Carpathios wins contest, publishes book

.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}

Joseph Pratt | Portsmouth Daily Times Neil Carpathios holding his most recently published book, “Every River on Earth,” which is having a positive release and sale.

By Joseph Pratt

[email protected]

Local author and professor Neil Carpathios has been selected as the winner of the 28th Annual Slipstream Press Poetry Book Competition.

Slipstream Press selected Carpathios’s poetry collection, titled “The Function of Sadness,” as the winner, and he will receive a prize of $1,000 and 50 free copies of his winning poetry collection to be released September of this year.

Slipstream Press is a reputable agency with a long history of working in poetry ,and Carpathios says he is humbled and excited to have been chosen as the 2015 highlight.

“It is always nice when a publication happens to be a prize, too,” Carpathios said. “You don’t often receive confirmation in this line of work and receiving a publication is always a nice pat on the back.”

Carpathios said that the collection he submitted for the contest was composed of leftover pieces that he didn’t use for his upcoming manuscript entitled “Confessions of a Captured Angel,” which could end up being his tenth collection published, following his release with Slipstream as his ninth.

“This collection of mine mainly consists of poems that exhibit a certain magical realism in their style and focus,” said Carpathios. “Magical realism is when everyday events and experiences somehow possess certain magical traits or supernatural elements. I like this style, because I feel like our everyday events often inhabit the same principal through our unique experiences and encounters.”

Carpathios also recently published his anthology on Appalachia writing, entitled “Every River on Earth,” through the Ohio University Press. He hand-picked through submissions and edited the selections in the book and says it is having a successful sale and reading tour. The next appearance will be in Cleveland for a signing and reading.

The Shawnee State University Theatrical Department will be bringing many of the stories in the book to life this fall in a play. Carpathios said he is excited to be involved in the production and working with Director John Huston.

Carpathios is an assistant professor at Shawnee State University and is over the creative writing department. He also holds competitions for literary students and advises the student-run print magazine for literary and artistic talent, so that SSU students also have an outlet to publish.

Carpathios said that “The Function of Sadness” should be on sale through Amazon, but he will also be taking his personal copies to readings which will be sold. The price of the book will be $10.

Reach Joseph Pratt at 740-353-3101, ext. 1932, or by Twitter @JosephPratt03.

No posts to display