2014 April PAD Challenge: Next Steps

Whew! What a poetry challenge!

Here are some raw numbers:

30 days
35 prompts (including 5 "Two for Tuesday" prompts)
21,515 comments (and counting)
30 guest judges
1 amazing month!

So, what's next?

First off, there's a lot of poetry and poeming that happens around the Poetic Asides blog throughout the year. I'll share more on that in a moment (see below), but I'm sure at least a few of you are wondering about how the judging will happen, when results will be posted, and so on.

The "official" cut off for Day 30 prompt is 11:59 p.m. EST on May 5, 2014. However, I've only copied over poems for the first 15 days so far (hint, hint). That means Days 16-30 are still "live," though I plan to start copying over other days very soon.

I've already started the process of going through the earlier prompts and narrowing down "finalist" lists for the guest judges. If everything goes according to plan, I'll hand off a finalist list to each of the guest judges on May 20, 2014. Then, they will give me their winners in June.

If all goes to plan, I will announce the winners on July 4, 2014. The announcement will be on the Poetic Asides blog.

And then?

Then, the winning poems will be collected into an incredible anthology/prompt/work book titled Poem Your Heart Out that will be published by Words Dance Publishing. Click here to order a copy, because it's going to be filled with 30 incredible poems, space for you to add your own, and even if you make it into the anthology--you'll want a copy to give your mom, right?

Yes, the 30 winners will receive a copy of the anthology. Look at that: After 7 years of poem-a-day challenges, we've finally got a tangible thing to mark the occasion. Sweet!

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Get the National Poetry Month Kit!

Yes, this has been another great National Poetry Month, and here’s a great kit to celebrate: The Writer’s Digest National Poetry Month Kit, which includes a digital version of The Poetry Dictionary, a couple paperbacks (Creating Poetry and Writing the Life Poetic), a tutorial on building an audience for your poetry, the 2014 Poet’s Market, and more!

Click to continue.

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So that's it?

Well, no, of course not. There's a lot of poetry-related mischief happening at Poetic Asides throughout the year. I'm probably going to take a long weekend off, but this is what you can expect:

Wednesday Poetry Prompts. Yeah, we get together to poem on hump day throughout the year.
Poet Interviews. I've interviewed more than 100 poets on here over the years. In fact, maybe even more than 200. I don't keep count, but each and every interview is a snapshot into another poet's poetic outlook, process, and more.
Poetic Forms. Every month or so, I share a new poetic form I've found. And that leads to...
WD Poetic Form Challenges. These free challenges are devoted to a poetic form, and the winning poem/poet is featured as an example of the form in Writer's Digest magazine.
November PAD (Poem-A-Day) Chapbook Challenge. It's like April, but it gets even more involved, because the ultimate goal is to produce an amazing chapbook of poems.
And more! I don't know what yet, but I've had some great guest post pitches, and I get bored easy--so who knows what tricks I've got up my sleeve?!? Seriously, because I don't.

Still got questions? That's cool. Drop them in the comments below, or send me an e-mail at robert.brewer@fwmedia.com.

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Robert Lee Brewer

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer's Digest Writing Community. He's also the author of Solving the World's Problems, an incredible collection of poetry that stirs the soul. Okay, Robert wrote that, but Sandra Beasley called the book, "Compassionate, challenging, and filled with slinky swerves of phrase," while Patricia Fargnolia said, "The poems are brim-full of surprises and delights, twists in language, double-meanings of words, leaps of thought and imagination, interesting line-breaks. ... I will go back to them often." So that's means you're going to buy it, right? Click here to make it happen.

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