The Ecstatic Exchange is delighted to announce the very first Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore Ecstatic Poetry Prize, in collaboration with Lote Tree Press!
Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (1940-2016, rahimahullah) was a pioneering American Beat-turned-Sufi poet. He authored dozens of poetry collections, in his own ecstatic, thoughtful, and often witty style, fusing Romantic, Surrealist and Sufi influences.
Abdal-Hayy’s oeuvre spans sonnets, ghazals, and free verse, covering themes from family, love, death and nature to Mawlid, Hajj, Ramadan, prophets and saints, and more. His poems are a deeply personal prayer and reflection on the Divine perceivable in the everyday.
In 2023, the publishing company he founded, The Ecstatic Exchange, published From a Shore Beyond Water: Selected Poems of Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore.
The Prize
The Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore Ecstatic Poetry Prize will celebrate poets writing poetry infused with Islamic spirituality whose impact on the reader is one of illumination, joy, and a return to the heart.
We are looking for poetry that demonstrates proficiency of literary craft and attunement to the relationships between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic. They should be written at least mainly in the English language, though we welcome multilingual poems; just give us a clue as to what non-English words mean.
We understand that the path to joy is often fraught with hard-earned lessons, and so welcome submissions that deal with difficult topics in an honest, vulnerable way, while suggesting spiritual lessons gleaned from them.
The poems awarded with 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize will, in the poets’ own way, echo Abdal-Hayy’s expression of the ecstasy of witnessing the Divine, and convey personally learned spiritual wisdom in the human realm. A sense of humour goes a long way, too.
Lote Tree Press
Although poetry is the oldest Islamic art form, central to Muslim cultural heritage since the 1st century AH, Muslim poets writing in English have so often had to contort ourselves to fit the editorial criteria of a predominantly white, secular literary industry that rarely represents our feelings, views and experiences authentically.
Since 2018, Lote Tree Press has been seeking out and publishing Muslim poetic voices in a way that respects the poets’ authenticity, while honouring the craft and raising the bar. The Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore Ecstatic Poetry Prize combines these valuable literary resources to shine a light on the literary excellence of our community.
THEME: The Ecstasy of Witnessing
JUDGES: Baraka Blue & Sukina Noor
READERS: Rabia Saida Spiker & Medina Tenour Whiteman
Baraka Blue is a poet, musician, author, and teacher from Seattle, Washington. In addition to releasing multiple studio albums, authoring books of poetry, the most recent being The Art of Remembrance, and performing internationally, Baraka Blue is a prolific educator with a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He spent a number of years studying with traditional spiritual masters in Africa, Turkey, Asia and the Arab world. He has performed and taught all over the world, including at institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
In 2018, Baraka Blue founded the Rumi Center for Spirituality and the Arts which provides online courses to seekers from anywhere in the world. Baraka Blue has also conducted creative writing workshops for K-12 schools, universities, cultural and religious centers, and various organizations worldwide. He is the host of the award-winning podcast Path & Present, which features conversations on spirituality in the modern world.
Sukina Noor is an internationally renowned poet, spoken-word artist, playwright, workshop facilitator, educator and public speaker who has toured extensively across UK, Europe, America and Africa performing, delivering poetry workshops, partaking in panel discussions and delivering lectures. Sukina has facilitated creative writing workshops across the world, empowering participants to use their words as a way to access their authentic voice and awaken the voice of the heart.
Sukina’s debut poetry collection is Love & Longing: Yearning for the Face of God. Her first play Afropean // Human Being premiered at the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) in Brussels in 2020. She delivered a Tedx Talk on the healing potential of poetry in Antwerp in 2017. She holds a BA (Hons) Degree in English Literature and Caribbean Studies and is currently pursuing an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes with a focus on the healing potential in the poetry of the Sufi mystics of West Africa.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Submissions open on the 16th of August and end on the 31st of November 2024 at 12 midnight Eastern Time.
Please submit up to 5 poems in a single Word (.docx) or PDF document, 1.5 spaced in Times New Roman, up to a maximum of 1500 words. Do not include your name on the pages of the document. The title of the document must include your name.
COST OF SUBMISSION
Submissions cost $7. You may enter as many times as you wish.
We highly recommend reading Abdal-Hayy’s poems, especially those collected in the Selected Poems, to get an idea of his poetic oeuvre; buy the ebook of From a Shore Beyond Water: Selected Poems of Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore here. Get inspired to write your own ecstatic poetry with our 52 Writing Prompts from the Poetry of Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore.
If you wish to sponsor a low-income poet’s submission, or receive a sponsored entry, please email us at ecstaticexchangepoetry(at)gmail.com
PRIZES
FIRST PRIZE: $125
SECOND PRIZE: $75
THIRD PRIZE $50
A longlist of 50 poems, including the winning poems, will be published by Lote-Tree Press as a chapbook, to be available in 2025. Winners will each receive one complimentary copy.
Upload your submission and fill in the form to enter the 2024 Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore Ecstatic Poetry Prize competition:
