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Pop Montreal and Matrix Magazine have teamed up to establish an innovative and exciting new literary competition. We are looking for the most unique and original voices in literary voices in Canada. So if you're an emerging poet or short story writer or fancy yourself so, isn't it time you take your work out for a night on the town, maybe spend a bit of money on it? You could wind up as Canada's newest literary darling, have your work published in Matrix, and come to Pop '08 for a night in your honour.

Just send your work in for consideration this spring. Both poetry and prose winners will receive a round-trip ticket to Pop Montreal from October 1-5, 2008, a VIP pass to the Pop Montreal Festival, free accommodation at a bed and breakfast, fall publication in Matrix Magazine with full honorarium, and presentation at a special Matrix Litpop event during the festival.

The deadline for all submissions is July 1st, 2008. Winners will be notified in August. Poets are asked to send no more than 5 poems; fiction writers should send stories of no more than 5000 words. Each entry is 25$ and should include a SASE. Multiple entries are welcome. Full contest rules and regulations can be found here.

Poetry entries will be judged by Christian Bök and fiction entries by Zoe Whittall.

Christian Bök is the author of Crystallography (Coach House Press, 1994), a ’pataphysical encyclopedia nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award for Best Poetic Debut, and ’Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science (Northwestern University Press, 2001). His book Eunoia won the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize and is the best-selling Canadian poetry book of all time. Bök has created artificial languages for Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict and Peter Benchleyís Amazon. His conceptual artwork has appeared at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City as part of the exhibit Poetry Plastique. He currently teaches at the University of Calgary.

Zoe Whittall — originally from Montreal, where she attended Concordia — now lives in Toronto. She is the author of Bottle Rocket Hearts, a novel. Her previous books include The Emily Valentine Poems and The Ten Best Minutes of Your Life, both volumes of poetry. She edited the anthology Geeks, Misfits & Outlaws. She has written for The Globe and Mail, the National Post, and NOW Magazine. Visit Zoe's blog at zoewhittall.blogspot.com