Asinine Crime Time

The Asinine Poetry Crime Poetry Contest just wrapped up on AsininePoetry.com. We received some very good and funny crime poems. The payoff: $50 for third place, $75 for second, and $100 for first. We received more than 100 entries--covering murder, drug use, flower thievery, and police work. We rubbed out most of them to get down to 12 finalists. Like American Idol, but without the singing, the instant celebrity, or Simon Cowell. But we did get a judge. We subpoenaed Tim McLoughlin--author of Heart of the Old Country and editor of the Brooklyn Noir series of books--to be our judge.

The top entries will be considered for inclusion in the next issue of The Lineup.

Walking away with the contest booty are:
3rd: "Poor Rudolph" by Natalie M. Dorfeld, PhD
2nd: "The Dick" by Ray Freed
1st: "Last Supper" by M. Lee Alexander

Receiving honorary mention:
"Love and Murder" by Eileen Budd
"the prose of cons" by J.C.
"Pretty Clerks Are Pretty Bad" by Frank Hubeny
"The French Soccer Case" by Dave Kessler
"Love Strikes Twice" by David Ochs
"Petty Crime" by Judie Rae
"Crime Is Too Crunchy under Your Feet When You Walk Around" by Gregory Lawrence Stewart
"In Love with a Stripper Named Lynn" by Gerald So
"A Crime Scene" by Albert Van Hoogmoed

Funny about Crime

Over at AsininePoetry.com, we are in the last weeks of our 12th asinine poetry contest: asinine crime poems! FIRST PRIZE: $100.

Here's the 411:

BECOME THE SHAKESPEARE OF CRIME!
Or, rather, the Capone of poetry. We're calling you out to write poems in a niche category of poetry--the crime poem. That is, poems about crime. Everything from arson to extortion to murder to zebra-napping, true to fictional. Written in the asinine MO (i.e., funny haha). Can you do it? Are you chicken? Give it a shot. Whatcha gotta lose?

Our guest judge: Tim McLoughlin, the Godfather of Noir and author of Heart of the Old Country. He also edited Brooklyn Noir, first in the Akashic Publishing's Noir Series, as well as Brooklyn Noir 2 and 3.

The top three winning poems will all be considered for publication in the next issue of The Lineup!

One dollar per entry. You may enter up to THREE times. E-mail or snail. No checks please! Go here for more deetz.

DEADLINE VERY SOON: August 1, 2008.

Stay sharp!