Emberlight Poet Laureate

Emberlight is not associated with UPPAA, but we wanted to share this opportunity with our authors!

JULY 1–AUGUST 27, 2022

Emberlight returns this summer! For those who may not know, the Emberlight Festival is an annual celebration that produces world-class art within the natural beauty of Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula. We collaborate with local, regional and international artists to create affordable, life-enhancing experiences that spark imagination and ignite learning in our audiences and communities.

Our 2022 “Horizons • Heritage • Harmony” season will feature 32 events from July 1–August 27. The full schedule will be announced on April 1, but some of the season’s highlights include:

• Three weekends of live performances with stars from Broadway and The Metropolitan Opera.
• Mary Burns’ nationally-recognized “Ancestral Women Exhibit” — An extraordinary visual art show featuring 23 hand-woven jacquard weavings that honor and celebrate elder women from each of the twelve Native American tribes throughout Wisconsin.
• Emberlight International Film Festival — We have already received over 350 films from 54 countries for this summer’s festival, and we’re still accepting submissions for three more months!
• Four art shows — including the return of our large-installation Art in the Park from July 2 – September 4.
• Eight weekends of Performance Infusions in the Miners Memorial Heritage Park featuring exceptional artisans from across the northern Midwest.

We are looking for our next Poet Laureate!

Emberlight’s National Poetry Contest offers cash prizes and an invitation to read your work at our annual poetry reading in the Miners Memorial Heritage Park (Ironwood, MI) on August 27, 2022. The 2022 Poet Laureate and two finalists—First Runner Up and Second Runner Up—will be selected from the pool of entrants.

The Poet Laureate’s winning work will be featured in Emberlight’s 2022 souvenir program book, and the Poet Laureate themselves will be highlighted across our publicity as the poetic voice of the 2022 Festival.  The Poet Laureate will also receive a $250 cash prize and be invited to read at the Emberlight Award Show on the evening of Saturday, August 27.

An entry consists of three (3) original, previously unpublished poems of any style, submitted in a single document not to exceed ten (10) pages in total length.  Poems should be thematically focused on the Emberlight Festival 2022 theme “Horizons • Heritage • Harmony.”  Judges will evaluate all three poems individually and as a unit, and the strength of the entry overall will determine final ranking.

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of professional writers and the 2021 Emberlight Poet Laureate and Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets president, Jan Chronister.

Enter today at www.emberlight.org/poet-laureate

Electronic submissions are preferred and are due by midnight on May 1, 2022. Hard copy submissions must be postmarked no later than April 30 and sent to P.O. Box 162 Ironwood, MI 49938.  Poems will not be returned. Whether submitted electronically or by mail, entries should include two files: one with your name, address, phone number and email, and one without. The fee to enter is $5. If you are mailing an entry, please include a check.  Entrants will be notified by May 31 if they have received an award.

Sincerely,

Karen Mallum

Performance Infusion Director, Emberlight Festival