Call for Submissions: Erratic Poetry Contest Submissions Open: May 1-June 30, 2025 Attention writers! Okotoks Culture & Heritage is pleased to announce our very first Erratic Poetry Contest! In conjunction with the Month of the Artist 2025, we are looking to publish and celebrate local voices. Our team of esteemed judges will choose up to eight winners. Each winner will be published in a physical pamphlet. All winning writers will receive a gift card to and be celebrated at an in-person reading in September 2025. We are looking for poems that celebrate people and places related to Okotoks and Southern Alberta. To be considered, your poem(s) should highlight an aspect of the local landscape, history, or the general “essence” of Southern Alberta, Okotoks, or the Foothills area. There are no other restrictions on content or form. You can submit a sonnet, a haiku, a prose-poem, or free verse. Anyone is welcome to submit. Winners will be chosen and all poets contacted by July 31, 2025 Submission guidelines You may submit up to 5 poems (maximum 15 pages) in the body of your email or as an email attachment to culture@okotoks.ca. In the subject line, write ‘Erratic Poetry Contest Submission’ Include all poems in a single .docx file and please only submit once. Please use 12pt Times New Roman for the ease of reading. We do not accept work that has been previously published. This includes on personal blogs and social media. By submitting your work to the Erratic Poetry Contest, you acknowledge that your work is entirely your own and no part of it has been generated by AI or with the help of AI. We are committed to diversity and inclusivity and highly encourage submissions from marginalized voices. We do not tolerate racism, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, or any work that promotes harmful stereotypes and viewpoints.

I'm hosting a poetry competition that is open for submissions until June 30! If you have anything to say about Southern Alberta, send us your poems ASAP!

This poem examines the life of Blodeuwedd, a central figure in Math fab Mathonwy, the last of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi.

The poem is dedicated to Heather Botting, also known as Lady Aurora, the original high priestess of Coven Celeste (the first Gardnerian Wiccan coven in Canada) and a professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria, where Skelton taught literature.

This poem comes in the form of The Viator, a poetic form invented by British-Canadian academic and poet Robin Skelton. Skelton was known for his ties to Wicca and the Occult.

My poem 'Blodeuwedd' is in the latest issue of Moonflake Press! You can read it here:

www.moonflakepress.com/_files/ugd/b...

Very excited to announce that @augursociety.bsky.social will soon be publishing "Chlorophilia", a work of epistolary weird fiction that @miriamricher.bsky.social & I co-wrote together!

🖤🌿💀

These @dreditions.bsky.social postcards from SAA/RSA are the perfect addition to my home office 🐝

Always enjoy the reactions of children when they encounter this list of rules for teachers from a 1915 magazine.

On our last full day in Boston, I knew I wanted to check at least one more item off of my Atlas Obscura list- the Houdini plaque on Harvard bridge. On a blustery and sunny morning surrounded by joggers, families, and tourists, I nearly missed it!

Thrilled to have my poem "Deviant Burials at Littlemore Priory," about shenanigans in 15th century Oxfordshire, published in issue 34 of Allegro Poetry, edited by Sally Long. Read the rest of the poem and the entire issue at www.allegropoetry.org/p/issue-34-m...

Witches of Islandmagee This site is dedicated to uncovering the importance of the witch trial that took place in 1710–1711 in Islandmagee, Ireland.

A wee reminder, if you want to know more about Ireland’s last witch trial, the #islandmageewitches, check out our (with Dr Victoria McCollum) website: links to books, podcasts, a free graphic novel, original documents, animation, VR app, and info about our play, exhibition and hub: w1711.org

Still thinking about yesterday morning’s panel, ‘What’s Next for Witchcraft Studies?’ at #renSA2025

Been enjoying perusing W1711.org- quite inspired by @drandrewsneddon.bsky.social !

Enjoy Bad Christians and Hanging Toads: Witch Crafting in Northern Spain, 1525–1675 to read for FREE for an entire month in celebration of #RenSa2025 #SHAX2025.

#RenaissanceStudies #Shakespeare @saaupdates.bsky.social

cornellpress.manifoldapp.org/projects/bad...

Enjoyed a peaceful afternoon wandering around Boston’s Central Burying Ground. Some really incredible iconography on the stones- particularly fascinated by the death’s head/ winged skull.

Plenty to ponder on this #worldpoetryday after a fascinating #RSA2025 panel on Female Anatomists in Renaissance Italy this morning!