National Book Lovers Day
From clay tablets to today’s eBooks, literature has played a crucial role in preserving cultures, educating the masses, and storytelling. Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s 15th-century printing press, anyone, not just royalty, monks or landed gentry, could read and own books.
The modern book is made by binding paper, but before the invention of paper, books came in the form of tablets, scrolls, and engravings. Every civilization had its own way to document events. Sometime in 3500 B.C., the Mesopotamians would make markings on clay tablets using a pointed device, made from the stem of the reed plant, called the calamus. These writings on the moist clay were called ‘cuneiform.’ Approximately 20,000 of these tablets were discovered in modern-day Iraq.
Paper was invented in China in the 1st century A.D. By experimenting with various materials such as hemp, fishnets, and the mulberry plant, Ts’ai Lun invented the first paper. With time, printing on woodblocks also became the go-to way of reproducing books in China. The ancient scrolls dating back to the 4th century B.C. are considered the first ‘books,’ but by today’s definition, the oldest surviving compiled book is “The Diamond Sutra” which was published in China on May 11, 868. Send us a poem in praise of books.
Deadline July 13th, 2025
Virtual Event: August 10th, 2025
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for our World Press Freedom anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com
Banned Books Week 2025
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. Typically (but not always) held during the last week of September, the annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community — librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas. Send us a poem about censorship or in praise of your favorite banned book.
Deadline: September 7
Virtual Event: Sunday October 5, 2025
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for our World Press Freedom anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com
Indigenous Peoples Day
In 2025, Indigenous Peoples Day will be celebrated on Monday, October 13th. The date falls on the same day as Columbus Day, giving us a chance to shift the focus toward honoring Indigenous cultures and reflecting on colonialism’s impact. Indigenous Peoples Day shines a light on the histories, cultures, and contributions of Native American communities. It’s a reminder of the strength and resilience Indigenous peoples continue to show today, particularly to highlight the importance of acknowledging the historical injustices faced by Native Americans. It’s a chance to listen to Indigenous voices and recognize their efforts in keeping their land, language, and culture alive. Poems honoring indigenous cultures or reflecting colonialism.
Deadline: Sunday, September 14
Virtual Event: Sunday, October 12
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for our anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com
World Food Day
World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year worldwide on October 16th to commemorate the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many other organizations concerned with hunger and food security, including the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. WFP received the Nobel Prize in Peace for 2020 for their efforts to combat hunger, contribute to peace in conflict areas, and for playing a leading role in stopping the use of hunger in the form of a weapon for war and conflict. Poems on food and hunger.
Deadline: September 19
Virtual Event: October 16
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for our anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com
Remembering Wallace Stevens
(October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955)
Wallace Stevens is one of America’s most respected 20th century poets. He was a master stylist, employing an extraordinary vocabulary and a rigorous precision in crafting his poems. But he was also a philosopher of aesthetics, vigorously exploring the notion of poetry as the supreme fusion of the creative imagination and objective reality. Because of the extreme technical and thematic complexity of his work, Stevens was sometimes considered a difficult poet. But he was also acknowledged as an eminent abstractionist and a provocative thinker, and that reputation has continued since his death. In 1975, for instance, noted literary critic Harold Bloom, whose writings on Stevens include the imposing Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate, called him “the best and most representative American poet of our time.”
Deadline: September 28th, 2025
Virtual Event: Sunday October 5th, 2025
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for the anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com
Moonstone Chapbook Contest 2025
Submissions open June 29, 2025 to September 30, 2025
Winner will receive
- $500 cash prize
- Publication and 25 copies of the book*
- Promotion on our website
- Reading at one of our venues in Philadelphia (or virtual reading, if preferred)
Please submit about thirty-five pages of poetry.
- Individual poems may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be new. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or contests are permitted so long as you promptly notify Moonstone Press if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
- Include only one poem per page.
- If a poem continues to a second page, indicate whether there is a stanza break. Thirty-five lines equal one page. Divider pages or section titles should be included in the total page count. When determining total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanzas (example: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating total line length. Count an epigraph as three extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines of your total line count. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line. Keep in mind that the final chapbook will be printed with saddle-stitched binding on pages that are 4 1/2 inches wide.
Include the following in a separate document:
- a biography (this can be included in the Submittable form), a cover page with contact information, table of contents, dedication, acknowledgments for any previous publications, and an inside title page (with no name). These pages should not be included in the manuscript’s total page count. The cover page should include the manuscript title and all contact information (mailing address, email address, home phone, and cell phone if available).
- Your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself.
Other Details
- Submit via Submittable
- There is a $15 non-refundable readers fee for participating in the contest
- The contest will be judged by the Editorial Committee at Moonstone Press and our final judge
* additional copies will be available for purchase
For any questions, please reach out to Larry
Remembering Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a collaborator in Fascist Italy during World War II. His works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and his 800-page epic poem The Cantos (c. 1917–1962).
Pound's contribution to poetry began in the early 20th century with his role in developing Imagism, a movement stressing precision and economy of language. Working in London as foreign editor of several American literary magazines, he helped discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as H. D., Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce. Hemingway wrote in 1932 that, for poets born in the late 19th or early 20th century, not to be influenced by Pound would be "like passing through a great blizzard and not feeling its cold".
Angered by the carnage of World War I, Pound blamed the war on finance capitalism, he moved to Italy in 1924 embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, and expressed support for Adolf Hitler. Ruled mentally unfit to stand trial, Pound was incarcerated for over 12 years at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., whose doctors viewed Pound as a narcissist and a psychopath, but otherwise completely sane.
While in custody in Italy, Pound began work on sections of The Cantos, which were published as The Pisan Cantos (1948), for which he was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1949 by the Library of Congress, causing enormous controversy. Reflections on Ezra Pound.
Deadline: October 5
Virtual Event: November 2
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for our World Press Freedom anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com
Remembering Joe Hill
Born: October 7, 1879 – Died: November 19, 1915 (aged 36)
"The labor troubadour Joe Hill was executed by the state of Utah on November 19, 1915, accused of murdering two shopkeepers. Five years earlier, while working on the docks in California, Hill met members of the IWW and became an active Wobbly. Soon his humorous and biting political songs, like "The Preacher and the Slave," were being sung on picket lines across the country. From his jail cell in Utah, Hill wrote to "Big Bill" Haywood in a telegram, "Don't waste time mourning. Organize!"—a line that became a slogan of the U.S. labor movement. On the eve of his execution, Hill penned these words.” - From Voices of A People's History, edited by Zinn and Arnove
The Preacher and the Slave by Joe Hill
[Verse 1]-
Long-haired preachers come out every night
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right
But when asked about something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
[Chorus]
You will eat (You will eat) bye and bye (Bye and bye)
In that glorious land above the sky (Way up high)
Work and pray (Work and pray), live on hay (Live on hay)
You'll get pie in the sky when you die (That's a lie!)
Last Will by Joe Hill
My Will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing To divide
My kin don't need to fuss and moan—
"Moss does not cling to a rolling stone
My body?—Oh!—If I could choose
I would want to ashes it reduce,
And let The merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again
This is my Last and Final Will.—
Good Luck to All of you,
Submit poetry on labor, on Joe Hill or something inspired by him
Deadline: October 19
Virtual Event: November 16
Submission Guidelines: Please submit one poem for our anthology.
Keep this poem limited to 35 lines total. When determining the total line length for each poem, include spaces between stanza (ex: a poem of 5 couplets would equal 14 lines). Numbers or section breaks should also be included as lines when calculating the total line length. Count an epigraph as 3 extra lines. A line that has more than 60 characters (including spaces and punctuation) should be counted as two lines. If lines are staggered like a Ferlinghetti poem, estimate the width of the line.
The final book will be printed in 11 point Garamond font on pages that are 4.5 inches wide. Poems with lines longer than 4.5 inches may be changed or denied due to printing constraints.
For questions or inquiries, please email Larry Robin at larry@moonstoneartscenter.com