The Society for Humanistic Anthropology announces our annual poetry competition as a means to encourage scholars to use alternative literary genres to explore anthropological concerns. These concerns may be any of those associated with any of the five fields of anthropology: Archaeological, Biological, Linguistic, Sociocultural and Applied.
There is no entre fee for this competition.
Deadline: July 15, 2016
Please email your entry (no more than three unpublished poems) as a single pdf document to: shapoetrycompetition@gmail.com without the author’s name (anonymized), along with a separate cover page with the following information by July 15, 2016:
- NAME, TITLE, INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION (S)
- CONTACT INFO (ADDRESS, PHONE, EMAIL):
- POEM TITLE(S)
- ETHNOPOETRY STATEMENT*
The anonymous entry pdf must include an *ethnographic statement (of no more than 400 words) which connects the poem(s) submitted to anthropology which will be taken into account as the judges make their award selections. Examples of ethnographic statements can be found in the poems published in Anthropology and Humanism (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anhu.12058/full).
Before you submit a manuscript to the competition, please consider exploring the work of the ethnographic poets we have published. We’re drawn to technical virtuosity combined with abundant imagination, vivid imagery, musical approaches to fresh language, risk-taking, and an ability to convey penetrating insights into human experience. We seek a layer of trust concerning the writer’s experience and perspective as both anthropologist and creative writer, one who is ethically responsible in terms of representing the other, one who is able to locate his or her reader in the context of the ethnographic study and reveal anthropological themes associated with any of the fields of anthropology.
JUDGES: Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, Nomi Stone, Kuo Zhang
Winning entries and honorable mentions will be recognized at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Minneapolis in November 2016. The first place winner(s) will receive a certificate and award of $100. All entries will be considered for publication in the Society’s journal, Anthropology and Humanism. Membership in AAA or institutional subscription is required to receive AnthroSource access to the journal and SHA membership is required to receive a free print issue.
