent
To view flowers and green is where I went
With sunny skies and buzzing bees
And singing birds and a wispy breeze
The rays of sun warm my pale face
Everything holds its very own grace
The life, the energy, the colors oh my
Making you never want to say goodbye
Soon enough my eyes open slow
I can’t wait now for the plants to grow
May’s essence still with me in the gray
As I look into bliss and await tomorrow’s day

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Jenna is a rising 9th grader with a specialized track for Medical Services.   Jenna hopes to study medicine and become a neurologist. In her spare time she enjoys volleyball, travel, photography and hanging out with her friends.

WIZ Kids: Our Very Own Toad Hall by Val K.

€œLook, here’s Fezzika, € my mother said, bending down to point out the Woodhouse toad tucked under the garden stone. We had discovered the amphibian’s house a few days earlier, and I was fascinated by the placement choice. She had dug into the soil under a cornerstone edging the flowerbed beside the main path through the garden. The stone is flat, shaped a little like a boomerang, wide and bent in the middle, providing a convenient entrance and shelter.