the contest

I entered a World Poetry Movement contest, received a letter stating my poem had been chosen to be published in their next anthology, and was thrilled. I had my doubts when they asked me to pay for the book and thought it was strange that they weren't sending me a copy for free. My husband was so proud of me and knew how excited I was and how much this meant to me, so he bought a copy for us.

I soon found another writer on Twitter who had also entered the contest and had also received a letter that he would be published. He sent me a link to an article about writing contests to watch out for, and this contest was one of them. Writing contests should not require the entrant to purchase anything. I still felt okay because I had pretty much figured out on my own that something wasn't quite right, thus the reason I used Twitter to seek out anyone else who had also entered this contest. 

The book just came in the mail on Monday, and it looks even better than I thought it would. I will post a picture of the cover as soon as I can--I really like it. The way I feel about this whole experience is actually positive. I was surprised and touched by how supportive and excited my husband was even when I shared my doubts about this being a true contest. He didn't care; he still wanted the book.

Seeing my poem printed in a book with an entire page dedicated to my work has given me twice the amount of motivation to keep going, to keep working as hard as I can to reach my goal of becoming an author. This is a victory for me, a small one, but a victory nonetheless. I am proud of this accomplishment. I wrote this poem over ten years ago, and I still find it one of my best pieces to this day.

I would like to share my poem with all of you, and I will tomorrow!