Dear Filipino Poets Worldwide:

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

NINTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST
Sponsor: Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com)
Judge: Aileen Ibardaloza
Deadline: January 5, 2010

ABOUT THE JUDGE:
Aileen Ibardaloza is the Associate Editor of Our Own Voice Literary Ezine. Her works have appeared in various online and print media including Manorborn journal (Summer 2009), 1000 Views of Girl Singing (Leafe Press, California and U.K., 2009), A Taste of Home (Anvil, Manila, 2008), Fellowship (Summer/Fall 2008), Moria and Galatea Resurrects. She trained as a molecular biologist before job-hopping her way to the literary world. traje de boda, her first poetry collection, will be published by Meritage Press in 2010.

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 Aileen Ibardaloza, 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. By Filipino, we include part-blooded Filipinos. We are now taking submissions up to the deadline of Jan. 5, 2010.

Only previously unpublished poems are eligible (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition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 Aileen Ibardaloza to choose one winner. However, Aileen may choose other finalist-winners, depending on the quality of the submissions. The winner(s) will have their poems published in “Babaylan Speaks” at http://meritagepress.com/babaylan/

The FIRST PLACE WINNER also will receive SELECTED FILIPINO TITLES:

traje de boda by Aileen Ibardaloza; the book is forthcoming in 2010 from Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com)

PRAU by Jean Vengua; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/prau.htm

MUSEUM OF ABSENCES by Luis H. Francia; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/museum.htm

KALI’S BLADE by Michelle Bautista; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/kalis.htm

THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, co-edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku2.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

THE THORN ROSARY: SELECTED PROSE POEMS 1998-2010 by Eileen Tabios; the book is forthcoming from Marsh Hawk Press, New York, in 2010

THE BLIND CHATELAINE’S KEYS by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.blazevox.org/bk-et.htm

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

MENAGE A TROIS WITH THE 21st CENTURY by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.ourownvoice.com/books/2004xpress.shtml

REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.marshhawkpress.org/backlist.htm

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

PREVIOUS WINNERS:
2008: Rodrigo V. Dela Pena Jr. (Judge: Bino A. Realuyo)
2007: Naya S. Valdellon & Marcel L. MiIliam (Judge: Eric Gamalinda)
2006: Joel M. Toledo (Judge: Michelle Bautista)
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)

For questions or more information, you can email MeritagePress@aol.com