FIFTH ANNUAL VISPO CONTEST

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Contest window: June 1 - June 15, 2025

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Judges: Shloka Shankar & Robin Smith 

 

What is Vispo?

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Visual poetry is a development of concrete poetry, characterized by intermedia. The predominant elements that constitute a visual poem/vispo include non-representational language and the interplay of text & art. There is a strong graphic element to these pieces.

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“Visual poetry can be defined as poetry that is meant to be seen—poetry that presupposes a viewer as well as a reader.”— Willard Bohn

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“Never before has language had so much materiality—fluidity, plasticity, malleability—begging to be actively managed by the writer. Before digital language, words were almost always found imprisoned on a page. It’s just another reminder that, in the future, words very well might not only be written to be read but rather to be shared, moved, and manipulated, sometimes by humans, more often by machines, providing us with an extraordinary opportunity to reconsider what writing is and to define new roles for the writer. While the writer today is challenged by having to go up against a proliferation of words and compete for attention, she can use this proliferation in unexpected ways to create works that are as expressive and meaningful as works constructed in more traditional ways.” — Kenneth Goldsmith

 

What to submit:

 

- blackout poems (cite the source)
- erasures (cite the source & use your original artwork)
- haiga (collaborations welcome)
- Artist Trading Cards
- fridge magnet poetry
- asemic writing
- typography art
- collage & cut-ups (digital & analogue) 
- altered book pages
- conceptual pieces

 

Guidelines:

 

1. Please type VISPO CONTEST in the subject line and send your entry/entries as an attachment to sonicboomjournal@gmail.com. ALL work must be unpublished. We do not consider pieces published on social media/personal blogs as published. Collaborations welcome.

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2. Make sure you include your name, country, and a short artist's statement or note about your entry/entries in the body of the email. We would love to know your process!

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3. Please name each file with the title of your piece and your full name. Example: Title_Full Name. Maximum file size: 2 MB. 

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4. Please submit 1-2 visual poems. Additional entries will be ignored. 

 

5. Submissions will remain open from June 1 through midnight on June 15, 2025 (Indian Standard Time). Entries received before or after the contest period will be deleted unread. 

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6. The top three winners  and honourable mentions will receive e-certificates. Shortlisted entries will be displayed in an online gallery format on our website. 

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As poet and artist Johanna Drucker once noted, “All works of written poetry are graphical, but only some take advantage of that in interesting ways.”

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