An online poetry contest turned anthology: Poethood.com publishes first community-contest anthology

Sept. 24, 2010 - PRLog -- Poethood announces the first anthology in a series of poetry contests. The first contest, titled and themed "Great Expectations", was conducted over the summer and the book "Great Expectations: An Anthology" has now been published as a result. The winner of the contest is Philippe Zyg with his poem titled Semifinal.

"I had a poem about the eagerness to be in a certain place (Paris) and realized it suited the theme of the competition quite well. An excellent topic, as we spend most of our lives expecting something to happen, so I liked the idea and submitted my text", comments Philippe of his winning work. You can watch Philippe read his poem on video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpnFPY7ZUwY



Most of the poets published in the Poethood anthology are first-time poets. The age range of the participants spanned over seven decades, and the material in the book is as varied, all reflecting their own great expectations - whatever they may be. While poetry contests like the ones ran by Poethood can be fun and challenging even for established authors, it is especially the debutante who has the most to gain by participating and doing well in a contest. Poethood's contests are rewarding in three ways: winners are paid prizes, many more are selected to be published in the books, and lastly, everyone who participates in the contest gets a copy of the book mailed to them.

"We wanted to do this differently and to create a real feeling of belonging around our contests", says Mikko Jarvenpaa, founder of Poethood.com. "The entry fee covers the cost of a printed book, and even if you are not published, you get the book mailed to you. If you write about a subject, you are likely interested enough in it to enjoy the book anyway. This makes us very different – we want to take the online contest and bring their fruits to your door as a real book."

Poethood lowers the threshold of getting published without demanding too much. Other than the entry fee, there are no obligations to buy anything, and all our authors are paid royalties for the book sales.

What is the guidance of the recent winner to budding writers? "Read and enjoy literature in as many languages as you can. And don’t trust your education too much because first-hand experience is what really counts, not the speculations of this scholar or that teacher", says Philippe.

Poethood is currently running a contest by the title Change of Scenery with the first prize of $500 and an entry fee of only $10. The contest is open until the end of September. For the contest, please head to http://poethood.com/viewcontest/3

For more information, see http://poethood.com/ or contact Mikko Jarvenpaa at mikko@poethood.com. For review copies of Great Expectations (as a PDF), please email mikko@poethood.com.

# # #

About Poethood.com: Poethood runs poetry contests, publishes anthologies and gets new writers a venue to get their writing out in the press. Every participant in our contests gets a copy of the book, and every published author is paid royalties on the book sales. Poethood is a part of Cluster Press, which publishes community- and expert-created books on subjects from fan fiction to how-tos.