Win The Alan Bunn Memorial Chapbook Prize

My sophomore year, I took a semester off, which got me off the submission schedule.

My junior year, I couldn’t enter because I didn’t have enough credits.

My senior year, I entered, but because of budget cuts, only one was published instead of the usual two, and mine wasn’t selected.

This year I was initially told I wouldn’t be allowed to enter because I’ll be a graduate and not a student when prizes are awarded. However, after a meeting today, I was told that I would be allowed to enter, that it would be a shame if I wasn’t, and that we should obey the spirit, not the letter, of the law.

I already have a manuscript together, and I’m going to polish the ever loving hell out of it. This is my year. I’m the strongest writer on campus. I. Am going. To win.

I pitched the idea of reprinting 100-200 copies of THE NAME POEMS, my mother’s chapbook published 30 years ago by the same press, to my press director. I told him that there would be a lof of press for the school because it’s the first time a parent and child have ever won the prize. Her book has been out of print for very long, I don’t think my mother even has a copy-but if we reprinted a few, we could sell the two together at the huge Alumni Weekend Book Sale. Pair that with the fact that the thirtieth reunion of the class of 1978 will be that weekend, my mother’s class, and we’ve got a hotcake stand on our hands. I am not going to tell her about this prospect until the reprint is ordered, but I think it is going to happen.

I find out how much the reprint will cost tomorrow, and then I am to report back to the senior press director. (The senior press director just happens to be my godfather…so something tells me that this is definitely probable!)

t(here)a chapbook by Margaret Mason Tate
coming soon to a website and/or bookseller near you!

I found out today that I won. I am very excited, because April of this year marks the thirtieth anniversary of my mother winning this same chapbook prize, and it means the world to me. I have wanted to win this since I was thirteen. And I DID it!

Emily was in my room writing and I was reading when we got the call. I am happy she was in the room, because immediately after I stopped shrieking the caller demanded a blood oath that I wouldn’t tell a soul, since those who didn’t win are supposed to be notified before the rest of the campus. I have a class tonight with one of the men who entered and didn’t win, and I’m hoping they announce before then, because I want to feel free to not wipe this shit-eating grin off of my face!

I’ll be sure to post information about buying the book when it comes out. Thanks for reading, cheering, and supporting! :-)

We should find out the winners by the end of this week. The waiting is absolutely awful. I can’t explain it, but it’s like having a headache that doesn’t hurt as much as it does piss you off that you’re not feeling 100%.

I was working in the Press when the Press director, Molly, (my boss and the professor I TA for) got an e-mail from one of the judges. She squealed and said, “I think this is it!”

Apparently, when she sent the manuscripts off to the judge via e-mail, she said, “If you can’t open any of these or the files didn’t attach, please let me know.”

The e-mail she got back from him five days later said: “O.K.”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Torturous.

It turns out only five of us entered, making my chances right out of the gate 20%. Me, Cate, Ian B., Kime, and Edwin entered. Edwin quite literally decided twenty minutes before the deadline to throw something together, and Ian B. did his between 3 and 6 this a.m., so I must say, I feel like the chance might be greater than 20% only because of the time I spent on it, laboring over it.

The winners should be announced in between 2 and 3 weeks. SO excited!

Tonight, I sent it. I e-mailed the PDF (oh HELL YES you can do that, I am amazed!) to my professor. It’s officially an entry. So far, I can count eight people I know to be entering as my competition:

• Cate
• Ian P.
• Ian B. (undecided at our last conversation, but that was in September)
• Kime
• Edwin
• Lisa
• Melissa (maybe not, but she entered last year, so who knows?)
• Patrick (SUCH along shot that he enters, he just found out about the contest today…and he’s not involved with the department in any way.)

I do not feel especially professionally (or otherwise, frankly) intimidated by any of the above. Emily cannot submit, which is such a shame, as I would truly feel honored to either lose to her, or to win against her.

Anyway, we hear back in a few weeks- perhaps three? Four, tops.

Thank God. The title is mine. I have it, I wish I could put it in my mouth.

t(here)

a chapbook

by mmt.

I swear to God that if anyone steals it I will find him, hunt him down, and make it regret it.

Per his request, I e-mailed the poems in the chapbook submission to my ex, Andy. Although I am one of his biggest critics (I am, to put it mildly, not a huge fan of his work or style) I am grateful-I think-because he may very well have come up with a title.

Take Off Your Coat & Stay Awhile

I am not sure how I feel about it yet, but I’ll give him this-it makes sense, completely, for the collection. I am toying with the idea of shortening it to

Stay Awhile

which is also very fitting. You-you out there, reading this post: which do you like better? i wish I could give you a visual about the cover, but until I pick a title I can’t really design the cover. So, based purely on the title and not the poems contained within the work (although hopefully you’ll be able to purchase the collection for only TEN DOLLARS in April!) or the cover, which intrigues you more, dear reader?

Take Off Your Coat & Stay Awhile

vs.

Stay Awhile

I still cannot think of a title. There are a few that have been thrown out, but I am not in love with them. I would like to abide by the rule of fashion which states that you should never purchase something, no matter how convenient/cheap/fabulous, unless you are positively dying to have it and you know it will fit you.

I do not want to settle for anything-men, clothes, haircuts- but those things can be fleeting. The title on my first book is going to stick with me forever no matter what. It needs to be perfect.

I am going to use this time before the New Year’s party to put th pieces in the order in which they will appear in print, and then (as hokey as this sounds) summon the muse as my professor has so many times taught me how to do and encouraged me to do.

Do you think the Muse will hear my foot stomp three times even though I do not have hardwoods?

I’ve had my pieces selected for my submission for awhile now. I’ve got 22. They are really the creme de la creme, folks. The submission deadline is January 10, and all that stands in my way of submitting are three things: figuring out a title, figuring out how to break it up into sections, and putting the thing in an envelope.

Since Em and I found out the terrible news that she cannot submit because she’s “not a Junior” (except that’s lies and we all know it and even though it apparently didn’t matter when my ridiculous excuse for an ex was in the same boat…) I have been pretty confident.

The Allen Bun Memorial Chapbook Prize is only open to juniors and seniors who submit at my school. There are two manuscripts chosen and the winners’ chapbooks are published and the authors get some cash and 50 copies. It has been around for over thirty years, and my mother won this prize in 1978. back then it was insanely competitive, but now you can count the number of entries on two hands. To be blunt, I felt in the my heart that Emily was my most terrifying competition-and now that she’s not in the running anymore, I feel like this is my year. It would be a true act of perfection-my mother and I, graduation thirty years apart, our books published thirty years apart. A dynasty at St. Andrews College.

I need a title. Where the fuck is the title fairy?