Winner of the 2009 Whitebird Chapbook Series competition
Marian Aitches fishes for light in rivers, and rivers run through these poems. She fishes back through family history, dream, certitude, and over the south Texas landscape of her childhood. A poet who can write
A thousand years away I will be the bones some anthropologist holds up to the light, amazed by the music they make
will surely have many books beyond this first stunning collection. This is for all readers who want to know "the tough sister, the one / who saved the others." — Margaret Randall, author of over 80 books of poetry, photography, and documentary witness. Recipient of the Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett grant for writers victimized by political repression.
About the Author
Marian Aitches is a native of San Antonio, Texas, where she grew up in Victoria Courts, one of the country’s oldest subsidized public housing projects. She graduated from Highlands High School and San Antonio Community College before going on to receive her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas in 1990. An award-winning professor, she is currently a senior lecturer in the department of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She teaches courses focusing on American Indian studies, as well as race, ethnicity, gender and class. Fishing for Light is her first book of poetry.
The Whitebird Chapbook Series
This chapbook series is named in honor of Joanie Whitebird, founder of Wings Press. As The Texas Observer described her, Joanie was “an old-fashioned fence hater, a wire-cutter, a woman in love with the open road, with open relationships, with open futures fraught with possibilities.” We honor her spirit by using this series to introduce new and innovative poetic voices.
The Whitebird Chapbook Series is an open competition. The entries are given two “blind” readings, resulting in five finalists. The winning manuscript is published in April by Wings Press in an edition limited to 500 numbered and signed copies, of which 100 copies are given to the poet. The chapbooks are printed on fine paper and hand-sewn by the publisher.
Submission Rules
- Submit 20 to 30 pages of poetry, preferably with a thematic orientation rather than a miscellany.
- Poems may have been published previously in journals, e-zines, etc.
- Do not include your name on any page other than on a separate title page and your cover letter.
- Your cover letter should include a short biographical statement, including prior publications.
- Include a letter-sized SASE for notification.
- Mss are not returned.
- Submission fee: $15 (check or money order made out to Wings Press)
- Submission period: the month of October
- Submission address:
"Whitebird Chapbook Series" Wings Press 627 E. Guenther San Antonio, TX 78210