Erase Your Way To Literary Fame!

Erase your way to fame with the 2nd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest!

Contestants are asked to create their own poetic masterpiece from an excerpt of How Should a Person Be? by celebrated author Sheila Heti.

Erasure poetry is created by starting with an existing text and erasing bits (paragraphs, words, letters, punctuation) in such a way that the words left behind take on new shapes and meanings.

For the first Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, they posted an excerpt from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie, a memoir written in 1852. Prizes were awarded to the poems that interacted with the original text in unique ways, commenting on undercurrents in Moodie's writing while breaking away from it, or building something strange and new out of what she left behind.

This year, contestants are invited (with blessings from the author) to experiment with an excerpt from How Should a Person Be?, a creative non-fiction novel by celebrated Canadian author Sheila Heti.

Geist is a quarterly magazine of fact and fiction made in Canada, publishing inspiring and thought-provoking literature, art, comix, maps and other cultural gems from across the country. The Geist tone is intelligent, plain-talking, inclusive and offbeat.

Visit geist.com/erasure for more details and to read the excerpt.

Due to an overwhelming demand from our readers, we've EXTENDED THE DEADLINE for the Erasure Poetry Contest! This means you can still finish off the poem that's been sitting on your desk!

New deadline: September 1, 2012, 11:59 pm PST.

You can snail mail entries or enter online here.

There's a coveted literary trophy, $1000 in prizes and publication in Geist to be won.

Good luck and happy erasing!

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The publishers of Geist generously contribute a one-year subscription to each month’s Alliance for Arts and Culture Cultural Passport  package.