A local writer has worded his way into a national poetry poll.
Al Rempel is the author of books of poetry like This Isn't the Apocalypse We Hoped For and understories; a chapbook called The Picket Fence Diaries; videopoems Sky Canoe, Is This Beulah Land, Eloise, and most recently Paper Clothes; and inclusion in the Two Rivers Art Gallery group exhibition 3D Poetry that pairs writers with the works of sculptor Phil Morrison
Now Rempel is on the shortlist of 24 for a national online poetry contest worth $5,000 cash to the eventual winner.
The contest is the annual Poem Of The Year campaign put on by Ottawa-based Arc Poetry Magazine. It calls on entries from all over Canada (even international submissions are permitted) by online application, then a shortlist is chosen by blind judging. Each of these poems is in the running for a number of honours.
"From this shortlist, we are asking you, the readers, to pick your favourite and vote on a poem to receive the Reader's Choice Award," said an online statement by Arc Magazine. "The poem with the most votes will appear in Arc Poetry Magazine alongside the $5,000 grand prize winner of Arc's Poem Of The Year contest.
To vote for Rempel's poem entitled Occasional Poem for a Birthday, or any you think is the best of the lot, go online to arcpoetry.ca where all those on the shortlist are displayed for reading with a link to their internet ballot box.
Voting closes on March 30.
