May 232010
 

As usual, across the continent vast crowds line up to vote in the villanelle contest!

Voting has officially closed in the in the 2010 Numéro Cinq Villanelle Contest. The people have deliberated and formed an opinion. Let it be recalled that in ancient times the great Greek tragedies were written in just such an atmosphere of competition and public debate, the agon of  literary competition. These Numéro Cinq contests are in a direct line with the classical contests that forced artists to make their greatest efforts. Beauty and competition have always gone hand in hand.

Click here to see the winning poems!

Apr 242010
 

ENTRIES ARE OFFICIALLY CLOSED. COMMENTS STILL WELCOME.

Herewith the first ever (annual) Numéro Cinq villanelle writing contest. I am announcing it early so that you can work on your entries. Entries will be accepted between May 1 and May 15. Entries, as with the aphorism contest, should be posted as comments on this page. Entries are open to anyone in the world, but only if they are written in  English, French, Latin, or classical Greek (the only languages anyone can speak in this house). As with the aphorism contest, I encourage you to familiarize yourselves with the form. See the craft and technique page for help. Roughly speaking, we’re talking about a 19-line poem written in tercets (except for the last stanza which has four lines). The first and last line of the first stanza become the last lines of the following stanzas and also turn into a couplet at the end of the last stanza. These are fun to write and can actually turn out surprisingly well if you arm yourselves with strong refrain lines (think: panache, drama, obsession, schizophrenia). You need not be a poet to enter. And it’s always a good thing for prose writers to extend themselves; it makes their prose more interesting. One lesson to be drawn from writing a poem like this is the way form drives content instead of the other way around.

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