The Westwind Poetry Staff loves writing pros. We love to see poets change up their starting lineups. Fresh off the bench, coming in at 5’10”, the twenty-year old shooter out of Charleville, Arthur Rimbaud wrote his best poems in prose. Who doesn’t love the sound of new sneakers sprinting full-court and back again? If you’ve got a problem, don’t hate the poet, hate the game. Even Shakespeare, who got cut from his high school varsity team but went on to be the greatest poet of all time, writing 37 titles and dunking sonnets from the free throw line with ease, yes, even he knew madness knows no bounds. It’s time to get mad poets––step out of line / break the rules. We’re recruiting prose poems for our fantasy team.

Don’t brick, get your prose poems in by April 22nd to be considered for the PROSE POEM CONTEST and win superstardom: your poem on the front page of the Westwind website.

Ya better bring it. Dammit, poet, just do it!

Poetry and prose for the spring 2013 online journal have been published! Art is coming soon!

(Art for Winter 2013 is also available now!)

Hello everyone! The winter 2013 journal is here, but due to technical difficulties I have not been able to upload the art pieces! There is great art this quarter so I hope to get it up soon. However, there is also great poetry and prose! So check it out! (Scroll to the bottom of the “journal” tab to find Winter 2013.)

The writer’s den is hosting a writing contest! The theme is “the end” and you can submit both prose and poetry!

More information here.

Prizes include publication in the online spring edition of Westwind. 

Check out Westwind’s long-awaited fall 2012 journal! Enjoy prose, poetry, and art from UCLA students!

We would like to award a belated Honorable Mention to Spencer Martin Gauthier for his poem “SEX.”

SEX

The sheets are white and pure as skin
I hold her hips in my hands and place a kiss between her eyebrows.
She grips my biceps and I push her down against the bed. I kiss her then remove myself
and stand to gaze in the full length hotel mirror.
I am beautiful. “Prepare yourself.”
I go into the bathroom and rub myself before slipping on a very thin condom.
I rub the latex shell against her, pull away, then kiss her belly.
She is upset. Something washes over me, a feeling of despair. I pull up my briefs
And stand in the doorway of the bathroom looking at her. Am I punishing her or myself ?

 Spencer Martin Gauthier

We are pleased to announce this Valentine’s Day the winner of our Un-Bad Sex Poetry Contest, Carlos Davy Hauser with his poem “Pink.” Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest. We enjoyed reading all of your poems. Look out for more contests soon!

Pink

Sometimes I wonder
why she cant be still
wailing fuckoffs from her pink
room after her mom finds the cigarets
in her lunch pale.

Sometimes I wish I still heard
the drop of cuts on a slab in
her pink room and him tripping
out the back window every
time, that sumbitch. I’d get a
call from the butcher’s widow,
asking if her son had been over and I’d
say can’t remember, you doing
anything next Saturday night, but

Most of the time I love the silence
and I love my gray wife. Although,

sometimes I miss bleaching out
the blood and jism gravy from the pink and
purple sheets and smelling them. Thinking
Am I wrong remembering
the wonder of pleased girls
on air mattresses in backyards?

Carlos Davy Hauser

Alpha is a science-fiction, fantasy, and horror writing workshop for writers ages 14-19 held every year at the University of Pittsburgh’s Greenburg Campus.  This year’s workshop is scheduled for July 18-27th, in conjunction with Pittsburgh’s science fiction convention, Confluence.    They look for enthusiastic, talented young writers who have a strong interest in science fiction, fantasy and/or horror and a passion for writing.

As a two-time alumni of the Alpha workshop (I applied the summer after my freshman year at UCLA, and was invited back the year after), Alpha provides a great opportunity to learn more about writing, learn from famous authors (including Tamora Pierce), and to meet like-minded writers and life-long friends.

If you’re interested, the application date this year is MARCH 2nd, and all applicants must submit a story of 2000-6000 words.

The daughter of poet Miller Williams, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams made a tour stop at Royce Hall Friday night. Renowned for her lyrical southern style and country-bluegrass tone, Williams began with a set of solo acoustic songs and was later joined by her band and guest Blake Mills, an L.A.-based guitarist who recently toured with Band of Horses.

Throughout her nearly four decade-long career, Williams has never been pinned down to a single genre. At times country-rock, at times folksy and bluesy, it’s only Williams’ poetry which remains ever present. At the beginning of the night she seemed to dwell on the more solemn country-folk songs of her early career. By the end of the night she had settled in on solid rock; and though a rocker, she never ceases to remain so humble as to seem almost bashful. When it was almost time for the encore she admitted to the audience, “I was a little shy at first tonight, but now I think I’m starting to warm up.”

Read more

I’m a big fan of speculative fiction (read: science fiction, fantasy, surrealism, and all its wonky spinoffs and subcategories).   These genres frequently get short shrift in the literary world, for a number of reasons often linked to what people perceive as their inability to answer big questions like “Who cares?” or “How is this even relevant?”

There are many possible answers, and many people who feel strongly either way, but by far the best and most coherent response I have read is a recent guest post by Cathrynne M. Valente in the blog of British science fiction author Charles Stross.

“Ask me about the future and I’ll tell you a fairy tale.  Ask me about the past and I’ll tell you about uploading. We are always writing about ourselves–we can’t help it. The difference between a post-human and a fairy, between a dragon and a lobster, is only in the name.”

Valente is an acclaimed author of award-winning works like The Orphan’s Tales and Palimpsest, is  by her own words, “a fantasy writer, and more particularly, a folklorist and historian.”