Mission Statement
Established in 1998, Lost Horse Press—a nonprofit independent press—publishes poetry titles of high literary merit, and makes available other fine contemporary literature through cultural, educational and publishing programs and activities. The Lost Horse New Poets, Short Books Series, edited by Marvin Bell, is dedicated to works—often ignored by conglomerate publishers—which are so much in danger of vanishing into obscurity in what has become the age of chain stores and mass appeal food, movies, art and books.
The Idaho Prize for Poetry 2010
Lost Horse Press is now accepting submissions for The Idaho Prize for Poetry 2010, a national competition offering $1,000 plus publication by Lost Horse Press for a book-length poetry manuscript.
All US poets are eligible. Postmark deadline for manuscript submission is 15 May 2010. The winner and finalists will be announced on 15 August 2010. The final judge for this seventh annual poetry book contest sponsored by Lost Horse Press will be announced at a later date. A reading fee of $25—check or money order only, please—and a SASE (for notification of winners only; manuscripts will be recycled) must be included with the manuscript.
For guidelines or additional information about the Idaho Prize for poetry, please contact Lost Horse Press at 208-255-4410, email losthorsepress@mindspring.com or visit our Idaho Prize Page.
Congratulations to our 2009 winner Stephen Gibson of Florida. His entry, Frescoes, was chosen by judge Carolyne Wright. Mr. Gibson will receive $1,000 plus publication by Lost Horse Press. Ms. Wright comments,
"In Frescoes, Stephen Gibson assumes the charge of the engaged tourist, paying his entry fee to the chapels and basilicas of Renaissance Florence and Padua and Rome in order to enter in to much more subversive premises: to see through the pigmented plaster and marble facades to the real-life consequences of original sin and human depravity depicted in these treasures of High Art. Gibson is a wised-up pilgrim in sanctuaries whose faith he cannot share.
"Harsh and highly accomplished, these poems redeem the people from the paint, plaster and piety. They pull victims and perpetrators alike out of the history and myth of the treasures of Great Arts into the arena of our ongoing moral dilemmas, our struggles for survival as well as for the preservation of compassion and decency in a perennially fallen human world."
Now Available
For each book sold, $2 will be donated to the Bonner County (Idaho) Human Rights Task Force.
I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights
Edited by the poets Melissa Kwasny and M.L. "Mandy" Smoker, here is what their introduction tells us about the experience of working on this honest, brutal, and inspiring collection:
When we made our call for submissions for an anthology of poems in defense of human rights, the allegations of torture were foremost in our minds. We knew people were outraged, saddened, profoundly moved and ashamed. But we also wanted to reach people who had suffered violations of their own rights from circumstances across the globe, or whose families had, or for whom preventing or healing these violations had become a life’s work. We drafted our call loosely: We are increasingly witness to torture, terrorisms and other violations of human rights at unprecedented degrees. What do our instincts tell us and what is our response to these violations? What is our vision of a future wherein human rights are not only respected but expanded?
What we received were both first hand accounts of violation—see prisoner Adrian English’s “Raped Man’s Stream of Consciousness,” or Farnoosh Moshiri’s poem recounting the terror of giving birth in Iran, or Li-Young Lee’s "Self-Help for Fellow Refugees"—and responses from people who feel struck personally by the blows enacted on others: To speak for, to speak as, and to speak against. We were surprised at the range of issues spoken to by the poets. While torture remained a critical topic, as well as issues at stake in the Iraq War, there were also poems that addressed immigrant rights, prisoners’ rights, the Holocaust, the wars in Cambodia, Vietnam, Serbia, South America, Palestine and Israel. We received poems that spoke of suicide bombing, violence against women, the aftermath of 9/11, and outlawing marriage for gay Americans.
We were also moved at the range of experience among the responders: homeless advocates, civil rights workers, clinical social workers, medics, the mentally ill, veterans, humanitarian aid workers, teachers, conscientious objectors, and, of course, many writers who work and fight daily for social justice in their communities. We are particularly proud of the number of Native American poets included in this anthology, something unusual in anthologies of this sort. It seemed to us impossible to collect a group of poems on human rights issues if we didn’t acknowledge the far reaching and often appalling violations that have taken place in our own country, upon the first citizens of this land who belong to five-hundred-sixty-two federally recognized tribes who function as sovereign nations. It is the acknowledgement of this history, among others, that will allow us to move forward as a country with a clearer conscience, extending our hand to other nations and other peoples who continue to endure neglect and abuse.
I Go to the Ruined Place is available at your local bookstore or online book retailer.
The Reviews Are In...
Lucifer: A Hagiography, a poem by Philip Memmer
"The poems are arable, beautiful, and arranged in a way that is suspenseful in plot. . . . This is a book that is singular in its style, appeal, and brilliance. I can’t recommend it more highly." –Judith Harris, Neo Magazine
Feeding Strays, very short fiction by Stefanie Freele
"I've just finished reading Stefanie Freele's Feeding Strays for the second time, and I've got hundreds of things to talk about, but what's on my mind now is this: her beginnings astound me. . . . Stefanie's stories matter. I love that about them. And it is what I think you will love about them, too." –Randall Brown, FlashFiction.net
"The world doesn't stop every time an author writes a good book. Which is why I'm thankful for books like Feeding Strays that I can keep coming back to. . . . Freele paints the most interesting, compelling thing she can put together in a given amount of space. She gives us snapshots not necessarily of humanity, but of what it is to be alive. Little moments, stray moments. . . . Feeding Strays is a great public transit companion because every piece is so short and transporting." –Evan Karp, SF Literary Culture Examiner
As Is, poems by Sheryl Noethe
"As Is rescues us from the degenerative forces that have captured us, hypnotized us, all our lives. With Noethe's courage, we are now captured between the lines of exquisite irony and delicate vengeance." –Joy DeStefano
"The collection is riveting for the poet's caustic honesty, as well as her ability to zero in on topics that cause a stir." –Jonas Ehudin, The Missoula Independent
