As a poet, educator and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou has uplifted generations of women with her strength and persistence. In her childhood, she experienced traumatic sexual assault and became mute for five years. However, her love of language propelled her forward into a career of prolific writing, and she became a trailblazer of racial justice and feminist activism in the field of literature.
After hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speak at the Harlem Writers Guild in the late 1950s, Angelou knew she wanted to participate actively in the civil rights movement. She worked for Dr. King and Malcolm X, and served on presidential committees for both Gerald Ford in 1975 and Jimmy Carter in 1977.
As the inaugural poet for Bill Clinton in 1993, she presented her poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” (1993) which echoed Dr. King’s call for peace, acceptance and racial justice.
Though not considered poetry but rather an autobiography, her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) also gained national recognition, partly due to its open, rare and courageous discussion of sexual abuse.
Yes, isn’t it true Poetry has always been the voice of caged and confined women, of women who see a lot but choose to speak through poetry, choose to raise her voice through poetry! We are looking for poems on love, loss, longing, surrealism, rebellion, or assertive we are game for it. With -The Great Book Project Initiative we are on a purpose to find such eclectic voices who can make our thoughts go haywire, souls stir, and feel every word of the poems coming from a woman poet of Indian Origin and provide one of the winning poets with our Traditional Grant for a Woman Poet of the Year Award.
The Submission guidelines are a bit important for you to follow to make the process smooth at both ends.
1. Kindly send in 8-10 poems in the first draft or if your work is fully complete, you can send your full manuscript.
2. Send a small synopsis of your collection with an analysis of your target audience and a concept note of why we should choose your work.
3. All files must be sent in one Doc. Or Docx. File, no PDFs, with ‘Pitching My Manuscript’ in the Subject Line.
4. The last date for sending your book proposal is 15th September 2024 by midnight IST, however, we recommend on-time submission to avoid that last minute rush.
5. We will evaluate all the submissions and our decision might take a little time, though we will try our best to produce the result by 15 October 2024.
6. There will be one winner who will get a Traditional Grant for the Publishing of her book, along with a Winner’s Certificate and a bag full of bookish goodies.
7. The Publishing process will take time and we will bring out the book only by next year after the full submission of files by the Poet.
8. Our Submission Fee: Buy any three Paperback books from our Online Bookstore and share the screenshot along with your submission or you can pay the submission fee at the link given below. You can choose any of the two options. This further helps us to run our Contemporary Publishing House with a good heart and maintain our authenticity.
The Link to the Bookstore is given below:
The Link to the Submission Fee:
Looking forward to reading some quirky, insanely sane, and eclectic pieces of work.
Happy Submissions!
Monalisa Joshi
Founder, Director & Chief Editor
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