Dear Filipino Poets:
You are invited to submit to a fun poetry contest. No submission fees. E-mail submissions. Details below:

SIXTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST
Sponsors: Meritage Press
Judge: Michelle Bautista
Deadline: December 31, 2006

ABOUT THE JUDGE:
Gura Michelle Bautista is a 4th degree black belt in the Kamatuuran school of Kali under the direction of Tuhan Joseph T. Oliva Arriola. She teaches Kali in Oakland, CA. She recently released her inaugural book Kali’s Blade, a collection of poetry and prose. She is a SF Bay Area poet and performer, having worked with Kearney Street Workshop, Bindlestiff Studios, Asian American Theater Company, KulArts, and Teatro Ng Tanan. She has been published in Going Home To A Landscape, Babaylan, maganda magazine, Eros Pinoy, Asian Pacific American Journal, TMP Irregular and MiPoesias Magazine.

ABOUT THE CONTEST:
All poets are encouraged to submit by e-mailing 1 or 2 poems to MeritagePress@aol.com. (Send no more than 2 poems). Please present poems within the body of the email as we do not open attachments.) Please include your full name along with your e-mail address. However, the poems will be sent without your names to judge Michelle Bautista, thereby allowing the poems to be read on their own merit. All poets are welcome to submit — it doesn’t matter whether you’re established or emerging as the work is read on its own merit.

There are no limitations to poetry styles or content. All types of poems are welcome. We are now taking submissions up to the deadline of December 31, 2006.

Only previously unpublished poems are eligible (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies).

PRIZES:
Meritage Press has asked MIchelle Bautista to choose one winner. However, Michelle may choose other finalist-winners, depending on the quality of the submissions. The winner(s) will have their poems published in the February 2007 edition of “Babaylan Speaks” at http://meritagepress.com/babaylan/

The FIRST PLACE winner also will receive copies of:

KALI’S BLADE by Michelle Bautista (Meritage Press, 2006)

THE FIRST HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, co-edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku.htm

PINOY POETICS; A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics, edited by Nick Carbo; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/pinoypoetics.htm

I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://marshhawkpress.org/tabios2.htm

DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://dredgingforatlantis.blogspot.com

THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOL. I by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://secretpunctuations.blogspot.com/

THE ANCHORED ANGEL: SELECTED WRITINGS BY JOSE GARCIA VILLA; for more information about the book, go to http://www.kaya.com/aa.html

AND SELECTED MERITAGE PRESS POETRY TITLES:
DERIVE by Bruna Mori; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/derive.htm

THE OBEDIENT DOOR by Sean Tumoana Finney; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/obedientdoor.htm

OPERA: Poems 1981-2002 by Barry Schwabsky; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/opera.htm

Other finalist-winners besides the First Place winner, if any, will receive two of the above-listed books (the choice of books are up to Meritage Press).

PREVIOUS WINNERS:
2005: Arkaye Velasquez Kierulf (Judge: Jean Vengua)
2004: Joel H. Vega (Judge: Sarah Gambito)
2003: Luisa A. Igloria (Judge: Patrick Rosal)
2002: Naya S. Valdellon & Michella Rivera-Gravage (Judge: Oliver de la Paz)
2001: Carlomar Arcangel Daoana (Judge: Nick Carbo)