Wednesday 30 April 2014

WEEK 1 of Vallum's Cryptographic Adventure!



This week's line is : "KSGXH FP UXMEK EG KSUHG"

Ah, what poetry!

And our clue of the week: What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening? QXC

Vallum's Cryptographic Adventure!



Announcing Vallum's crypographic adventure! In conjunction with our annual poetry contest the Vallum Award for Poetry 2014, we are offering a chance to enter the contest for free! The catch is you have to be the first person to guess correctly who our mystery poet is.

Every week we will release an encrypted line taken from poems by our mystery poet along with a clue to decoding the cipher.

Can you be the first person to guess who the mystery poet is? Once you think you know who the poet is email us at info@vallummag.com, BUT be careful, you only get one guess so use it wisely!

Cryptogram: 1. a text written in code, 2. a symbol or figure with secret or occult significance.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
?????????????????????????????????

Deadline for the Cryptographic Adventure: July 10th
Deadline for the Vallum Award for Poetrty: July 15th

Monday 14 April 2014

Don't Miss Vallum's Launch, April 23

VALLUM 11:1 LAUNCH! 
With the release of Issue11:1 "Thresholds," Vallum is hosting a launch where you will have a chance to buy the issue and see contributors read their work. The event will be hosted in Montreal, Quebec toward the end of April. More information as to the time and location of the event will soon be made available on our website, blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Don’t miss this opportunity to see some of the most exciting contemporary poets read their work!

More Info.:  www.facebook.com/events/811999785496729/





Friday 4 April 2014

Marc Chagall As Poet

I have always been a great fan of the Russian-French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985). His use of colour, dream-scape and imagination is engaging. He was instrumental as a pioneer of modernism--synthesizing Cubism, Symbolism and Fauvism (the latter to give rise to Surrealism).  I am always interested in the overlap of the literary with the artistic. Chagall would seem to have been greatly interested in poetry and literature. His self-identification as a poet in one of his works, The Poet Reclining, suggests an interest in the literary that complemented his visual art. But there is a kind of broken immobility in the figure in the painting which may suggest an internal conflict within Chagall about writing and art. He had strong friendships in Paris with Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars and other poets.     /ez
The Poet Reclining (Le Poète allongé, 1915)