Both The Margaret Reid Poetry Prize for Traditional Verse and the Tom Howard Poetry Contest for Verse in All Styles and Genres, plus The Tom Howard Short Story, Essay & Prose Contest are now open for entries. For this coming year, the prize pool for each of these contests has been increased to $5,350 (including a First Prize of $2,000), yet entry fees remain pegged at $7 for every 25 lines for the Poetry Contests, and $15 for each short story or essay up to 5,000 words in length.

You'll find full details at respectively http://poetrycontests.exactpages.com and http://shortstorycontest.0catch.com Alternative sites are http://www.geocities.com/rastar330 (for traditional poetry), http://www.geocities.com/rastar330/poetry.htm (for poetry in all styles and genres) and  http://www.geocities.com/rastar330/prose.htm

3 suggestions to help you enter the Winners' Circle:

1. Submit your entries early. The judges will have more time to really appreciate and evaluate your work.

2. Submit more than one entry. Don't pin all your hopes on just the one. Remember that comic and humorous poems, stories and essays are welcome. So are mystery, science fiction, romance and other genres.

3. Take a look at some of the entries that have won prizes in previous contests. The latest anthology of prize-winning poetry is "Sailing in the Mist of Time". This beautifully printed, large format book actually contains 106 poems, including 50 major award winners, and usually retails for $16.50. Even the publisher is still selling copies for this price. Currently, however, it is still "on special" at Amazon for only $9.95. I don't know how long this "special" will continue, but it's probably a good idea to use this link direct to Amazon and buy your copy right now. If you are one of the contributors (you'll find a link to the list of authors at http://poetrycontests.exactpages.com ), here's a book that will make an ideal present for friends and relations.

Only $9.95 at Amazon: SAILING IN THE MIST OF TIME: Fifty Award-Winning Poems

"Watching Time", our latest anthology of winning prose, has once again completely sold out (unless you want to pay ridiculous prices of $75 or more). At this stage, it doesn't seem likely that it will be reprinted yet again. However, you can still buy beautifully printed proof copies from the publisher for $12.95 at this link: http://www.lulu.com/content/374040

One piece of good news (or rather three pieces) concerns the reprinting of "End of Season" (our first anthology of Tom Howard Poetry winners), plus "Mr Christian and the Bag Lady" and "Keep Watching the Skies!" (two collections of prose winners). All three of these anthologies have been out of print for years. They were promised for early December, but it looks like early January before they hit the stores. I'll keep you posted!

Season's greetings to you all!

John