Friday, October 25, 2019

Call for Submissions to Village Poets Anthology, Due January 31, 2020


To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Village Poets Monthly Poetry Readings at Bolton Hall Museum, in Tujunga, CA, Moonrise Press will issue an anthology of Featured Poets and frequent guests sustaining the VP Readings over the past decade, 2010-2020. Edited by Marlene Hitt and Maja Trochimczyk, the anthology will provide a portrait of our poets and documentation of our readings. It will be published in paperback and ePub e-book formats, distributed by Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other booksellers, as well as via Moonrise Press.

Each featured poet is invited to submit 1-3 poems (fitting on up to two page 6X9, standard trade book size), a brief biography (150 words), and a portrait. A favorite photo from the readings is also welcome.  Guests who frequently read their work during the monthly events are also invited to submit their work. The poems may be previously published, if they are a favorite of their authors.


To submit, send an email to Maja Trochimczyk, maja@moonrisepress.com, with the subject: “VP Anthology Submission – Name” by January 31, 2020. The attached one Word file must include name, address, email, phone number of the poet, with brief bio and poems in Book Antiqua font, size 11. Photo, resolution 300 dpi should be the second attachment. The anthology will be published by June 2020 and celebrated in a group reading at Bolton Hall Museum. Poets will receive the anthology in PDF and eBook formats and will be able to purchase the paperbacks at 50% of retail price.

More information will be posted on our blog: villagepoets.blogspot.com


ABOUT VILLAGE POETS: Village Poets of Sunland Tujunga is a group of former Poets Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (L to R: Elsa Frausto, Dorothy Skiles, Marlene Hitt, Joe DeCenzo, Pamela Shea, and Maja Trochimczyk). They organize poetry readings in their beautiful foothill community, write poetry, and publish books, making sure that poetry life is rich and vibrant in the foothills. Every two years, Village Poets organize a competition for the Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga (currently serving: Pamela Shea). Another continuing project is the Village Poets Monthly Reading at Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga, CA. Visit: www.villagepoets.com   www.moonrisepress.com.




MARLENE HITT was the first Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (1999-2001). She has been a member of the Chupa Rosa Writers of Sunland-Tujunga and the Foothills since its inception in 1985. In addition to numerous poetry chapbooks, anthologies and readings, she has authored a non-fiction book Sunland-Tujunga, from Village to City. She serves at the Bolton Hall Museum in Tujunga as Museum Director and docent. In addition to her poetry activities, she has served as history writer for the Foothill Leader, Glendale News Press, North Valley Reporter, and Voice of the Village newspapers, as well as the Shadow Hills Property Owners Association newsletter. She has been honored as the Woman of Achievement by the Business and Professional Women's Club. She lives happily ever after with her husband Lloyd and an outdoor cat named Lautrémont.  Her poetry collection Clocks and Water Drops was published by Moonrise Press in 2015.


DR. MAJA TROCHIMCZYK, the sixth Poet Laureate of Sunland Tujunga (2010-2012), is a poet, music historian, photographer, and non-profit director born in Poland and living in California (www.trochimczyk.net). She selects and invites poets to feature at the Village Poets series  - the final approval is made by the whole group. She published seven books on music, five volumes of poetry, and three anthologies (Chopin with Cherries, Meditations on Divine Names and Grateful Conversations). Hundreds of her articles and poems appeared in English, Polish, as well as in German, French, Chinese, Spanish and Serbian translations. The venues for her poetry included: Altadena Poetry Review, Loch Raven Review, Epiphany Magazine, Lily Review, Ekphrasis Journal, Quill and Parchment, Magnapoets, The Cosmopolitan Review, The Scream Online, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Lummox Journal, Phantom Seed, Spectrum, Poezja Dzisiaj, OccuPoetry, as well as anthologies published by Poets on Site, Southern California Haiku Study Group, and others.

She taught music history at McGill University and USC. Trochimczyk presented papers at over 90 national and international conferences in Poland, France, Germany, Hungary, U.K., Canada, and the U.S. She received awards and fellowships from ACLS, SSHRCC, USC, McGill University, MPE Fraternity, Polish American Historical Association, City and County of Los Angeles, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture. The Senior Director of Planning at Phoenix Houses of California, President of California State Poetry Society, President of Helena Modjeska Art and Culture Club, Trochimczyk also serves as Communications Director and Board Secretary for the Polish American Historical Association.  She is the owner of Moonrise Press and maintains several blogs: poetrylaurels, chopinwithcherries, moonrisepress, PAHAnews, californiastatepoetrysociety.com, and this one – all on blogspot.com.