In an attempt to breathe life into the summer torpor, we are hosting the first ever Less Generalized Xenith Prose Contest.  You may remember its poetry counterpart back in May that went rather well and had two winners, each receiving a poetry collection of their choice.  This time around, contestants will have just under two weeks to write a maximum 1,500 word submission from a secret prompt.  When all entries are received (on or before August 23rd), they will be posted for anonymous voting.  The winner (or winners, as we are aware this is possible) will receive a novel or short story collection of their choice.  Give it a shot–you have nothing to lose!

Why hello my fellow Xenithites.

I post this with the hope that we can give the old poetry contest another try. I have decided that I will run it this time, and believe me, I will track you down if I think you would be a good contestant and you haven’t entered yet.

It will go like this:

Hopefuls will e-mail (ie: not PM) me with their official notice of entry before May 2nd of this year. On May 3rd, I will e-mail all contestants with their prompt. I haven’t decided if the prompt will be a word, phrase, or picture. I will keep you informed on this decision. Once the contestants receive their prompts, they will have until 11:59:59 p.m. central time (or until I wake up in the morning on Saturday) on May 16th to e-mail me their poem, written around or inspired from said prompt.

On May 17th, I will post all entries anonymously in a single thread with a poll for the readers to vote. Whoever leads the poll by Saturday morning, May 24th, wins the contest. The winner will receive a new poetry book of their choice (under $15, however). Winner is to e-mail me their choice.

Poems will be judged however the readers choose to judge them. Please be advised that I am only one vote and will not be deciding the winner.

Please e-mail all entries and notices to: patrick[dot]nathan[at]gmail[dot]com

Thanks for being such lovely people!

Deadline for Sign-up: May 2, 2008