Meritage Press, as sponsor, is pleased to announce

A Call For Manuscript Submissions by Filipino Poets

for

“The 2009-2010 Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize”

DEADLINE: August 31, 2009

POETRY MANUSCRIPTS: Poets may submit as many manuscripts as they wish. Each manuscript should be at least 48 pages long. Each manuscript should come with two cover pages: (i) a cover page with Title, Author’s Name, E-mail Address, Snailmail Address and Phone; and (ii) a second cover page with just the Title. (Manuscripts will not be returned so don’t send your only copy(ies).) We are only taking printed (not emailed) manuscripts. Manuscripts should be sent to:

Eileen Tabios
Meritage Press
256 North Fork Crystal Springs Road
St. Helena, CA 94574
U.S.A.

PRIZE: The winning manuscript will garner U.S.$500.00 for its author and be published by Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com).

SUBMISSION FEE: None because Meritage Press prizes all poets…and we consider Poetry a Gift.

OPTIONAL: If you include $5.00 with your entry, you can get a free copy of the prior winning book, Jean Vengua’s PRAU ($5.00 covers U.S. domestic shipping/handling; if you wish to avail yourself of this offer and you live outside the U.S., email us first to discuss).

ELIGIBILITY: Poets of full or partial Filipino descent, living anywhere around the world. All such poets are encouraged to send your best work. Whether you’re an “emerging” vs “established” poet is irrelevant as judging will be based only on the merits of the submitted manuscripts.

JUDGING PROCESS: From the submissions, a group of Finalist manuscripts will be chosen by Eileen Tabios. From the Finalists, the winning manuscript will be chosen by Beatriz Tabios. Judging for the top winner will be done anonymously.

ABOUT THE JUDGES:
FOR FINALISTS: Eileen Tabios is a poet and the publisher of the multidisciplinary literary and arts press, Meritage Press (St. Helena and San Francisco, CA). She has released 16 print, four electronic and 1 CD poetry collections, a novel, an art essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, and a short story book. Recent projects include a novel NOVEL CHATELAINE (TeenyTiny, 2009); a new poetry collection NOTA BENE EISWEIN (Ahadada, 2009) and a conceptual project disrupting the form of biography THE BLIND CHATELAINE’S KEYS (BlazeVOX, 2008). Forthcoming is her ROSARY OF THORNS: SELECTED PROSE POEMS 1998-2008, edited by poet-critic-painter Thomas Fink. In her poetry, she has crafted a body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Portuguese, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Modern Dance and Sculpture. She blogs as the “Chatelaine” at http://angelicpoker.blogspot.com and edits GALATEA RESURRECTS, a popular poetry review journal at http://galatearesurrects.blogspot.com

FOR FINAL WINNER: Beatriz Tabios received her B.A. with English as her major from the Silliman University in Dumaguete, Philippines. She developed her love for poetry as a sixth-grader reading Homer, William Shakespeare, John Keats, Alexander Pope, William Wordworth and Samuel Coleridge while trying to survive World War II. She would further develop her appreciation for poetry as a college student instructed by poet Edith Tiempo, the first woman to receive the title of National Artist for Literature in the Philippines. The late Dr. Edilberto Tiempo, then the head of the English Department, encouraged Mrs. Tabios to continue her study of English and American literature. With Edilberto Tiempo’s encouragement, Mrs. Tabios wrote her Master of Arts thesis which was the first investigation, regarding Filipino literature, of “(The Use of) Local Color in Short Stories in English.” Later, she taught English literature at Dagupan College (now University of Pangasinan) and University of Baguio, before becoming a teacher at Brent School, a boarding school initially built for children from U.S.-American military, missionary and gold-mining families stationed in the Far East.

THE FILAMORE TABIOS, SR. MEMORIAL POETRY PRIZE:
From Mrs. Beatriz Tabios: “My late husband, Filamore Tabios, Sr., and I were absolutely delighted when our daughter Eileen started to write short stories and poems. In memory of my dearly beloved husband and her dearly beloved father, we would like to encourage Filipino poets by sponsoring this Memorial Poetry Prize.”

BOOK PRIZES:
Finalists also will receive a set of books including these selected Meritage Press titles:

THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II coedited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young.

PINOY POETICS: A COLLECTION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL & CRITICAL ESSAYS ON FILIPINO AND FILIPINO-AMERICAN POETICS, edited by Nick Carbo.

THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES by Eileen R. Tabios.

SMALL PRINT: Meritage Press reserves the right not to pick a winner and hand out the prize.

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ADDITIONAL QUERIES may be directed by email to Meritagepress@aol.com