A writing practice requires us to slow down, reflect, and attend. HeartWood Literary Magazine & West Virginia Wesleyan’s MFA Program seek to honor this practice with an annual broadside contest. The winning entry will be printed on a limited-edition letterpress broadside designed by Charleston, W.Va. letterpress company Base Camp Printing.

The contest runs April 1 through June 1, 2019.

Those interested may submit one poem or flash prose piece (fiction or nonfiction) of 200 or fewer words to www.heartwoodlitmag.com/submit, along with a $15 entry fee (payable online).

Previously published entries cannot be submitted for this contest; however, simultaneously submitted work is permitted as long as the editors are notified if the work is accepted elsewhere. There is no limit on the number of entries.

A $500 cash prize and 25 copies of the limited-edition letterpress broadside will be awarded to the winner, and all entrants will receive a copy of the winning print. The winner and honorable mentions will be publicly announced in the October 2019 issue of HeartWood. All entries will also be considered for publication in HeartWood.

Poet Savannah Sipple — new guest faculty in WVWC’s MFA program — will serve as contest judge.

Sipple is a writer from east Kentucky. Her debut poetry collection WWJD and Other Poems (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019) explores what it is to be a queer woman in Appalachia and is rooted in its culture and in her body. She explores the difficult terrain of stereotype, conservative Evangelicalism, and, perhaps most, shame.

Her poems have recently been published in Appalachian Heritage, Waxwing, Talking River, The Offing, and The Louisville Review. She is also the recipient of grants from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

For more information, contact Jessie van Eerden, MFA Director, at vaneerden@wvwc.edu or 304-473-8329.