By Flapper Press:
Flapper Press is happy to announce our nominations for the Best of the Net annual competition. This week, we share our nominations for individual art pieces from two artists who were kind enough to allow us to use their art as inspiration for our annual summer Flapper Press Poetry Café Ekphrastic Poetry Contests. We had the honor of featuring their work in earlier articles on the site, but since both the 2023 and 2024 poetry contests fell inside the nomination window, we decided to nominate them both!
A little bit about The Best of the Net Anthology:
A creation of Sundress Publications, The Best of the Net Anthology began in 2006 with the goal of honoring the world of digital publishing.
"We believe this effort is integral in decentering the literary canon as well as promoting and amplifying voices that are imperative to good literature, responsible culture, and the understanding of today’s social climate. We cherish these writers and publishers and hold digital publishing in high regards as a medium that creates access to a greater array of voices than the traditional publishing climate has allowed." — bestofthenetanthology.com
For more information about the contest, visit Best of the Net and please submit your work to Flapper Press for future consideration across the categories of writing, poetry, and art!
Our nominations for this year's Best of the Net in Art!
Alistair Little
For our 2023 Flapper Press Poetry Café Ekphrastic Poetry Contest, UK artist Alistair Little was gracious enough to let us use his art as inspiration for our poets. We interviewed Alistair in 2022 for an article about his gorgeous paintings. We were certain that his work would serve as a perfect creative jumping off point for their poems.
From the interview:
"A self-taught painter with career origins in advertising and the film industry, UK artist Alistair Little approaches his work with a storyteller's eye, creating narratives that provoke the viewer's curiosity and draw attention to the tension and mystery so necessary for any good story worth its salt. Little's oeuvre swells with lush chiaroscuro and directs us to the specific mise en scène of each subject he approaches, staging his characters with a filmmaker's sense of composition and drama. One is left with more questions than answers and is given free rein to imagine the story behind the image."
You can read the full article here, and enjoy the Ekphrastic Poetry contest winners inspired by Alistair's art here!
For this year's Best of the Net nominations in art, we selected his Untitled oil on panel. The cinematic atmosphere of the painting serves as a mysterious doorway into the myriad of untold stories and poetic possibilities.
From Alistair Little:
"Untitled "(Kids series): This is the most personal painting I’ve ever made. I love to include my children in paintings, and this one depicts my son and me. My son is autistic, and this painting shows how complicated our relationship can be. There are many visual metaphors, and needless to say they are all very personal. It is a good illustration as to how I like to hide personal meanings in a painting, but equally I like people to bring their own stories to it, and that goes for all my paintings."
Congratulations, Alistair!
John McDermott
The exquisite photography of John McDermott inspired the poets of the Flapper Press Poetry Cafe's 2024 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest. McDermott provided ten images from his extensive catalog of photographs from his time in Asia. We featured his work in an earlier article on our site and felt certain the photographs were a perfect visual prompt to bring new poetry to life.
From the interview:
"McDermott's work offers an invitation to adventure—a time and place where worship, contemplation, and exquisite monumental creativity carry the imagination out of the mundane. These photos are more than just eye-candy, they are a fantastically refreshing respite from the ordinary and reveal the elaborate uniqueness of our world and its people."
You can read the entire interview here and enjoy the beautiful poetry created by our Flapper Press 2024 Ekphrastic Poetry Contest here.
For this year's Best of the Net nominations in Art, we selected his photograph Three Fishermen on Lake Inle. The delicate balletic balance of the fisherman and dreamlike play of light serve as a doorway into an otherwordly approach to poetry.
From John McDermott:
"Lake Inle, in the Shan state of Myanmar, is an enchanting wonderland full of floating gardens, stilted villages, Buddhist temples and monasteries, and home to numerous ethnic tribes. It is probably most well-known for its local Intha fishermen, who use a unique style of rowing using their legs and feet. Each fisherman will stand on one leg at the stern of his tiny boat while wrapping the other leg around the oar, swirling the water beneath in a beautiful ballet."
We are also honored to add John McDermott's beautiful coffee table art book,
Elegy: Reflections on Angkor, to the Flapper Press Shop for the holiday season. This second edition printing of the book includes 50 new unpublished images and was reworked and printed in Thailand in a process overseen from beginning to end by the photographer.
The book makes the perfect unique gift this holiday!
Congratulations, John!
Flapper Press is always open to new content that provides a unique voice or perspective. We are currently accepting SUBMISSIONS for every category on Flapper Press.
If you have questions or would like to submit your work, please carefully review our Submission Guidelines and contact us at: info@flapperpress.com
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